Some of the best travel photographs are not necessarily the ones you planned to take. They can be the picture taken during a walk, someone swimming before breakfast, a friend carrying everything back from the beach or a photograph taken while waiting for lunch.

These images tend to say more about a trip because they show what was actually happening. The destination is still there, but so are the people, clothes, weather and small details that belonged to that particular day.

It is easy to return from a beautiful place with hundreds of photographs of the landscape and surprisingly few of the people who were there with you. Taking turns with the camera can change that. The person who normally takes the photographs becomes part of the story as well.

The surroundings are worth keeping in the frame. A photograph of someone on a beach becomes more specific when you can see the coastline behind them. The same applies to mountains, a campsite, a garden or the terrace of a holiday home. Years later, these details often help you remember exactly where the photograph was taken.

Not every image needs to look perfect. Windblown hair, wet clothes after swimming or someone laughing at the wrong moment can end up capturing a day better than the photograph everyone stopped to pose for.

There is also a difference between taking photographs for yourself and taking them primarily to share. When every image is considered in terms of how it will look online, it is easy to overlook the ordinary moments that might actually become the photographs you keep.

A camera can be part of a day outside without becoming the purpose of it. Take it along, photograph the moments you want to remember and then put it away again.

A collection of travel photographs does not need to look like a professional shoot. It only needs enough of the place and the people to bring you back to what the day was really like.

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