How to take good family vacation photos?

J

Julia

New member
I am going on my husband's family vacation next week. I'm a fairly good photographer and am trying to come up with a list of must take shots. I am having a hard time thinking of ways to balance artistic photography and capturing the memories of the family vacation and not interrupting the fun with posed photos. Any ideas?

There will be my father- and mother-in-law, my husband's three siblings and their spouses, ten neices & nephews ranging in age from 12 years to 5 weeks old plus me and my husband. We are spending 10 days at a lake house in Georgia. Activities we have planned include a talent show, water olympics and lots of waterskiing, tubing, wakeboarding, ect. I searched flickr but didn't come up with any really good ideas.

If it helps, I have a Nikon D70 with 35-55 and 70-300 lenses. I also have a Nikon CoolPix that will go with me on the boat and SeaDoo in case something bad happens.
 
since this is a family vacation try to focus more on the family members than the location. go for spontaneous shots. try to catch family members together, interacting, talking, laughing, etc. posed shots will always look like posed shots. just like every other family vacation photo you've ever seen. stay as close as possible. zoom in on the faces and try to take pictures from different angles--not just straight on. finally, try to be as inconspicuous as possible with the camera. if your family knows you're trying to get a good shot they won't be very natural. the goofy smiles and rabbit ears will ensue. just keep the camera with you at all times and shoot when no one thinks you're looking.
 
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