Crafting your way of life as a journey photographer
A jet setting way of life, visiting new locations every week and photographing for quite a few publications and purchasers sounds great doesn’t? For a few of us, sure, however truly, I do know {that a} full-time way of life of journey additionally doesn’t attraction to everybody.
I’ve observed that the older I get, the extra I need to expertise a vacation spot for an extended time frame, to scale back journey days and lengthy haul journeys and actually absorb the cultures, landscapes and locations somewhat than bounce about everywhere in the world!
The excellent news is, you don’t need to journey all 12 months spherical to work as a journey photographer, there are numerous different methods to construct your profession and mix it together with your present way of life or commitments.
Working as a contract journey photographer doesn’t need to imply packing up your belongings and minimizing your life right into a backpack (+ digicam bag after all). It may be so simple as sharing/promoting work out of your previous travels or pitching an article or mission thought for future travels.
You can suit your work as a journey photographer into your present way of life by growing your portfolio as you journey regionally on weekends, on longer worldwide journeys just a few instances a 12 months or by specializing in a selected area of interest throughout the trade.
Perhaps wellness tourism is your desire, this might imply specializing in native choices like yoga retreats, wilderness lodges and scenic landscapes whilst you construct up your picture portfolio and showcase your artistic strengths. Once you’re assured in delivering a constant high quality of images, the following step may very well be pitching to wellness manufacturers and companies to seize a set of photos for his or her advertising and marketing use or capturing images to pitch for publication in a related journal.
Which of the under describes greatest the way you see your self working as a journey photographer?
- Photographing locations to pitch + publish each your phrases and pictures
- Creating picture libraries and content material collections for manufacturers and tourism companies
- Photographing luxurious motels and experiences in lovely locations
- Keeping it native and showcasing tourism choices for guests in native guides, newspapers, magazines and dealing together with your regional tourism board
- Pairing photographing vacation spot weddings with panorama work in tropical and unique places
- Researching and writing articles on forgotten cultures and offbeat locations + telling tales together with your images.
- Working with non-profit organisations to doc charities, environmental initiatives, and sustainable tourism ventures.
- Collaborating with manufacturers and companies to make a dream journey images mission come to life.
- Travelling to {photograph} locations with the intention of promoting prints and dealing with galleries, inventory libraries and even maybe your personal retailer?
- All of the above!
I’ll cease earlier than I get too overexcited, I simply love dreaming up the chances for my very own profession, however particularly different photographers who’re simply getting began! There are so many potential avenues to enterprise down as a journey photographer and I can’t categorical how thrilling it’s while you get your first consumer, have your first photos printed or make a dream marketing campaign a actuality.
01 – Consider the way you see your self working as a journey photographer. Are you open to a life on the street, or would you like a mixture of stability and smaller scale adventures? There’s no mistaken reply right here, you’ll simply be making it simpler by narrowing down your focus and way of life objectives.
02 – Curate your present portfolio or photos from earlier journeys. Are there any areas you must work on to create consistency inside your images? How would you describe your work to an editor or why ought to a model work with you? These solutions will change into clearer when you’re taking part within the course, nevertheless it helps to start out excited about your artistic imaginative and prescient, your strengths and how one can seize a vacation spot in a different way.
03 – Do you could have an internet site or PDF portfolio that isn’t Instagram? Creating your personal area on-line is important to showcasing your work as soon as you start pitching and dealing with purchasers. It merely permits you to management how your work is displayed, what photos a possible consumer sees first and means you’ll be able to steer outcomes by crafting a portfolio that meets the purchasers wants and makes for a straightforward sure. Again, this isn’t important immediately, however needs to be a part of the thought course of as you’re employed in the direction of your first pitch or mission as a journey photographer.
That’s all for now, I simply wished to share this perception as typically the time period ‘travel photographer’ can conjure up visions of a life on the street with no base or house, nevertheless it’s solely potential to create your personal way of life and revel in a contract profession. My personal profession has shifted through the years and has seen some years once I’m on the street for 10+ months of the 12 months, others once I’m based mostly completely overseas, and a few years once I’m spending extra time at house writing about previous journeys, creating content material for native purchasers or planning for the 12 months forward.
Travel and panorama photographer from Australia who is way extra snug in a pair of flippers than heels! Having labored for publications equivalent to Lonely Planet, Wanderlust and the Sunday Times, Lisa based The Wandering Lens to share vacation spot guides to the worlds most photogenic locations and out of doors experiences.