Pack as light as possible. Do you really need to be packing the latest Nikon SLR with five lenses around with you? How good are your photos really going to be, or, how much better than a $300 camera that if you lose it or its stolen, its not a problem?
Back up, Back up, Back up. Don’t delete the photos on your camera; that a back-up. Back-up every night to your computer, that’s a back-up. Be on iCloud so you can sync and have your photos also on your computer back home, and in the cloud.
If you have an iPhone, try out the Aps HDR Pro and DMD. With regards to HDR Pro, it works best with about a 50/50 distribution of light, meaning 50% is overexposed and 50% is under exposed. Works best with clouds in the sky, not blue skies. And the bigger, darker the clouds the better. Works well when you have water in front of you to bounce reflections off of, the effect you get in places like Venice. Or on lakes in the later part of the day. They are amazing. Here’s some samples of what they can do.[slideshow]
Avoid shooting photos during mid-day. The best light is in the morning and at sun-down (the golden hour). Don’t shoot into the sun, unless you really know what you are doing.
Use the flash to fill in light, especially to get rid of shadows on people’s faces. When shooting people in scenes, I’ll just leave the flash on.