Hands up if your travel photos basically consist of: your motorhome, your dinner, and the same mountain from 14 slightly different angles?

(No shame here - I do the same, plus many many photos of my dog!)

I’ve always loved capturing our adventures, but it wasn’t until I started travelling solo that I realised how much you can improve your photos — whether you’re using a drone, a phone or a “proper” camera.

So today I wanted to share a few easy ways to get better road trip photos… without needing fancy gear or a degree in photography.

📸 Don’t get hung up on the tools

You really don’t need the newest camera to take gorgeous photos. Honestly, 90% of my travel photos are taken on my iPhone. The rest are with my drone or very occasionally a GoPro.

Seriously, although I have a proper camera (this one), I very very rarely use it unless it's with a tripod for night shots.

A few quick tips with your phone (I use an iPhone 16 pro):

• Turn on gridlines to show straight horizons
• Clean your lens — it makes a shocking difference!
• Learn to use side buttons to take photos, instead of the central white button- makes things much easier
• Try to take photos in the first or last hour of daylight each day (the light is better)

🚁 And if you do use a drone…

A drone is a fantastic edition to your road trip gear, although it's by no means an essential. I went a year or so before I worked up the courage to start using mine!

Still, they’re a wonderful way to capture scale and context — especially those tiny-van-in-huge-mountains shots. If you go down that route, get a drone with a decent camera, good stabilisation and solid sensors.

Trust me- I tried several 'cheap' ones, and they are SO much harder to fly than the proper ones from companies like DJI.

A few hard-earned & practical tips for drone flying:

• Practise somewhere quiet first
• Don’t fly it too far until your confidence grows
• Avoid flying directly over roads (or waterfalls!)
• “Follow Me” mode is great but only use it when the roads are very very quiet.
• Don’t get greedy — land before the battery gets low
• Avoid having hills between you and the drone - that's how I lost the one in the Outer Hebrides; it lost signal.

If you're new to drones, start with something like this to get you used to using them.

If you want to progress, this is the new version of the one I have​

🌄 Photograph YOU in the place

It’s so easy to come home with thousands of scenery shots and zero evidence that you were actually there.

It's even harder when you're travelling solo.

Over the years, I've become better at taking solo shots of myself.

The easiest way by far is with a drone- you can just set it up and snap a pic or set the video going.

Next easiest is using a phone with a tripod. I LOVE this tripod- it's small enough to fit easily into a bag but has a decent stand height.

Don't forget that you can set a video recording, even if you want photos- just hold a pose for 2-3 seconds and take a still image off the video file.

(And yes, I always feel stupid taking photos like this in public, but I do it anyway.)

Oh, and I always take photos on 'Live' mode, so I can be sure my eyes aren't closed!

🚐 Add video

Still photos are fine… but movement brings a place to life.

Try setting up a tripod or an action camera like this and:

• Walking into the frame with a lovely backdrop/ scenic view/ historical monument.
• Setting up your camera on a tripod and driving past (make sure you can turn around to go back and get it!!!)
• Sweeping your phone slowly from one side to the other to show a view

Again, you can use these are video shots or take still images off them in the future.

💾 One last thing…

If you’re anything like me, your phone/camera ends up full by day three of a trip.

A good external SSD is a lifesaver for backing up photos on the go — especially if you use drones or GoPros.

I use an external hard drive to be able to take all the big files off my phone and keep them safe. This portable SSD is TINY (seriously, smaller than my palm) but holds an incredible amount of footage.

But the best bit of advice I was given is to just take photos.

Don't overthink it. Capture what you love about a place, or a moment which makes you smile.

And don't forget to put down the camera and just enjoy being wherever you are.

Happy snapping!
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