Travel Accessories For Outdoor Lifestyle Photoshoots

Props and accessories can make a huge difference when producing a lifestyle photoshoot with a model. As someone who photographs outdoors and in natural light, I like to use travel and lifestyle accessories in my images to drive the outdoor narrative of the photoshoot.

Lifestyle photography focuses more on storytelling than typical portrait photography and I like to use the location I’m shooting in to help tell the story. As a result, adding certain accessories like headphones or travel bags make a big impact on the composition of my photo. These props also provide a wider variety of poses for the model to try during the shoot.

In this blog post, I’ll be going over some of my favorite travel accessories and products to use in my lifestyle photos (regardless of whether or not the product is supposed to be the main focus in the image).

Watches

As expected, watches are my favorite lifestyle accessory to photograph. Different watches can fit perfectly with a model’s wardrobe on the shoot. It looks great as an accessory by itself, but you can also have the model look at the timepiece or wind up the dial as a way to make the scene look more interactive.

Watches also don’t have to be limited as a fashion accessory. For example, if you’re shooting an outdoor fitness campaign, you can use a smartwatch or fitness watch as an interactive accessory (model checks heart rate, steps taken, etc.) to help drive the story.

While some watches might not be originally designed as a travel accessory, they can work to tell the travel narrative and look beautiful when photographed correctly outdoors and in natural light. I’ve written a full blog post on photography ideas for watches specifically if you want to see more examples and ideas on how to feature watches in your photoshoots.

Sunglasses & Eyewear

Sunglasses are a common travel and lifestyle accessory that people wear outdoors, so it makes sense that you could feature them in your photoshoot. Since I usually take photos during sunrise and sunset, the sunglasses can sometimes also act as a perfect accessory to protect your model’s eyes from the sun.

Sunglasses work for a lot of different travel narratives - whether you’re aiming for a beach day or a fashion lifestyle photoshoot in the city.

One thing to be wary of is if you’re shooting directly at the model wearing sunglasses, you might catch a reflection of yourself taking the photo in the sunglasses. If that’s something you want to avoid, then you might want to position the model to face a certain direction so you’re out of the shot, or change the angle that you’re photographing from. You can also have the model wear sunglasses over their head or pinned to their shirt (again you might want to be careful of glare in this case).

Headphones & Earbuds

While I think headphones look best in a metropolitan setting, audio tech wearables are also great to use in any outdoor campaign when done correctly and with intent. As someone who wears headphones most of the time, these travel accessories are props I enjoy adding to a lifestyle photoshoot whenever I can.

You can have the model pretending to listen to music, or add a phone as an additional accessory when paired with bluetooth headphones.

Travel Bags & Backpacks

I think travel bags and backpacks are one of the most versatile props that you can use for an outdoor lifestyle photoshoot. Most luggage and backpack pieces can fit any outdoor setting since its purpose is to carry items.

You can incorporate different luggage types and styles like travel backpacks, laptop bags, tote bags, or carry-on luggage as part of your outdoor photoshoot. You can put some of the other props that you might want to use for the photoshoot in the backpack.

As a quick note: you don’t want to put anything too heavy in the backpack if the model will end up carrying it on their back or wheeling the luggage around.

Water Bottle

A water bottle can also be a useful travel accessory for the model to use for an outdoor photoshoot. It can make a nice accessory for a beach day, a walk along the nature trail, or for an outdoor fitness photoshoot.

You can place the water bottle inside the one of the pouches of a backpack prop, or have the model pretend to drink out of it to make the outdoor photoshoot look more interactive (my advice is to not actually have anything inside the water bottle if you do end up using this idea).

Final Thoughts

It’s important to not include props to include them just for the sake of including them, but to have them drive the story behind an outdoor campaign. When I produce a photoshoot and come up with a mood board during pre-production, I’ll usually try to include a few images with the props that I want to have featured in the shoot just to see how it looks.

If everything seems cohesive and the model is on board, then the actual photoshoot day goes a lot smoother. You want to take into consideration the size of the accessories, the color, how the model will pose with them, and how accessible it is to carry each product.

I hope this blog post will give you ideas on what you can bring to your next outdoor photoshoot and discover new ideas on how you can try to utilize everyday products and accessories. 

Thanks for reading and until next time.

If you’d like to browse examples of outdoor lifestyle photoshoots featuring some of the products I mentioned, you can look at the blog posts below:

City Lifestyle Photoshoot in Downtown Los Angeles (Headphones)

Luxury Watch Outdoor Lifestyle Photoshoot at Venice Beach, Los Angeles

Lifestyle Product Photography: Travel Bag Photoshoot in the City

Outdoor Commercial Lifestyle Campaign Photography in Griffith Park

If you’d rather look at specific galleries of my lifestyle work, check out the links below.

WATCHES

TECH ESSENTIALS

TRAVEL BAGS