The blue skies, the white sand, the yacht life, the turquoise waters, the aé§ai bowls by the pool”it all looks just so perfect. Welcome to the world of the Instagram traveller. Perhaps the most famous of which is Jay Alvarez and his girlfriend, Alexis Ren. (Allow for 10 minutes of drooling over their pics before resuming this article.) Jay and Alexis have literally turned going on vacation into a successful career. The question is, can you?
First thing’s first. You must download all the apps that the cool kids are using. One such tool that is crucial to giving you the best sunset pictures to ever be taken by an iPhone is DeluxeFX. This app allows you to overlay photographs with rainbow colour combinations to give you results like a really pink sky and purple water, or blue sky and peach blossom clouds.
Another amazing app for creating the @Debiflue blue (seriously, the colour should be named after her) is Google’s Snapseed. In a few easy steps you can go from washed out blue water to deep deep navy by using the brush and selection tools.
When Instagram pros are packing their bags for an upcoming trip, they don’t pack like regular people. There will be a minimum of one suitcase dedicated to equipment: GoPros, drones, lenses, camera body, tripod, flash, polarizers, reflectors, marble paper”the list goes on! Yes, the baggage fees are crazy.
As for clothing and accessories, the sky is the limit. However, if you study closely, you’ll notice that most of your favourite IGers stick to one colour palette when on any given vacation. For example, Josefine H.J seems to pack only white and black swimwear, that when photographed, give her entire feed a sense of unison and extreme visual impact. It also makes packing way easier when you restrict yourself to things like mint and seersucker.
Once you arrive at your destination, it is super important to spend a few hours scouting for potential locations to shoot in. The Instagram experts will already know what they are looking for: good natural light, shadow play and an interesting backdrop. But there are also the token Instagram travel shots that will guarantee to make your image jaw-dropping and hopefully, go viral.
Here is a list of shots to try on your next vacation from our favourite Instagram travel pros:
