Traveling, Shooting, and Uploading: The Workflow

The thrill of traveling to a new place and striking out to document it on our is the reason why many of us travel. But travel can include more than the rush of capturing images, it can have a payout. 

Travel photography offers the incredible opportunity to share with others what you see, touch, feel, smell, hear and taste in brand new places. Most of us end up sharing these experiences with our family and friends but what if you could actually sell or license your travel images that you took during your trip? Brands and companies are always looking for unique, local content, so selling your travel images on a stock platform like Adobe Stock means you can generate revenue from your trips.

Let's look at how you can plan, execute, and upload your images in a way that accommodates the people you travel with, keeping it fun to explore, and can make you some money when you upload your photos to a stock library.  

Do the Planning

The best images and experiences always come from a carefully timed and planned visits. Keep in mind that if your travel goal is photography, it might be best to travel alone unless your companions are of the same frame of mind as you are with regards to capturing the best images possible. If it's a family trip or a trip with friends, make it known to them that you will go out on your own to do your shots, either in the morning early or as the sun starts setting. Set aside times and keep to them. This will prevent you from being late for group events or disappointing everyone you're with. 

Make Your List

Once you know your destination and have an idea of how many days you've got at a certain place, do some research online and see what the attractions are. Make the decision to either shoot the well-documented places in a way that no other has done before or decide to take the road less traveled and showcase a different story. 

Make a list of what places you want to go and what you want to see. Once you have your list of locations, find a way to get there, either via Google Maps or a physical map if you're not connected to internet. If you want to fill a photo demand that hasn't already been met, browse Adobe Stock to see if there are images of your choice locations already. Pre-plan the best route to get to them all, keeping in mind how the sun will affect the location at certain times of the day. For more tips on logistical planning, check out this article. 

Gear

You're going to need your travel photography lenses, which are most likely either a telephoto or wide angle lens, or both. You'll need a tripod, ND filters, and polarizing filters. Everything must fit in a backpack that you can carry all day long. Also, don't forget a good set of walking shoes, that might be the most important piece of gear you bring! For me, travel photography is a minimal gear exercise where the less I take, the more I can focus, observe, and take it all in. 

Walk

I recommend walking as much as you can. If you're in a city, the convenience of getting into a taxi or taking the subway often separates you from the interesting events on the streets and the unknown places that might make for great images. I walk whenever I can. When the next stop is a little far, I choose to get on a bike rather than hopping in a car. Being outside in the open air is important for me. The difference in light color, the textures of the walls, clothing, and the faces of the people walking past me all make up part of my trip. These features of a place all make up part of my experience help inspire me with the images I take. 

Loading Up

There are many stock libraries out there but the one that I've found to be most convenient is Adobe Stock. It's not only simple to upload to but it's also easy for media buyers to access.  As an integrated platform, your photos or videos can be shared on the road directly from the software you're working with at the same time as buyers are looking for media through the Adobe application they're using.

Legal Guidelines

If you have a recognizable person or property in your photo, you need a release in order to sell it as commercial stock. There are apps you can download so you can always have a model release handy in your pocket, and you can also send and receive releases directly from Adobe Stock’s contributor website if you have the model’s email address.

Conclusion

A well planned and executed trip can not only land you a photography experience of a lifetime, it can also help pad your wallet. Every place you travel not only provides the opportunity to experience a whole new aspect of the world, it allows you to share those experiences with others. In fact, with dozens of creatives looking through Adobe Stock for unique media every day, the photos you take while traveling might be the perfect fit for their creative project. 

All images sourced from Adobe Stock