Travel the World & Earn: Turn Your Travel Photos into Profit

1. Introduction

A significant number of people now carry digital cameras or camera phones, frequently with the lofty goal of someday making money from photography. Hobbyists take pictures of anything that catches their eye, professional photographers shoot events or take pictures for stock photography companies, and everyone else simply wants to keep evidence of memorable moments. With the digital revolution and the prevalence of the Internet, it has never been easier to sell photos. No longer do you have to pitch an idea or query and then follow an editor's directive to have the chance to get your work into print. You can take as many pictures as you want of whatever you want and let the market decide what it likes. And while it remains difficult to make significant money from photography, there are far more outlets offering pay for your work than at any other time. This article will primarily focus on one specific sub-section of the photography market - selling travel photos. Whether you're shooting for assignment, shooting to build your stock portfolio, or an enthusiast with the goal of earning back the cost of your trip, this article, written by accomplished travel stock photographer Greg Vaughn, will examine the various options, the potential challenges, and the likely financial rewards.

1.1 Benefits of Selling Travel Photos Online

Selling images online gives the digital photographer numerous ways to bring in cash. Regardless of the photo subjects, any digital photographer with the ability to take quality images can use the stock image markets to make some additional money. Considering that photography is a product of the digital age, a variety of digital selling strategies open to any ambitious digital photographer. An extremely visual market, the travel industry is a natural fit for stock image sales. Travelers require images of their destinations and areas to prepare their trips, and some need breathtaking images to paste onto desktop wallpapers in advance of an escape. Travel publishers and marketers need images to effectively sell the travel experience to consumers. All of these people are potential consumers for travel stock pictures. The growth of the internet has broken down international media barriers. On any given day, millions of people are looking through the internet for travel info. This creates enormous opportunity for travel photographers looking to sell travel photos online. A photo that may have been rejected by a publisher in the past might be exactly what someone is looking for in an online blog. Stock image sales can have long-term monetary benefits. As a digital asset, a travel picture can generate revenue many times over the course of its lifespan. High-quality images that are keyworded properly can continuously bring in monthly payments. A large portfolio of stock travel pictures can provide a steady source of cash for the future. With persistence, time, and the right subject matter, stock image sales can result in a dependable full-time income for the aspiring travel photographer.

1.2 Overview of the Travel Photography Market

One type of travel photography worthy of special mention is "stock" photography. Stock photography is a term derived from the movie industry which has a special meaning to photographers. This is because when a photographer takes on a travel stock photography assignment, the intention is to take a set of images that can be packaged and sold at a later time. Photographing an image without a direct commission will incur a cost on the photographer, and the photographer must ensure that the money spent on the assignment will be repaid. This exact scenario, typically a business-to-business deal, has led to the great proliferation of stock photography in the travel industry. The photo buyer may purchase stock photos through a photo library which includes privately shared and archived photos. A photo library is a database of images; it may be for a single company or a public library, accessing the pictures may incur further fees. It's a pain for the image buyer but can greatly reward a photographer that has taken the time to understand keywording and the purchase process of images on a specific photo library. The third possibility of selling stock travel photos is the most straightforward; it involves selling the images on an internet website, such as the ones found on specialist photo agencies like Getty Images, Alamy, and Corbis. Given the ease and efficiency of internet-based image purchasing and delivery, this is now the most common form of stock image transaction. The great thing for travel photographers is that the photos taken from a single travel assignment can always be packaged and resold in a number of different formats.

An examination of the travel photography market reveals a number of different types of travel photography and an even greater number of ways to package and sell those photographs. The photography buyer in the travel industry has needs related to the selling of the photos' subject. The stock travel photography is in huge demand by magazines, travel companies, ad agencies, etc. This includes imagery designed to package and sell other travel products, travel brochures, or travel books, for example.

1.3 Importance of High-Quality Travel Photos

The photo buyer may be looking for a photo that depicts an entire holiday experience in one image. This may well be an image that is suitable for advertising tourist destinations. Photo buyers from the tourism industry may also want to buy photos of local events and festivals. This type of photography can also tie in with documentary photography. Other travel photos that sell well very often depict a sense of place, a region, or a travel destination. Often these photos will be used to illustrate a magazine article, a travel guide, a brochure, or a website. Finally, there are travel images that are more about the nature and wildlife of a travel destination. These photos can be highly marketable to photo buyers such as environmental NGOs or editorial clients for travel publications.

When considering travel photography, you must always remember that 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' A high-quality travel photo can convey (to your audience) the whole experience of a holiday, wildlife scene, location, or landscape. Photos trigger memories and emotions (hopefully positive) about where the viewer has been and encourage them to seek out similar experiences in the future. When thinking travel, there are several categories of travel photos that a potential buyer may be interested in.

When you hear the phrase 'travel photography,' what comes to mind? For many people, travel photography may be just taking pictures during a trip or vacation. However, travel photography is much more than that. Travel photography involves creating a photograph that fulfills the creative vision of a photographer. As for selling travel photography, it will involve taking photos with the specific intention of reselling/licensing them for commercial use.

2. Getting Started in Selling Travel Photos

The two key factors in photography equipment are a high quality camera and special lenses. A good camera doesn't necessarily mean fast, but it should have a large memory stick, a quality flash, interchangeable lenses, and a decent zoom capacity. A DSLR camera is recommended for quality photographs, however there are some compact digital cameras on the market featuring advanced technology and optics, this can still be an acceptable alternative. Lenses are important as most travel photographs are taken from a distance or in crowded, tight spots. A zoom lens is ideal as it can capture a broad view as well as a close up shot from the same location. Prime lenses are a good investment for photographers planning to sell their photos as they have a consistently high standard of resolution and detail in comparison to zooms which can be hit and miss. However, a combination of both zoom and prime lenses offers a good diversity in photography. High quality lenses often have a large aperture. This allows more light to enter the camera and provides a better background/foreground effect. A macro lens is also essential for capturing fine details and close shots such as still life.

2.1 Choosing the Right Photography Equipment

Photography equipment is an essential element in the process of taking an image. Most people think that by having a better camera, they will produce a better image. Though this statement is partially true, the main factor to consider is the skill of the photographer in utilizing the camera to produce an amazing image. A professional camera will allow for better image quality, greater control over the camera settings, and a variety of different functions. These factors are great for professional photographers, though for enthusiasts or semi-professionals, a prosumer-level DSLR or a high-end compact camera will suffice. DSLR cameras are highly recommended for creative photography due to the interchangeable lenses and high image quality. Canon, Nikon, and Sony provide a great range of entry-level DSLRs which would be perfect for beginners in photography. Lenses are also a crucial factor to consider as they allow the photographer to take different styles of images. For travel photography, the most versatile lens would be a wide-angle lens, though it is also worth having a macro lens to take detailed close-ups and a telephoto lens for capturing distant subjects. Other essential equipment includes a tripod for stable shots in low-light conditions or for taking self-portraits, a camera bag for protecting the equipment during travel, and photo editing software. A computer with photo editing software is an important requirement for digital photography. Software such as Adobe Photoshop is commonly used, though there are other simple alternatives such as GIMP.

2.2 Developing Your Photography Skills

Capture only the best First and foremost, "good" travel photos sell; plain and simple. You have to be honest with yourself and your work. You must capture photographs that evoke an emotional response, even if it is only from a small, specific audience. In order to be successful, you must sometimes lose the mentality that your travel photos are mere moments frozen in time. Instead, you must learn how to tell a story with your photos. Whether you were aware of it or not while you were taking the photo, there is always a story to be told. This is where the 3 pillars come into play the most, because they are what make up the composition of the photo which you will have to greatly understand and employ to tell your story. This is what photo editors look for, and if you develop a habit of this early then you will soon find that it comes quite naturally.

2.3 Understanding Copyright and Legal Considerations

When you upload your images to a stock site, they will establish a price and the method of division between you and the agency. Usually the price varies depending on the size of the image. With a royalty-free image, the consumer will pay once to use the image multiple times, although you may be paid only a few cents each time the image is used, this can aggregate to a large amount. With rights-managed images, clients pay for specific uses of the image and it can be more profitable for you. Prices can be from a few dollars to several hundred. As stated before, the method of division varies between agencies so take this into account.

This has implications for selling photographs online. Most of the companies who provide a platform for selling photographs are not actually selling the image. Instead, they are selling a license that allows someone to use the image. This is an important distinction. Imagine a client who is willing to pay $1000 to use one of your images. If you sell him an exclusive license for that image, it can never be used again by anyone else and you are effectively giving up potential earnings from other sales. On the other hand, if you sell a non-exclusive license, that same image can be licensed/sold to other clients, potentially making you more money. Usually, the client is looking to pay as little as possible for the rights that they need. Try to research the price of different licenses, from various companies in order to establish standard rates for different types of licenses.

The first thing to understand is that when we take a photograph, we are creating a piece of intellectual property. That image is protected by copyright and it's important to understand the implications of this for selling travel photographs. Copyright essentially means "the right to make a copy". The copyright owner has the exclusive right to make copies of their work. If someone wants to use a copy of that work, they have to get permission from the copyright owner. This doesn't mean that someone won't use your work without permission. However, it does mean that you have a legitimate claim for damages if someone uses your work without your permission. Copyright law is complex and varies from country to country. However, in most countries, the moment you create an image, you become the copyright owner and have the right to take action against anyone who uses your work without permission.

2.4 Researching the Best Websites to Sell Travel Photography

The first consideration is where to begin. There are hundreds of stock agencies out there looking for all types of photography. A good place to start is with a search engine that will bring up hundreds of stock photo agencies using keywords like "stock photography" or "sell travel photography". Another useful way to find stock agencies is to look at the websites of other photographers. Find a photographer's website you respect and see if they have any links to stock agencies. Often times they will have a page that will list the top 5-10 agencies they work with. This can be a great starting point if you respect the photographer.

Now you are ready to begin the process of actually selling travel photography. This section is addressed specifically to the online stock of photography, which is the easiest and most likely place to sell travel photography.

3. Capturing and Editing Travel Photos for Sale

There are 2 ways to approach the task of capturing travel photographs that will sell. The first is to plan specifically to shoot images that will illustrate a predetermined story, article, or photo collection. The task of an editorial photographer is to provide a visual counterpart to a written document, and there is still a market for this type of work. However, editorial photography is generally not as lucrative as stock photography, and it is often more enjoyable and productive to shoot off the cuff and take chances on images that seem iconic and that capture the spirit of a place. This leads us to the second way, and the most effective way, to capture marketable travel imagery. The best photographs to sell as stock are those that will be useful to someone. This may sound obvious, but photographers often fail to consider the end user of stock images. Your goal is to shoot images that will be used for editorial, advertising, and design purposes. These comprise the vast majority of stock photo sales. Buyers are looking for images that will convey the essence of a place or a culture and that will support a particular concept. Successful stock images are those that are clear and uncluttered, that strongly convey a message or an emotion, and that have universal interest and applicability. Always keep this in mind while shooting, and you will be more likely to produce images that will sell.

Once you have decided to make the leap to starting a travel photo collection for sale, you will need to think more analytically and strategically about the photographs you take. The market for travel photographs has shifted significantly in the digital age, moving from a small selection of exclusive rights managed photographs to a vast online marketplace where photographs are sold as royalty-free stock. This has made it easier for photographers to break into the market, but has also increased competition and makes the task of producing photographs that stand out from the crowd and are noticed by photo buyers more challenging. These guidelines are intended to help photographers capture and produce quality travel photographs that are marketable in this environment.

3.1 Tips for Taking Travel Photos That Sell

The good news is that magazine readership is booming and the travel editorial market is expanding. The challenge is to produce and offer the type of photo that the market demands. It may sound obvious, but the type of photo that is in demand is one that sells a location. Too often, a travel article is illustrated with faceless shots of hotels and beaches. There is an ever-present need for vivid, well-composed photos that encapsulate the spirit of a location and its people. This is what photo editors are seeking because they know that this is the type of photo that captivates readers. The more a photo can sell a location, the more it will sell itself. These are the photos that you should be aiming to capture and offer.

Like any other market, stock photography is driven by supply and demand. The very fact that you are reading this article means that you are aware of the demand for travel-related images, but are you sure of the supply? Keep in mind that the supply of travel photos is enormous and growing. Another important consideration is that the days of thick wads of cash being handed over to photographers by photo editors are over. Increasingly, photography is having to pay its way. The heyday for those selling travel photos was the late 80s, but the 90s and the new millennium have brought a change.

3.2 Techniques for Editing Travel Photos for Maximum Impact

In addition to understanding what people look for when buying travel photos, also consider editing techniques that improve the chance of a photo having commercial appeal. The same photo can be edited in many ways, but usually the best method is only really discovered through trial and error. To make the most of your photos, editing should not be an afterthought, but an essential process that is undertaken with the final result in mind. Often once you start an edit in a certain direction, different qualities in the image are revealed that you hadn't noticed before. This is all part of the creative process, but a clear plan will help. Start by asking yourself what the focus of the image is and what it is that you are trying to convey. This should help with composition and deciding what adjustments to make during processing. A good travel photo will usually have an obvious point of interest, possibly with supporting features that add context, so it is important to avoid cluttering the photo with unnecessary elements and to draw attention to the right areas.

3.3 Enhancing the Marketability of Your Travel Photos

The appeal of your photo is subject to personal taste. If you love it, others might agree. If you aren't sure, rest assured it probably won't be a best-seller. That doesn't mean you shouldn't upload it. If the image evokes a strong emotional response from you, the chances are it will do the same for others. Emotive and evocative images sell. Subtlety and simplicity work well in some images and can greatly enhance an image's general appeal. Try to avoid cluttered compositions unless they are specifically chaotic scenes. Make sure your subject is clear and unambiguous unless you are specifically trying to create an air of mystery. Personal growth and change are guaranteed if you always learn from your photos that don't sell. Take note of why they don't work. Figure out what you can do to improve its marketability. Comparing your photos to best sellers can be a useful exercise. Ask yourself whether it is a subject matter issue, a technique issue, a lighting issue, a compositional issue, or an emotive issue. The better you understand this will result in less guesswork next time you are out in the field. Your success rate will increase and response from your audience will be more positive.

4. Marketing and Selling Your Travel Photos

4.2 Your website is the first impression that potential clients will see of you and your work. There are many options for selling your work online; some are more passive than others. The simple selling of prints or stock photography can be effective; however, the market is quite saturated and the return can be low. Building a strong portfolio website to attract image buyers for companies that specialize in our areas of interest would be a more solid approach to selling images. Host your own website and use targeted keywords so that it comes up well in search engine results. High-quality SEO will help to ensure potential clients see your website first when seeking out images. A more passive approach would be to upload images to websites that act as databases for image buyers. Then there is social media. In this day and age, everybody's on it, and it's a great tool for self-promotion. There are social media marketing strategies that can prove effective if you have the time to learn them. This can be quite involved and is perhaps a subject for a future article.

4.1 Finding work with travel companies often means setting up a meeting with the marketing and/or communications director and showcasing a selection of our work. Making contact via telephone and asking who to address promotional material to is often a good start. Following this up with a direct mailing promoting yourself and your services and how they could benefit will keep you in the forefront of the potential client's mind, and they are more likely to contact you when work becomes available. Simple promotional items with strong imagery, such as postcards or calendars, can also be effective.

4.1 Strategies for Marketing Your Travel Photography to Travel Companies

Trade your photos for credits on future trips. Many adventure travel companies and stock travel companies lead photo expeditions. Offer your best photos from the trip as partial payment for the trip itself. This method will help you to break into the industry and get your foot in the door with certain companies.

Phone travel companies directly. Most companies needing travel photography will be thrilled to hear from someone offering quality images. If the company has a brochure or website, find out who their art director is and mail your promotional material directly to them after speaking with someone to get their name. This is a good method of making initial contact with potential clients.

Create a list of all clients who pay for travel photos. Send those clients promotional information with a tag line stating that you are available to provide arresting travel images. Include a card that states your photos can increase their revenue. Your mailings will result in paying projects, especially if you can show how your photos can improve their marketing materials and sales. Include mailings to adventure travel companies and to travel divisions within major corporations. Send out a new mailing at least every 3 months with new photos and new promotional material. This will keep you fresh in the minds of your potential clients.

4.2 Utilizing Social Media and Online Platforms for Promotion

Print a business card and promote the personal photography website on the business card. When promoting work through a business card, make sure to promote it in a professional setting. Promoting at a trade fair or meeting at sports events is much better than meeting in an ordinary place. Now that society visits travel agent offices less and less to book trips, it is time for travel photographers to leave behind the traditional way they have marketed their photography to travel companies and embrace a more modern approach. Make an appointment with the Director of Sales and Marketing of the travel company to introduce the photography. Do not forget to provide a V card or a business card and persuade the director to view the personal photography website. After the meeting, send an email to the director to thank him for sparing his time and also provide the link to the personal photography website. By doing this, the photographs will gain exposure and might receive an offer from the travel company. If there is a new photograph, continue asking clients and prospects to get their opinion on the photograph. By improving a photograph, it will improve the chance to get an offer.

Many societies commonly utilize social media to maintain private as well as professional contacts. Almost all of them use social media platforms. Several social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, are specially designed for individuals to publish their career-related information. LinkedIn is more than a tool for finding jobs and meeting employees. It is a personal photography website that displays the photographs and precious information of the photographer. The prospects and buyers who visit the website can learn more about the photographer and can also contact the photographer easily and directly with the information provided on the website. In an online portfolio, prospects and buyers will be focusing more on the photographs.

4.3 Building a Strong Portfolio to Attract Buyers

Another method to attract photo buyers is to provide them with a free taste of your best work. Most stock photographers do this by allowing the stock website to host a small portfolio of a few dozen of their best images. While this can be effective, it is unlikely to make you much money in the long term. In most cases, the buyer is only going to purchase photos from you if that small set of photos is easily accessible and you have a large selection of similar, but better, photos available for purchase. This is because when a designer finds a good stock photographer with a large body of similar photos, it's less time-consuming than going to various photographers to find the right photo for a specific project. Given this, it's often more effective to build your own simple personal website to host your best work and direct potential buyers to that website. With the right advertising and SEO work, people using Google to search for specific subjects will easily be able to find your work and at no cost to you, the amount of potential buyers who can find your work this way far exceeds that of stock photography websites.

If your portfolio is similar to what already exists in the stock photography market then it is highly unlikely that you will have great success in selling your photos. As somebody who has looked at thousands of travel photography portfolios and hired photographers for various stock photography jobs, diversity is essential. A potential buyer searching for "Brazil travel" on a stock photography website wants to see a large variety of different aspects from Brazil such as culture, people, landscapes, festivals etc. If your travel photography from Brazil is comprised entirely of landscape photos then it is not going to make a big impression on the buyer. Try to cover a wide range of subjects as this will make your work useful to a larger audience of photo buyers. It's also essential that you shoot photos of subjects that are more difficult to photograph and are less accessible to the average travel photographer. Anyone can go out and snap photos of famous landmarks and tourist attractions but far fewer people are going to slum it up a mountain for 5 days to get photos of a unique and untouched landscape. This is the kind of travel photography which is going to stand out and get noticed.

How are you going to attract potential buyers to look for and purchase your travel photographs as stock? How will you distinguish your work from the millions of other travel photos that are already out there on the web? These are two questions that every travel photographer must answer if they have any intentions of making money from their travel photography. The answer is fairly simple, build a portfolio which is of higher quality and more diverse than what is already out there!

4.4 Pricing and Negotiating Deals for Your Travel Photos

With regards to selling stock rights, microstock agencies are terrible because you only earn between 25¢ - $2 per image. But if you are shooting specifically for stock in order to earn a side income, travel photography is better done at midstock level and not for assignment. If your travel images can tell stories and document cultures, they will be valuable to the client in today’s age of digital multimedia. However, many people fail to make money selling stock because they do not shoot with a clear sales concept in mind. Always shoot with an editorial slant and think of how the image will be used and the story that it will tell. In addition, you can specialize in certain types of assignments to take advantage of niche markets. This is usually better done by photographers who already have brand value. If you are just starting as a beginner, try not to compete in general assignment photography as you will want to exercise rights on the images and the market for that is very competitive. Step is usually to do work for lower-paying stock companies and employment as an independent contractor for travel companies. No matter what level of work is being done, there’s always an opportunity to “sell out” or recycle the images. Always hang on to past work because the market trends change and what wasn’t saleable in the past may be now or in the near future.

Each has their pros and cons, but the image will generally be worth more if the rights are sold directly to the client as opposed to through a stock agency. As a rule of thumb, the more you can restrict the usage of the image, the more valuable it is.

There are far too many resources available to sell travel images today. You have microstock companies which sell royalty-free photography for next to nothing. You have midrange stock agencies that sell rights-managed photography. You have companies that specialize in assignment photography, and then you have the client directly.

Pricing is a complex issue because there are many sources of revenue from photography. Revenue can come from selling prints, stock, assignment, and licensing rights. For the purpose of this article, we will only be discussing stock, assignment, and licensing photography.

Let’s be honest, most photographers are terrible at pricing. They generally have no sense of the industry standard for the type of work they do, no idea of the usage, and no understanding of how much the image is worth to clients.