7 Tips To Keep In Mind As A Destination Photographer

The idea of traveling to exotic locations to shoot weddings, portraits or commercial work is what most photographers dream of. Where else can you get paid to see some amazing sites around the world?

But like everything, not only does it have its “ups”, it also has a few “downs” to consider.

Whether you’ve been traveling with your photography for years, or are just putting together your very first promotional campaign, keep these tips in mind.

1. Choose your locations carefully

While traveling around the globe is a relatively safe thing to do, keep in mind that some places are easier and safer to travel to than others. It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful place for a wedding than the beaches of the Caribbean. Yet choosing a place like Haiti or Dominican Republic can be more taxing than a place like St Croix. As you are making your plans, do your research first. Search the Internet for current stories, check with the State Department, and look at tourism sites for your chosen location. In just a few minutes you should be able to gain a pretty good feel for the area.

2. Research the area

Once your area has been selected, spend some time learning about the location and the time of year you’ll be visiting. Hawaii is beautiful – unless you get there during rainy season and you experience inches of rain every day. If you know the weather patterns ahead of time, you can quickly plan backups for the just in case. [Read more...]

One Great Idea – Meet Karma Hill

At the beginning of the year, I ran across a website that made me say WOW. I’ve been a destination wedding photographer since the mid 90’s. And I’ve written and promoted ideas to help you understand destination a little bit more, and how you can apply it to your business AND make a healthy living at it to.

That’s why I loved it when I found someone who is actually doing it.

Meet Karma Hill

Karma runs Good Karma Photography Inc in Maui, Hawaii, and fills her days with portraits and weddings. But she doesn’t promote herself as a photographer to local clientele – look at her website and you’ll see she focuses on the tourists, and markets her business as a vacation photographer.

Good Karma Photography

So if you are spending thousands of dollars to leave your snowy home in January, and head to Hawaii to take in some sun and fun, you probably have spending money in your pocket. Why not get a family portrait on the beach?

The more I researched, the more excited I became. Not only is Karma having such success with her portrait business, she started a sister site to cover the full spectrum of portrait clients. A client can come to her for a memorable beach vacation portrait and spend whatever is in their budget.

Not only is she having a ton of success with her photography business, she’s also started off into a new direction – helping photographers understand how to become destination photographers too. Her newest release is an ebook, Destination Photography Business: How To Tap In To The Multi-Billion Dollar Travel Industry.

Every state in the U.S. has millions of visitors annually, and has billions of dollars in spending. And this isn’t unique to the U.S. People love to travel; that isn’t going to change. So why not combine what you love – photography – with what people love to do – travel – and create a business that easily brings in Six Figures per year.

I’ve been chatting with Karma quite a bit since I found her site, and asked her a few questions.
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Destination Photographer – Does It Have To Be Weddings?

“I love the idea of traveling with my photography. I’ve done a few weddings, but I’m not excited about making them my specialty. Do I have to do weddings to be a destination photographer?”

destination photographerThe great thing about being in business for yourself is you create the rules. Anything is possible as long as you build to make it possible.

What is your idea of photography? How can you turn it into a business that allows you to travel?

Maybe you enjoy shooting in warm places in the heart of the winter. Why not become a fashion or product photographer? Catalogs are developed months in advance. They need someone to be shooting catalog spreads in places that show off their newest product line. So a company in Wisconsin may need swimsuit and spring fashion shoots on the beach in the Caribbean in January or February.

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What Does A Destination Photographer Really Mean?

So you want to be a destination photographer?

You add the phrase to your website, “weddings anywhere in the U.S.” or “will travel anywhere for weddings and events”.

You sit back and wait for someone to contact you. And the years roll by. Why? Why hasn’t anyone selected you for traveling to their event outside of your home location?

The common misnomer with the phrase “destination photographer” is that by simply adding destination to your website and your brochure, you instantly become a destination photographer. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let’s say your a photographer from Denver, Colorado, USA. All over your site you talk about weddings and portraits taken in the Denver area. On your contact us page you list your address – in Denver. Your keywords have Denver, Colorado, USA.

Guess what? You’ve just been pegged as a Denver, Colorado, USA photographer.

Being a destination photographer doesn’t mean you will promote your photography for everywhere on planet earth. It means you’re willing to travel. But where to?

We photographed in the Denver area. We also started specializing in weddings in Arizona (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona). So guess what we put on our website? Information about our weddings in those locations!

And when we photographed in San Francisco, yep, we created a whole bunch of information on that too.

You can’t attract clients to your destination photography  unless you know where you want to go.

Choose your destinations, and start turning your dreams into reality.