but in taking copious amount of pictures, i'll make sure that i diversify my angles and composition, so i'll have a lot of choice for post-production later. it helps a lot that my brothers have their own cameras too, so copious becomes three-fold.
but, if you only have one camera and just enough space to last you till the rest of your trip, don't waste it on boring looking composition of you and family sitting on a rock or in front of a building somewhere just to show that hey, you've been there! most of the time, you're trying to get the whole scene inside one photo that you, the subject matter, becomes so obscure that you can't tell if that's even you or some random stranger posing in your shot. a picture is worth a thousand words, i don't think you need to say so much in one picture. keep it simple.
here's an idea. why don't you take just one or a couple of shots of you/family/friends/the whole party and the background. next shots, try them at different angles. maybe from the bottom, or a close up perhaps? (taking pictures from the bottom can be unflattering to some, so get your model's help by acting natural, and not look into the camera so much. make it seem like you're taking a candid shot or something). sometimes, you don't even need to get your model's face in the picture at all.
and most of the time, you'd take photos at normal height, at the normal eye-level. it works, but it can be a little bit more interesting if you move your eye-level a bit here and there. the best thing about eye-level is that when you move, it moves with you.
the key is to move around to get your shot. don't just stay on one spot. don't be a lazy paparazzi. you don't see your wedding photographer staying put in just one place and one position, did you? so, MOVE YO ASS. stand up, lay down, squat, kneel, do the commando crawl, climb up a rock or a tree or stairs or chair, go inside, go outside, go under, go above, get in the faces of your subjects, move back .. whatever, just MOVE YO ASS.
here's a few examples :
see, no faces, yet we can still make out that that's a picture of me and my brothers (falie in the middle and faiz with all that hair - amazing photographers in their own rights) gearing up to take a photo of the sunset. picture was taken by my husband, ayis.
taken from the lower ground. see, no messy backgrounds. no pictures of other tourists in your shot. it was a busy day and place up on that hanging bridge at Langkawi's Gunung Mat Chinchang but i managed to take an uncluttered photo of my dad, as if we were the only ones there.
my brother couldn't have gotten this quirky shot unless he was laying down on the grass.
unlike my brother who is more adventurous, and whose movements is not hindered by gigantic boobs that's always in the way, i didn't really lay down on the gravel when i took this picture of my cat chika. i just held the camera to the ground, pray that the cat is in the frame, and clicked the shutter.
again, get low. (picture of my cousins taken by my brother falie when he went to Perth)
once in a while, look up, you'll be surprised.
an angle such as this also helps to frame your subject with the background and avoid a cluttered looking picture with random strangers in the background. good tip if you're trying to capture yourself/subject in front of places of interest that's busy with tourists like the Eiffel Tower or something.
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