Travel Photography – Creating Your Own Luck

If you are an avid travel photographer and have some great photographs in your kitty, then you very well can make money. What better than making money out of something that you love doing! And, thanks to the internet, it’s now easier than ever for photographers to reach buyers. But what options does one have to sell their photographs? Essentially, there are three ways you can sell travel photography: stock photos, products, and services. But here, we’ll talk about how to make money from stock photography.

There is an art to being lucky in Bora Bora photos, and it usually involves a lot of hard work. Research is the key. Find out all you can about where you are going. Read travel guides, books, newspaper and magazine articles, scour the internet, watch television programs. Knowing a little about what life is like in that part of the world can go a long way to getting the most out of your time there. For instance, how would the locals react to someone trying to take their picture? Some cultures can be quite offended by having their photo taken. This is especially true of women in Islamic countries. At other times, people will practically beg you to take their picture. Sometimes, you will be expected to pay for the privilege.

Concentrate on where the various controls are and adjusting them without taking the camera away from your eye. Start with stationary subjects and move onto moving subjects. It will be difficult and a little frustrating at first, but worthwhile once you put it into practice and come away with the images that you envisioned.

This sounds obvious but not checking battery life and having your camera die on you at the crucial point is a common problem. Charge your batteries, take a spare and avoid kicking yourself for such a simple mistake.

Yes, I know its vacation and you don’t want to think about schedules. But you do need to think about what is the best time of day to get that photograph. Some shots just look better at dawn while others look better in the early morning or early evening hours.

Break The Rules – It is important to know the rules of photography, but don’t be afraid to break them occasionally. Don’t get so locked into them that you can’t experiment.

It is important to remember that wherever you are, you are a guest in someone else’s country, and to behave accordingly. To take great images of people, you need to get them to let their guard down, to relax and open up to you. You will never achieve this with a grab and run approach. Slow down. Stop and talk to people. Give something back rather than making your photography only an act of taking. This may be as simple as engaging in conversation with someone before asking to take their photo, or you might carry around small gifts to give people. Whatever your approach, you (and for that matter your subjects) will gain so much more from the procedure.