Taking the Perfect Vacation Selfie

March 20, 2015

Vacation is here and you can’t wait to make some memories. That clearly includes taking a gazillion pictures to preserve such memories and show them off later. Traveling is always fun and you want to capture the best moments, but do you have the skills to take the perfect selfie? If you think you could use some help, keep reading. Here are our top tips to help you take a flawless selfie:

Background position: the whole point of a vacation selfie it to feature not just you, but also the place you’re in. Because if you neglect your background, you might as well be taking a selfie in front of your living room wall. So how do you focus on showing off your vacation spot? Just learn to share the spotlight. Know that you don’t always have to be in the center of the frame. You might want to consider staying to the left or right of the object/view you are trying to capture to avoid splitting the image up. Tilt the camera up down and sideways until you find a frame that pleases you. The gazebo overlooking the lake here at The Enclave Suites is our guests’ favorite picture background!

Lighting: you can’t always pick prime lighting times when on vacation. Especially if you’re with a large party or tour group. Sunrise and sunset are the most beautiful times for pictures, but one is too early and the other only lasts about a half an hour, so you must learn to work with light you have. If the sun is too high in the sky it may cast shadows on your face and make you look like you have under eye bags. Avoid that by tilting your head up a little and play with the angle until you are satisfied. Also pay attention to random shadows coming from trees, buildings, other people or the obvious hat you forgot to take it off.

Keep it classy: keep your tongue in and avoid the Miley Cyrus effect. You might think sticking your tongue our, making hand signs, ugly faces (that includes the duck face, guys) is cute at the moment. But you might regret that years later when the only pictures you have from your wonderful trip to Florida are absolutely unacceptable to be shared with your work folks or very conservative in-laws. Also, if you’re going to use fad items like the selfie stick, keep it to a minimum. You never know how ridiculous these things will make you feel later on in life. So, I am not saying you can’t be goofy. Just don’t have ALL of your pictures looking goofy. That way you can choose your audience and select different pictures to show to different people in the future.

Loosen up: we are often too critical of our own figures and let that influence our pictures way too much. Who hasn’t completely refrained from posting a picture that captured a wonderful moment just because they thought they looked too fat, too skinny, too old, too young or whatever. A good tip is to try to be more spontaneous. Don’t focus on fixing every hair that is out of place. Focus on your expression and truly showing how that place makes you feel, because that’s what pictures are for. I mean, if you just want a perfect portrait of yourself, then book a session with a professional. But for the selfie, just enjoy the moment. You may want to try looking away for a minute and then quickly bringing the camera up and snapping a few pictures to have some variety to choose from.