Great Escape Publishing

Posted July 22nd, 2015 by Lori Allen & filed under Travel Photography.

You might say that Sir William Henry Perkin was a complete failure.

In 1856, while the young chemist was attempting to create a malaria cure, he created the color purple.

A bit of unexpected residue from his lab test got on his clothes and died them mauve. He isolated the compound producing the color and created – for the first time in history – a synthetic dye manufacturers could use to dye clothes.

Purple was the “in” color back then, so he and his family produced all sorts of mauve-colored items, and, within a few years, became exceptionally wealthy.

And even better – someone still went on to create the malaria treatment he was originally looking for. It wasn’t him. But they used his studies to do it, so his journey wasn’t all for clothing dye and riches. Many lives were saved, too.

The lesson here is this: Things don’t always turn out the way we expect. Sometimes the wrong path is also the right one. And sometimes we still get to the answer even if it’s not the way we thought we’d get there.

But when we let our fear of failure paralyze us, it’s worse than failing. It deprives us of a journey. And it’s the journey that we need in order to succeed.

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” — Suzy Kassem

So if you have a travel dream but don’t know how to get there… just begin the journey. Start small.

Take your camera for a walk or to an event this weekend.

If you can, focus on these four photography tips and tricks, and you’ll be on your way…

Good composition. Try and keep the center of your image empty and use the Rule of Thirds to place your key subject on a thirds line. The Rule of Thirds is not a “rule,” of course. But it’s a guideline that will improve nearly every photograph.

Good light. Good light is not too dark. Not too bright. And it’s typically evenly spread across your subject. Here’s an example of good and bad light…

Too dark:

Too light:

Just right:

No clutter or distractions. The most saleable photos have a single message without trash, crumpled beach towels, power lines or bright spots to distract from that message.

Too much:

Just right:

Subtle processing. Every photo you send out for sale should have a little bit of processing, whether you do that with a cheap photo editing tool you find online or you buy a professional program like Adobe Lightroom.

Here’s an example of a photograph before and after processing in Lightroom:

When you start small with these four things, not only will your photos improve drastically, but I think you’ll find that your confidence builds with each step you take. Soon you’ll be on your way to turning your travel dreams into reality.

No matter what kinds of photos you want to shoot…

Hometown photos… people… weather… stock… food… feelings… travel…

… there’s a market for your photos and a place to sell them.