• Produce a range of imagery, in terms of tone. You can create a silly tone in a somber environment, and vice versa. Remember that the buyer is trying to create a certain feel with their layout, and the more options you give them, the better. Give them funny and kitschy, give them traditional and beautiful. As Granado says: "the buyers may not all agree that a funny picture of someone pigging out on a corn dog, for example, is appropriate for that article." Well put.

photo by Cedric Angeles

• Produce a range of imagery, in terms of subject matter. Food, portraits, landscapes! You're telling the story of a place, and a place is multi-faceted. Find what is special about the place to you, and let the story evolve. Wander about and try to shoot a bit of everything-- remember there is no one set formula. If the location means something to you, if you have a clear perspective-- it will come through in your imagery. You want the viewer to feel as if they are there with you, enjoying that local goat cheese.

photos by David Nicolas

• Natural light, natural light, natural light! This is a biggie; your goal as a travel photographer is to show the best of the place. And that means showing it naturally. Why light a room when you can have natural light streaming in the window? When in low-light situations, use fills, use long exposures. Travel is about charm, and charm is not achieved with a strobe (unless you are very careful). This is the same for gels. Be very careful where you tread.

photos by David Nicolas

• Do your research. Know where you're going! Cedric Angeles has some great techniques: "I usually watch films set in the specific place i am photographing. I also read books about the place, a guidebook, a novel or travel writings from any writers that I like. This gives me a good base in terms of what kind of imagery starts to form in my mind."

photos by Cedric Angeles

• Make lists. Again, both a buyer tip and a photographer tip. If you're on assignment, you'll have a list from your editor, and if you're not, you should make your own. Think of moments that will happen, faces you'd like to capture. It's your perspective that you're recording, so figure out what that perspective is.

                     photo by Emiliano Granado

• Find some friends. Be a local. Talk to folks! This is an invaluable tool to help you understand and shoot your environs better. You'll learn about spots that are not in the guidebooks, and you'll find interesting faces and customs.
  

• Avoid the cliches. If you're shooting something exactly like the aging postcard on display at the local gift shop, you're wasting film or card space.
  

• Sunsets? Everybody shoots sunsets, so know that the quality bar is very high and your shot must be differentiated. Search 'sunset' on any stock site and see what comes back. If you can't beat what's already there, it's probably not worth capturing from a sales standpoint. On the other hand, if you can beat the existing inventory, do it!
  

photos by Cedric Angeles

• Be yourself. In the end, travel photography is very much about the photographer's style and vision. Bring your own perspective, make yourself stand out. And don't give up! Angeles, again, helps us out here" "Dont give up. Keep shooting, keep showing your work, promote your work, make sure people see it. Always make sure your work is being seen."

5. SHOT LIST
Here are some ideas to get you started. These are truly just a jumping off point - we encourage you to find your own ideas and get creative - it will pay dividends in your sales!

Urban Settings:

• Conceptual/Mood-setting Images: urban destinations can be associated with the moods the traveler wants to experience: excitement, energy, romance, culture, style, high fashion, party atmosphere, history, modernity, sophistication etc.
• Neighborhoods, both well known and off the beaten path, ethnic and more typical
• Districts, such as theater district, shopping district, etc-try to get a new point-of-view; include signage where appropriate.
• Parks, recreation, outdoor amenities
• Locals in these settings in different moods and times of day (positive /clean depictions are more saleable)
• Major landmarks, artworks, and buildings-- try to be unique in point of view and time of day.
• Cityscapes
• Restaurant exteriors, including signage
• Restaurant interiors, including servers, customers and decor
• Food and beverages in restaurants
• Typical street or ethnic food /try to avoid flash and messy backgrounds/
• Residents going about daily life
• Residents having fun
• Environmental portraiture of beautiful locals, or local characters
• Local style and fashion
• Store exterior and interiors, goods for sale- don't stick to only typical tourist haunts and avoid cluttered photos; use signage where appropriate
• Nightlife in general, in the streets and in establishments
• Exteriors of clubs and bars, includings signage and neon lights
• Interiors of clubs and bars
• People dancing having fun inside clubs and bars (one case where strobe might be ok)
• Close up detail shots of any and all of these locals
• Typical vehicles or modes of travel, transit stations hubs-- again, unique POV
• Cultural events high and low, art, museums, music, theater venues
• Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples
• The clergy and rituals thereof

Beach Settings:

• Conceptual/Mood-setting Images: beach vacation spots are often associated with the following moods or feelings desired by the traveler: relaxation, luxury, adventure, pampering, romance, exclusivity, play, sunshine, fun, surf, the beauty of the landscape, a sense of open space, colorfulness, party atmosphere, sexiness, togetherness, etc.. (*these must be very well executed since they will be purchased for their aspirational value*)
• Bodies of water and waves should be shot at great moments and with good light to show off the best color and shapes.
• Streets and villages, both typical tourist spots and off the beaten bath
• Details of shells and sea life, well-composed, colorful, shot on the beach or underwater
• Couples, families, locals, and tourists on the beach, should be aspirational and attractive
• Environmental portraits of local characters and beauties, ethnic/native peoples
• Beach chairs, umbrellas and towels -- empty and waiting for the traveler
• The beach with a beautiful companion, beverage, bird, flower, or food item in the shot
• Specific hotels, interiors and exteriors, signage where appropriate
• Bungalows, huts other unique places you can stay at beach locales
• Food, especially seafood, tropical drinks, fruits before and after cooking
• Local markets, street food, good composition, sense of the moment (color and light is essential here)
• Beachfront cafés and grills
• People in stylish beach wear, showing tans, nice bodies
• People in scuba snorkel gear, people enjoying those activities
• Local flora and fauna, both alone and including people
• People swimming, floating, luxuriating in water, from many points of view
• Surfing, Windsurfing, Paragliding etc. Catch the right moments, spray of water, good expressions, make it look, fun, skillful, or relaxed where appropriate
• Dawn, dusk, candle or fire light on the beach
• Cultural festivals, carnivals, musical and dance performances. Try to avoid canned events designed for tourists only.
• Pools, Jacuzzis, hot springs, spas, restaurants, other hotel amenities
• Show the unique service at high end establishments, using employees, turned down beds, shined shoes left at your door, room service, complimentary spa products in your room etc, etc.
• Spa and beauty treatments, massages
• Sandcastles, sand toys
• Kids playing in the sand, etc
• People playing beach games like volleyball and Frisbee etc.
• Fitness, meditation and yoga may be appropriate in certain destinations.
• Boats, boating, sailing, yachting, harbors: (*Be extremely careful not to clutter the frame with many masts and boats, poor color and contrast, ugly unclean details. We get a lot of these shots and most are uninspiring. Capture details, colors, clean composition, point of view on the boat including the prow and wake, both motion and calm. *)
• Fishing, Fisherman, etc.
• Watch out for the sky-- avoid muddy, dark, or blown out

Countryside/ Small Town Settings:

• Conceptual/Mood-setting Images: rural areas and small towns often create these types of feelings or ideas in the traveler: calmness, landscape, back to nature, tradition, retreat, timelessness, quaintness, warmth, friendliness, family, simple life, humanity, agriculture, animals, green, privacy, quiet, relaxation, solitude, beautiful vistas etc.
• Impressive landscapes, mountains, waterfalls, valleys, towns etc. - composition and waiting for the right light is important here
• The above with a person, couple, friends, or family included to set a mood
• Farms, farming
• Picturesque homes and shops
• Environmental portraits of happy locals, salt of the earth types, and ethnic people where applicable
• Local produce, artisanal foods and beverages
• Details of tools, baskets, crafts
• Stores and signage, local goods
• Buildings and historic landmarks
• Places of worship and ceremony
• Rural activities, including horseback riding, canoeing, golf, hiking, biking hunting, backpacking, fishing, etc.
• Farm equipment, quaint vehicles
• Bed and Breakfasts, smaller hotels and lodgings
• Details of the interiors of these places, pretty décor in the rooms, country amenities and socializing with other guests are often the appeal of these places.
• Camping, campgrounds
• Cookouts, campfires
• Relaxing on the porch, hammock, grass, dock etc..
• Local kitsch
  

Ski/Winter Sports Settings:
Many of the same shots for urban, small town or countryside areas would apply here. Mmore specific ideas also include:

• Mountainous landscapes, distant shots of ski towns or resorts
• Overall resort pictures
• Ski lifts, both distant and close ups
• Interiors of Ski lodges, hotels
• Snow covered streets and other details of the town
• Storefronts, restaurant fronts
• Cozy interiors of ski lodgings, hotel accommodations, amenities, spas, spa treatments
• Images of skiers and snowboarders
• People in ski clothes hanging out, or talking outside
• People in warm clothes gathered in lodges, fireplaces, warm drinks etc
• Snow covered natural environment shots, and details
• Windows covered with frost
• Other winter sports offered at each specific resort, skating, tobogganing, cross country
• Lighted night skiing

Remote Settings:
Again many shots from beach, small town, countryside or urban environments would apply here depending where you are. You could also shoot:

• Sensitive depiction of local culture
• Local ethnic groups, positively portrayed
• Exotic creatures and plants
• Unusual modes of transport
• Local religious or cultural customs carefully depicted

Adventure Travel:
This type of travel photography can differ somewhat from the others in that you would also show travelers in the shots doing adventure sports activities (see magazines such as Outside, National Geographic Adventure, and Backpacker). Keep the shots dynamic and focus on showing high energy.

• Backpacker from behind with a beautiful landscape in front of them
• Climbers of all types on mountain and rock faces or ice covered cliffs that show unique aspects of that locale
• Kayaking and canoeing
• Running, jumping, hiking, trail walking, snow shoeing
• Camping, snow camping
• Activities relating to those above

photos by David Nicolas

If you've already read our Primer on Travel Photography for Stock Photography, then you're already briefed on some of the do's and don't for stock-quality travel images. This article will give you more visual comparisons of accepted, borderline and rejected images that our photo editors have seen in their queues.

Arguably, the number one goal of a travel stock image is to make the viewer want to visit that destination. The image needs to strike the right balance of informational and aspirational content. A very banal image of a sunset might be aspirational, but it's not informational. A street scene might be the opposite.

As you view these visual examples, you will likely find individual images that you disagree with. However, we encourage you to spend time looking at the level of quality of the accepted imagery to understand where the general bar is set for these travel-related images.

Lastly, the number of images we have of any specific location will affect the acceptance rates of other images of the same subject matter. The PhotoShelter Collection contains many images of the London Eye, but not many of Makapu'u Beach in Hawai'i, so the bar will be lower in the latter.

Beaches & Bodies of Water
Accepted:


Photo by Zach Holmes / #PSC000833428


Photo by Jevgenija Pigozne / #PSC001185375


Photo by John Smith/ #PSC001226979


Photo by Doug Dailey/ #PSC001252628

• Exposure are highly accurate
• Good composition (e.g. vanishing point in the old pier)
• Sharp focus
• Good tonal range

Borderline:

• Although it might be hard to see at this size, neither photo is really sharp, in part because of the sea mist and time of day
• Tilted horizon
• Light is not flattering

Reject:

• Tilted horizons
• Poor point of view and composition
• Doesn't convey enough information about the location. Rocks and the ocean are very generic. Try harder to frame a composition that conveys something unique.
• Mediocre photos don't make the viewer want to visit.
• If the image does not succeed in identifying a specific place, it must be aesthetically superior (i.e. the iconic beach shot)

Travel represents one of the most popular content submission areas for the PhotoShelter Collection, and as such, we are becoming increasingly more selective about the types of images that we accept. The following guidelines are prescriptive for travel photography, although some concepts will extend into the general realm of stock photography.

The guidelines are the same guidelines presented to our photo editors dealing with travel photography. The editors are accorded the latitude to make subjective calls, and therefore, these guidelines are structured so you understand situations where the probability of rejection is higher. We believe this is a more sensible methodology rather than having a blanket enforcement of a rule which is probably not applicable to all images. For example, if you submit a low contrast photo with a blown-out sky of the Afghan Buddhas before they were destroyed by the Taliban, we are very likely to accept it. However, if the structures were still standing, we have a higher probability of rejecting the image. Context, historical importance, and even quality of the caption affect the probability of acceptance.



Travel imagery probably has a rejection rate somewhere in the 40-50% range. This is a reflection of 1) the large amounts of travel photography, 2) the fact that many non-pros shoot and submit travel content, 3) self-editing of travel imagery isn't as stringent as it is in other categories (i.e. a photographer submits many images of the same subject from multiple angles).

What does salable travel imagery look like?
We suggest checking out the following magazines to acquaint you with the style and technical level of photography that is being used commercially today:

-    Travel + Leisure
-    Conde Nast Traveler
-    National Geographic Traveler

Whitney Lawson from Travel + Leisure told us, "We are looking for a filmy look with natural light - nothing that looks [overly] digital, or like PR [press relations material]..."

Remember to shoot a variety of vantage points. No one wants to see just a picture of an entire building. Get some detail. Get some mid-range images. Get some interiors. Create an overall sense of a place. Most importantly, take the time to see what images are being published, and then use a critical eye against your own work. The devil is often in the details, and developing your skills to scrutinize an image will make you a better photographer.

Content Saturation
Certain locations and landmarks are more heavily photographed than others. One way to tell whether an area is saturated or not, is to search the PSC yourself. If an area is saturated, we are more likely to apply a higher level of scrutiny to the image before allowing it. For example, we have many images of London, but not many of Mauna Kea, therefore, we are more likely to accept "average" images of the latter, while being highly selective of London images.



Point of View/Focus
A travel photo must convey enough information to the viewer to give them context of where they are and what they are looking at. If you shoot Big Ben, make sure Big Ben is in focus/exposed, and not the sculpture you're shooting through. Similarly, there are cliché shots (e.g. a narrow street, cars on the street) in travel that are submitted in large numbers to the PSC. Make sure these types of shots have no technical defects whatsoever in order to avoid a higher probability of rejection.

The subject of your photo should also be clear in focus and exposed. We've seen some photos where the the subject is out-of-focus and a foreground element is more prominent. Similarly, framing a photo with a tree or other fauna is ok if the tree isn't obscuring the subject, and you don't have a bright distracting object (e.g. a flower) in the foreground. These types of gaffes will increase the probability of rejection.




Rejected photos often have many characteristics that push it over the threshold of rejection. Creating a great photo requires a lot of thought, planning, and practice!



"Evergreen" areas
Some destinations never seem to grow old, and picture buyers are constantly seeking images of these destinations. These areas include:

• Caribbean
• Hawaii
• Europe
• Italy
• France
• Germany (Berlin is hot now)
• Mexico (specifically the Mayan Riviera)
• American cities (particularly in light of the weak dollar - Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle)
• "Driving Story" destinations (e.g. Napa Valley, National Parks)

Still, even with these areas, the goal should still be to make an iconic picture; one that both is beautiful, but also contains enough contextual elements to avoid being perceived as "this could be anywhere."

Vintage  Images
Images of places shot long ago (e.g. pre-digital) are of interest because of their relative scarcity, and if they convey a sense of a specific time and place, they have a higher probability of being accepted even if there are some technical defects. This does not mean you should start scanning all your old slides. Please still apply scrutiny to your own edit.