Career Tips

Hello how to move from secy to travel


I'm looking to figure how to switch gears as a secy to travel photographer.  I figure this would be a great way to travel the world and make some money.  Besides the website and taking photos -- how does one transition to something like a travel photographer when they are a "no name" ?  What resources and books would one look for or at in order to figure how to get started and get into that career?

 

Just hunting through Barnes and Noble, these seem to be applicable-

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780500286623&itm=20

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781581154573&itm=11

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781581154696&itm=24

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780715319703&itm=25

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781565792289&itm=35

In addition, you probably need some formal classes on photography, composition, developing (and the modern day digital imaging equivalent).  It won't be enough to take nice photos.  You'll need to take excellent photos that are marketable. 

Finally, this is going to require a pretty serious stockpile of funds.  No one is going to pay for you to travel.  They'll pay (maybe) for the picture once you have it.  The number of people that can pay their rent off something like this is small and you're going to have to be skilled, talented, tenacious and lucky.

Tess

Thanks Tess for the B&N links.

A ton of books are out there about photography and there's a Photographer's Market guide that comes out every year.  I think books oversimplify the process, as the answer is not always in books.

Is there anybody who has actually pursued this field - has been or is a Travel Photographer?  Obviously one has to have a good eye for taking photos.  And strangely, I've seen a lot of photos from people who went to photography school and invested in good equipment -- and they weren't extraordinary.  And they wondered why they didn't sell.

I think like with any career, it's a matter of timing, luck, research and who you know.  It may simply be all in the connections.  If anyone has some more concrete advice to give me, that would be wonderful.

http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/01/ten-jobs.html

 

Read the one on travel writer.  Cross out writer, put in photographer.

And since apparently you missed it the first time, the concrete advice is to STUDY the field, STUDY what is marketable, HONE your skills and craft and hope you also have talent and the funding to pull this off.

 

Tess

Tess, thank you, most definitely.  I appreciate your other link.  I understand you write here on monster quite a bit but....I also asked if someone had actually been in the field.  Sorry, I guess you misunderstood my point.

However, education and STUDY did get mentioned in my subsequent post-- and I noted that I have found that those who have gone to school and had some degree, did not necessarily have or take the best pictures.  I think you may've overlooked that part...?  In my experience I have found that while education is a great and wonderous thing, photography also requires what some call a good eye which not a lot of people have.  There are talented amateurs out there, they just need a break and advice on where to move on up.

What you may not have realized in your B&N links that I found rather scary is that most of the books you put up as examples to check out -- were never reviewed by anyone. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if anyone has experience in the field, or has actually worked in the field and moved on, people of that sort, I would love to hear from those people specifically.  In the meantime, I've continued to pursue on-line whatever knowledge I can pick up regarding the field.  And so far, it takes what I suspected.  Timing, luck and connections.  So far on this forum, it looks like no creative souls have ventured in this field, which makes me wonder why.  It's probably not as common a field that people think to get into so the competition may not be as fierce as say...being an actor.

OK, this is my last try at it. 

Yes, you need a "good eye".  None of the books that I suggested to you deal with that topic.  That's something that I think you have to have a least a little of to start with as a talent, not something that can be built entirely from scratch.  Someone who has no talent can take all the classes in the world and get no where, that's correct.  We'll assume for argument purposes that you have at least a little talent in this field.

However, you're talking about doing this as a CAREER.  A BUSINESS.  You need to learn how the business end of this works, because you can take the prettiest hobby pictures ever, and still not be able to market them. And I'm not suggesting you go out and buy a book reviewed by no one.  I'm suggesting you go look up these books (perhaps at a library) and check them out yourself and see if they're worth anything to you or not.

And you are correct, I haven't been a travel photographer.  My parents however ran a photography business for more than a decade.  There is a lot more to it than just taking pretty pictures.  Even within professional photography, travel photography is a tiny little niche.  You're not going to find someone from such an obscure niche field on here.  You need to hunt those people up live and locally.  Even then, you may have a fair amount of difficulty because these people work freelance.  They're not sitting around somewhere in a bunch that makes them easy to find.  And no, there are not a lot of them because this is not a profitable field except for a very rare few.  An average person probably does have a better chance of being an actor that can pay their rent than they do of traveling the world and selling enough pictures to make a living.  At least being an actor does not involve thousands of dollars of travel money to pay off before you can see a profit.

So, back to my original point. Get off your duff and do some real research if you really want to make this happen.  Talk to the photography instructor at the local college and pick his brain for ideas.  Go to the bookstore or library and see what you can find that would be useful.  Take a class that explores the SALES of photography so that you understand what buyers are looking for.  Go to galleries doing exhibits of travel and landscape photography and talk to the artists and to the gallery staff.  Learn the technical end of photography so that you really understand it and can master your craft.  Call someone who works for a major firm that provides stock photography images for use.  See if some of those large companies might not even have submission guidelines posted on their webpages.  Get some objective opinions from people with some expertise about whether you even have any talent.

It is great to be creative, but you need to apply a tiny bit of pragmatism in order not to end up a bum (unless of course you've got a healthy trust fund to fall back on).

Good luck!

 

My experience with photography is not exactly relevant but here goes anyway. My daughter-in-law is a  photographer at a large newspaper. She has a bachelor's degree, which is a minimal requirement in her field. She also has the  "good eye"  you mentioned but learned it after taking  many composition classes. She can look at a photograph and understand what separates an exceptional one from an adequate one. I can't. And that is the big difference between amateur photogs and pros. The "good eye" of a pro is quite often a learned trait and much more refined than an amateur's.

If  I were looking for freelance work as a photographer, I'd contact each of the publications listed on these websites and ask if they accept and pay for unsolicited photos from freelancers. If they express any interest at all, I'd put together a portfolio of my best photos and send them off.

http://www.allyoucanread.com/Top20/index.asp?idCat=21

http://www.world-newspapers.com/travel.html

 

Thank you to you both for your patience and replies.
I want to make you aware of a wonderful form of Marketplace that I use on a regular basis.

http://istockphoto.com
http://corbis.com
Getty images (bought istockphoto)

There are more. There are marketplaces where anyone with a photo and a desire to sell it can post it (there might be a screening process, I don't know.) I buy regularily in order to use for my presentations. Check them out, but note my point:

These are marketplaces. Not jobs. There are people on istockphoto making a living. But they are hustling. And creating. And thinking what people like me, and mostly designers, ad agencies, etc. (the buying market) want.


Ian Christie
Career Changers Coach

Thank you kindly for all responses.
Career Tips

  1. Interview Tips
  2. Resume Tips
  3. Salary Tips
  4. Career Change Tips
  5. Job Search Tips
  6. Career Tips

© Rights Reserved. Career, Resume, Interiview Tips | Partners | Sitemap