First and foremost, it is important for you to know that travel is not merely about the destination. Sure, there are huge, seemingly insurmountable destinations that are the attraction of countless travel photography, but there are equally awesome opportunities to photograph during your journey too. For example, you may find yourself on an island with stunning views of an active volcano.
If you’re interested in becoming a travel photographer, one of the first things you’ll need to do is pick a camera. The mirrorless camera is what I think will be a major trend in the upcoming year due to the massive market for more compact cameras and the resulting decrease in size, weight, and cost.
Here’s How to Get Started In Travel Photography:
- Establish Goals.
So you want to start traveling, eh? Great! But you’ll need some goals to work towards. These are the things you want to accomplish during your travels and are not limited to: getting that perfect shot, exploring new places, and just having a good time. These goals will help you map out your trip and will help you know if you’re even on the right track.
- Gain Knowledge With Regard To Photography.
There’s a lot of good realistic-looking photo equipment out there, and with a little knowledge, it’s easy to produce some great-looking photos. But good photo equipment isn’t enough. You need to know how to use it to get the best out of your photos. Very often, the idea of taking photos of our travels seems daunting, especially if we’ve never tried it before. Thankfully, taking good travel photos is a skill that can be learned, and it doesn’t take long to pick up the basics. Learning how to take travel photos is a lot like learning how to take photos in general: first, find out what interests you most—people, landscapes, architecture, etc.—and then look around for photo opportunities that fit that theme.
- Create a Portfolio.
Creating a portfolio is a crucial step for any photographer. Without a portfolio, you have no way to showcase your work and make a living from it. As you start out in your photography journey, you may want to create a portfolio to show your work to potential clients. This can be a great way to get your name out there and grow your business.
- Find a Niche
The first thing you need to do is find a niche in the marketplace and create a following. This will help you get noticed by your local networks, which will, in turn, help you get clients. With that done, you can start getting published in local directories like Flickr, which will drive more leads and, eventually, more clients.
- Make a Website or Blog.
If you’re a photographer or an amateur photographer, you probably have a website or a blog of your own. You’ve spent most of your free time over the years setting up, configuring, and tweaking the site to look just the way you want it to. But then, you discovered that the site wasn’t fully optimized. You started to wonder if your site was losing out to your competitors. So, you searched the web and found out that a lot of photographers were facing these same problems and that there was very little information about how to fix them. Asking them for advice can be a great way to improve your website or blog to ensure that you receive a large volume of traffic.
- Look for Clients and Get Published as a Travel Photographer.
Photography can be a fun hobby, but you may not want to spend your free time at parties, bars, or nightclubs. That’s why it’s a good idea to look for clients who will appreciate your photography and want to pay you for it. You can also publish your photos on various websites and even sell them to magazines.
As a photographer, one of your most important skills is to capture the right moment in time. If a picture is taken too early or too late, or if the lighting or subject is not exactly right, it will never be able to fully convey the emotion that the subject is feeling at the time. As a result, it is important to plan ahead and ensure that you are ready and able to capture that perfect shot at the right time and in the right place.