IL Postcard

Turn Your Vacation Snapshots Into Cash

Date: 07/20/2008

Monday, July 21, 2008

Find more ways to make money overseas in International Living Postcards—your daily escape

Dear International Living Reader,

To most travelers, a vacation is a time to relax, take in a few museums, enjoy coffee in an outdoor café, eat out, and meet new people. And I do all of that, too...but to me, a vacation is also my ticket to some easy cash…

For example, when I go to Paris, I enjoy the cafés…the lavish meals…the leisurely strolls along the Seine. And I take pictures as I go—just as we all do when we’re on vacation.

The difference for me is that I don’t just slide my pictures into an album when I get home. I sell them. Thousands of websites, magazines, and travel agencies buy vacation photos from travelers like me all the time.

It’s not hard to find buyers. Here’s how to do it:

Use online stock photo agencies, also known as “microstock sites.” For me, this creates a second-income stream. Enough, in some cases, to cover the cost of my trips.

Stock photo agencies are happy to work with amateurs, but they do expect near-perfect photographs, so you’ve got to have a good digital camera and an eye for composition.

Travel agencies, art directors, editors, and even high school kids looking for photos to illustrate their MySpace page or their geography and history papers are all customers of these online stock sites.

It doesn’t cost you anything to upload your vacation shots and buyers can download whichever pictures they choose for anywhere between $1 and $20 each, depending on what size image they want.

Over time, I’ve collected hundreds of images from my travels and even pictures from my home. My travel images do well…but so do photos of my goldfish, my family members, even everyday objects like my morning coffee or an apple.

You don’t have to do any marketing. Just upload your photos and wait for them to sell. At the end of the month, I get a check for at least $1,300 (sometimes more) for my efforts.

It’s fast, easy, and fun…and you can do it, too.

Here are three things you can photograph on your next trip to sell for stock:

Spa and health/wellness: The next time you’re getting a massage or aromatherapy treatment, take a look at the objects around you. Some sought-after images on stock sites feature massage oils, lotions, towels, candles, incense, stones, flowers, and other spa and wellness-related objects. Arrange them nicely in the shot without any other clutter around. This is also something you can do in your home.

Items that carry logos won’t be bought by stock agencies, so photograph bottles without labels, turn the labels around, or edit the names and logos out with a post-processing program like Photoshop.

Food and hospitality: If you go out for a meal, you can take pictures of the food. If you can get a few good shots of fine dining or food from different cultures, they may sell as stock.

Try to photograph more than just the plates and the meal. Take photos of wine glasses, forks and knives, and other restaurant atmosphere items.

Note that almost every online stock agency requires that you submit a model release for images that contain recognizable people. I suggest you focus on the food and drinks first. Model releases are specific to each site, so get your account up and running before you try to submit photographs of people.

Cultural scenes and daily life: While designers in the travel industry need photos of the Eiffel Tower, the Roman Coliseum, beach sunsets, and the like, the microstock photo market is already saturated with images like these.

You’ll have better luck if you take photos of everyday objects and actions that represent life and customs wherever you’re traveling. For example, if you’re in Rome, take a few detail photos of Roman architecture or crackling stucco. In Japan, you could take photos of the sandals people leave at the door before entering a room. Or in France, take a picture of an old bike with a basket on the front of it full of baguettes.

I recommend some of my favorite stock sites to IL magazine readers in the July issue. Subscribers can access the full article here. Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up.

Shelly Perry
For International Living

Editor’s note: Interested in selling your vacation photos, but don’t know where to start? We can give you precise guidelines on how to tap into the biggest money-making markets and how to take a simple photo that can earn you a fortune. Click here for details.

Read related IL Postcards:

- Your Passport to a New Life Overseas

- Yes, You Can Retire in the Next 12 Months

- Cash in on Your Travels: Steenie's Insider Secrets