Photographer Matt Moreland is following his dream and traveling to the most exotic locations.
He shared some of his best tips on how he has been able to save money as a travel photographer, in order to afford this vagabond lifestyle. We picked our favorite tips from his list for our readers.
Join a points program
Whether you’re flying weekly for all of your big name clients or you’re just snapping photos on your yearly vacation, travel is expensive and points add up. Do some research into what point cards are best for you. There are some cards that will give you great return on flight vouchers and upgrades, while others will give you free hotel stays.
Use Starbucks wifi
If you need wifi on your trip for uploading video content, submitting photo work or generally anything other than using Facebook, you’re going to need to find a Starbucks or other cafe with free and fast internet. Hotel internet is almost always garbage and costs an unreasonable amount of money because people want the convenience of having wifi in their room. You will hit your bandwidth limit and they will charge you.
If you’re travelling within a North America or a lot of major cities abroad, it is pretty much guaranteed there’s a Starbucks within walking distance of your hotel, if not inside your hotel. Most Starbucks offer Google Fibre which is likely 10x faster than the wifi you’d get at home or in your office. Take a walk, get a latte and upload your images on better internet. It’ll save you money and save you time so you can get back out and continue snapping photos.
Trade your services for food or stay
While brand partnerships might have paid for your gear and upgraded your flight, there’s still something to be said about hustling once you’ve reached your destination. Find contact info for local businesses, go into shops & restaurants and pitch your photo services. Offer to make them 10 photos of their food that they can use on Instagram in exchange for a meal, take some photos of an event at the hotel in exchange for a free night, take better photos of an Airbnb in exchange for a discount.
You have a skillset that holds value and you can save a lot more money by exchanging for goods & services with small businesses than asking for straight up cash.
Book freelance work ahead of time around your travel plans
Going to Banff? Someone needs mountain photos. Going to the fireworks festival in Dubai? Contact a fireworks company and offer to bring them back photos for their social channels. You’re looking for something that won’t take a ton of your time to accomplish but something that is only applicable to where you’ll be. Think specific holidays & festivals, unique locations & landmarks, anything that isn’t able to be duplicated outside of your travel destination. If the company would need to pay to have someone go to where you are, you’re already saving them money by being there.
Sell every photo you’ve ever taken as stock photography
Once you get back from your travels and you have thousands of photos from your trip, put any images you don’t sell to a brand on a stock photo site. Whether you went golfing in Florida or sailing in France, a good archive of stock destination photos can be a great source of passive income.
Take photos of things that aren’t already all over Google. Avoid the Eiffel Tower and take photos of the streets, the cafes, and the flower markets. There is a huge demand for nondescript (read: licensing free) scenery. No matter where you go, take lots of photos, upload them to a stock photo site and tag well.
Read the full article with more tips over at Format Magazine.
Source: Format Magazine
