A Hobo Becomes a Professional Photographer

come on tell us how much baht you made selling the photo's before we foolishly rush off to Africa with a camera.

hi,super traveller,
can i have a small question about the photography? i like travels and like taking pictures for fun. but it is more fun if my pics were chosen to get small bonus.
Do you use fancy expensive camera? any advice for that? i know it is a simple question. i am using a simple portable Nikon, and thinking to buy a better one.
thanks for your time.
waiting for your reply sincerely.
thanks.
take care.

Hello Grassland Girl,

The majority of cameras produced since say January 2006 take large enough photos for most books, or margazine. I do not believe they are big enough photo for posters.

I personally do not believe the camera is the solution, most digital cameras today will work.

This is what is great about a digital camera, take 1000's of photos until you know how your camera works.

Light is everything about a picture. I like to use the screen view for pictures, if you experiment you can see how just changing the angle of the photo you are taking changes on the screen.

Change your batteries if there is any lack of response by the camera, do not wait for them to become completely drained. The last few picture would be bad quality.

If you was taking 100 photos in 1 hour, the batteries would cause problems, there is a delay in the re-energizing of the camera.

Taking 3-4 photos in say 20 minutes will allow better quality photos.

Experiment with light, take a photo of a tree as you walk 360 degrees around the tree. Do not look at on the camera, put on the computer. You will instantly see that shade of the tree change the photo and the position of the sun.

A good photographer looks at the sun before they take the photo to see where it is positioned.

I have thought about how much a photos is worth for years. I believe the fair price for about any photo is 100 U.S. Dollars as of August 2008.

I believe being a travel photographer is the worst way on the planet to make money, short of being a man powered rickshaw.

There is no money in taking photos unless you are working exclusively for a newspaper, magazine etc.

Do not run off to Africa...

I see 99.9 percent of all photographers as wanting to be famous, I could care less about fame, as you can see, I do not even have my photos on this site.

I do like money, this is just extra cash, and that is all it will ever be, however technically I am a professional now, I was paid, took photos as requested.

How long it takes you to show the photos and sent the photos to the client is the secret.

Note, big Cameras do not make good photographers, I believe pratice, I have taken over 20,000 photos.

Congratulations on being published. Its nice to be allowed in by the gatekeepers. You make a good point regarding lighting. I once heard a national geographic editor give some simple advice on becoming a better photographer. "Wake up before sunrise, every day." Lighting is best at dawn when the sun is low on the horizon and has to filter through all the dust, haze, and pollutants. Thats what creates that warm soft mood that the best pictures have. Of course most travelers are lazy and won't wake up that early. Perhaps those who were raised on farms or had military background will. But most never will, and will continue to take bad photos.

I am presently as of August 2008 in Manila, Philippines. I receive many request from NGO's for Street Children Photos.

This request angers me, anyone who wants photos of street children just needs to walk around as the sun rises and you can take hundreds of photos.

I remember in Brazil taking beautiful photos of the sunrise. The sunrise are great on the Brazil side, and the sunsets are great on the Peru, Ecuador side of South America.

Yes, very true,

The camera does not make the photographer. But it does help to use a good camera. By good I mean one that responds well low light situations and does not need and incredibly long exposure time to take a such photo.

I just published an article on Honduran cockfights in a penny and nickle magazine but am having some difficulties with my photos because I had to take them on the lowest possible resolution setting to prevent them from being blurred by the long exposure times that are necessitated by higher resolution settings. But the problem is that the photos are a little too small for a print magazine. I think they WILL work, but I know that I could not sell these photographs for print media outside apart from the article.

I know that if I wished to sell my photos, that I would need to get a better functioning camera. The one that I have works well for internet publishing, but not for print media.

Good advice though Andy. It is the sharing of first hand experience like this that sets your blog apart from all others.

Walk Slow and make me a darn backpack,

Wade

If you want to optimize your chances of taking the best photo, then I suppose easier with a great camera, whatever that is?

I am doing good on the backpack, really hate to bore my readers by talking about it daily.

NGO=glorified con men. Some obvious exceptions, but most ought to be ashamed of how they prey on people's good intentions.