June 3, 2024 • 23 mins
In this episode of the Travel & Adventure Photography School Podcast, we dive into the business side of travel photography. Discover how to turn your passion for capturing adventures into a profitable career. We explore the current market trends, discuss strategies for building a unique brand, and share practical tips for monetizing your work. Whether you're a novice looking to start your journey or a serious amateur aiming to go pro, this episode is packed with insights to help you succeed.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How's it going everybody.
Welcome back.
Welcome back to the travel andadventure photography school
podcast.
As always, I'm your host, RobertMassey.
Thank you so much for taking afew minutes to hang out with me
and improve your photographyskills.
In today's episode, we're goingto talk about all the things
that you can do to turn yourpassion for travel or adventure
(00:22):
photography into a profitablebusiness.
Whether you're just starting outor looking to elevate your game.
This episode is.
Packed with practical tips andadvice for how you can create a
profitable.
Travel creative business,whether that's in photography or
videography or writing oranything else.
This is really about how you canbe come a profitable travel
(00:45):
content creator.
But first.
Just a big, thank you to you.
I do this podcast because I lovethe conversations that starts
with folks.
I do this because I love to seepeople grow and succeed.
And I honestly think thereshould be way more art in this
world.
So that's why I'm out here justcreating this for fun.
I am so stoked that you havechosen to take a few minutes to
(01:07):
listen and to improve yourskills.
So thanks for doing that.
Thanks for taking some time foryou today and to improve what
you are doing.
All right.
Let's get into it.
The first thing, when you talkabout is understanding the
market.
I'm sure we've all seen theshift in recent years.
With travel photography,becoming a very mainstream
(01:27):
source of income for somepeople.
With the rise of social mediaplatforms like Instagram and Tik
Tok, even Pinterest to a degreethere's a growing demand for
high quality travel content.
Being driven out there, not justby users, not just by people,
scrolling Instagram andscrolling Tik Tok, but by
destinations.
By hotels by tour guides, bytrip planners by so many people
(01:51):
in the travel industry.
And this is because globallyteavel and tourism's direct
contribution to gross domesticproduct to the GDP.
I was approximately 7.7 trillionus dollars in 2022.
That's about a 7% share of thetotal global GDP.
(02:11):
That is an insane amount ofmoney that is out there.
And that is why.
They want people coming toareas.
That is why.
Destination marketingorganizations exist.
That is why tourism demandexists.
And that is why they are hiringpeople to capture travel
content.
And yes, there's still adramatic need.
(02:32):
For statics in the travelindustry.
I use them in our paidmarketing.
I have shot them for people intheir own paid marketing.
And you see them all over theplace, even if you don't
necessarily engage with them thesame way on social media.
Obviously also huge need forshort form video for long form
video for writing, basically anytype of content that you can
think about.
(02:52):
The tourism industry really,really needs.
But how do you get involved indoing that?
You first off need to start byunderstanding the market.
Advertising yourself fordestinations and for tourism
work is not the same asadvertising yourself for
portraits and weddings.
(03:12):
And even to some degreecommercial work that you would
do for companies to show offjackets or shoes or clothing or
whatever.
And that's because it needs totarget people in a different
way.
When you're selling a piece ofclothing, your selling that
clothing, obviously, but you'realso selling what that clothing
can basically help somebody do.
(03:34):
So if your Arc'teryx.
You're selling clothing.
That shows you can be outdoors.
You can be doing these amazingthings.
You've been going on.
These expeditions.
If you're selling fashion, whereyou are selling clothing, that's
going to make that person feelbetter about themselves.
It's going to make them standout in the fashionable crowds.
When you were selling adestination.
(03:54):
You need to sell people on whythey need to see this place on
how they're going to feel well,they're here on how it's going
to revolutionize them or changethem or alter their perspective
or allow them to relax or.
Whatever it is in eachdestination.
Has its own goals for what theywant to achieve and how they
want to speak to people in allthose different markets.
(04:15):
So you really need to start bydoing your market research.
So to stand out in this crowdedspace, it's crucial to identify
and target a specific niche.
Maybe you're passionate aboutadventure, sports, cultural
storytelling, wildlifephotography, landscape
photography.
There are a ton of niches thatgo into travel and adventure
(04:36):
content creation.
And finding your niche willreally help you focus your
efforts in and make it easierfor you to attract clients
because they understand what itis that you're going to capture
for them, how you're going to doit, what you're doing, why they
should bring you in.
Rather than just a genericcontent creator.
You have a specific skillset.
That not everyone is going towant, but the people who do want
(04:58):
it, we'll hire you.
And we'll probably actually payyou more because they know you
will get the job done.
And in that vein is actuallygoing to be a lot easier for you
to find.
Clients that you want to workwith as well.
Because you can reach out, youcan create your media kit, you
can reach out to them and youcan go like, this is what I do
really well.
These are the stories I think wecould tell together.
(05:19):
These are the ways I think Icould help you tell it.
Or do you have any work that'sin this niche year and.
You're going to get a lot of nosback or you're going to hear
nothing back more frequently.
But the people who do hire youare going to be very interested
because they know you can do.
What you're talking about.
Also in terms of marketresearch, you're going to need
to understand.
(05:40):
What those travel industryprofessionals are looking for.
I've talked about this on aprevious podcast episode.
Around a year ago now I think.
It's really important for you toget an understanding of the
audience.
That the travel partner you'relooking to work with targets.
How they talk about things, whythey talk about things, the type
(06:01):
of content that they create.
Everything like that.
It's not going to be superhelpful if you just reach out
with a generic here's my mediapitch let's work together.
If we can.
And that might work.
Sure.
Send it out to some destinationmarketing organizations, send it
out to some big companies sendit.
Send it wherever you want.
But you're going to have alittle bit more luck.
If you are more specific aboutwhat it is that you want to do
(06:23):
with them or how you can partnertogether.
So.
To do this market research.
You can use tools like Googletrends, social media, analytics,
photography, forums, tounderstand what people are
looking for and where there'shonestly less competition.
You can look for great reportsfrom companies like Expedia or
Skift who do just amazing workin the travel space and have a
ton of extra data.
Some destinations will actuallyhave the information right up on
(06:45):
their website that you'relooking for.
Especially if you go into theirmedia kits or if you go into
their member kits and theinformation they make public,
you're going to find someinformation about their
audiences and their members.
And then companies make itreally clear who they are
targeting and who they aretalking to.
And if you match that profile,Reach out to that company.
See if you can work together,see what you can do for them.
Sometimes you're going to haveto do some spec work.
(07:07):
Sometimes they might just hireyou flat out.
It's going to be all over theplace, especially when you were
doing freelance travel contentcreation.
So reach out.
Do your research figure outwhere you can fit in the market,
figure out what type ofphotography and what type of
content creation you can reallyhone in on and specialize in on.
And then find the companies thatyou can work with to do that.
And you're going to become a lotmore successful.
(07:28):
All right.
So in this vein of everythingthat we were talking about, when
you were doing your marketresearch, one of the things you
want to look into doing isbuilding your brand.
So creating a unique identity iskey to building a successful
travel photography business.
Your personal brand shouldreflect your style, vision, and
the stories you want to tell.
So start by developing adistinct style that sets you
apart.
(07:49):
This could be your editing, thetype of subjects you shoot, this
could be the stories you tell.
This could be how you tell thosestories is B camera movements
or.
Compositions or static shots oryou're in front of the camera
with a lot more self portrait.
There's a ton of options.
I could keep listing hereforever.
But that is critical.
You need to have a visual voicefor your work and that's part of
(08:10):
your brand identity.
Now your portfolio is yourvisual resume.
Make sure it showcases your bestwork and tells a compelling
story.
Highlight your unique style andthe diversity of your skills.
And remember your portfolio isoften the first impression
potential clients will have aview.
So make it count.
And building out a really goodportfolio is a really difficult
(08:30):
process.
You don't want to have so fewphotos that.
People wonder if maybe you don'tknow what you're doing, but you
also don't want to have so manyphotos that you're watering down
from the best of your best work.
And in a lot of cases, it'shelpful to have a couple of
different portfolios within theniche that you work in.
So I've worked with a fewphotographers out in this area
(08:51):
who have amazing ski portfolios.
We don't shoot ski.
We leave that up to anotherorganization.
But.
This other person also hadamazing commercial work as well.
And so when they found that out,instead of sending me their ski
portfolio, which is how theystarted, they sent me their
commercial portfolio and theircommercial portfolio.
Aligned much better with what weneed and what our needs were as
(09:15):
an organization.
So you can set up multipledifferent portfolios for the
different types of photography.
You do the different niches, orif you know that you're going to
an area and you want to stay ata certain hotel and you've
stayed at a ton of hotels anddone a ton of content creation
for them.
Hone a portfolio specificallyfor hotels.
(09:35):
And show how you can show offtheir hotel.
It doesn't have to be generic.
I don't think most hotels willreally care about.
The fact that you wentparagliding off a mountain top,
or that you have these amazingwedding photos.
What you really need to do.
And what's really critical inthis situation is to show them
what you are doing for them andwhy you are a good person to do
(09:56):
that.
So build different portfoliosfor your different niches.
Now a strong online presence isalso really incredibly helpful.
Some people see it as essential.
Some people see it as notnecessary at all.
Really depends on how you wantto work and what you are getting
up to in the type of work thatyou want to do.
If you want to get into showingshort form reels and creating
(10:17):
reels for people.
Online and basically addingcontent to their social media
feeds.
It's going to be necessary foryou to have a strong online
presence.
On the other hand, if you reallydo specialize in commercial work
and building out creativeconcepts and.
Building out things thathonestly aren't meant for their
social channels, they're meantfor their website.
They're meant for their paidcampaigns.
(10:38):
They're meant for billboards andthings like that.
It may not be as necessary tohave a really strong online
presence.
So you really have to getspecific about what you were
attempting to do and who you'reattempting to reach out to.
Now, it is still important tohave an online presence.
And that's because honestly, alot of companies, when they're
out searching for somebody willfind you through Instagram, Tik,
(10:59):
TOK.
Chat GPT now, which is reallyinteresting.
Your website.
So when they're out hunting fora photographer or content
creator, they might actuallyfind you through these channels.
But.
You don't necessarily have tohone in on them.
If that's not where you arelooking to create the work for
them, it's important to bethere, but it may not need to be
your main focus.
Now.
(11:20):
The one that is actuallyprobably significantly more
powerful and that you can do onsocial, but you can also do in
person.
And pretty much anywhere in theworld is networking.
And this comes back to the it'swho, you know, Because when I'm
thinking of somebody to workwith, I do go looking for
photographers, but if I needsomething quick, it's the people
I've worked with before.
It's the people they trust.
It's the ones I know that canget the work done and I don't
(11:40):
have to worry about, and I don'thave to think about it.
I can just hand it off to them.
Go great here.
Thanks.
So networking is still and willalways be an incredible and
invaluable thing.
You want people to think of youwhen they need work done.
So to do that, you could startwith just collaborating with
other photographers and othercreatives and getting it on
their project.
But attending travelconferences, attending online
(12:01):
webinars with travelprofessionals.
Going on trips and talking totour guides and getting to know
people actually within theindustry you want to work in is
going to be.
Very powerful because that's howyou're going to start connecting
with people, to be able to startdoing more and more of this
work.
And you have no idea how many ofthese people know each other and
work together and communicateand travel on.
(12:23):
Familiarization trips togetherand everything else.
So.
It's great to get to know othercreatives, but that's a lot
easier.
But probably won't help you toactually get the work that you
want.
So instead of doing that, Goattend a travel conference and
go as a travel photographer,travel content creator.
To learn more about what'shappening in the travel
industry, the changes that areoccurring.
And then you can bring that intothe work that you are actually
(12:45):
doing.
And that's going to beincredibly impactful and being
able to turn.
Your work into a full-timeprofitable, creative travel
business.
All right.
So you have an idea of thebusiness that you're running.
You have your brand built out.
You've got your portfolio.
You're starting to network.
You're doing all these reallygood things.
(13:05):
You're doing your marketresearch.
Now let's talk about the reallyimportant part here.
Monetization strategies.
This is how you're going to makemoney from your travel
photography, content creation.
One of the most common ways tohave done this in the past was
stock photography.
And there's still, there's stilla place for stock travel
photography.
There's definitely still a placefor that.
But.
(13:25):
With AI generated images beingout there.
No, it's not going to be aprofitable space for a very long
time.
It's not going to be somethingthat if you're not already doing
that, it's worth investing in atthis point already, stock
photography is taking a massivenosedive.
In terms of how much moneypeople can make off of it.
So I wouldn't.
Honestly, invest your time indoing that.
(13:47):
If you haven't already done it,if you are doing it and you're
making a little bit of money,that's great.
If it's not in travelphotography, expand your
portfolio, push some travelphotography out there, but.
With AI generated images,becoming a thing with the fact
that stock imagery has justtaken a massive hit.
It might not be worth your timeand effort to go into stock
photography.
So without the main source ofrevenue that a lot of travel
(14:08):
photographers had before, whereare you going to make money?
Freelancing.
Freelancing offers.
Really a very lucrativeopportunity.
You can reach out to travelmagazines.
Tourism boards, destinationmarketing organizations, travel
agencies.
Travel companies, hotels, likewe talked about before all those
people who are making money offthe travel and tourism industry.
(14:29):
Sending your portfolio, yourpitch, your targeted portfolio,
that's made for them in theirindustry and highlight how you
can work together and benefitthem.
And you can do this with justpitching.
I'll make some photos for you.
You can do this with pitching,Hey, here's an entire creative
concept.
Here's an entire creativemarketing campaign.
Whatever is in your niche forhow you make things.
(14:52):
Go with it, run with it.
And see what companies will do,and I'll be very, very upfront
with you.
You're going to get a lot ofnos.
It's going to be way morefrequent than you hear no, from
a company than you hear.
Yes.
So take those yeses with massiveenthusiasm.
Celebrate them, have fun withthem.
And don't take those nos to meananything.
(15:13):
Just keep going.
A lot of times people are sobusy, they can't respond.
There's honestly, a fewsituations where it's like, I'd
love to work with you, but Ihonestly have no budget.
So.
Don't take a no, as anindictment on your work.
You've just got to take it as.
Reality of doing business inthis kind of space.
So celebrate the yes's, forgetthe no's, keep going.
Now that's, if you want to docommercial work.
(15:35):
If you don't want to docommercial work, there's also
options for you.
So you can organize workshopsfor people to come out and learn
about photography.
You can take them on photographytours to amazing places.
There's a lot of trips going toplaces like Iceland right now,
and to New Zealand that I'veseen recently and just all over
the world, to be honest, butreally popular adventure travel
destinations.
(15:55):
And you can go with aphotographer.
You can be the one teachingpeople how to do this, or you
can be there as a photographer'sassistant and bring in other
amazing photographers who aregoing to teach the people and
you just manage the travel, youmanage everything that's going
on.
You run an organize the tour andyou just bring them in as an
outside expert.
So when you're organizing thesetours, the real idea here is
that you're sharing yourexpertise with aspiring
(16:17):
photographers by leading them onthese beautiful photography
adventures.
It's really critical that youplan your workshops,
meticulously, that you get allthe proper permits that you make
sure you have backup plans toyour backup plans, to your
backup plans.
That you always have everythingin place that you need to do to
shoot organizing a tour is.
Like organizing a remarkablycomplicated multi day photo
(16:38):
shoot.
And you need a lot of that to goon.
If you're somebody like me andyou're not the most organized
person on the planet and you canoccasionally forget things and
you're not necessarily superdetailed orientated.
You're going to need some helpwith doing this.
So find somebody you trust, findsomebody you want to work
alongside.
Who's really detail, orientated,and really good at working
through those little pieces.
And that way you can focus onthe photography side, you can
(16:59):
focus on.
We need to be in this place tocapture golden hour.
We need to be in this place, doMilky way photos.
We need to be wherever, whereverto do the actual education
piece.
That is your expertise.
No one is expecting you to bethe expert at everything.
You are running a small businessdoing this.
So you will have to be theexpert in a lot of things, but
no, one's expecting you to beexpert in everything in the best
way to become great at somethingis to specialize in and then
(17:22):
work with other people whospecialize in.
So.
If you want to run these kindsof tours and you're not super
detail oriented, you're inreally need an extra set of
hands to do this with you.
Now also don't forget aboutthose quasi passive income
streams.
You can create and sell onlinecourses, which is becoming
increasingly popular.
You can make eBooks that teachabout others, about your travel
(17:42):
photography.
You can create an ebook.
Coffee table book.
For lack of another term, likeit's a book about your travel
photography that people can lookthrough on their iPad or on
their computer, on their phone.
That talks about variousbeautiful areas and how you
captured the images.
You can also create actualphysical coffee table books.
They still are around.
They still make a good chunk ofmoney for photographers.
(18:04):
You can monetize your blog or aYouTube channel by sharing tips,
gear, review, travel stories.
Ideas about places to go to thatyou have captured along the way.
The key is to diversify yourincome sources to create a
steady revenue stream that comesfrom multiple places.
So having gesture work all comefrom commercials or all of your
(18:24):
work just comes from.
Working through your audience onTik Tok or everything comes from
you creating short form reels orwhatever it is.
That's not sustainable.
You might make a ton of moneyoff of it in a short term, but
that's not going to sustain youfor longterm.
Because if that one avenue goesdown, you have no other income
coming in.
The most important thing is todiversify out and have that blog
(18:46):
that's monetized or have thatYouTube channel that's
monetized, and then also havethe Tik TOK channel that's out
there.
And then also have thecommercial work, which is.
Maybe the bulk of where yourmoney is coming from, but you
also have that sitting in thereas well.
You also have a course thatyou're selling and it sounds
like a lot going on.
And that's because it is a lotgoing on and to make money as a
travel photographer in today'sday and age.
There's a lot going on.
(19:07):
You have to be doing a lot.
You have to be all over theplace.
And you don't have to runyourself into the ground or work
yourself to the bone.
That's not the idea of this.
The idea is for you to get to goand explore and see cool and
beautiful places and makeamazing art at the same time.
But you do have to recognize thereality of it's.
A lot of time spent emailingpeople, building pitch decks,
working on websites.
Sitting in meetings, callingfolks, sitting on airplanes to
(19:28):
get to places it's not all.
Just grab your camera and go andshoot.
It's a lot of admin work andother pieces to really make
yourself super successful.
All right.
A couple of last thoughts foryou on this.
Some practical tips and ideasfrom my work within the travel
industry.
And efficient workflow is superessential for managing and
editing all of your content onthe go.
(19:50):
So Adobe Lightroom, mobile and VS C O.
Are great for quick edits, we'llhave portable hard drive or
cloud source can help you backup your work.
Having something like an iPadthat you can back up your images
to, and really quickly sort onthe go.
If you don't want to carry alaptop with you while you're
traveling anywhere or.
If your laptop's just a littletoo slow or anything like that
as a great option as well.
You can also back up intosomething like iCloud or an
(20:12):
Android equivalent.
And when it comes to gear lessis honestly often more.
So you want to invest inversatile high quality equipment
that can handle differentshooting conditions.
So I would suggest a reallygood.
Tight mirrorless camera,something like the From Sony a
couple of really good versatilelenses and a sturdy tripod are
really a great place to start.
(20:32):
You're also going to want somecircular, polarized filters,
some neutral density filters.
If you're going to be filmingvideo and a couple of
microphones, if you're going tobe recording any sort of audio
and then a high quality.
Vertical content capture devicethat you can do things on a cell
phone.
That's really what this is, butif you want to get fancy
terminology with it some way tocapture vertical video.
That's really easy and quick toedit and to turn around.
(20:54):
And honestly, it doesn't looktoo professional if you want to
be going into that.
UGC influencer sphere.
Because we know from researchand a ton of data that people
don't mind seeing reallyprofessional content on like a
photographer's channel.
They want to see that.
But if you're creating reels forhotels, It's actually sometimes
better to have stuff that lookslike what that person could have
(21:16):
filmed.
To a higher degree, obviously,because you're the creative
professional.
But it's not meticulously led.
It's not meticulously shot.
It doesn't have that insanedepth of the field.
It has that feeling of beingcaptured on a phone.
And so it, it's a really goodidea to have a phone that can
capture really high qualitycontent.
Now.
Make sure that you pack smart,stay organized, avoid carrying
(21:39):
unnecessary weight.
It's the worst thing in theworld.
When you like go for a hike andyou've carried a camera and lens
around and you didn't take asingle photo.
It's the same thing with whenyou're traveling.
Just take the stuff that youknow, that you are going to
need.
And lastly, because I alwaystalk about this and it's, to me,
the most important thing in theworld, your safety is priority.
You should make sure that youknow, everything that you can
(22:00):
about that destination beforeyou go somewhere, she know how
you should act, where you shouldgo, what you can and can't
photograph how you can protectyour gear and yourself and
others.
And just make sure that.
You are keeping yourself inthose with you as safe as you
can possibly be while you aredoing the things that you want
to accomplish and that you wantto do in these places.
All right.
(22:21):
We covered a massive amount ofground today.
From understanding the marketand building your brand to
monetization strategies andpractical tips.
There's a lot of actual,actionable advice in there for
you.
So apply these tips, startworking on them.
And I.
Don't by any stretch of theimagination, know everything
about this.
(22:41):
This is just slowly what I'vebeen learning as I work in the
travel industry that I'm sharinghere.
So if you've got anything.
That you love that you want toshare that you want to work on
or pass along my way.
Pass it to me, send me.
Your note, send me yourthoughts.
Let's engage in conversationabout the travel industry and
how you can get more involved inas a creative professional.
So reach out on Instagram.
Robert Massey photography.
(23:02):
And yeah, send me your thoughts,some of your notes.
Let me know how you're applyingthis, or, you know, if you're
going somewhere to travel oranything like that, I'd love to
hear about it.
And as always, thanks so muchfor tuning in.
I really do appreciate that youare taking time and effort.
To grow and expand yourphotography and make yourself
incrementally better.
All right.
Get out there.
(23:22):
Travel.
I work on something beautiful.
Create something.
Yeah.
Explore this big, beautifulworld of ours.
All right, bye.
For now.
How's it going everybody.
Welcome back.
Welcome back to the travel andadventure photography school
podcast.
As always, I'm your host, RobertMassey.
Thank you so much for taking afew minutes to hang out with me
and improve your photographyskills.
In today's episode, we're goingto talk about all the things
that you can do to turn yourpassion for travel or adventure
(00:22):
photography into a profitablebusiness.
Whether you're just starting outor looking to elevate your game.
This episode is.
Packed with practical tips andadvice for how you can create a
profitable.
Travel creative business,whether that's in photography or
videography or writing oranything else.
This is really about how you canbe come a profitable travel
(00:45):
content creator.
But first.
Just a big, thank you to you.
I do this podcast because I lovethe conversations that starts
with folks.
I do this because I love to seepeople grow and succeed.
And I honestly think thereshould be way more art in this
world.
So that's why I'm out here justcreating this for fun.
I am so stoked that you havechosen to take a few minutes to
(01:07):
listen and to improve yourskills.
So thanks for doing that.
Thanks for taking some time foryou today and to improve what
you are doing.
All right.
Let's get into it.
The first thing, when you talkabout is understanding the
market.
I'm sure we've all seen theshift in recent years.
With travel photography,becoming a very mainstream
(01:27):
source of income for somepeople.
With the rise of social mediaplatforms like Instagram and Tik
Tok, even Pinterest to a degreethere's a growing demand for
high quality travel content.
Being driven out there, not justby users, not just by people,
scrolling Instagram andscrolling Tik Tok, but by
destinations.
By hotels by tour guides, bytrip planners by so many people
(01:51):
in the travel industry.
And this is because globallyteavel and tourism's direct
contribution to gross domesticproduct to the GDP.
I was approximately 7.7 trillionus dollars in 2022.
That's about a 7% share of thetotal global GDP.
(02:11):
That is an insane amount ofmoney that is out there.
And that is why.
They want people coming toareas.
That is why.
Destination marketingorganizations exist.
That is why tourism demandexists.
And that is why they are hiringpeople to capture travel
content.
And yes, there's still adramatic need.
(02:32):
For statics in the travelindustry.
I use them in our paidmarketing.
I have shot them for people intheir own paid marketing.
And you see them all over theplace, even if you don't
necessarily engage with them thesame way on social media.
Obviously also huge need forshort form video for long form
video for writing, basically anytype of content that you can
think about.
(02:52):
The tourism industry really,really needs.
But how do you get involved indoing that?
You first off need to start byunderstanding the market.
Advertising yourself fordestinations and for tourism
work is not the same asadvertising yourself for
portraits and weddings.
(03:12):
And even to some degreecommercial work that you would
do for companies to show offjackets or shoes or clothing or
whatever.
And that's because it needs totarget people in a different
way.
When you're selling a piece ofclothing, your selling that
clothing, obviously, but you'realso selling what that clothing
can basically help somebody do.
(03:34):
So if your Arc'teryx.
You're selling clothing.
That shows you can be outdoors.
You can be doing these amazingthings.
You've been going on.
These expeditions.
If you're selling fashion, whereyou are selling clothing, that's
going to make that person feelbetter about themselves.
It's going to make them standout in the fashionable crowds.
When you were selling adestination.
(03:54):
You need to sell people on whythey need to see this place on
how they're going to feel well,they're here on how it's going
to revolutionize them or changethem or alter their perspective
or allow them to relax or.
Whatever it is in eachdestination.
Has its own goals for what theywant to achieve and how they
want to speak to people in allthose different markets.
(04:15):
So you really need to start bydoing your market research.
So to stand out in this crowdedspace, it's crucial to identify
and target a specific niche.
Maybe you're passionate aboutadventure, sports, cultural
storytelling, wildlifephotography, landscape
photography.
There are a ton of niches thatgo into travel and adventure
(04:36):
content creation.
And finding your niche willreally help you focus your
efforts in and make it easierfor you to attract clients
because they understand what itis that you're going to capture
for them, how you're going to doit, what you're doing, why they
should bring you in.
Rather than just a genericcontent creator.
You have a specific skillset.
That not everyone is going towant, but the people who do want
(04:58):
it, we'll hire you.
And we'll probably actually payyou more because they know you
will get the job done.
And in that vein is actuallygoing to be a lot easier for you
to find.
Clients that you want to workwith as well.
Because you can reach out, youcan create your media kit, you
can reach out to them and youcan go like, this is what I do
really well.
These are the stories I think wecould tell together.
(05:19):
These are the ways I think Icould help you tell it.
Or do you have any work that'sin this niche year and.
You're going to get a lot of nosback or you're going to hear
nothing back more frequently.
But the people who do hire youare going to be very interested
because they know you can do.
What you're talking about.
Also in terms of marketresearch, you're going to need
to understand.
(05:40):
What those travel industryprofessionals are looking for.
I've talked about this on aprevious podcast episode.
Around a year ago now I think.
It's really important for you toget an understanding of the
audience.
That the travel partner you'relooking to work with targets.
How they talk about things, whythey talk about things, the type
(06:01):
of content that they create.
Everything like that.
It's not going to be superhelpful if you just reach out
with a generic here's my mediapitch let's work together.
If we can.
And that might work.
Sure.
Send it out to some destinationmarketing organizations, send it
out to some big companies sendit.
Send it wherever you want.
But you're going to have alittle bit more luck.
If you are more specific aboutwhat it is that you want to do
(06:23):
with them or how you can partnertogether.
So.
To do this market research.
You can use tools like Googletrends, social media, analytics,
photography, forums, tounderstand what people are
looking for and where there'shonestly less competition.
You can look for great reportsfrom companies like Expedia or
Skift who do just amazing workin the travel space and have a
ton of extra data.
Some destinations will actuallyhave the information right up on
(06:45):
their website that you'relooking for.
Especially if you go into theirmedia kits or if you go into
their member kits and theinformation they make public,
you're going to find someinformation about their
audiences and their members.
And then companies make itreally clear who they are
targeting and who they aretalking to.
And if you match that profile,Reach out to that company.
See if you can work together,see what you can do for them.
Sometimes you're going to haveto do some spec work.
(07:07):
Sometimes they might just hireyou flat out.
It's going to be all over theplace, especially when you were
doing freelance travel contentcreation.
So reach out.
Do your research figure outwhere you can fit in the market,
figure out what type ofphotography and what type of
content creation you can reallyhone in on and specialize in on.
And then find the companies thatyou can work with to do that.
And you're going to become a lotmore successful.
(07:28):
All right.
So in this vein of everythingthat we were talking about, when
you were doing your marketresearch, one of the things you
want to look into doing isbuilding your brand.
So creating a unique identity iskey to building a successful
travel photography business.
Your personal brand shouldreflect your style, vision, and
the stories you want to tell.
So start by developing adistinct style that sets you
apart.
(07:49):
This could be your editing, thetype of subjects you shoot, this
could be the stories you tell.
This could be how you tell thosestories is B camera movements
or.
Compositions or static shots oryou're in front of the camera
with a lot more self portrait.
There's a ton of options.
I could keep listing hereforever.
But that is critical.
You need to have a visual voicefor your work and that's part of
(08:10):
your brand identity.
Now your portfolio is yourvisual resume.
Make sure it showcases your bestwork and tells a compelling
story.
Highlight your unique style andthe diversity of your skills.
And remember your portfolio isoften the first impression
potential clients will have aview.
So make it count.
And building out a really goodportfolio is a really difficult
(08:30):
process.
You don't want to have so fewphotos that.
People wonder if maybe you don'tknow what you're doing, but you
also don't want to have so manyphotos that you're watering down
from the best of your best work.
And in a lot of cases, it'shelpful to have a couple of
different portfolios within theniche that you work in.
So I've worked with a fewphotographers out in this area
(08:51):
who have amazing ski portfolios.
We don't shoot ski.
We leave that up to anotherorganization.
But.
This other person also hadamazing commercial work as well.
And so when they found that out,instead of sending me their ski
portfolio, which is how theystarted, they sent me their
commercial portfolio and theircommercial portfolio.
Aligned much better with what weneed and what our needs were as
(09:15):
an organization.
So you can set up multipledifferent portfolios for the
different types of photography.
You do the different niches, orif you know that you're going to
an area and you want to stay ata certain hotel and you've
stayed at a ton of hotels anddone a ton of content creation
for them.
Hone a portfolio specificallyfor hotels.
(09:35):
And show how you can show offtheir hotel.
It doesn't have to be generic.
I don't think most hotels willreally care about.
The fact that you wentparagliding off a mountain top,
or that you have these amazingwedding photos.
What you really need to do.
And what's really critical inthis situation is to show them
what you are doing for them andwhy you are a good person to do
(09:56):
that.
So build different portfoliosfor your different niches.
Now a strong online presence isalso really incredibly helpful.
Some people see it as essential.
Some people see it as notnecessary at all.
Really depends on how you wantto work and what you are getting
up to in the type of work thatyou want to do.
If you want to get into showingshort form reels and creating
(10:17):
reels for people.
Online and basically addingcontent to their social media
feeds.
It's going to be necessary foryou to have a strong online
presence.
On the other hand, if you reallydo specialize in commercial work
and building out creativeconcepts and.
Building out things thathonestly aren't meant for their
social channels, they're meantfor their website.
They're meant for their paidcampaigns.
(10:38):
They're meant for billboards andthings like that.
It may not be as necessary tohave a really strong online
presence.
So you really have to getspecific about what you were
attempting to do and who you'reattempting to reach out to.
Now, it is still important tohave an online presence.
And that's because honestly, alot of companies, when they're
out searching for somebody willfind you through Instagram, Tik,
(10:59):
TOK.
Chat GPT now, which is reallyinteresting.
Your website.
So when they're out hunting fora photographer or content
creator, they might actuallyfind you through these channels.
But.
You don't necessarily have tohone in on them.
If that's not where you arelooking to create the work for
them, it's important to bethere, but it may not need to be
your main focus.
Now.
(11:20):
The one that is actuallyprobably significantly more
powerful and that you can do onsocial, but you can also do in
person.
And pretty much anywhere in theworld is networking.
And this comes back to the it'swho, you know, Because when I'm
thinking of somebody to workwith, I do go looking for
photographers, but if I needsomething quick, it's the people
I've worked with before.
It's the people they trust.
It's the ones I know that canget the work done and I don't
(11:40):
have to worry about, and I don'thave to think about it.
I can just hand it off to them.
Go great here.
Thanks.
So networking is still and willalways be an incredible and
invaluable thing.
You want people to think of youwhen they need work done.
So to do that, you could startwith just collaborating with
other photographers and othercreatives and getting it on
their project.
But attending travelconferences, attending online
(12:01):
webinars with travelprofessionals.
Going on trips and talking totour guides and getting to know
people actually within theindustry you want to work in is
going to be.
Very powerful because that's howyou're going to start connecting
with people, to be able to startdoing more and more of this
work.
And you have no idea how many ofthese people know each other and
work together and communicateand travel on.
(12:23):
Familiarization trips togetherand everything else.
So.
It's great to get to know othercreatives, but that's a lot
easier.
But probably won't help you toactually get the work that you
want.
So instead of doing that, Goattend a travel conference and
go as a travel photographer,travel content creator.
To learn more about what'shappening in the travel
industry, the changes that areoccurring.
And then you can bring that intothe work that you are actually
(12:45):
doing.
And that's going to beincredibly impactful and being
able to turn.
Your work into a full-timeprofitable, creative travel
business.
All right.
So you have an idea of thebusiness that you're running.
You have your brand built out.
You've got your portfolio.
You're starting to network.
You're doing all these reallygood things.
(13:05):
You're doing your marketresearch.
Now let's talk about the reallyimportant part here.
Monetization strategies.
This is how you're going to makemoney from your travel
photography, content creation.
One of the most common ways tohave done this in the past was
stock photography.
And there's still, there's stilla place for stock travel
photography.
There's definitely still a placefor that.
But.
(13:25):
With AI generated images beingout there.
No, it's not going to be aprofitable space for a very long
time.
It's not going to be somethingthat if you're not already doing
that, it's worth investing in atthis point already, stock
photography is taking a massivenosedive.
In terms of how much moneypeople can make off of it.
So I wouldn't.
Honestly, invest your time indoing that.
(13:47):
If you haven't already done it,if you are doing it and you're
making a little bit of money,that's great.
If it's not in travelphotography, expand your
portfolio, push some travelphotography out there, but.
With AI generated images,becoming a thing with the fact
that stock imagery has justtaken a massive hit.
It might not be worth your timeand effort to go into stock
photography.
So without the main source ofrevenue that a lot of travel
(14:08):
photographers had before, whereare you going to make money?
Freelancing.
Freelancing offers.
Really a very lucrativeopportunity.
You can reach out to travelmagazines.
Tourism boards, destinationmarketing organizations, travel
agencies.
Travel companies, hotels, likewe talked about before all those
people who are making money offthe travel and tourism industry.
(14:29):
Sending your portfolio, yourpitch, your targeted portfolio,
that's made for them in theirindustry and highlight how you
can work together and benefitthem.
And you can do this with justpitching.
I'll make some photos for you.
You can do this with pitching,Hey, here's an entire creative
concept.
Here's an entire creativemarketing campaign.
Whatever is in your niche forhow you make things.
(14:52):
Go with it, run with it.
And see what companies will do,and I'll be very, very upfront
with you.
You're going to get a lot ofnos.
It's going to be way morefrequent than you hear no, from
a company than you hear.
Yes.
So take those yeses with massiveenthusiasm.
Celebrate them, have fun withthem.
And don't take those nos to meananything.
(15:13):
Just keep going.
A lot of times people are sobusy, they can't respond.
There's honestly, a fewsituations where it's like, I'd
love to work with you, but Ihonestly have no budget.
So.
Don't take a no, as anindictment on your work.
You've just got to take it as.
Reality of doing business inthis kind of space.
So celebrate the yes's, forgetthe no's, keep going.
Now that's, if you want to docommercial work.
(15:35):
If you don't want to docommercial work, there's also
options for you.
So you can organize workshopsfor people to come out and learn
about photography.
You can take them on photographytours to amazing places.
There's a lot of trips going toplaces like Iceland right now,
and to New Zealand that I'veseen recently and just all over
the world, to be honest, butreally popular adventure travel
destinations.
(15:55):
And you can go with aphotographer.
You can be the one teachingpeople how to do this, or you
can be there as a photographer'sassistant and bring in other
amazing photographers who aregoing to teach the people and
you just manage the travel, youmanage everything that's going
on.
You run an organize the tour andyou just bring them in as an
outside expert.
So when you're organizing thesetours, the real idea here is
that you're sharing yourexpertise with aspiring
(16:17):
photographers by leading them onthese beautiful photography
adventures.
It's really critical that youplan your workshops,
meticulously, that you get allthe proper permits that you make
sure you have backup plans toyour backup plans, to your
backup plans.
That you always have everythingin place that you need to do to
shoot organizing a tour is.
Like organizing a remarkablycomplicated multi day photo
(16:38):
shoot.
And you need a lot of that to goon.
If you're somebody like me andyou're not the most organized
person on the planet and you canoccasionally forget things and
you're not necessarily superdetailed orientated.
You're going to need some helpwith doing this.
So find somebody you trust, findsomebody you want to work
alongside.
Who's really detail, orientated,and really good at working
through those little pieces.
And that way you can focus onthe photography side, you can
(16:59):
focus on.
We need to be in this place tocapture golden hour.
We need to be in this place, doMilky way photos.
We need to be wherever, whereverto do the actual education
piece.
That is your expertise.
No one is expecting you to bethe expert at everything.
You are running a small businessdoing this.
So you will have to be theexpert in a lot of things, but
no, one's expecting you to beexpert in everything in the best
way to become great at somethingis to specialize in and then
(17:22):
work with other people whospecialize in.
So.
If you want to run these kindsof tours and you're not super
detail oriented, you're inreally need an extra set of
hands to do this with you.
Now also don't forget aboutthose quasi passive income
streams.
You can create and sell onlinecourses, which is becoming
increasingly popular.
You can make eBooks that teachabout others, about your travel
(17:42):
photography.
You can create an ebook.
Coffee table book.
For lack of another term, likeit's a book about your travel
photography that people can lookthrough on their iPad or on
their computer, on their phone.
That talks about variousbeautiful areas and how you
captured the images.
You can also create actualphysical coffee table books.
They still are around.
They still make a good chunk ofmoney for photographers.
(18:04):
You can monetize your blog or aYouTube channel by sharing tips,
gear, review, travel stories.
Ideas about places to go to thatyou have captured along the way.
The key is to diversify yourincome sources to create a
steady revenue stream that comesfrom multiple places.
So having gesture work all comefrom commercials or all of your
(18:24):
work just comes from.
Working through your audience onTik Tok or everything comes from
you creating short form reels orwhatever it is.
That's not sustainable.
You might make a ton of moneyoff of it in a short term, but
that's not going to sustain youfor longterm.
Because if that one avenue goesdown, you have no other income
coming in.
The most important thing is todiversify out and have that blog
(18:46):
that's monetized or have thatYouTube channel that's
monetized, and then also havethe Tik TOK channel that's out
there.
And then also have thecommercial work, which is.
Maybe the bulk of where yourmoney is coming from, but you
also have that sitting in thereas well.
You also have a course thatyou're selling and it sounds
like a lot going on.
And that's because it is a lotgoing on and to make money as a
travel photographer in today'sday and age.
There's a lot going on.
(19:07):
You have to be doing a lot.
You have to be all over theplace.
And you don't have to runyourself into the ground or work
yourself to the bone.
That's not the idea of this.
The idea is for you to get to goand explore and see cool and
beautiful places and makeamazing art at the same time.
But you do have to recognize thereality of it's.
A lot of time spent emailingpeople, building pitch decks,
working on websites.
Sitting in meetings, callingfolks, sitting on airplanes to
(19:28):
get to places it's not all.
Just grab your camera and go andshoot.
It's a lot of admin work andother pieces to really make
yourself super successful.
All right.
A couple of last thoughts foryou on this.
Some practical tips and ideasfrom my work within the travel
industry.
And efficient workflow is superessential for managing and
editing all of your content onthe go.
(19:50):
So Adobe Lightroom, mobile and VS C O.
Are great for quick edits, we'llhave portable hard drive or
cloud source can help you backup your work.
Having something like an iPadthat you can back up your images
to, and really quickly sort onthe go.
If you don't want to carry alaptop with you while you're
traveling anywhere or.
If your laptop's just a littletoo slow or anything like that
as a great option as well.
You can also back up intosomething like iCloud or an
(20:12):
Android equivalent.
And when it comes to gear lessis honestly often more.
So you want to invest inversatile high quality equipment
that can handle differentshooting conditions.
So I would suggest a reallygood.
Tight mirrorless camera,something like the From Sony a
couple of really good versatilelenses and a sturdy tripod are
really a great place to start.
(20:32):
You're also going to want somecircular, polarized filters,
some neutral density filters.
If you're going to be filmingvideo and a couple of
microphones, if you're going tobe recording any sort of audio
and then a high quality.
Vertical content capture devicethat you can do things on a cell
phone.
That's really what this is, butif you want to get fancy
terminology with it some way tocapture vertical video.
That's really easy and quick toedit and to turn around.
(20:54):
And honestly, it doesn't looktoo professional if you want to
be going into that.
UGC influencer sphere.
Because we know from researchand a ton of data that people
don't mind seeing reallyprofessional content on like a
photographer's channel.
They want to see that.
But if you're creating reels forhotels, It's actually sometimes
better to have stuff that lookslike what that person could have
(21:16):
filmed.
To a higher degree, obviously,because you're the creative
professional.
But it's not meticulously led.
It's not meticulously shot.
It doesn't have that insanedepth of the field.
It has that feeling of beingcaptured on a phone.
And so it, it's a really goodidea to have a phone that can
capture really high qualitycontent.
Now.
Make sure that you pack smart,stay organized, avoid carrying
(21:39):
unnecessary weight.
It's the worst thing in theworld.
When you like go for a hike andyou've carried a camera and lens
around and you didn't take asingle photo.
It's the same thing with whenyou're traveling.
Just take the stuff that youknow, that you are going to
need.
And lastly, because I alwaystalk about this and it's, to me,
the most important thing in theworld, your safety is priority.
You should make sure that youknow, everything that you can
(22:00):
about that destination beforeyou go somewhere, she know how
you should act, where you shouldgo, what you can and can't
photograph how you can protectyour gear and yourself and
others.
And just make sure that.
You are keeping yourself inthose with you as safe as you
can possibly be while you aredoing the things that you want
to accomplish and that you wantto do in these places.
All right.
(22:21):
We covered a massive amount ofground today.
From understanding the marketand building your brand to
monetization strategies andpractical tips.
There's a lot of actual,actionable advice in there for
you.
So apply these tips, startworking on them.
And I.
Don't by any stretch of theimagination, know everything
about this.
(22:41):
This is just slowly what I'vebeen learning as I work in the
travel industry that I'm sharinghere.
So if you've got anything.
That you love that you want toshare that you want to work on
or pass along my way.
Pass it to me, send me.
Your note, send me yourthoughts.
Let's engage in conversationabout the travel industry and
how you can get more involved inas a creative professional.
So reach out on Instagram.
Robert Massey photography.
(23:02):
And yeah, send me your thoughts,some of your notes.
Let me know how you're applyingthis, or, you know, if you're
going somewhere to travel oranything like that, I'd love to
hear about it.
And as always, thanks so muchfor tuning in.
I really do appreciate that youare taking time and effort.
To grow and expand yourphotography and make yourself
incrementally better.
All right.
Get out there.
(23:22):
Travel.
I work on something beautiful.
Create something.
Yeah.
Explore this big, beautifulworld of ours.
All right, bye.
For now.
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