8 tips that make money at travel photography

Travel Photography is the most pleasing job. It is about traveling to different places and capturing beauty with your camera. The interesting part of this profession is that you will have the opportunity to learn more about this wonderful planet.

In this job, you are not doing the stressful work in a cramped place like an office. Instead, you are packing your backpack and going to photograph beautiful places with your camera. Places can be like:

Travel photography is a job, where you get good payment for capturing different situations with your camera. Yes, it is not an easy task. It requires experience, hard work but the work is very creative. Also, it is a big platform to share your work with magazines, the tourism industry, merchandising, and social or online media.

You might wonder how much one can earn from travel photography?

 I am going to tell you all about travel photography and how to earn from it. Also, how to be a professional and achieve success in this job.

How much does a Travel photographer earn? Is it a good career?

It’s not so easy to be accurate here. A Travel photographer does not always get his salary monthly. He earns for each project or each assignment. Sometimes, advertises from the blog post that he shares through the internet. Sometimes visiting a hotel or Resort for taking photographs and posting reviews about the locations. These kinds of projects vary in terms of Travel photography.

First, let me tell you the expense of a Travel Photographer, which is about $2000 per month. It includes the transportation cost, accommodation, food, etc. Sometimes the expense seems low as many tourism companies invite the Photographer and carry the whole expense for the projects.

As of March 2021, in the United States, the average annual income for Travel Photography is $61,760 a year.

Don’t type the calculator for knowing how much he earns a month. Allow me to make the calculation easier for you.

According to the estimation, a Travel Photographer earns $5147 per month which is equivalent to $1188 per week and $29.69 per hour.

It is a great career that persists through traveling and earning a good salary. Living the life where one gets a chance to visit various places of the world. Also meeting different people and learning about their culture. It is a career where one gets dignity and adventures along. Now let me explain how one can earn from Travel Photography.

As a travel photographer in 2021, how can you make money from your work?

Various platforms help a Travel photographer earn various amounts every month. Let me give an example of what the platforms are and how you can earn by being a Travel photographer.

1. Engaging in social media

Engaging in social media can give a good amount of money. Social media reaches a big number of people nowadays. Suppose a photographer has about 12500 YouTube Subscribers and from showing ad revenue, advertising products through, his earning comes up around $5300 per month. Besides having followers on Instagram, Twitter, etc. These social media help to increase traffic and more traffic means more earnings.

2. Selling Stock Photography

An Independent Photographer can earn from selling Photos in Microstock, Shutterstock, etc. These are the agencies that help you to store up your photos on their sites. On the other hand, they allow customers or clients to visit portfolios and stock images. They sell high-quality images with a license according to the client’s choice. Finally, the Photographer gets the salary. Selling stock photography, your monthly salary can lead up to $3000 per month.

3. Assignments

Various companies and clients pay a travel photographer for work on their assignments. A company needs exotic imagery that would promote its brands. So, they tend to deliver the project to a professional photographer. A travel photographer who is involved in various assignments can earn up to $3000-4000 dollars per month. Sometimes the client or company carries all the expenses including your living, food, and transportation.

4. Photojournalism, Newspapers and Magazines

Photojournalism is a great choice for submitting your photography work. Media and News companies are always dealing with photojournalists to gather photos from across the world to use their stories. A travel photographer is someone who always gets along with very interesting stories of people, society, and communities. On the other side, magazines are looking for such stories to publish. You can continue with your own stories and magazines might sponsor you for interesting reports.

Not only that but there are also many News or Media companies who will recruit you for their project and carry your all expenses. They will assign you to take pictures and gather information about any specific political issues, social or cultural events. Though sometimes it’s not safe being under such assignments. But dealing in such activity may be an enthusiastic and daring experience.

5. Dealing with Direct Sales to Clients

There are a lot of clients in the world who are always dealing directly with travel photographers. These clients ask for reports and photos to use in their magazine or personal purpose. They ask for a specific niche for you to photograph.  So, you have an ambition ahead to focus on a single niche and can give you effort on a single term.

A retainer is a very good online platform that may connect you directly with your clients. Sometimes the clients deal with a specific figure like $1000 per month. If you have plenty of time. and potential, then you can deal with various clients at a time.

6. Blogging & Advertising

You may not have a preconceived notion about how a blog can make a wide range of money. You can apply various methods of monetizing in blogging and can earn a good figure of money from it. With all your photography skills you can open a blog and post your pictures. Finally, add up stories that help to generate beautiful articles.

You can add banner ads on your sites, also if you have good traffic, you can directly show advertisements to your customers. Many companies always look-up for a good blogger to represent their product or brands. Besides, you can generate affiliate links with the advertisement of various products from your blog and can earn extra money.

7. Start Teaching Travel Photography

Photography is a very popular hobby nowadays. Almost every person has accounts on social media where they need to post their pictures. So, photography is a loveable sideline for everyone. So, there is always a huge demand for a photography mentor. Start teaching in your style which could be easier for students to catch on to. Take your students along with you on your trip sometimes and show them how to do it. There is a great income in it, along with the good promotion of yourself. Later try to be an online teacher. There are a lot of people who wish to learn through online. You may gain confidence and earn a good royalty from it.

8. Dealing with Brands

The world is full of business and commercials. Here you get a chance with your skill for promoting products and services. By capturing dashing photographs for any brand or any product is the best advertisement. The vision is the key to catch customers. Brands always choose natural beauty and catchy photographs to promote their product. So, in dealing with a brand, you could be on a very busy schedule and earning a very high salary.