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Author Topic: This Couple Makes Up To $9000 Per Instagram Photo While Traveling, And Here’s Ho  (Read 5081 times)

Schewe

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Wow...some people have all the luck. They are good looking AND they shoot pretty good too...

This Couple Makes Up To $9000 Per Instagram Photo While Traveling, And Here’s How They Do It

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Jack Morris and Lauren Bullen have been living what most people on Instagram would call “life goals” since they met in Fiji last year. Not only do they spend their days documenting their world travels with flawless photos, they get paid up to $9000 USD for each one they post.

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“I edit all my photos in the same kind of style with my own lightroom presets,” he said of their dreamy ‘matching’ effect. He also added that the couple mostly shoots around 1 hour after sunrise, since that tends to be the quietest time of day. The couple reportedly won’t take less than $3000 USD for a post.
Read Jack’s full Q&A here, though be warned – it just might make your dayjob a little harder to get through.

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Eric Myrvaagnes

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I like the Art Director leaning in from the left window to move one of the props.
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-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

luong

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Luck? Anyone who posts on Instagram knows that it takes an incredible amount of work and skill to get 2 million followers.
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QT Luong - author of http://TreasuredLandsBook.com, winner of 6 national book awards

Schewe

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Luck? Anyone who posts on Instagram knows that it takes an incredible amount of work and skill to get 2 million followers.

I was being facetious :~) What the couple has done is remarkable!
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JoeKitchen

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Maybe I'm doing it all wrong.  I have enough trouble getting an architect to hire me for 6 or 8 images at that price. 

I want to know how much it cost to hire that trainer.  I cant imagine (actually know) two giraffes just happened to walk by at the perfect time. 

Weird lighting though.  The shadow of the girl falls to the left whereas the shadow of the giraffe (on the left) falls the the right, very unnatural.  I assume two white umbrellas, but why not just one with a bounce. 
« Last Edit: April 09, 2017, 10:11:35 pm by JoeKitchen »
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"Photography is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent

Pete_G

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By a curious quirk of fate I caught this BBC TV programme tonight:

http://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/fm26kp/amazing-hotels-life-beyond-the-lobby--s1-e3-giraffe-manor-kenya

I guess the hardest thing the couple did was click on a button to book the room for a thousand quid a night.
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Tim Lookingbill

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So it's a story about rich people who make enough money to afford expensive vacations and stays at high end hotels recouping costs by posting their photos on Instagram. Wonder what their profit/loss statements look like.

Again, it takes money to make money.

Unfortunately I really don't like traveling. It's a PITA more than it's worth. Better bring your own water and food supply like Spielberg warned to his actors filming in Tunisia on "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". Unless you like spending most of your vacation pissing out your ass.

Wonder if that can qualify as a right off on a profit/loss statement.
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pearlstreet

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What's wrong with being a rich photographer? Or a rich travel blogger? They have some fabulous photography on their instagram sites...perfect stuff to promote vacation sites.

I'm thrilled to see they aren't giving it away.
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Tim Lookingbill

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Nothing wrong with being rich except when publicly flaunted as an unrealistic and simplistic business model to indicate anyone can do this if they just apply them self by simply photographing their travels around the world.

It comes across as just another hyped up story by the privileged to get attention since apparently an already enriched lifestyle isn't satisfying enough.
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JoeKitchen

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Nothing wrong with being rich except when publicly flaunted as an unrealistic and simplistic business model to indicate anyone can do this if they just apply them self by simply photographing their travels around the world.

It comes across as just another hyped up story by the privileged to get attention since apparently an already enriched lifestyle isn't satisfying enough.

Well then, I think maybe I need to take up carpet cleaning then.  Who would have thought that you could get rich enough to retire in your 30s and travel the world for the rest of your life by cleaning carpets. 
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"Photography is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent

pearlstreet

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Nothing wrong with being rich except when publicly flaunted as an unrealistic and simplistic business model to indicate anyone can do this if they just apply them self by simply photographing their travels around the world.

It comes across as just another hyped up story by the privileged to get attention since apparently an already enriched lifestyle isn't satisfying enough.

It isn't unrealistic or simplistic. A lot of people are doing very well with Instagram as companies are pouring a lot of their ad money into it, enriching a lot of people.
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Tim Lookingbill

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It isn't unrealistic or simplistic. A lot of people are doing very well with Instagram as companies are pouring a lot of their ad money into it, enriching a lot of people.

You don't know the number of people to qualify as a lot nor can you prove it.
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Telecaster

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I've met and hung out with YouTubers who vlog for a living and do pretty well at it. One such couple has stayed at the place pictured in this thread, friendly/nosey giraffes & all. It's on the safari circuit. This takes lotsa dedication and effort, and as a result the burnout rate is high. You also have to be willing to let yourself be a marketing adjunct, but in return companies let you borrow or even give you gear. I can't imagine even traveling (much less living) that way myself: you're so focused on documenting your experiences that you don't get to fully experience them.

-Dave-
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pearlstreet

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You don't know the number of people to qualify as a lot nor can you prove it.

Yes I do know. I know personally someone who is part of a large network of people who make money from instagram. There are opportunities to be made if you can get past giving your work away because people "like" it. But it is hard work and requires a time commitment and a great deal of tenacity, creativity and most importantly, having a product that companies are interested in and a very strong drive.  What the people in the article do isn't easy, they know how to make their life look easy but it is hard work.
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BrownBear

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The most interesting/successful "travel" photographers I've ever met surprised heck out of me.  They even dragged out their accounting books and tax returns from a couple of years to prove their point.

They were elderly and more or less lived in their small motor home (We were in a national park at the time.). They used nothing but basic point and shoot cameras and had prints made at a local Walmart wherever they were at the time. But here's the point:  They made a darned good living at it.

Their routine was to plot a "route" of shows, festivals and even flea markets wherever they wanted to visit. Arrive a few days early, take shots of local landmarks, and have multiples printed.  Then sit down at their campground picnic table or the dinette in their RV and glue the photos to blank note cards, put 4 with matching envelopes in suitable display bags and sell them in a booth at the event. Price was $10-$15 a pack, depending on local markets. Their marketing experience told them to keep the price below $20 to encourage impulse buys. Their photos were several degrees short of "great," but better than the average snapshooter would take in the same locations.

Low overhead, easy labor and quick sales added up to a surprising sales volume. Having the time of their lives traveling and netting more money than they ever managed in pre-retirement.

Not my cup of tea, but creative people with sensible business plans and a knowledge of "fringe" markets can surprise you.
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Pete_G

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It isn't unrealistic or simplistic. A lot of people are doing very well with Instagram as companies are pouring a lot of their ad money into it, enriching a lot of people.

I've unfortunately been involved in advertising to a fair extent and I've never, ever considered that I or any recipient of it was really "enriched", tickled briefly maybe, conned more likely. I have no experience of Instagram so won't bother to comment on it but I have experience of You Tube, mainly to find out how to change a tap washer or rebuild an automatic transmission and even sometimes to watch vloggers as they cruise around the world "Living the dream" or "Just Doing It" or other terms straight from Wieden and Kennedy. What initially seems fun is very quickly boring then facile and finally offensive. The burnout rate is indeed high and I can't imagine many vloggers lasting the course except possibly for exceptions such as Casey Niestat, who is one of the few who genuinely seem to be moving the culture of You Tube forward a little.

The surprising thing is how many kids adore these vloggers and want to become like them. Being a rock star doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

Whatever, I still think that working really hard in the hope of becoming a really good photographer is a greater achievement than following the mainly dubious fashions of social media, but I'm probably wrong....I usually am.
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pearlstreet

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I've unfortunately been involved in advertising to a fair extent and I've never, ever considered that I or any recipient of it was really "enriched", tickled briefly maybe, conned more likely. I have no experience of Instagram so won't bother to comment on it but I have experience of You Tube, mainly to find out how to change a tap washer or rebuild an automatic transmission and even sometimes to watch vloggers as they cruise around the world "Living the dream" or "Just Doing It" or other terms straight from Wieden and Kennedy. What initially seems fun is very quickly boring then facile and finally offensive. The burnout rate is indeed high and I can't imagine many vloggers lasting the course except possibly for exceptions such as Casey Niestat, who is one of the few who genuinely seem to be moving the culture of You Tube forward a little.

The surprising thing is how many kids adore these vloggers and want to become like them. Being a rock star doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

Whatever, I still think that working really hard in the hope of becoming a really good photographer is a greater achievement than following the mainly dubious fashions of social media, but I'm probably wrong....I usually am.

Enriched was the wrong word..I realized that later but didn't alter it. I know people who get a lot of goods and money to review products. Because they are gear heads it's fun to them but you are right, it's hard work, very hard work. It doesn't float my boat either but I do like people who have the drive and initiative to do it.
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BrownBear

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Allocation of labor is imperative in any good business plan.  If you can't afford to invest the time and effort into anything (or don't want to), it's not a good fit for the business. 

My wife was our business manager, or as she put it more accurately, I was the inspiration while she was the perspiration. Any time I dreamed up some new enterprise or saw an opportunity fit for pouncing, she'd sit me down and toast my footsies over the proverbial fire: How much time will it take? How hard will it be? What's the anticipated income? What is the payback schedule for the purchase of any new equipment?

Yeah, she took all the fun out of it!  ;D  But she sure knows how to build a healthy, sustainable business and make money. 
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Tim Lookingbill

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Thanks folks for bringing some reality into this discussion. Yeah, starting and running a business is tough especially when it's a new and unproven for success business model.

Like BrownBear's wife I too now look for the gotcha's entering any business venture using my own money, equipment and sweat.

Taking ques from my cousin who went from being held up for almost 24/7 in a trailer examining core samples as a mud logger on an oil rig, thinking the traveling life as a long haul truck driver would be better, he soon figured out it wasn't what he'ld thought. Too tired to enjoy the spots he spent at rest stops and diner truck stops and too pressured to staying on schedule while on the road while not able to stop and take in some of the most beautiful places he had to pass through in the U.S.

And then not mentioned in this thread and not factored into cost is the possibility of being in a life changing traffic fatality along the way.
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Telecaster

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And then not mentioned in this thread and not factored into cost is the possibility of being in a life changing traffic fatality along the way.

This is part of the deal, though, for anyone who travels anywhere by car or who happens to be where cars also are. My favorite coffee shop (where I am currently) is located just off a busy 5-lane road where accidents are not uncommon. A couple years ago a regular customer here was hit and killed while trying to cross the road on foot. You play the odds every time you get behind the wheel or have to contend with other folks who've done so.

The grind of travel (airports & planes in particular) can be wearying for sure once the novelty wears off. Being a commercial pilot or driver would probably kill off my travel joy completely.

-Dave-
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