Our brains and bodies are not designed to work incessantly, but taking a vacation does not always relieve stress. Instead of unwinding, you may deplete your resources even further! Discover five biggest mistakes in vacation planning that induce stress.

Humans need extended stretches of decompression to escape the daily grind. A vacation is more than an opportunity to recharge our batteries just to drain them afterward. Perceive it as a period when every experience, be it sunbathing or Delta 8 bundle, improves your quality of life in general.

1. Overplanning

Vacation days are limited, so it is natural to want to visit as many sites as possible, but a jam-packed itinerary is a major stressor. Do not fall victim to FOMO and schedule every minute of every day. Trim your itinerary by around 30% or leave at least one day for improvised exploration. Just wander around, drop by local coffee shops or record stores, or read that book you have been trying to finish for months.

2. Skipping Meals

This is a typical consequence of overplanning. If you must schedule visits to attractions, schedule some time for meals, too. In the worst-case scenario, you should have some snacks with you.

3. Being Too Stringent With Itineraries

You do not have to follow your schedule to the letter — be open to spontaneity. Travelers often discover excellent activities and restaurants after asking locals or using Google Maps on a whim. If something interferes with your plans, do not stress out about it. Let things unfold naturally.

4. Checking Your Work Email

As soon as you open your inbox, your brain switches back to work mode. This could derail the whole experience! Make the most of your spare time and unplug. Whatever comes up at work can be dealt with after you return, and your colleagues will call you in case of an emergency. Your vacation time is sacred. If you get an email about a problem that cannot be sold remotely, stress will tarnish the rest of your vacation.

5. Underplanning

Although overplanning is bad, so is failure to plan enough. Our brains get so accustomed to schedules that their absence becomes a stressor. Besides, you can miss out on some great experiences. Draw up a list of the main sites you would like to visit and sprinkle them in throughout your trip. If any of them require booking, do it in advance.

Only Booking The Cheapest Options

Bargains can lead to stressful experiences. If you cannot negotiate your budget, do not sacrifice comfortable transit and accommodation for the sake of sumptuous meals.

Set reasonable priorities. A flight with two connections that adds 10 hours to your journey or a dingy hotel with poor reviews will just make you feel awful. Do not book the cheapest options blindly. Make sure the standards will be acceptable.

Smartphones with a great camera and the ability to record high definition video are no longer difficult to find they’re everywhere. Professional video content creators are finding that using their mobile phones to shoot video has several significant advantages:

• Mobile phones are ubiquitous, and we almost always have our phones with us. Quickly and spontaneously capturing video content doesn’t require lugging around large video cameras when an unexpected opportunity presents itself.
• Many apps are available for both iOS (Apple) and Android (Google) mobile devices that extend the functionality of the video camera, provide sophisticated editing and digital effects capabilities, as well as provide a way to upload finished videos for distribution and viewing immediately.
• Perhaps most importantly, as the phones have become more capable, video entrepreneurs are finding that getting into entrepreneurial filmmaking is much more affordable, too.

However, while it is good to have a smartphone with an awesome camera, using poor video making technique will probably result in a poor video product. Just because you have a very expensive hammer, with all of the features money can buy, it doesn’t guarantee that you will build a magnificent home without practice and good video technique.

Your video does not have to be perfect but following these seven tips, shooting great video with your smartphone will be easy and the footage will look fantastic!

#1 – Good Lighting is Critical

Proper lighting has a huge impact on smartphone cameras because they have smaller image sensors and lenses. Try as much as possible to shoot your video in brightly lit areas. This will help avoid unnecessary shadows and grainy areas in your video. Conversely, you also must be careful not to point the camera directly at bright light sources, which will cause unusable overexposed footage and lens flaring. Lighting should be stable and steady; the image sensors in most smartphones do not react to dramatic changes in lighting very quickly. If the light is still making it tough to shoot your video try working with back-lighting and white balance settings if your phone or app provides them. Most phones also offer “touch focusing” in the event your camera is focusing on the wrong area of your composition. After setting the focus on the most important aspect of the video, the automatic exposure control will have an easier time making small adjustments if the lighting condition begins to change.

#2 – Stay Steady

If you don’t want your video footage to come out distorted, blurred, or affected by “rolling shutter” the best thing to do is to keep your phone steady while recording. Use both hands to hold your smartphone as close as possible to your body as you record the video. This can be a bit fatiguing in long takes or sequences, and there are other ways to support the phone:

• Stabilizers, tripods and camera cages allow you to keep your smartphone or mobile device still when taking a video with it; they have perfect handles to accomplish this.
• If a smartphone tripod or stabilizer is a little too costly or not practical for you in your circumstances, you can rest your phone on other physical supports like tables, chairs, desks, shelves, etc.

#3 – The Audio Matters as Much as the Video

A good video with poor audio quality is junk unless you plan to add a completely new audio track “in post” (while editing your video). While you want your video to look good, the quality of your audio is more important than the video – so it should matter as much, if not more. Unfortunately, the built-in microphone in most smartphones (if not all of them) is both low quality and improperly placed. It is very common to catch wind and unnecessary environmental noise that will compete with or drown out any important audio while shooting video outside. This is almost impossible to edit out later. It is advisable to shoot your video in a quiet place, preferably indoors when possible with less ambient noise. Professionals are shooting all sorts of commercial grade videos and feature films using their mobile phones, but audio is almost ALWAYS captured with a separate recording device suitable for the job. So, for exceptional quality videos with superb audio, you should get an external recording device or at least a directional microphone that will work with your smartphone. If using an external microphone isn’t possible or practical then stay as close to the audio source as possible and try this little trick: use your hand to cover around the phone’s microphone (but don’t completely cover it). This way, unwanted noise can be reduced, which might give your final product a chance.

#4 – Get Close to Your Subject

Staying physically closer to your subject ensures better image quality, less digital noise, and better focus in your videos since most smartphones use a digital zoom rather than optical zoom. If your video requires super zoom close-ups of tiny details, they make clip-on macro lenses that will fit any iPhone or Android smartphones.

#5 – Avoid Vertical Video Syndrome

I really cannot drive this point home well enough. Stop shooting vertical video! Some videographers, (yes… video entrepreneurs, too) who use of their smartphones for digital filmmaking often make the mistake of holding their phones vertically, that is to say up and down rather than sideways, while recording.

Hold your phone horizontally so that videos played back on other screens (virtually everywhere) will look fine.

#6 – Improve Your Videos with Mobile Apps

The camera app on your smartphone may do a good job, but there’s more to video recording than what most of them have to offer! Some third-party apps are very intuitive with great features for those new to developing video content while some others unlock professional-like features that might bring out your inner George Lucas. While you will find some pretty good free apps, investing in a couple of apps that cost a little bit of money can pay huge dividends.

#7 – Be Prepared for the Shoot

Before you begin recording your videos, make sure that you have all of the gear, props, scripts, actors and shooting locations ready to go. Additionally, make sure your phone an excellent and that you have enough storage space (available memory) to store the footage – high definition (HD) video files can get large and will drain a battery quickly.

This video by Filmic Pro “5 Things to Do Before You Shoot iPhone Video” covers much of what we’ve discussed, too: memory storage, battery life, audio, and resolution, but they add a great point; you have to think about stabilization, and they’ve included a few great options for obtaining steady video:

Producing great videos can be a fun and lucrative pursuit for entrepreneurial-minded filmmakers. Master the art of videography with your smartphone by following these tips. Through practice, trial and error and you will start seeing professional results in no time!

As crowds grow and parks reach capacity, responsible national-park travel is more important than ever. Here’s how to leave a lighter footprint, according to rangers.

Most of us don’t set out to be irresponsible visitors in national parks. We adhere to Leave No Trace (LNT) principles and view roped-off sections as no-go zones—not barriers between us and the perfect photo op.

But then we bend the rules with a quick off-path shortcut between our congested trail and the less trodden one. Or nature calls at the most inopportune moment, on the rare day we forgot bags to pack out used toilet paper. “Just this once,” we tell ourselves, resting assured we follow LNT 99 percent of the time.

But with bigger crowds and first-time visitors modeling other travelers’ behaviors, even small just-this-once choices can add up. “Are more people behaving badly? Probably not. Most of our visitors are behaving well. They’re doing the right thing,” says Kyle Patterson, public affairs officer for Rocky Mountain National Park. “It’s just that we have more people.”

To help you simultaneously enjoy and protect America’s beloved outdoor spaces, we gathered important reminders from rangers and tour outfitters who see these park problems firsthand. Here’s how they suggest visiting national parks responsibly.

Don’t skimp on preparation

With more parks requiring permits and reservations, it’s getting tougher to visit spontaneously—and according to Patterson, that’s not all bad. She says park research and preparation are key; without them, you’re putting yourself at risk (and potentially monopolizing search-and-rescue resources).

“You might be a really fit person, but fitness really doesn’t matter when it comes to feeling the ill effects of higher elevations,” Patterson says, recommending visitors from lower elevations give their bodies time to adjust to RMNP, which ranges in elevation from 7,860 to 14,259 feet. (This kind of adjustment typically requires a day or two, according to the Cleveland Clinic.)

Planning also involves checking the weather forecast. In some parts of the country, spring means sunshine and blooming flowers, but “we get most of our snow in March and April,” says Patterson, noting visitors often show up without gear fit for the elements.

Being prepared for all conditions—from a quick change in weather to the ill effects of altitude—does more than keep you comfortable while exploring. It helps preserve the NPS’s search-and-rescue resources, which are stretched thin. Beyond fitness, altitude, and weather preparation, take additional precautions like carrying a satellite phone and a paper map, and let a responsible friend or family member know your route, especially if you’re hiking the backcountry.

Adjust your expectations—or visit in the off-season

National parks are crowded, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Sure, timed entries may ease the burden, but “if you’re planning on going [to a national park] between Memorial Day and mid-October, in the middle of the day, you should expect there are going to be a fair number of people,” says Chip Jenkins, superintendent of Grand Teton National Park, one of many parks that struggled with overcrowding during the pandemic.

Jenkins suggests visiting in the off-season or off-hours. “You can have a fabulous time by visiting these places in the evening, at night, and in the early morning, when you’ll largely have these places to yourself.”

If you do visit during busy times, be kind to fellow travelers. And remember you, also, are part of the crowd. “National parks belong to all of us,” Patterson says. “Visitors who’ve been coming for years and visitors who are coming for the first time are all important because these are the people that will be stewards of this place.”

Don’t DIY a parking spot 

Unprecedented crowds mean limited parking spots. Patterson says she’s seen a growing number of drivers creating their own spots so they can get out and enjoy the park sooner—a move that damages native flora.

“Don’t create parking spaces where there are none,” she says, acknowledging that this may mean waiting in your car longer to find a spot. “Park in designated spaces, on asphalt and gravel, not on grass, meadows, bushes, or alpine tundra.”

Respect wildlife

It’s not about how close you can get to a wild animal, such as a bobcat, coyote, or bear, says Patterson. You should be asking the reverse: “How far should I stay back?”

And yes, this applies to animals that look cute and cuddly—or those that would make for a great photo. “What people do is they keep approaching and approaching until the wildlife starts to react to their presence,” says Patterson. But in an instant, this wildlife encounter can turn tragic—as in the 2019 bison attack, seen in a viral video, that required the airlifting of a young girl out of Yellowstone National Park.

At Yellowstone, where wildlife encounters happen almost daily, rangers ask visitors to keep a distance of at least 25 yards from bison and elk, and 100 yards from bears and wolves, according to Wyoming Public Radio.

Follow local campfire rules

Given the ever growing wildfire risk, particularly out west, rangers urge visitors to learn and follow all campfire guidelines. “Rocky always has fire restrictions in place,” says Patterson, noting that RMNP restricts campfires except in designated campfire rings in picnic areas and campgrounds in the front country.

Whether it’s a RMNP picnic area or any outdoor area that allows campfires, it’s important to follow Leave No Trace fire guidelines, including using water (not dirt) to put out a fire and packing out all campfire litter.

Learn local Indigenous history

Sweeping vistas and snowcapped mountains may dazzle, but many U.S. national parks have deep Indigenous histories. Understanding a park’s past and learning about local Indigenous experiences are integral to becoming a responsible national-park traveler.

“We like to seek perspectives from the community and learn how history is perceived through different lenses,” says Matt Berna, a general manager for Intrepid Travel, a B Corp certified travel outfitter that’s been running national-park tours for over 20 years. Intrepid coordinates trips to reservations with Indigenous guides to “highlight the original stewards of the land and pay respect to their history by learning their stories.”

You can coordinate cultural trips of your own with a bit of planning and research. “Many reservations have cultural tourism. The Wind River Reservation, one of the closest to Grand Teton, has an extensive series of recommendations and ideas for visitors,” Jenkins says. “That’s true all over the country, from Florida, the Dakotas, and Washington State to California and Texas.”

Be bathroom-wise

One less than pleasant by-product of increased national-park crowds: increased human waste. “Every day, [trail crews] go to move a rock, and there’s human waste,” Patterson says. “Or they go to move something else, and there’s toilet paper spread all over the place.”

When you can, use established restroom facilities, says Patterson. And if you’re out hiking and can’t hold it, know the two important practices Intrepid’s LNT-certified guides teach their guests: “Keep at least 100 yards away from watercourses for toilet stops,” Berna says, “and bury waste at least six inches below the surface.”

Observe pet restrictions

We all love our trail dogs, but parents of even the best-trained pups need to follow the rules. “We continue to see people who come here with dogs walking past signs that say dogs prohibited,” says Patterson.

“That’s extremely unfortunate because dogs are predators, they can transmit diseases to wildlife, and they can become prey to wildlife,” she says. “Other visitors should be able to enjoy native wildlife in their natural environment, without disruption from other visitors’ pets.” At RMNP, leashed dogs are allowed only in front-country campgrounds or roads, not on trails.

Stick to the trail

Sure, some destinations, like Denali National Park, allow off-trail hiking—but you should go off-trail only if the park explicitly allows it. Patterson says sticking to the marked trails is one of the best ways to protect these national parks for the future.

“The increase of social trails [informal trails created by foot traffic] is damaging the park’s resources,” she says. “Don’t [take a] shortcut; don’t widen the trail by stepping off. That’s something that’s obviously happened for decades, but when you have more and more people doing it, you’re going to see more impacts.”

Wedding photos are for a lifetime. There are so many anecdotes about failed wedding photography, because for so many reasons, including miscommunication, unprofessional photographers, or some accident during the reception that ruined the whole experience. Even though it seems like everyone can do that, there is the reason why some people are professional in this field, and you shouldn’t underestimate them by comparing them to someone who is using their phone camera to take shots.

Here, the main thing is to find “your” person, whose idea of photographing will meet your expectations. To avoid unnecessary disappointment, approach this issue as responsibly as possible. Each specialist in this field has his own pattern and style, by which the broad public recognizes him. That’s what you need to pay attention to when deciding on one of them.

Many couples meet with the photographer to talk about the details months before the wedding. This seems like losing time, but it’s one of the most important steps you can take to make sure everything will go just fine.

To make it a bit easier for you to make a choice, we suggest the top 5 styles for wedding photography:

1. Coverage

Such a shooting shows the wedding day exactly as it is, with all its crazy and touching reality. The photographer allows the couple in love to behave as naturally as possible and, if possible, ignore his presence at the celebration. This style for wedding photography is suitable for those couples who don’t like or aren’t very good at posing, as well as don’t want to be distracted from what is happening at the wedding. It’s a really popular approach among the couples, who want to have their perfect shots ready for the reception. It wasn’t that popular in the past, but now it seems like a huge thing, that makes everything easier. The photographer can be focused on their task, and no one will mess with the couple as they pose during the shot.

2. Fine Art

The style is especially popular in America, as it makes it possible to capture a small piece of beauty in each picture. Each of the photos taken can become a real masterpiece and will appear at some exhibition or in an art gallery. By using this shooting method, a photographer is trying to show not a full picture but to assemble it from details. Most often, such photos are filled with a lot of light and air, looking like shots from a romantic movie. Besides, some professionals use equipment with traditional film, which adds a unique atmosphere to everything that is happening.

If you are a fan of this style, you need to share that with the photographer. Not everyone is eligible for this style because it requires more equipment, which can be pretty expensive. So, if you really want that, you must tell the photographer immediately, so they can be honest with you.

3. Fashion

This wedding photography style is suitable for those who are fond of aesthetic beauty. If you enjoy looking through popular fashion magazines, pleased by what you see, then you definitely need to look for a photographer working in this direction. Indeed, such photos are a kind of art. When working in this style, the specialist thinks and treats the event unconventionally, plays with compositions, colors, light, and creates something unique and exciting. When choosing this method of shooting, you should keep in mind that it requires a thorough study of all the details and thinking over the general concept of the event: the use of bright, romantic, sexy, and non-standard elements.

The beauty in these photos is that they will always be modern, no matter how many years have passed. And probably your children will be very proud of you in the future. We highly recommend using this style if you prefer it because it’s never boring for the couple and the team who works on the photography.

4. Only emotions

Perhaps, this is one of the most popular styles among newlyweds. Over a few years, it has been taking the lead, not yielding to new trends. This is explained by its features since the resulting pictures demonstrate the absolute happiness and madness of the wedding day. In such photos, couples can laugh, jump, run, dance, and express their emotions as they want. When looking through such pictures after a while, you will feel warmth and joy. This style is suitable for lovers who plan to have a cool “break-away” and have fun with friends and relatives on their day.

Probably you’ve seen this trend pretty often in recent years. And yes, there is no better pose than the naturally captured emotion, even though it means there will be tears, hugs, and a lot of emotions. In our opinion, it’s still better than a forced smile to every shot.

5. Classic

Photographers who prefer to work in the traditional style pay special attention to solemn moments. For example, the first kiss of the newlyweds, exchanging the rings, signing, group photos with friends and family. Professionals in this wedding photos style focus on the main moments of a new family being born, which are the key during the wedding ceremony. If you like such shots, then you should decide on a traditionalist photographer who will be able to fully meet your expectations.

Some people prefer tradition, and the classic style is just for them. And we can’t blame them, because the traditional wedding photos are so cliché, but still so beautiful and emotional.

Conclusion

When choosing a photographer who will share the most important day in your life, pay attention to the style he prefers to work in. It is important that the result not only meets your expectations but significantly exceeds them. As we said, you need to tell them your wishes and plans, so they can tell you if they are able to accomplish them. We understand that the couple is the most important, but you shouldn’t try to make them cover a style they don’t prefer or don’t know how to do it.

It doesn’t matter what style of photos you want to keep in a family photo album, the main thing is that you will get extreme pleasure when watching them even a couple of decades later.