I’ve just returned from a memorable 10-day trip to Cape Town, South Africa and its surroundings. In the same spirit as my Spanish stock-gathering trip from April-2023 and late-2023 transatlantic cruise I’ll go through my main costs and ask myself the usual question – whether I’ll eventually be able to recover (some of) my costs from the trip? Read onto the end for TWO bonus travel trips. Let’s get started!

April 2024 Case-Study: South Africa Trip details

Here’s a summary of my aproximate expenses from my trip over a 10-day period:

Type of expenses	Total cost (USD)
Plane ticket	1,000
Accomodation	500
Food	400
Transport (mainly Ubers)	200
Miscellaneous (touristy stuff, such as wine tasting)	100
Total	$2,200

Thinking about “Lost Opportunity Costs”

Now, for my time, I will consider an average of 2 hours/day of shooting, plus 2 hours/day of post-processing for a total of 40 hours.

I consider my time to be “worth” roughly $10/hour, which is probably generous on the downside. Instead of doing this stock stuff I could, in theory, have a minimum wage job doing something else and earn this. Therefore, this “lost opportunity” cost would be around $400 for the whole trip, which I’ve added to my travel costs.

Total cost of trip = $2,600

Is it worth visiting South Africa in 2024?

Overall, was this an expensive trip especially for overseas? I don’t think so.

I only stayed in and around Cape Town so can’t speak for the rest of the country but I found my stay affordable especially since I was exchanging Euros to Rand. In fact, I found it more value for money than Lisbon and certainly Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo. There is also the added benefit of little to zero jetlag if you’re traveling from Europe. The obvious downside are the longish flights.

People ask me whether it’s dangerous and all but I found it very safe where I was staying which were in the touristy areas, plus I didn’t venture out at night alone near Long Street where I was staying for the majority of my time.

Now let’s break down the stock content that I captured and uploaded to the usual suspects.

Stock Content Details from the trip

Now let’s move onto the meat of the blog post, the content that I captured which were accepted.

Type of Content Accepted	Quantity
Microstock images uploaded at multiple agencies*	60
Images added to Robert Harding	16
Microstock drone videos uploaded at SS, AS, P5, iStock*	25
Book covers accepted at Arcangel (one batch of some 60 pending)	74
Total assets	175

Focused mainly on book covers, as usual

Here are my top 10 favourite from the trip!

Some clips uploaded, here are my fav

You can see some of my clips uploaded here on my Pond5 portfolio.

My favourite was a tracking shot of a car on the embankment highway at Camps Bay, shot vertically.

Also a fun hyperlapse at the V&A Waterfront. Without exaggeration, I was 1 hour looking for a quiet spot away from security to try to launch this drone. Once up in the air it’s so silent compared to my old Air 2s, love it!

Will I soon be able to report a return on investment?

Discussing strictly monetary considerations, I predict that there’s a good chance that within two years I’ll be able to earn back roughly ONE THIRD of my total cost of $2,600, so about $860 or so. However, as you all know this industry is notoriously unpredictable so even though I’ll disappointed I didn’t get the returns, I won’t be surprised. Will check back in a year or two.

Bonus Travel Trip 1 – Volunteering on overbooked flights

Without fail whenever I travel overseas, particularly on the return, is to ask whether the flight is overbooked. Airlines notoriously overbook long-haul flights since empty seats are not profitable, so overbooking allows the airline to ensure that every seat on the airplane is making money for them. The “no-show rate,” which helps airlines determine how many extra tickets to sell, is determined by data from past flights connecting the same points.

On my return flights from Brazil I was getting no luck but asked in any case at Cape Town and the friendly clerk at the KLM flight desk said that the flight was indeed overbooked. I therefore volunteered and stayed over in Cape Town for another night since I was not in a particular hurry to return to Lisbon via Schiphol.

The perks of volunteering depends on the airliner. For Air France/KLM, I was offered EUR300 in vouchers for future travel with them and stay at a 4-star hotel near the Waterfront with dinner/breakfast/lunch inclusive, as well as transport back and forth to the airport. Not bad!

On the next day that I was due to fly I asked again whether the flight was overbooked and they agreed and asked if I wanted to stay another night 😀 Perhaps I could do this for many days on another trip…

Bonus Tip 2 – Wise Card to reduce fees while overseas

For my second tip, I highly recommend using Wise while overseas to reduce your commissions on foreign exchange.

If you do decide to sign up to Wise I would appreciate it if you used my referral code.

Update my on my Spanish Adventures from 2023

Literally one year ago today I was in Bilbao and I figure that today is a good time to update on my earnings from that trip.

Case Study: Will I Recover my Costs from my Recent Spanish Stock-Gathering Trip?

Lets recap:

“I would be content if I’m able to cover at least HALF my costs of the trip at about $870. Dare I make the prediction that I’ll be able to cover it in two years??!! Yes, I will make that prediction!”

Looking over at my Microstockr, I must say that I’m quite far away from reaching this goal. In fact, I’ll probably need a small miracle to achieve it!

Wirestock Custom Project Invite – Storytelling Challenge

Last but not least, I’ve been accepted by Wirestock on one of their challenges…to create 15 sets of 4 images each to tell a story with the deadline being on the 15th of April. Check out their “Challenges” Page for more. Here’s an example of what they’re looking for:

What do I have to gain other than trying something new? If accepted they’ll pay me $4 for each image so perhaps I’ll earn $240 or so.

I used this opportunity to travel to South Africa to capture some of these stories and I must say that it’s been fun but also quite challenging. Anyway, here’s my favourite story set from the trip captured on a beautiful yet windy sunset in Camps Bay!

On that romantic note, I leave you. Thanks for reading on and until next time!

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About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted ten years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.

I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE – here is the story), which I’ve upgraded to a Mini 3 Pro and eventually an Air3 in late-2024 or early 2025.

I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography