How to earn money as a travel photographer

For some reason, many people don’t think of travel photography or photography in general as a “real” job. Many people don’t realize all of the hard work that actually goes into creating a photo. Often stalling when hearing about prices. In many cases, people don’t realize the amount of money and time, you have spent to create the photos. For some reason, they don’t regard equipment, transportation prices, post processing, education etc. as part of the price of a photo. However simply the time spent taking the photo.

Below I’m going to give you some examples of how to earn money as a photographer.

When you have established that your photos are good enough to be sold, take the step and start your photography business. Don’t think this is an easy task, it will take a lot of hard work. If you’re serious about making it in photography, in the beginning of setting up your business, you will spend more time contacting potential clients, than actually photographing. In the following pages, I’ll list some of the ways in which you can start to earn money on your photography. As you start out working with clients, it’s more than possible that you accept jobs, which aren’t necessarily the kind of photos you prefer to shoot.

However, it’s part of the learning curve, and will help to build your portfolio. Don’t work with brands where you don’t like their products, or where you don’t feel comfortable. The most important person in this process is yourself, and it’s okay to say no, even if it brings an income. When you want to start earning money, it’s important that you have an eye catching portfolio, in this way, you can show your best work. When building your portfolio, only show your best work. This is what your clients will see, and judge you upon.
Without further ado, let’s jump into ways in which you can earn money as a travel photographer.

Stock photography

Let’s be real, earning enough money on stock photography to make a living is incredibly hard. In order to do so, you need to have thousands of photos. In some sites, you earn as little as 0,10 dollars per downloaded photo which is basically nothing. But seeing the glass as half full, if you have a lot of content already, you can start uploading immediately. Once you have enough photos, you’ll slowly start seeing some money coming in, however, to be honest, it’s very little. Making your entire income off of stock photography is not something I’d bet on, unless you have around 10.000 high quality photos. Even if that is the case, it will be difficult. Anyway, as mentioned before, it’s a great place to start, especially because you’ll learn about the quality of your photos as well.

Portraits

It’s very likely that you have both an Instagram and a Facebook profile. Why not make people know that you’re available for photoshoots? If you don’t have a lot of experience with portraits, I’d recommend you to shoot a couple of friends and family before as well as the people you meet while traveling. In that way, you’ll be able to add the photos to your portfolio, but also, you’ll gain some experience. When you set up your request, make sure to add your favorite portrait photos, as well as, the hourly rate. It’s a great way to earn an income, and the more satisfied customers you have, the better exposure you’ll get. Utilize your audience in the best possible way, and ask them to share your post. If your photos are good enough, and you have a reasonable price, you’ll get customers. You can even do portrait photos while traveling.

Brand photography

There are countless brands out there. What they all have in common is the fact that they want to sell as much of their product as possible. How can you help with that? By giving them high quality photos of their products, so they can use them for their website. This is a time-consuming process. You need to create a portfolio of product photos in advance, in order to show what you are able to create. Next step, contact the kind of brands you want to work with. You can do this via Instagram, or directly via email. In the beginning, don’t think too much about the money. In some cases, you’ll probably do free product shoots; some others, you’ll get a little money, and other times, you’ll be paid more. It depends on the size of the brand, and it depends on you. Contact as many brands as possible. If you want to make money from photography, there shouldn’t be a limit on the time you want to spend, reaching that goal. Just don’t overwhelm yourself, and realize that it’s okay to say no if the brand demands too much.

Travel companies

Working with travel companies is my favorite way of earning money through photography. These are the kind of photos I love shooting, and the experiences I enjoy the most. If you know, for a fact, that you’ll visit a certain destination, then, contact companies focusing on these destinations. Don’t limit yourself to tour providers though. Get in touch with accommodation and transportation options as well. They’re also looking for great quality photos in order to advertise. If you don’t manage to get a collaboration in advance, continue contacting companies after you have left the destination, and have the photos to show. If you’re eager and consistent enough, eventually you’ll manage to secure a collaboration. However, it takes time. You should never forget that. If your photos are good enough, you’ll succeed eventually if you put in the hard work.

Weddings

Most people want photos to show one of their most memorable days. There’re a lot of wedding photographers available, and finding work as one, might be difficult in the beginning. I would suggest you to contact wedding photographers in advance in the area you find yourself in, and ask if it is possible that you can assist them in a session. Make your photos available for the photographer, and start building your wedding portfolio, in that way. If you know anyone who’s getting married, and you’re just starting out, ask them if you can capture their memories of this special day. If they like your photos, they’ll probably pay you some money, even though you didn’t ask for any. Better than that, when people ask them who took their photos, they will be able to refer potential clients to you. This is how you can start building your portfolio, and slowly start establishing your name through the content and the contacts you’ve created.

Food

Restaurants always want to attract more clients. Having beautiful and visually pleasing photos to show off their food, both on menu cards but also on their websites is a great way for them to attract new clients. At the beginning, you’ll do some free shoots, until you feel comfortable to start asking for money. In most cases, you will probably get a free meal as well. Who doesn’t love that? It’s a nice way to make a little side income and expand your skills. Having seen your photos of the food, they might want to book you as well, when they need photos of the interior.

Selling prints online

Most people want to decorate the walls of their house, with visually pleasing content. If you already have a website, chances are that you can easily create a store there. Put up some of your favorite photos, and make them available as prints. If you don’t print them yourself, make sure that you have a provider, who offers quality printings to a reasonable price. Also, keep the shipping prices in mind, as shipping abroad is rather expensive in many cases. You need to think about these factors when you create your price listings. If you don’t want to take care of all the logistics by yourself, there’re quite a few websites that allow you to sell prints. However, you’ll just get a small percentage of the price. But at the same time, you don’t need to think about the marketing. There are many providers online where you can list your photos for prints. However it is important that you find one, you feel comfortable working with.

Run tours

If you are very familiar with a certain destination, maybe your local city, or a place you have visited a lot of times, consider running small photography tours. If you have an audience that is interested in what you do, this is a great way to earn an extra income, doing what you love. Otherwise, you can advertise for your tours, via Facebook ads.
Running photography is a great way to teach people about the art of photography, editing and your approach. You will teach people how to set up their camera in the field, different shooting techniques and what to look for when doing photography. However there are lots of people running tours, so you have to find a way that you can somehow stand out.

Sell your own products

If you find that you have lots of knowledge on a certain subject that you think can help people out, consider selling your own products. If done the right way, this is a great opportunity to earn a little extra income. It can be anything from brushes, entire courses, online classes or whatever you feel like. The great thing is that you get to choose the product yourself. If advertised in the right way, this can earn you a lot of extra cash.

Before finishing off, I want to add one thing. You have to be in photography because of your love for the craft. Not just to earn money.

Here you have a few tips in order to help you to start making money from your photography. These can be applied everywhere. When you travel, but also if you’re at home, and want to save money for a big trip. If you keep my tips in mind, and put a lot of practice into improving them in the field, I’m confident that you’ll start to find collaborations. As long as you’re willing to spend the time it takes to actually find them. Don’t create your photos, post them to Instagram and expect people to contact you and offer you money. This might be possible if you have 100k + followers, however, if you don’t, it’s not likely to happen.

How to earn money as a photographer