What is it really like to be a travel photographer?
Travel photography is often painted out to be this glamorous job, where people simply travel to the most beautiful places in the world and take photos. And while that is part of the job, obviously, there is so much more that goes into it. That photo you see online of a stunning mountain during a beautiful sunrise might have taken hours or even days to create. It is about showing up every day, for sunrise and sunset. It’s about spending sleepless nights photographing the stars, and continuing to shoot during sunrise. Spending countless hours everyday, editing and reaching out to potential clients. It’s self funding your trips, in the hope that one of the pitches you have sent, turns out to be successful. If not, it’s all on you.
You will constantly wake up in a new bed, leave new friends, and move from place to place.
What is it really like to be a travel photographer?
Travel photography is hard. As hard as every other job out there. You have to be willing to spend time on the road away from family and friends. Often spending time in locations with no phone signal and no one that speaks your language. At times spending time in locations with no electricity.
You will spend hours on public transportation. Sleeping alongside locals on your way from one part of the country to the other. You will get sick. You will be frustrated and angry, Homesick. Miss your family and friends.
But I love it. The positives outshine the negatives by a million miles. I love waking up in new places. Meeting new people, trying new food. I love the fact that I’m able to wake up for sunrise and photograph some of the most stunning locations in the world. And I love that I’m able to show these places to the people I care about and that I’m able to motivate people to travel to new places.
What is it really like to be a travel photographer?
People have to realize that being a photographer is not this fairy tale job. That for every photo you see online, hundreds have been discarded. When I photograph a new location, I just hope that I will be able to get away with one photo. If I get one photo every time I visit a new location, I’m completely satisfied.
Being a photographer is a grind, and you have to love the entire process. You have to be able to wake up early, spend hours editing and reaching out to people, keeping up with your social media, produce client work, research destinations and plan new trips. Being a travel photographer is a full time job, and often you will work from when you wake up until you go to sleep.
What is it really like to be a travel photographer?
Have these things in mind the next time you see a photo online and think “It must be so amazing to just travel around the world and take photos.” It is amazing, but it is about so much more than simply taking a photo.
It is however, my dream job. It is something I will pursue until I make it a reality. It is a full time job, even before you start making money from it.