One of the things many people decide to leave at home when traveling is their tripod. However, this is one of the most valuable tools for traveling for this photo. I could stop down the lens to an aperture of ƒ/22 to create a star effect from the lights.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/35

The lower photograph doesn’t have the star effect due to the shallow DOF [Depth-of-field].

One of my favorite things in new locations is to shoot sunrises and sunsets. Just as fun is those photos just after the sunsets like the ones here where you can still see some blue sky.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/30

You can see some in our group using the tripod to get their shot. I recommend carrying a cable release or using about a second delay timer to trip the shutter, so you do not introduce any camera movement when firing the camera.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 200, ƒ/3.2, 1/5

Here the shutter speed is 1/5 of a second, making the people in the train station in Lisbon, Portugal blur. In this situation, I put the camera on a column to keep the camera perfectly still.

I recommend finding a tripod that folds up very small yet will go up pretty high to around eye level when standing. They make light carbon fiber tripods that are light and just as good but not entirely light as some aluminum-made tripods.