yep, local photographers who can ask people to sign a model release too

good luck making illiterate street food sellers sign a model release in a backward third world country ... even more funny if they're hilltribes ... for the record i had decent sales with images of people in asian markets, but they're all editorial for obvious reasons.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on April 22, 2013, 06:30

Everyone takes vacations and shoots pictures and thinks their images are beautiful.  It's unlikely that trying to sell them as stock will be worth the effort, as people already in the area, and professional photographers have likely already spent lots of time and money creating salable works from the area.

i've to agree with him

BUT this dosn't mean that you should stop travelling with your camera and shoot pictures...just maybe you won't get in few hours of visit the best result you can get from one spot...but coming back to the main point,for sure this will be totally UN-economic

A couple of years ago, not necessarily so: I did an experiment by making a trip to an already reasonably-covered city I'd never been to before and to date have well over covered all my costs; but nowadays probably yes.
There are plenty of places which haven't been done to death, but they don't seem to sell well. You'd need to hope they'd suddenly be the 'next best thing'.

The main disadvantage about being in a place for a short time is that you have to take the weather conditions and light as you find them. That's where the local usually has the advantage.

Better yet, the popular places and sites have been covered and shot to death. If you find something different, there's a good chance of having a ready image and making a sale. Maybe less demand, but there's certainly less competition.

Yep, take average images of low demand subjects and you have a good chance of getting a sale.  Hopefully your sale covers your time, gas, gear etc...  The formula is simple, take great shots of high demand topics.  You aren't going to make any money shooting things that might get you a sale one day.

AFTO of course. 

Pay $5000 to fly to Paris, rent a room and a car, and spend a week shooting things that have been covered for 10 years back to film scans. And then expect to make up those expenses 25c at a time... right. You're right.

I can stop my car, where I live, with the equipment I already own, on the way somewhere I was already passing, and make a shot that will cover the minimal expense, in one sale.

Which one earns more money?

Quote from: tickstock on October 28, 2014, 11:32

Quote from: Uncle Pete on October 28, 2014, 11:11

Better yet, the popular places and sites have been covered and shot to death. If you find something different, there's a good chance of having a ready image and making a sale. Maybe less demand, but there's certainly less competition.

Yep, take average images of low demand subjects and you have a good chance of getting a sale.  Hopefully your sale covers your time, gas, gear etc...  The formula is simple, take great shots of high demand topics.  You aren't going to make any money shooting things that might get you a sale one day.

Paris will earn you more money but not if you fly first class and stay in 5 star hotels.  You can easily go to Paris for two weeks on half what you are estimating for a flight. 
Stopping on the way somewhere to take a snapshot is not how you make money with travel photography.  Planning, using the right gear, waiting for the shot, etc.. are what's needed.  You are right, with your approach all you can expect is making 25c but that's not what you should be aiming for.

Paris will earn you more money but not if you fly first class and stay in 5 star hotels. 

hahaha and if you're on a tight budget i heard of guys doing couchsurfing or sleeping in a tent or in a van.

A timely blog post from a terrific photographer

http://www.nomadicdestiny.com/blog/2014/10/28/nomad-questions-answered

i think he's overspending, 200$/week for food and 200$/week for gas ??

as for finding a nomad girl he's spot on but i'm friend with a girl who's now cycling asia/oceania/americas since three years with her boyfriend, they sleep in a tent usually but sometimes they're invited in a local's home in small villages, so far so good, too bad they're not pro photographers as i'm sure they could make saleable images, you can't get any cheaper than that regarding production costs ...

Cutting costs is only one part of the equation.  In order to make money you have to work hard.  You won't be successful if you look at travel photography as something you do on the way to doing something else.  That's a terrible approach and if you're going to do that you might as well stay at home.

Taking a trip to do travel photography is a terrible business approach. You'll never recover your expenses.

Quote from: tickstock on October 28, 2014, 21:30

Cutting costs is only one part of the equation.  In order to make money you have to work hard.  You won't be successful if you look at travel photography as something you do on the way to doing something else.  That's a terrible approach and if you're going to do that you might as well stay at home.

Taking a trip to do travel photography is a terrible business approach. You'll never recover your expenses.

Never?

travel photography is self-maintanaable ONLY if you have a good sales network....if you sell only in microstock no...

if someone is doing travel photography and living from it selling ONLY on microstock is really welcome to share his/her experience and numbers ....until then i stay on my idea

So what subject is self maintainable to make a living from microstock?

Not a dedicated trip for the purpose of photography. And maybe seldom would have been a better choice by Yada?    How many sales on Micro and how long to make up 1-2,000 in expenses. (people already have the equipment, I'm just counting the trip expenses for a week for example.)

Then there's this:

Paris France Stock Photos
(42,482 results)

Gary Indiana Stock Photos
(21 results)

No I don't think one will beat the other and make someone wealthy but considering if Someone lives in Gary, they have a great place to shoot on weekends.

Milwaukee Wisconsin Stock Photos
(781 results)

Phoenix Arizona Stock Photos
(2,873 results)

Portland Oregon Stock Photos
(5,148 results)

I'm simply saying that people are missing out, if they think they must take a trip or vacation, spend money, or be someplace else, to shoot travel.

Or you could spend money and go to:

Timbuktu Stock Photos
(195 results)

Orkney Islands Stock Photos
(788 results)

Easter Island Stock Photos
(1,608 results)

The question is, does the future return justify the expense?

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on October 28, 2014, 21:56

Quote from: tickstock on October 28, 2014, 21:30

Cutting costs is only one part of the equation.  In order to make money you have to work hard.  You won't be successful if you look at travel photography as something you do on the way to doing something else.  That's a terrible approach and if you're going to do that you might as well stay at home.

Taking a trip to do travel photography is a terrible business approach. You'll never recover your expenses.

Never?

Once I took a business trip to a big city, didnt pay off
Once I took a holiday trip to another country, that did pay off.

Cant say anything about really. Depends on a lot of factors and definitely a bit of luck and good search placement.