What did you do for summer vacation? Send in your photos for the latest Readers Photo Challenge
September’s Readers Photo Challenge assignment is a photographic version of the perennial back-to-school assignment “What I did on my summer vacation.”
When we travel, we like to take pictures to help record and document the highlights of our trips. The best travel photos not only show the places that we’ve been but also the experiences that we had. Here are some tips:
Time of day
Try to organize your shooting time during the best light of the day which is in the early morning and late afternoon/evening. The light is usually nice and warm and comes in at a pleasing angle. When you’re traveling, you want to see all the sights, and it’s hard to organize your time. Try to schedule indoor places such as museums or indoor tours during midday when outdoor light tends to be harsh, flat and boring.
You can also use this time to scout locations to go return to later when the light is better. If you’re camping or hiking, the time of day also is very important for picture taking. Again, morning or afternoon light is the best. Good lighting can make or break landscape photos.
Night life
Also, try photographing city scenes at night. Many places take on an whole different character when the sun goes down. Some places are more dangerous than others, so it’s a good idea to go with a friend and stay in well-lit, well-populated areas.
Look for details
While it's natural to get an overall shot of a building, cityscape or landscape, remember to shoot details. Sometimes getting a close up of an architectural design or a stand of trees can be just as interesting as an overall scene.
People power
As much as the landscape or buildings can show how and where you traveled, photos of the people who inhabit then places that you go can give even more of a flavor of those places.
Try getting people being themselves, perhaps doing an activity rather than just mugging for the camera. A photo of people walking by a tall building or monument or down a trail through a landscape can help to give the scene some scale and context.
Wildlife
In addition to landscapes, look for the wildlife that resides within them. Make sure you keep your distance. It’s their home after all, and you do not want to intrude on their space. Recently, sea lions chased tourists off a beach in La Jolla.
In addition to the normal two weeks for you to shoot the assignment, the time period will be extended retroactively back to May 30. So whether you traveled to a far-flung corner of the globe or had a “staycation,” send in your photos of what you did (and saw) on you summer vacation.
Record photographer Clifford Oto has photographed Stockton and San Joaquin County for more than 37 years. He can be reached at coto@recordnet.com or on Instagram @Recordnet. Follow his blog at recordnet.com/otoblog. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
How to enter
Photos have to be taken between May 30 and Sept. 6.
Include your name (first and last), hometown, the kind of device you used, how you got your photo and where it was taken (e.g. "John Doe of Stockton, Canon 5D Mk III. Victory Park in Stockton").
If there is a recognizable person or persons in the photo, please identify them (name, age, hometown) and describe what is going on in the photo. Please indicate if and how they are related to you (friend, mother, father, daughter, son, etc.). For example: “My daughter Jane Doe, 12, walks along the beach at Bodega Bay at sunset.”
Please feel free to include any interesting anecdotes or stories on how you took the picture.
The number of photos is limited to 10.
Entries can be emailed to coto@recordnet.com The preferred format is jpeg. Type in “Vacation” in the subject line.
The deadline for submission is Sept. 6. Top picks will be in the Sept. 13 print edition of The Record and posted to the Record’s Facebook page and Instagram. An online gallery of all the photos on the same day at Recordnet.com.
This article originally appeared on The Record: The Record's Readers Photo Challenge assignment prompt: On holiday
