How to Become a Travel Photographer

Becoming a pro travel photographer doesn’t happen overnight, but there are avenues you can take to earn money at your own pace. Remember — this isn’t a linear process. You’ll always hone your photography skills, even during destination assignments. 

We teamed up with Alex Armitage, a landscape photographer and YouTuber, to guide you through different options for your journey. We’ll cover the skillsets necessary to become a pro travel photographer, how to get started and how to make money for your hard work.

Over to you, Alex.

I’ve lived in my Toyota 4Runner for nearly three years, travelling from Alaska to Newfoundland while making content about landscape photography, life on the road and the human experience. My photography journey started as a hobby over a decade ago and slowly became my main source of income. Over the past several years, I’ve experienced some of the best moments of my life, seen some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world and found healing in the process. Travel photography can fit different lifestyles, so you don’t need to move out of your home and into a vehicle to make it happen.

Study Other Travel Photographers

If you’re trying to break into travel photography, find travel photographers who inspire you. Many creators make a living with completely different styles, techniques and approaches to their business models. Start by finding what gives you purpose and creative affirmation. If your mindset is simply to make money taking photos, you’ll set yourself up for disappointment. You have to find something you enjoy, otherwise you’ll lack the creative motivation over time. Start by finding travel photographers and pay close attention to their work. How do they shoot? What is their editing style? Do they focus on gear or the final work? 

Once you’ve answered some of these questions, the best thing you can do is practice. It doesn’t have to be on a trip or destination, either. Challenge yourself to find something valuable in the mundane or create during your next vacation.

Learn Free From the Pros

YouTube is one of the best resources for new photographers. I learned everything about photography through YouTube over the past 15 years. Not only is YouTube free, but it’s easy to find a creator or photographer you like. There are so many different styles of photography that a single creator or instructor may not be optimal when you’re trying to develop your skills and find your place. A few creators I’d suggest are Thomas Heaton, Lucy Lumen, Sean Tucker and James Popsys.

If you prefer learning in a structured environment with a more linear approach, finding an online course is better than a platform like YouTube. We still suggest finding a photographer you enjoy rather than a course from someone unfamiliar, as this gives you a better chance of enjoying the lessons and work. A few resources are Skillshare, Masterclass and (hopefully) your favourite photographer’s course.

Don’t limit yourself strictly to photography, as many clients expect both photo and video content. Thankfully, many photography skills translate to video. Try honing your videography skills through the same means we laid out above so you have more to offer.

Find Your Style

Finding a style of photography you enjoy through other visual storytellers helps narrow the goals of your own work. While completely copying others' work shot for shot is frowned upon, taking inspiration from others' styles is expected in all creative fields. Most artists started by trying to replicate the work of creators they looked up to. One of the first steps in finding your own style involves finding what you enjoy. Depending on where you are in your journey, this could be an area you haven’t nailed down yet. Don’t worry, though — finding your style takes time and can’t be forced, so stay patient.

Choose the Right Gear

Whatever you do, don’t let your gear stop you from creating. You can get away with a single camera and lens with the right skills and work. Gear still matters, but limiting yourself to a reasonable budget can be a blessing. 

The simplest step is securing a camera that takes good photos and videos. Your brand choice, lens focal lengths or accessories such as tripods or filters highly depend on the style you develop throughout your work. f you're looking for recommendations, check out our guide to the best travel cameras, where we focus specifically on compact cameras. Alternatively, you can also read about what we think is the best mirrorless camera for travel. Hopefully, you'll find these articles a great jumping-off point if you have questions regarding gear.

You’ll likely need a tripod, especially if you’re travelling solo. Some locations don’t want a person or subject in the deliverables, but you’ll probably have to put yourself in a few shots here and there. Regardless, a tripod is handy for all types of photography. I’d suggest getting something lightweight like a Peak Design Peak Design Travel Tripod - Aluminium Tripod .

I use the Canon EOS R5 and the Canon EOS R7 with a mix of landscape and wildlife photography lenses. You can find a complete breakdown of my gear choices on my website alexarmitage.com/gear. Most of my portfolio is shot on the Canon R5 with the Canon RF 14-35mm f/4 L IS USM or Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM. This is my recommended setup for landscape photography. 

If I had to pick one lens, it would be the Canon RF 14–35mm f/4. If you shoot longer focal lengths, the Canon RF 70–200mm f/4 is excellent for its image quality, size and weight.

Build a Social Media Presence 

It’s rare for travel photographers not to post to social media. That being said, your follower count doesn’t indicate getting paid assignments. While many people approach social media with the goal of growing a huge following, clients often just care about how strong your content is, not how many followers you have.

The best way to jumpstart your following is through short-form video. Short-form takes far less time to create than something like a series of YouTube videos. Focus on consistently posting work that represents you rather than getting caught up with the analytics of your posts. Don’t post every day, as you’ll likely burn yourself out. Plus, many algorithms prioritise quality over quantity. We’d suggest two short-form videos a week with a mix of stories and photos. Pay attention to what works for you and focus on that — this tells you what your audience enjoys and suggests a niche you can lean into. 

This process is a marathon — not a sprint. You’ll likely grow slowly, and that isn’t entirely important. What is important is developing a genuine audience and creating standout work. Many creators with under 10,000 followers get paid work. Make sure the content you’re creating to gain a following matches what you want to be followed for. Maybe you make a reel or a TikTok that has comedic value and it does extremely well. Followers will expect you to keep making similar content, so you have to be cognisant of that.

Create a Curated Portfolio

Your portfolio should house the work you’re most proud of, but it doesn’t have to be strictly located on your website. Brands often look at a social media page more than a personal website. The goal is to create work you’re proud of that resonates with brands meaningfully. You don’t need perfect photos you just need to present them confidently.

Many travel brands don’t want perfect work. They want content that looks real rather than like an advertisement. They want authentic creators who experience their offerings rather than those who fabricate them. To get paid for writing about high-end luxury hotels, make your work feel premium and polished. However, rugged outdoor photos around a campfire would work better if you took a contract with a brand of chips or coffee. Simply put, deliver a portfolio to that matches the brand’s aesthetic and atmosphere.

How to Make Money as a Travel Photographer

At this point, you’re skilled in multiple areas, have a developed portfolio and social media presence and are at the tipping point of turning your hobby into a profession. This is where you have options that you can take in whatever direction best suits your needs.

Land Brand Partnerships

This is likely the most straightforward and lucrative way to make money through travel photography. Brand partnerships range from sponsorships on YouTube to product showcases on Instagram, or highlighting locations through TikTok. While these deals can depend on your influence or rather how many followers you reach, it isn’t restricted to just that. Many times you can offer brands the usage rights of your photos or content for their own pages and that can be highly lucrative regardless of how many followers you have. 

Have a media kit ready to send to any brand you reach out to. Remember, many of these companies receive countless inquiries, so you want to waste as little time as possible. Send an Instagram DM or an email with something short attached to your media kit. If you’re unfamiliar with a media kit, it’s essentially a resume for your portfolio and social presence. For example, my personal media kit highlights most of my YouTube metrics, and I specifically reach out to brands I want to work with through YouTube.

Let’s say you’re trying to create a relationship with a hotel, a travel destination or a brand. Each of them will have different metrics they care about. The brand might care less about your influence and more about the content you can provide them, while something like a hotel might emphasise your social following. Adapt to the content you have to offer and find brand partnerships that match your work.

Blogging in 2024

As crazy as it may sound in 2024, a travel blog is an excellent way to make money while travelling. It requires lots of work, but if your blog grows in visitation, it can quickly become lucrative. You can create guides to specific destinations, review places to eat in a particular city, or research areas lacking information via Google. You might have even found this exact article trying to learn how to make money via travel photography and this is exactly the type of content you could write about.

Whatever avenue you choose for your content, the best part about a blog is it’s owned by you. It isn’t hosted through a social media site that could potentially get banned in your country (TikTok), fall out of favor with a specific age demographic or cease to exist altogether. A blog is typically hosted on your own website which means you have complete control over how it is developed and curated.

This blog aims to bring people to your website and offer guides, products or tutorials to visitors who value your content. You can also include affiliate links, or referral links to specific brands you enjoy working with. You can take many different roads, and I highly recommend putting effort into a blog. Lastly, develop a newsletter signup. Newsletter lists are typically more valuable than the majority of social media followings and bring in a lot of true fans of your work that would be interested in the offers you have for them.

Work for Other Blogs

In the same way that developing your own blog, you can also write for other major travel blogs. Many times major sites outsource their material to experts in different areas so they can have curated content that is searchable. Thus, this is a great option if you’re brand new and want to start making money immediately. That being said you need to have some representation of your work and need to be able to send a brand an example of your writing so they have confidence in hiring you to write about a specific subject. 

Let’s say you spent a week in a beautiful destination, captured some great photos and can share info about the area with others. You could propose this content to a travel blog and see if they want to pay for your work. Don’t reach out with nothing to show, though. If you send off an email asking if a brand would like you to write about your experience with nothing to show them, they won’t likely bite. So make sure anytime you’re proposing deals to have something to show for your idea. This gives you a much better chance at actually developing a partnership.

Things to Avoid

Anything can work, but these avenues are tough to monetise without specific circumstances working in your favour. 

• Prints: Prints are a great way to sell your work to people invested in you, but unless you’re travelling around festivals and physically representing your work, these tend to sell very little. Selling prints can work if you’ve developed a huge brand and following, but it’s unreliable. 

• Stock Photography: Avoid stock photography unless you have thousands of images and lots of time. Making money through stock is about quantity and keywords. It’s often a little payoff for a lot of work. 

• Travel Magazines: When was the last time you read a travel magazine?

• Tourism Boards: Most tourism boards with a budget will already have a creator in mind for their work. Reaching out to tourism boards is highly competitive in 2024.

How Much Can You Make?

You can make an average of £48,000–£64,000 a year creating travel content. These numbers vary based on many factors, though. You could start today and make extra income as a side business or dive headfirst into making it a full-time gig. 

The key is to remember you’re working for yourself. Your hours typically correlate to the growth and money you achieve. On top of that, the most lucrative deals are not necessarily the most fulfilling creatively, so finding a balance between creativity and compensation can be tough.

My ultimate advice is to try different things. Post to social media, write a blog, create reels and reach out to brands. It doesn’t have to be all at once. The best part about travel photography is you can start now without stopping anything else. Every step through this guide can be started today to the extent you want to take it. Just remember that the goal is to do something you enjoy while doing your best to turn it into a revenue stream. Once you no longer enjoy it, you’re simply working toward burnout.

Thanks for the insight, Alex!

Want More Travel Photography Content?

This article is part of the MPB Guide to Travel Photography, our comprehensive look at the travel photography genre with advice, recommended camera equipment and interviews with some of the most exciting travel photographers today.