Travel photography is probably one of the most misunderstood fields of commercial photography. For most photographers, the only requirement for shooting travel images is for them to be travelling, but the reality is very different. The good news is, this mass misconception means there's great opportunity for the photographers who do get it right.
Travel photography is as commercial as it gets. Travel photography users want photos that actively sell the destination or the experience. They require the sort of images that engage the viewer and leave them wanting to do it all themselves. In most situations, that will mean using photos of travellers enjoying the destination or experience.
The difficulty they are facing is most photographers are only going to be shooting holiday snaps, rather than commercial travel images. Most photographers think about travel photography simply as images taken on their own travels, and little thought is given to the end use. They shoot whatever they see, as they see it, and focus on the physical features alone.
As a consequence they are simply recording their travels, making a personal record, with little thought of sharing and selling the experience itself.
Don't get me wrong here: the physical record type shots can and do sell: the classic landmarks, the famous vistas, the local wildlife, the buildings, bridges and skylines. There is a definite demand for all of them, but when you start researching what travel buyers actually use you'll soon see that these only make up a fraction of the photos used. The majority of photos utilized in travel guides and leaflets fall into the travel-lifestyle category: people experiencing the destination.
This supply-and-demand problem is worsened by the indisputable fact that every photographer photographs the classic shots, and they've been shooting them since cameras were invented. It's also safe to say that most travel photography publishers are also going to have their own in-house collection of the classic shots they use most often. So if that's all that you shoot, you will face enormous competition for a little portion of the potential sales.
So when you start shooting travel stock photos that capture the visitor-experience, you are targeting a niche in the market with significantly lower competition and significantly more demand. If you can then create the kinds of photos that engage the reader and fire their imagination ... making them need to experience it firsthand then you are shooting valueable commercial travel photography.
The added bonus of concentrating on the visitor experience is that as soon as 'people ' are included, photo-buyers are likely to want current images showing contemporary hairstyles & fashions. So these are the shots that are always in demand and can't always be found in the in-house collection. The backdrop could be a 2000 year old landmark, but the people viewing it'll need to be modern.
As often happens, almost all of this is old-fashioned common-sense, when you take a Client-centric approach and begin to plan & shoot for your end-user rather than yourself. Research your destinations, identify the landmarks and icons, but take a little more time to totally understand the total experience of the destination.
The good news is, most photographers will not make the effort , so any time you create the kind of travel photography that the audience wants to be part of, that they want to experience for themselves, you will be shooting the sort of travel images that sells itself.
Travel photography is as commercial as it gets. Travel photography users want photos that actively sell the destination or the experience. They require the sort of images that engage the viewer and leave them wanting to do it all themselves. In most situations, that will mean using photos of travellers enjoying the destination or experience.
The difficulty they are facing is most photographers are only going to be shooting holiday snaps, rather than commercial travel images. Most photographers think about travel photography simply as images taken on their own travels, and little thought is given to the end use. They shoot whatever they see, as they see it, and focus on the physical features alone.
As a consequence they are simply recording their travels, making a personal record, with little thought of sharing and selling the experience itself.
Don't get me wrong here: the physical record type shots can and do sell: the classic landmarks, the famous vistas, the local wildlife, the buildings, bridges and skylines. There is a definite demand for all of them, but when you start researching what travel buyers actually use you'll soon see that these only make up a fraction of the photos used. The majority of photos utilized in travel guides and leaflets fall into the travel-lifestyle category: people experiencing the destination.
This supply-and-demand problem is worsened by the indisputable fact that every photographer photographs the classic shots, and they've been shooting them since cameras were invented. It's also safe to say that most travel photography publishers are also going to have their own in-house collection of the classic shots they use most often. So if that's all that you shoot, you will face enormous competition for a little portion of the potential sales.
So when you start shooting travel stock photos that capture the visitor-experience, you are targeting a niche in the market with significantly lower competition and significantly more demand. If you can then create the kinds of photos that engage the reader and fire their imagination ... making them need to experience it firsthand then you are shooting valueable commercial travel photography.
The added bonus of concentrating on the visitor experience is that as soon as 'people ' are included, photo-buyers are likely to want current images showing contemporary hairstyles & fashions. So these are the shots that are always in demand and can't always be found in the in-house collection. The backdrop could be a 2000 year old landmark, but the people viewing it'll need to be modern.
As often happens, almost all of this is old-fashioned common-sense, when you take a Client-centric approach and begin to plan & shoot for your end-user rather than yourself. Research your destinations, identify the landmarks and icons, but take a little more time to totally understand the total experience of the destination.
The good news is, most photographers will not make the effort , so any time you create the kind of travel photography that the audience wants to be part of, that they want to experience for themselves, you will be shooting the sort of travel images that sells itself.
About the Author:
Matt Brading contributes photography and articles to GlobalEye Photo Stock Agency, which represents many top travel photographers. If you'd like to know more about selling photographs online with GlobalEye, you can download a free stock photography business kit in our photographers area.
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