If you are seriously into being a freelance writer, you will sooner or later have to do a travel assignment. If you are lucky, you will get your expenses paid up front, but often you will have to get them reimbursed by your client. They will always pay a lot more if you include your own original travel photography snapshots instead of just sending copy. But you want to be sure about that with your client before you cart an expensive camera along with your luggage.

Get It In Writing

The actual taking of the pictures is the easiest part of travel photography. If you’ve ever taken clear, focused and colorful photographs for your own pleasure or to chronicle your vacations, then you already know what you need to do for decent travel photography. The hard part about travel photography for freelance writers is getting paid for it.

The golden rule of freelancing is “Always get it in writing.” NEVER assume that the editor will honor a verbal contract or even terms loosely given during one email exchange about copy or photography. You need to be crystal clear about what you are going to be paid for on an assignment and what you aren’t going to be paid for.

Things you need to get crystal clear in travel photography for your articles include (but are not limited to):

How much you will get per photo
Are there any specific subject matters the editor wants?
What format is needed for submission
When you will get paid
Who will hold the copyright to your travel photography?

Take Many Pictures

In any professional photography area, you will need to take scads and scads of photos in order to find the one or two that will perfectly illustrate your piece. You might be the one who makes the final decision as to which of your photos run and which don’t. That is usually up to the photo editor (if your publication has one). This also could be the graphic artist or the travel editor, depending on the title. If it is a very small publication, than the editor in chief might also be the layout editor and the photo editor.

See if you can get to send digital photographs. In this way, you can download your travel photography onto your laptop and then email them to your editor (or whoever) in order to get the piece done even before you have to come home.

Many people are interested in learning professional photography for their own knowledge or to freelance as a photographer during certain times of the year or when they are between office jobs. The vast number of people that would like to learn professional photography has spawned a lot of websites that will take a person through the steps that are needed to shoot photographs in a way that looks like they were taken by a professional. The techniques that are learned to obtain the best photography will depend on which area of photography the person would like to focus on, whether it is nature photography, family photography, or landscape photography.

Step One - Purchasing The Equipment

Different types of professional photography will require different types of photography equipment so your choice of what style to study may be limited by how much you are willing to spend for the equipment. Many people choose to obtain a basic digital camera to start with because it is very easy to position and zoom, you can view the photographs immediately after taking them, and they can be mounted on a tripod for still shots.

Step Two - Practicing Photographic Shots

By using a digital camera and a tripod, the person can practice taking photographs of different types of subjects and discover through trial which types of lighting they prefer, which types of subjects they enjoy, and whether they would like to pursue professional photography further. Some people have such difficulty taking basic shots that they discover that they do not enjoy photography as much as they thought they would while others take to it like a duck to water and decide to make professional photography their full time career. Taking photographs like a professional photographer will take a lot of practice, but the person should have fun learning how to take the photographs and discovering the subjects that they like to photograph.

Digital cameras are great for practicing professional photography because you will not waste a lot of film on bad shots. Any photographs that you do not like can be deleted from the memory card immediately and the photographs that you do like can be uploaded to a computer to be viewed larger or saved as a file for future review. Using a digital camera can also allow you to edit the photographs that have been taken so that you can see what needs to be done the next time you decide to take that type of shot.

Step Three - Finding Hints And Tips For Improvement

There are many websites on the internet that provide hints and tips for people that are interested in professional photography. Some of these websites will have better information than others so it is very important to look at several different websites before making a decision about which ones to follow. Professional photography is just as much about the photographer as the photographs and if a photographer is unhappy taking the photographs, it shows through on the images so be happy with the style that you have chosen.