These days, there’s less of a need to haul around a dedicated camera on your travels. Using your phone as your primary travel camera isn’t as far-fetched as it once was, especially if you're not heading to a place where a zoom lens is crucial, like on a safari. Here are some apps that will help you capture a beautiful smartphone shot.

Camera+: This $1.99 iPhone app can take the place of the Camera app that ships with all Apple smartphones. In a pinch, you can capture photos as you normally would, but those with a brief moment to set up a shot will be richly rewarded. The app allows users to lock both the focal point and the exposure, which is great for capturing esoteric shots or sunset scenes where the automatic mode just can’t quite find what your eye sees. Essentially, it offers the manual controls that Apple doesn't provide. Plus, the app has built-in editing tools for enhancing your shots.

Pic Stitch: Posting a single photo is fun, but tossing your favorite three or four from an event into a single collage is even better. Pic Stitch, which is free and available for both Android and iPhone, allows you to do that. It offers up a host of different frames, and free really is free – it doesn’t stamp any unwanted watermarks on the resulting images.

PicTapGo: If you prefer to capture quickly and edit later, this $1.99 iPhone app is a great purchase. You can import photos you’ve already taken and apply a plethora of filters to them, adjusting the intensity for each (a feature that Instagram lacks). Plus, you can stack filters on top of one another and save your favorite combinations for easy future application. And, unlike some other apps, these filters don’t heavily distort your photos; it’s just about the classiest way to add special effects that we’ve found.

VSCOcam: This free app is available for Android and iPhone, and it's exceptional for easily sorting and keeping track of vacation photos. You can make a "journal" for the entire trip or create individual ones to mark each day. To boot, the app lets you purchase prints of your work with just a few taps – no computer or additional app required.

Over: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes you just need to add a few more. This $1.99 iPhone app allows you to annotate and overlay text on top of your photos. You’ll find hundreds of fonts and customization options, making it entirely too easy to go overboard.

Have any other must-have photo applications to share? Let us know in comments below!