If the photo is very generic, i.e. a beach with no distinguising details, no location is needed, but it's not technically wrong to put in a location (but probably not much help to a buyer, unless your photo on a generic beach is of an activity which only goes on in a specific location).
If the scene 'reveals' the location, go ahead and put in the location. Depending on the site, that could be specific feature; town/city; state/area; and country.

Quote from: Stas77 on April 22, 2013, 02:20

I take trips few times a year. i just was in asia now and i have beautiful pictures that i take. my question is travel photos popular? if i post, should i bother tag with the name of place? do people look for name of place? or just say "girl play with dog on sea" or something that describe pictures? sunset in australia or sunset on great ocean road?

Everyone takes vacations and shoots pictures and thinks their images are beautiful.  It's unlikely that trying to sell them as stock will be worth the effort, as people already in the area, and professional photographers have likely already spent lots of time and money creating salable works from the area.

In some cases, yes; in other cases, you might be surprised. I know of one area of Canada, very popular with 'wilderness' and 'wildlife' tourists, which has almost no images on iS (haven't looked elsewhere), despite me knowing that at least two iS togs live almost on top of the area (but they're studio-bound). [I'm keeping mum: I might go there one day.]

In any case, it's easy enough to research how well your area is covered at any particular agency/ies.

The unknowable factor is how much interest there might be among buyers at a certain agency in any particular location. For example, I've been surprised on iS to see certain US cities that I've heard of (so must be significant in some way) have plenty of super photos but fewer overall sales than e.g. Glasgow. The stats don't give the reason for the comparative lack of sales, of course.

THank you. i have many very unique pictures, but many from asian countries like japan and thailand that don't have a millino pictures out there, but then again there's a limit of how many people will look for them by name. good info, thanks. are there certain sites that are better for travel then others?

If the pictures are good, then why not put them online? If I were you I would tag them the best I could even if they are generic. If you have someone at the beach looking at the see and just tag according to that, then you won't reach someone who's looking for a picture of the Maldives or whatever place you took that image in. I have some travel pictures online and even though most of them are far from being unique, they sell from time to time. I even have a pretty standard tourist image of the Empire State Building in NY, that earned me a decent amount of money and there are TONS of images like mine online (and most of them are better). The only certain think is that those images will not make you any money if they are just sitting on your hard-drive.

I travel a lot and have at least one decent seller from each trip. The problem is identifying which image that will be. Also, keep in mind, what is a distant location to you is just down the street from dozens of photographers who can shoot it at the right time of day in the right season.

Quote from: Stas77 on April 22, 2013, 02:20

I take trips few times a year. i just was in asia now and i have beautiful pictures that i take. my question is travel photos popular? if i post, should i bother tag with the name of place? do people look for name of place? or just say "girl play with dog on sea" or something that describe pictures? sunset in australia or sunset on great ocean road?

Everyone takes vacations and shoots pictures and thinks their images are beautiful.  It's unlikely that trying to sell them as stock will be worth the effort, as people already in the area, and professional photographers have likely already spent lots of time and money creating salable works from the area.

Really? Good advice from such a distinguished global traveler as yourself.
And yes, you can make a very good living being a travel photographer, and it ain't no vacation i can assure you.

Quote from: sjlocke on April 22, 2013, 06:30

Quote from: Stas77 on April 22, 2013, 02:20

I take trips few times a year. i just was in asia now and i have beautiful pictures that i take. my question is travel photos popular? if i post, should i bother tag with the name of place? do people look for name of place? or just say "girl play with dog on sea" or something that describe pictures? sunset in australia or sunset on great ocean road?

Everyone takes vacations and shoots pictures and thinks their images are beautiful.  It's unlikely that trying to sell them as stock will be worth the effort, as people already in the area, and professional photographers have likely already spent lots of time and money creating salable works from the area.

Really? Good advice from such a distinguished global traveler as yourself.
And yes, you can make a very good living being a travel photographer, and it ain't no vacation i can assure you.

Point being, the OP is not a "travel photographer", he's a "TWAC".

Quote from: shudderstok on April 23, 2013, 20:14

Quote from: sjlocke on April 22, 2013, 06:30

Quote from: Stas77 on April 22, 2013, 02:20

I take trips few times a year. i just was in asia now and i have beautiful pictures that i take. my question is travel photos popular? if i post, should i bother tag with the name of place? do people look for name of place? or just say "girl play with dog on sea" or something that describe pictures? sunset in australia or sunset on great ocean road?

Everyone takes vacations and shoots pictures and thinks their images are beautiful.  It's unlikely that trying to sell them as stock will be worth the effort, as people already in the area, and professional photographers have likely already spent lots of time and money creating salable works from the area.

Really? Good advice from such a distinguished global traveler as yourself.
And yes, you can make a very good living being a travel photographer, and it ain't no vacation i can assure you.

Point being, the OP is not a "travel photographer", he's a "TWAC".

I can't see that a TWAC is at any more disadvantage than someone taking their first foray into a studio with models. There are millions of models in a studio photographs on the micros.

NOTE: the argument that there are already dozens of photographers in a location is only true for certain locations. Remote locations may have no habitation within 100+ miles; people living in remotish areas in developing countries may be able to afford the sort of cameras necessary to get accepted in stock agencies, and/or may not have the computer/software/web connection needed.

Also bear in mind that photographs taken when travelling don't always have to be the 'glamourous models on beaches' type. Images used in modern guide books (at least in the UK) aren't all the cliche'd hotspots, and there is a secondary editorial market too.

Thank You.

I travel a lot and have at least one decent seller from each trip. The problem is identifying which image that will be. Also, keep in mind, what is a distant location to you is just down the street from dozens of photographers who can shoot it at the right time of day in the right season.

yep, local photographers who can ask people to sign a model release too

Quote from: dbvirago on April 23, 2013, 17:43

I travel a lot and have at least one decent seller from each trip. The problem is identifying which image that will be. Also, keep in mind, what is a distant location to you is just down the street from dozens of photographers who can shoot it at the right time of day in the right season.

yep, local photographers who can ask people to sign a model release too

Which in many cases won't be in a language the potential model knows, or the model is illiterate, or the model isn't in a position to be 'fully informed' about all the potential uses,e.g. how can you explain to a person living 100+ miles from electricity how their image can be manipulated by photoshop, even if you know the language, or had a translator, who similarly might not know about computer technology. H*ll, they may have no concept of an advertisement.

After having a long discussion about this with my Malagasy guide, he agreed with my thouights above (that few people out of the towns, in the areas I was visiting, would ever have seen a computer), and decided that he would tell anyone who asked that I was a photojournalist and my photos would be used in articles or guide books which would encourage more tourists. This was AOK with me, because I'm much more interested in editorial uses than advertising. You just have think if a particular type of travel image is remotely likely to be used in advertising or if you're particularly shooting editorial.
And indeeed, the in-uses I know about from Alamy from that trip have all been text books or guide books, though the images chosen / not chosen have surprised me.

Quote from: ShadySue on April 24, 2013, 06:01

I can't see that a TWAC is at any more disadvantage than someone taking their first foray into a studio with models. There are millions of models in a studio photographs on the micros.

Which don't sell anymore because there's enough people that know what they're doing these days.  Same for landscapes, aka "travel photography" here.

So your real message is, "It's all been done before. Go flip burgers."
Which might not be bad advice, expecially for someone thinking of setting up a studio for the first time.
For people who are travelling, it's not so helpful.