Take Your Best Shot: Travel Photography

From time to time, I'll offer photography tips for taking better photos. We all want to preserve the memories of a wonderful trip -- new friends, beautiful scenes and memorable places. First and foremost, take a lot of photos, especially if you are working with a digital. Unless you are a professional photographer, you can't be certain one shot will do it. At the end of each day, review photos and discard any that are out of focus and unappealing.

Landscape Mode

What It Does - Makes everything in a scenic photograph—from nearby trees to mountains in the distance—look equally sharp.

How - The size of the opening in the lens, known as the aperture, is reduced to let light into the camera from different distances. This creates an even focus across the entire image.

Tips - The setting is useful for more than just landscapes—you can also use it when photographing a large crowd of people. When switching to landscape mode, the focus is fixed at infinity. There is usually no need to check focus before taking a picture. However, if there are objects in a scene, lock focus on one that is about a third of the way between the nearest and furthest object.