Apple finally announced the new iPhones after much anticipation and plenty of rumours, from sane and sensible to absolutely weird. There was nothing really unexpected as almost all the developments were widely discussed all over the internet. However, the entire tech industry waits for this, for a hint on what direction to take next. Speaking of the new phones, now you won’t be able to use your favourite pair of noise cancellation headphones while travelling but on the flipside, the new devices will be waterproof. But that is not why we are talking about it. We are talking about it for photography, something almost all the travellers love.

Every year the manufacturer pushes the envelope of innovation when it comes to camera and they have done the same with the new iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 Plus packs in two separate 12 megapixel cameras, one of them a standard wide angle lens seen on most mobile cameras while other is a 56mm lens. This allows you to have 2X optical zoom. Along with this, the two cameras allow for the phone to shoot better bokeh photographs. The result? Soft background that you otherwise achieve on wide aperture camera lenses or by manually editing on phone. Some key features that make the highlight of this phone include:

• Twin camera setup allowing for the flexibility of both wide angle and telephoto lenses offering optical zoom.
• Wide aperture to shoot better low light photographs.
• Shallow depth of field would also be added soon, another feature that will make use of the wide aperture and dual lens setup for blurred background.
• Optical image stabilisation on both 7 and 7 Plus allowing for longer exposure.

And it is not just Apple. LG stepped ahead in the same direction recently. The relatively less known players from China have also worked towards making cameras obsolete to some extent. Both LG and Huawei made use of dual camera systems in different ways to achieve better photographs. Even the enthusiasts are giving low end DSLR and mirrorless cameras a pass. The differences are certainly there but portability and the support of useful apps mean that an increasing number of people are opting them.

Image sample from the phone

Budget DSLRs are starting low and smartphones cameras are doing amazing things. This is causing a huge problem for the market of typical point and shoots which are not seen much these days. You will find popular tourist spots with people shooting on their mobile devices and it is something camera makers should take a good hard look at. The camera market is hit and things will only worsen as more devices like iPhone 7 Plus or Huawei P9 roll out. The reason this particular launch is significant because now that Apple has done it, the whole world will stand up and take notice. It can magnify the impact on the camera industry.

Image sample from the phone

The standalone cameras are adding more features but this still need to be more mobile like. Light P16 is a good example of the same. Or they should probably look at working with mobile makers as well. The camera makers will have to do something and they will have to do something quickly because the likes of iPhone 7 are already eating into their share.

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Expedia today announced the acquisition of Trover, an app where travellers share their travel photos. The terms of the acquisition were not closed.

“At Expedia, it’s fair to say we believe in the power of travel. It can transform people. So an important part of our job is to inspire travellers. One way we do this is by igniting dreams through beautiful pictures of amazing destinations. We are excited to explore the compelling opportunities this partnership presents.”

The deal was announced yesterday evening with Trover team hoping to get a boost from Expedia as a strong partner. With an outreach of around 450 million visitors across Expedia’s website, the Trover’s database could increase drastically.

“Expedia’s mission is to revolutionise travel through technology, and they believe Trover’s beautiful content and social experience is a great fit with this mission. We can’t imagine higher recognition for our community,” Jason Karas, CEO of Trover, explained in the post.

Trover had raised $2.5 million funding round led by the travel booking and expense industry titan Concur’s Perfect Trip Fund. Seattle-based Trover was founded out of Travelpost that had shut down in 2011.

Source: Techcrunch

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Selfies have grown from quirky self-portraits to obsession for many. Manufacturers are constantly increasing the capabilities of the front cameras found on our mobile phones to cater to the selfie lovers. It is a common sight to spot people extending their arm to click a picture, whether it is a nice restaurant or a tourist attraction. The selfie obsession among travellers has gone to a level that it has started to pose problems as people cross the line and try to click selfies at vulnerable and unsafe spots.

There have been various incidents of injuries and even life loss all over the world because of this. That is why Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation decided to launch a social mass awareness campaign to minimise this. They are trying to spread awareness regarding selfies near beaches, forts, valley cliffs and other such spots in the state. To achieve the same, MTDC has directed the collectors in state to filter out dangerous tourist spots and display warning notices there. Along with that, they have also been directed to distinguish safe areas that are suitable for clicking selfies at the tourist spots.

MTDC also plans to take this campaign online and actively promote this using its social media accounts including Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The social media promotions would highlight messages about selfie related accidents and use some punch lines like ‘Let this selfie not be your last selfie’ to deter travellers from shooting selfies at the risky spots.

How effective do you think this initiative by MTDC will be in deterring the travellers from putting themselves at risk while clicking selfies?

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Travellers all over the world love GoPro. There are no reasons not to. Their cameras offer quality images, can be mounted almost anywhere and can survive quite a lot of abuse. Surprisingly there haven’t been any strong competitors to the high end GoPro cameras, until now. Recently Nikon unveiled the KeyMission 360 during CES, an entirely new kind of camera that we have wanted for long.

The Nikon KeyMission 360 is company’s first action camera which comes with rugged exterior to handle your outdoor adventures and can capture 360 degree footage in 4K. The camera is waterproof up to 100 feet and is resistant to dust, shock and low temperatures. Nikon hasn’t revealed any specs yet but we know that this marks the start of a new series of cameras and there will be more such cameras. The camera being a Nikon, we hardly have any doubts about the quality of videos and images.

While this space has been long dominated by GoPro, other players have gradually started to make their presence felt. DJI recently introduced the cameras it puts on drones as standalone cameras. There is market for action cameras and there is market for 360 degree video cameras. Nikon is eyeing both of them here with this one of its kind product. YouTube has supported 360 degree videos for long and Facebook recently added support for the same so the Nikon KeyMission 360 would possibly give us new kind of videos to watch in our cardboard viewers. It shouldn’t be long before some travel brand takes up this new tool to come up with interesting video campaign.

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Open the app categories on Google Play store and Photography proudly sits on the top. As the OEMs continue to improve the cameras with every new device, a large number of people, especially the ones who travel a lot, are giving the elbow to their DSLRs. That is why we have listed down some apps that will take care of your photography needs while travelling.

#1- Google Camera

I have tried using various camera apps but Google Camera continues to be my favourite. While it might not offer you the wide array of options you get on other camera apps, it takes the cake when it comes to simplicity. Switching between camera modes is fast which is good as you don’t want to miss a good shot from the train window because your camera was on video. It offers other camera modes like panorama, wide angle, fisheye, photosphere and lens blur which work very well. There are no filters for you to use but then you can always add them later using some other app.

Download link

#2- Snapseed

If you want an app to process your photos, Snapseed is the right pick. You can use it to fine tune the image settings, alter the perspective, fix badly exposed parts, heal patches and do a lot more you would otherwise use Photoshop for. Using the app is also pretty simple and it largely relies on gestures. Scroll vertically to select setting and scroll horizontally to change it. It can also process RAW images so you can transfer your DSLR images and process them on your smartphone. It also offers some filters but there aren’t many options if that is what you are looking for.

Download link

#3- Camera360

I have been using this app for years now and it has never disappointed. While it first started off as a camera app that also offers some filters, it now doubles up as a quick photo processing tool. You can use it to shoot photos and have more options than your stock camera app or you can choose from the wide range of filters to put on the images you have captured already. New filters can also be downloaded inside the app. It also offers the option to fine tune some image settings if filters are not your thing.

Download link

#4- Cardboard camera

If you think shooting photographs is too mainstream, you should download the Cardboard Camera app. It can shoot 360 degree panoramas that you can later view in your Cardboard viewer. It doesn’t work very well if you are shooting objects too close so make sure you capture the beautiful landscapes you encounter while travelling. It can also record audio along with that so a flowing river and chirping birds will add to your viewing experiences. If you don’t have a cardboard viewer, you can buy one online for really low prices.

Download link

#5- Google Photos

You will click photos, save edited copies, shoot videos and then do all of that again until you eventually run out of space. Then you will start filtering through the images to make space for more. You can save all the trouble if you use Google Photos. You can use your Google storage to save photos and free up space on your device. If that isn’t enough, you can have unlimited storage if you allow them to keep a slightly reduced size of the image. It also makes sharing images and collectively contributing to the same album a breeze.

Download link

What other photography apps do you use while travelling? Do share with us.

The post Travelling this New Year? Here are the 5 photography apps you should have on your device appeared first on TravHQ.

Selfies emerged as a huge trend in photography and now it is almost impossible to visit a tourist destination and not find people extending their arms to click photos. Mobile phone manufacturers are happily squeezing in high resolution cameras on the front and you can also find accessories like selfie sticks for selfie happy travellers. The trend is further fuelled by the increase in number of people travelling solo or in small groups.

A photo sample from Localgrapher in London

Meet Matej Slezak, founder of Localgrapher, a Czech startup that has decided to campaign against tourist selfies with its offering. They offer skilled photographers at your destination in different plans so that you can have high quality photographs to document your travel properly.

Matej Slezak says, “What is the future of vacation photography? We believe that selfies might be sufficient for some but not for the others. Our customers are the ones who want to keep their memories personalised and also with respect to the place.”

According to Localgrapher, selfies are just a trend that will fade away and people won’t be proud to show the same photos to their family in a decade or two. They are usually low quality photos that aren’t worth putting on the living room wall. At this point Localgrapher has over sixty photographers from over fifty cities on their platform. They are constantly adding new partners at locations ranging from the top destinations to beautiful small cities. Going ahead they plan to add more small destinations that attract tourists from all over the world.

As the photographer is a local, he or she can also serve as a reliable guide who can recommend attractions and places of interest in the city. Matej Slezak, the founder of this startup is an experienced photographer himself and started Localgrapher when he noticed a demand for such service after was contacted by multiple tourists for photo sessions.

“We believe that our service provided by professional vacation photographers is next big thing in travel industry. We plan to expand Localgrapher to 20-30 cities in the India and South-East Asia within next few months.” says Matej.

People who are not very comfortable in front of camera or aren’t very good at posing don’t really need to worry as the photographers highly emphasise spontaneous and natural pictures. You can book a photographer through their website and receive the gallery online in a couple of days. They have got different packages that vary in duration and regions covered at a destination.

We came across other services earlier which offer a photographer, who will provide you with Instagram ready pictures every morning, as part of group tour packages. Localgrapher can also join hands with various tour providers to further boost the services. You can find them on their website here.

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Photography is deeply linked with travel and be it brands or consumers, one can’t imagine a journey without pictures. The whole world celebrated #WorldPhotographyDay on Wednesday, 19th August. It was one of those days, where photographers from all over united and shared their common passion of shooting pictures. Twitter was abuzz with photographs and tweets from destinations, travel agencies, travel guides & magazines and even the hotel industry joined in.

Here is our pick of how some travel brands in India joined the #WorldPhotographyDay fun.

#1. NatGeo Channel India

NatGeo did something very unconventional and unique on the occasion of #WorldPhotographyDay! They did a small campaign around this theme with a simple concept. Their twitter followers had to guess the names of the photographers behind some iconic NatGeo photos. 5 winners, had a chance to win “50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic iOS app”. The execution of the campaign was planned very neatly and it shows how much brands like NatGeo value such significant days.

Take part in the #WhoClickedIt #Contest at 4pm and put your photography knowledge to the test. #WorldPhotographyDay pic.twitter.com/KmSwQKBUra

— NatGeo Channel India (@inNatGeo) August 19, 2015

#2. Mumbai Heritage

Mumbai Heritage didn’t talk much about the #WorldPhotographyDay but when they did, they made sure they posted some high quality visuals. They shared two beautiful photographs of Mumbai which received good number of retweets and favourites.

Mumbai Island City. Photograph by Robert Stephens. #WorldPhotographyDay pic.twitter.com/VKOi6totex

— Mumbai Heritage (@mumbaiheritage) August 19, 2015

#3. Lonely Planet India

Ours is a beautiful country and what better way to celebrate the occasion than with some stunning photos of the most beautiful monument here. Lonely Planet India shared a blog post with 6 best views of the Taj Mahal. The post not only included the pictures but also some facts about the famous monument and places around it.

Now that the Taj Mahal is on Twitter, they could have mentioned @TajMahal as well.

#WorldPhotographyDay: 6 best views of the Taj Mahal: http://t.co/nKiOtLpiHI pic.twitter.com/pHEKGvQ68O

— Lonely Planet India (@lonelyplanet_in) August 19, 2015

#4. Stayzilla

Pinterest is a platform that largely depends on high quality visuals. Stayzilla, the online marketplace for budget stays, used the #WorldPhotographyDay to promote their Pinterest account on Twitter. They shared multiple tweets with beautiful pictures and link to their Pinterest account.

It is better to use images that have a landscape orientation rather than portrait on Twitter. Portrait images don’t look very neat on Twitter timeline.

Happy #WorldPhotographyDay! Pictures always inspire! Follow us on @Pinterest & get inspired. https://t.co/6k0Do2opQF pic.twitter.com/AC2icpx9pn

— Stayzilla.com (@stayzilla) August 19, 2015

#5. OYO Rooms

OYO Rooms, India’s largest chain of rebranded budget hotels, wished its followers a happy #WorldPhotographyDay but missed on a picture to go with the message. Though later they announced a photo contest around the topic with hashtag #OYOgraphy on multiple platforms that will be running till August 25.

We wish everyone a happy #WorldPhotographyDay! May your camera capture images that inspire people to travel the world.

— OYO Rooms (@oyorooms) August 19, 2015

#6. Taj Mahal, New Delhi

Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi also decided to use this occasion to drive some activity on their Twitter accountby showcasing their hotel room. They tried to spark some conversations by inviting people to share their pictures but there was hardly any activity after that. There were very few people who used the hashtag or shared their photos with them.

Have you indulged in this #RoomWithAView? It’ll be nice to see your pictures! #WhenInDelhi #WorldPhotographyDay pic.twitter.com/RCQAyvnyvz

— Taj Mahal New Delhi (@TajMahalHotel) August 19, 2015

#7. Samsonite India

Samsonite positions itself as a companion for business travellers but every once in a while, the brand uses its social media accounts to connect with leisure travellers as well. On #WorldPhotographyDay, they tweeted just once about it with a fairly average photo to accompany it.

Celebrate your love for photography & change the way you see the world with nothing but a lens! #WorldPhotographyDay pic.twitter.com/HGQy1Hcvjv

— Samsonite India (@SamsoniteIndia) August 19, 2015

#8. Ginger Hotels

Ginger Hotels used this opportunity to interact through a photo contest. Follower dug into their old photos for a chance to grab Flipkart vouchers by sharing their old memories with #TakeMeBack. The contest saw an impressive level of participation with the hashtag being used around 1500 times.

It's #WorldPhotographyDay, and we have something special in store for our fans! Stay tuned to find out more. #StayAtGinger

— Ginger Hotels (@stayatginger) August 19, 2015

#9. MakeMyTrip

Like many others, MakeMyTrip also made a tweet about #WorldPhotographyDay and invited people to share their photos. Only a couple of people responded with their photos which was expected as the twist in the tweet was missing.

They could have used some high quality visuals similar to what they have used in the past. Some incentive like a feature of best photos would have motivated more tweeples to share.

Love travelling? Love taking photos while travelling? This #WorldPhotographyDay, share the love with us! After all #DilTohRoamingHai

— MakeMyTrip.com (@makemytrip) August 19, 2015

Are there any other World Photography Day campaigns that caught your eye? Do share them with us.

The post How India’s Travel Industry celebrated #WorldPhotographyDay on Twitter appeared first on TravHQ.

GoPro is the tool of choice for a large number of photographers. From adventure travellers to Dronestagrammers (yes it is a word already), everyone loves GoPro. Its versatility works very well in its favour. We filtered through thousands of GoPro pics shared on Instagram over the last month and have listed down some of the most impressive ones we came across.

1- Brooklyn Bridge, New York by GoPro

2- Cowles Mountains, San Diego by helene_gerasimchuk

3- Pacific Beach, San Diego by nicoruiz23

4- Strand Park, Townsville by lukesouthgatee

5- Fortune Island, Nasugbu by gzonoffduty

6- Neck Point Park, Vancouver Island by will_and_theworld

7- Oahu, Hawaii by buranzuu

8- Belarus by gopro_belarus

9- Samadua, Indonesia by sertinoangga

10- Palawan Beach, Santosa by lyantotots

(Featured image: Image by will_and_theworld)

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Even if you are not a fan of extending your arm and shooting a self-portrait, you must be well aware of the term ‘selfie’. While sources claim that selfies have been around for ages, the improvements in camera technology and sharing platforms in recent years have made them popular among masses. Everyone from Darth Vader to David Cameron is shooting one. Smartphone manufacturers putting high res front cameras on their devices, hotels providing selfie sticks to guests (yes JW Marriott, Kimpton and some other hotels are doing that) are some indicators that this ‘thing’ isn’t going away anytime soon, or is it?

Selfies emerged as a popular trend among travel photographers

Meet ‘dronies’ or ‘drone selfies’, the more adventurous younger sibling of the selfie. A dronie is a self-portrait shot using a camera mounted on a flying drone. So instead of an image flooded with faces, you can shoot your beautiful surroundings while including all your friends in the frame. Thanks to the easy availability, tech savvy travellers are already using drones not only to shoot photos but also for beautiful short clips.

While many hotels and resorts are motivating people to shoot selfies at their property and post on their social media accounts, some of them have been offering custom drones to their guests and bragging their luxury properties. This new trend is catching up really well and we are guessing that 2015 will shape up as the year of drone selfies.

Follow #dronestagram, #droneselfie, #dronie or other similar hashtags on Instagram and you will be awestruck with the amazing photos and videos you will find. There are thousands of posts giving you enough motivation to buy a drone to carry on your next trip. Tourism New Zealand came up with the #NZDronie campaign allowing the travellers to shoot small clips using drone mounted cameras. The video would start close to the subject with the drone then flying away to include the splendid landscape. We are surely going to see more travel brands and destinations come up with campaigns revolving around drone photography.

At this point, drones suitable for the job come with a hefty price tag. DJI Phantom 2 Vision is a popular choice for aerial photography but the cost is just too steep for any casual photographer to even consider it. On top of that, drones are a bit fragile making it a risky investment. But just like any other technology, this will change with time. There are various ongoing drone projects that should see the light of day very soon. PlexiDrone is a project that we found listed on indiegogo.com.

It can carry different kind of cameras (including interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras). It can be controlled easily using your smartphone and also offers ‘Follow Me’ feature using GPS.

Another interesting campaign that we found was the ELF VRDrone. It is a small photo robot that is easy to carry and can be controlled using smartphones like the PlexiDrone. It also adds the feature of first person 3D view making use of Google Cardboard.

Zano is a palm sized lightweight drone for aerial photography which looks promising. It was showcased at the CES and the project has already raised a huge sum on Kickstarter.

Nixie, the winner of Intel’s Make it wearable is one of a kind camera drone that can be worn on your wrist. You can throw the Nixie in any direction, it will click a picture and come right back to you.

So there it is. You will soon have a crop of selfie drones buzzing around mountains and beaches. A whole new genre of Vine videos and Instagram posts are coming your way. Smile for the drone!

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