By Ivan Yap

If you’re a serious photographer and are planning to visit a country that’s renowned for its mystical natural phenomena and breathtaking vistas, signing up for a specialised photography tour was probably one of the first things that came to mind.

But what if you’re travelling with friends or family who don’t share your zeal for snaps, and who are only keen on sightseeing tours that pack as many attractions into their itineraries as possible? Can you still make it work?

Here are 5 tips based own my own experience during a recent trip to the beautiful country of Iceland.

Tip 1: Drill yourself in the setup and wrap-up process before the trip

This is especially critical if you intend to dabble in long exposure and panoramic photography. Fumbling with your tripod twist locks, ND filter holder, levelling base or nodal head—especially in dark conditions—will severely cripple your ability to get the shots you want in the precious little time that you’ll have at each attraction. As an example, I only had 5 minutes of working time on average per panorama (a series of 5 frames). Being well-drilled in the setting up and wrapping up process will buy you seconds (or even minutes!) that can then be better spent fine-tuning your settings. More importantly, the ability to operate with optimal efficiency will help to keep you calm and collected in the face of pressure. Yes, things can get decidedly stressful when there’s a busload of impatient tourists clamouring to move on to the next location.

Tip 2: Prepare your camera settings before you step off the bus

Anticipate the shooting conditions at your next location by constantly monitoring the lighting conditions en route to the destination, and prepare your camera settings ahead of time. It helps to have a mental checklist of some sort. During my trip, I lost track of the number of times that I forgot to change some setting or other—the camera mode and ISO being the most frequent offenders. If you have some wiggle room within the bus, do also consider preparing your entire setup before stepping out of it. Natural phenomena such as the northern lights are often fleeting, and being able to shoot immediately upon alighting is sometimes required.

Tip 3: Keep your entire setup small and light

This may seem like common sense, but my recommendation here is to be utterly brutal when deciding what to take along with you on each shoot. If you can leave something on the bus, do it. As the days wore on, I found myself progressively stripping away my gear, without any real detriment to the resultant photos. At my most ‘lean’, all my gear could be squeezed into the beltpack from my trusty MindShift rotation180° Professional 38L backpack, with the exception of my tripod and nodal head, which I hand-carried. I even chose to leave my tripod behind on several occasions, and used the beltpack as a ‘bean bag’ to stabilise my shots. Two things that you shouldn’t leave behind, for obvious reasons—spare batteries and memory cards.

Tip 4: Don’t stop shooting when you’re in the bus

A lot of time will be spent in the bus. In fact, I saw far more of the bus cabin than the roaring waterfalls, bubbling hot springs and majestic mountain ranges that Iceland offers. So, don’t stop shooting when you’re trundling from one place to another. I found that a shutter speed of 1/320 was generally sufficient to yield surprisingly-usable pictures, even in fairly dim conditions. To block out the unwanted reflections from the bus cabin lights, enshroud your camera in a ‘hood’ of some sort. In my case, a neck warmer worked a treat. Presumably, a blanket, scarf or any other article of clothing would work just as well.

Tip 5: Be prepared to improvise (and to be disappointed)

As you might reasonably expect from generic sightseeing tours, there will be hordes of tourists at each location. Many of them will be camping out at the best spots with selfie sticks in hand, so there’s a high chance that you’ll not be able to get the shot that you imagined in your mind. Don’t give in to frustration—find the beauty in what you’ve been given and take it as an opportunity to experiment with different angles and compositions. There are, of course, techniques to enable you to still shoot the scene, and then to remove unwanted subjects in post (such as using the Photoshop ‘statistics’ method), but you may not have enough time to pull these off.

Ultimately, it is important to have the right mindset from the very start. Sightseeing tours aren’t conducive for serious photography by design, so you’ll be forced to make compromises from time to time. With this in mind, the best tip I can give you is simply this: Enjoy each and every moment. Have fun!

For more photographic exploits, please read my blog series recounting a trip to Da Nang, Vietnam.