First of all, thank you very much for this awesome course, Sean. This is exactly the information I was looking for. You gave some great insights and tips about how you and other travel photographers have approached this career path. Great course and really valuable lessons. A +++

This is how I'm approaching this next chapter in my life.

"Do more of what makes you happy."
With this wisdom in mind... my girlfriend and I are leaving Belgium in november to travel the world and pursue our dreams as location independent workers. We'll kick off in South East Asia, then travel to Australia and New Zealand.

I can't say that we have a career masterplan, but I absolutely want to include photography in the mix. My idea about earning money on the road consists of several potential scenarios/income streams. The main one would be direct client work.

First of all, I'm a freelance digital project manager/email marketing consultant and my girlfriend is a copywriter. We combine our skills to build websites, emails and digital campaigns for our clients. At this moment, We're actively working on expanding our client base so we can earn enough to cover our living expenses while traveling. This would be our main income stream.

Next to freelancing, I want to improve and professionalize my photography... a longtime passion of mine that matches perfectly with my other skills and interests such as graphic design, webdesign and marketing. My goal is to offer local businesses beautiful and quality visual communication that does justice to their business. Some project I'd love to do are:

- Shoot interiors of hotels, resorts, restaurants,... to put on booking websites, social media or their own website.
- Shoot food and beverages for restaurants/bars and use these shots to design a new restaurant menu card while I'm at it. To show the true deliciousness they have to offer.
- Adventure and activity shots for tourist offices to put in their flyers
- Photograph a boutique cocktail bar and build a website for them.
- Portraits and lifestyle shots of business owners (and their employees) in their working environment.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend can enrich these photos with well written copy, connect with new potential brands that we'd love to work for and define new creative marketing ideas to make those businesses grow.

These shots were taken in december 2017 during my first photoshoot ever while traveling. This was for Saladan Beach Resort on Koh Lanta.

Do more of what makes you happy. - image 1 - student project

Do more of what makes you happy. - image 2 - student project

Do more of what makes you happy. - image 3 - student project

They're not the best images I've ever shot but I absolutely loved shooting for the resort and I also learned a lot from it such as:

avoid shooting mid-day. the sun is way too harsh then.
close toilet lids in bathrooms.
don't shoot in front of a mirror, stupid.
hide unplugged TV cables.

#shootfails

I never really thought of stock photography as an option so it was great to hear about this as well in the course. Thanks for the idea, Sean! I will dive into my photo archive and make a selection to upload. This forces me to finally start building a portfolio. Because that's what I'm struggling with the most.

I love photographing a variety of subjects and styles. I'm still experimenting to discover what I like. This makes it hard to build a consistent portfolio. Either in personal style or subject. I guess this is something that develops and finetunes the more you photograph.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this adventure and new chapter. Your course has given me valuable answers and made me even more motivated to start doing this. Thank you!

If you are interested, I would love to meet you in Chiang Mai someday. Maybe we can do a cafe shoot together? :)

Peace,
PJ

PS Perfect toilet lecture ==> IG @pj_decoster. Don't forget to check it out and let me know which ones you like the most. It would mean a lot!

Pieterjan Decoster

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