It’s almost impossible to go the Maldives and not come away with some rather good Maldives photos unless you spend the whole time taking selfies, in which case you’re a complete bell-end and need to get a life.  If you’re like me and mainly like taking photos of family and kids, then you’re going to love it, the colours are beautiful, the light exquisite, even outside golden hour.

If you go during the rainy season, you’ll get some awesome Maldives photos and shots of moody storm/rain clouds moving in. Bring a wide angle and portrait lens for those sunset shots.  I photographed Maldives using a point and shoot the first time I went there and it was fine, but if you’ve got the big guns, bring em.  The evening light is amazing, the colours are vivid so if you shoot film, take some Velvia with you.

I wish I had started shooting film when I went to the Maldives and the first time I went there, all I had was a Panasonic point and shoot and an underwater Nikon point and shoot. They did the trick though, they weren’t the best Maldives photos to ever be taken but for personal stuff they were fine.  If I went now I’d probably bring a shitload of Velvia, some Provia 400X slide film and my Leica MP.  For digital I’d take the Fuji 16mm, 55-200mm and 56mm for some portraits.  Basically I’d take everything I had because for a lot of people it’s going to be the one and only time you go to the Maldives.

If you go during summer, it’s blue skies every day.  Both times we’ve been were in July and the weather was perfect, bit of rain in the afternoons to make your Maldives photos a bit more interesting and perfect temperatures.  Bring a GoPro or something similar (I prefer the Sony FDR X3000 Action Cam) for underwater photos and video and make sure you don’t forget anything like charges, batteries, memory cards because you won’t be able to get anything of the sort on a private island.