Life of a Traveling Landscape Photographer

Landscape Photography  •  Photography Tips  •  Travel Photography

Many aspiring landscape photographers dream for the chance to travel the world and take photos for a living. Lars Schneider was one of those photographers, and now he’s living the dream. But it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. Besides the challenges of capturing amazing landscape images across the nation, he’s traveling with his wife and 8-month old son. Even more, he’s doing this all in a 42-year-old VW bus:

Things to Keep In Mind Should You Start a Photography Trek of Your Own:

• Finances – Obviously, this is one of the biggest issues. Can you afford to travel and photograph, and for how long? If your job is paying you to do this, no sweat. If you’re venturing out on your own, make sure you have ample money saved up. You never no what unexpected expenses could hit you along the way.

• Transportation – Make sure you have a reliable and affordable way of traveling. A cheap car with good gas mileage is probably your best bet. Just be sure that it’s well-suited for long-distance traveling. Lars may like his VW because it has character, but he will be in big trouble when it breaks down on the road.

• A Place to Stay – This is an area in which you have a lot of potential to save money. Sure you could rent a hotel room every night. Or you could bring a tent and camp out where ever you go. Think about what suits you financially and comfortwise.

• Camera Gear – If you’re going on a long trip, you want to have backups for everything: your camera, memory cards, batteries, lens caps, hard drive, etc. You don’t want to be caught on the top of a mountain at sunrise with a dead camera battery.

• Goal – Set yourself a goal before starting out. What is it that you want to capture? What do you hope to experience? Without a goal, you may be suddenly asking yourself why you started this trip.

Lars drives a 1971 VW Bus Type II