Just as stock photos have replaced much assignment photography in advertising, they have eroded the solid ground that assignments once held in the editorial field.

You'll find this to be the case with travel photos - which is good news for you, unless you're a photographer who got used to doing such assignments in the past. As one travel photographer lamented, "With $600 or $800 worth of stock photos, they (Travel & Leisure) can illustrate a story they would have paid me $2500 or $3000 to shoot."

So how can you go about selling travel photography? Barring assignments from magazine editors, here are your options.

• Write! And supply articles along with the stories you do. (See our guide Magazine Freelancing for more info on this.) A lot of magazines use travel pieces - not just the big travel magazines, but also the auto club magazines and the in-flight magazines of various airlines. There are also regional magazines and magazines for owners of recreational vehicles that feature travel. And don't forget the retirement magazines.
  
• Place your work with a stock photo agency that's big on travel photography. Stock agencies that supply travel photos can best be found by studying the travel magazines and seeing whose pictures are frequently used within them.
  
• Let users of travel photography know what you have available in stock. Magazines using travel photography should welcome lists of travel-related material. When preparing your lists, stress location; and don't mix in more general subjects with your "travel" stock lists unless you can tag them appropriately - such as, "Caribbean Sunsets" or "Caribou, Denali Park, Alaska".

You may, of course, still pick up an assignment now and then. The best way to facilitate this is to let editors know of your travel plans and ask them if there is anything they would like photographed from wherever it is you are going. You just might get a call with specifics, especially if you're known to an editor - that is, he's used your photos in the past.

Similarly, if working with a stock photo agency, let them know about your travel plans and ask them for suggestions or what they might be interested in seeing from your destination(s). You may be able to help fill gaps in their files or supply them with up-to-date material that's sorely needed.

Larry Stepanowicz