Lets face it, not all family travel photo will come out perfect. We are all guilty of taking a touristy photo fails here and there. But it is also good to understand what NOT to do when taking family travel photos

We usually bring along our Canon 70D camera with a 18-135mm lense, Velbon tripod and a remote control trigger. All these easily fit into a Manfrotto camera bag or in a backpack together with our son’s bits and pieces.

Here are our 11 Family Travel Photo Fails you should Avoid:

1. The “I forgot to smile” photo

– C’mon you’re on holidays.. Say cheeeese!

2. The “Wait for a nice clear shot count… 1, 2, then get photo bombed” photo

– Try again. Or visit during less crowded time.

3. The “In front of a famous place selfie but your faces took up the whole frame” photo

– Include more of the background. Use a small tripod to get better family photos.

4. The “I have to randomly touch something so that everyone know it’s not Photoshopped” photo

– Hands off please

5. The “I took these shots from a moving bus” photos

 – Blurred, glass relections etc.. these will rarely comes out well. Put down the camera and enjoy your sightseeing bus ride, take the shots afterwards

6. The “Too many back of people’s head” photo

– Imagine being stuck behind this crowd! Group tours or crowds usually come in waves, get in front of them or let them pass.

7. The “Trying hard to copy famous bloggers” photo

– Just be natural




8. The “Candid moment shot that was taken 38 times” photo

– This guy spent sooo long to get his shot right. He even got his own selfie stick setup! (Bottom left of photo). Again, just be natural

9. The “Awkwardly standing in front of the hotel” photo

– Yes, yes you stayed at a nice hotel. This kind of photo will probably get plenty of likes in Facebook, but will not create lasting memory. If you have nice views, exceptions can be made

10. The one million “We went to Madame Tussaud’s” photos

– Wait! Is that Justin Timberlake??! Visit once and the novelty quickly wears off. Some of the wax figures hardly resemble the celebs 😁

11. The “We paid $20 to stand in front of this tourist cardboard” photo

– Usually you will be asked to line up for a complimentary photo in front of a “Welcome to…. signboard”, then asked if you want to buy the photo. Skip the line. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere.
We don’t have an example of this shot, our meet and greet photo with Mickey at Disneyworld is probably the closest one. The Disneyworld staff are so awesome that they take free photos for everyone.

For places we have visited, Checkout our website’s travel Destinations section. We buy our travel essentials online via Ebay