This section contains my own very personal (you may say opinionated) views about amateur travel photography. I am not a professional, but simply a person who has used photography to document travel for over 30 years. I use my cameras primarily for travel photography. I have no children and my cats only get an occasional snapshot taken of them. Mostly my cameras rest between trips.
My first camera, excluding using my parents' cameras as a child, was a Retina IIIc. I put slide film in it and went for a month's vacation in Europe: driving with a Swiss friend through Switzerland, Italy, and Yugoslavia. I've been through various Single Lens Reflex cameras: Mamiya Secor, Fuji. These cameras didn't die, I just decided I wanted more features. First, I wanted automatic exposure setting, with manual overrides, so I could take pictures fast if necessary, yet still have control if necessary. Along the way we also got a small Pentax zoom first to supplement the Fuji as a pocket camera. Although we had used telephotos, this small zoom started me thinking zoom. So we got the Canon Elan IIe in order to be able to use modern zoom lenses in an automatic mode.
A comment is in order here about lenses. I have never been comfortable with changing lenses. I think this difficulty is intrinsic to travel photography -- at least the way most of us do it. Time is a premium. Companions, and most of us do like to travel with companions, are not usually very sympathetic with waiting for lens changes and exposure measurements, holding lenses, handing you various bits and pieces, but mosting waiting. Nor does the world wait while you do these things. When you see something you want to photograph, it often goes away before you find the right lens and settings, especially if it involves people. And sometimes we travel with groups. They absolutely do not wait. Group travel requires some special tricks, which I will come back to in a later section.
My first camera, excluding using my parents' cameras as a child, was a Retina IIIc. I put slide film in it and went for a month's vacation in Europe: driving with a Swiss friend through Switzerland, Italy, and Yugoslavia. I've been through various Single Lens Reflex cameras: Mamiya Secor, Fuji. These cameras didn't die, I just decided I wanted more features. First, I wanted automatic exposure setting, with manual overrides, so I could take pictures fast if necessary, yet still have control if necessary. Along the way we also got a small Pentax zoom first to supplement the Fuji as a pocket camera. Although we had used telephotos, this small zoom started me thinking zoom. So we got the Canon Elan IIe in order to be able to use modern zoom lenses in an automatic mode.
A comment is in order here about lenses. I have never been comfortable with changing lenses. I think this difficulty is intrinsic to travel photography -- at least the way most of us do it. Time is a premium. Companions, and most of us do like to travel with companions, are not usually very sympathetic with waiting for lens changes and exposure measurements, holding lenses, handing you various bits and pieces, but mosting waiting. Nor does the world wait while you do these things. When you see something you want to photograph, it often goes away before you find the right lens and settings, especially if it involves people. And sometimes we travel with groups. They absolutely do not wait. Group travel requires some special tricks, which I will come back to in a later section.