Brendiver's World

About Me - Part I

I've had some feedback on my blog:

"You should do an in depth 'About Me' - if someone is reading your advice, how can they judge your credibility?"

Good point. So, despite this seeming a tad indulgent I'll go ahead with this. Actually, it may even inspire others, after all, if I can do it?

Edit: OK - this is quite a long entry, I've just realised that a lot of 'stuff' happened to get me where I am today. So if you think this may bore you, I'd skip this post and the Part II.

But if you're interested? Read on.

There are a few questions I like to ask at the start of my seminars:

Who has had any training in journalism? (Not me)

Who among you is a professionally taught photographer? (Ditto)

How many of you only just passed their English language qualification age 16? (That'll be me)

I've been contributing to diving (and a few other niche titles) magazines since 1996 - the result? Over 300 articles, columns, news pieces, reviews and features. I've been paid to visit some spectacular locations, conduct interviews with celebrities, cover competitions, review equipment, books, DVDs, hotels, restaurants and even apres dive bars (all of this on someone else's budget and I was paid to do it!).

It's been an incredible journey - which all started off when I was seven years old, with a cheap mask and flippers in Abersoch, North Wales. In 1974 (aged 11) I joined the Hazel Grove and Bramhall BSAC who had a snorkeling club for children. We joined the 'grown ups' on their diving adventures, normally in quarries, lakes and the North Wales coast where we were taught snorkeling skills. The rest of the time we battled with each other in the pool playing octopush - a form of underwater hockey (how I inherited my only sporting scar). At 15, in the 'Blue Pool,' (quarry in North Wales - not very blue) I had the chance to don a tank and do my first dive. Back then you had to be 16 to dive, so this was all a big secret, but that's where the fascination started.

At Dundee University I learnt how to dive properly. Some outstanding memories, most of them associated with being cold and the standing order of, 'pee in your wetsuit as soon as you get in' (we had no dry suits back then).

A few non diving years later (embarked on a career - very serious young man putting all of his time into what was 'important') I ended up working in Bermuda where I rediscovered diving and how a career isn't all that - it's just a way of enabling you to do other 'stuff.'

The diving and the social life that came with the Bermuda BSAC are memories I'll treasure forever - especially the parties and Wednesday evenings at the club house. In 1991 I was at the club bar when one of my regular buddies got me drunk and talked me into joining him for an underwater photography intro course. I had to be drunk as I thought all the club's photographers were super geeks - on my organised dives I always buddied them with each other so they wouldn't spoil everyone else's enjoyment.

But that's when I caught the bug. I didn't learn too much about technique on the weekend course, in the main it was how the Nikonos V worked and how to put it together so it wouldn't flood. But on that weekend I was introduced to Howard Hall's guide to underwater photography - a superb book, full of, 'if you do this - you'll get these results...' type guidance. I dreamt of diving in the locations featured in the book's pages, especially the cove at La Jolla, San Diego.

In 1992, in Roatan, I met Steve and Renee, a newly married couple from San Diego. Steve was at about the same stage in his fascination with underwater photography, and together, the three of us embarked on some 'super-geek' photography dives. I remembered thinking how I'd love to write an article for DIVER magazine (I'd been reading it for years) on this place. I had some reasonable pictures so why not?

I answered that question myself with the wrong answers: because you're not a journalist, because you're pictures aren't good enough and you can't write (my teachers told me this and they're always right apparantly).

In 1997 I returned to Roatan with my wife on an assignment for DIVER. Coincidentally, Steve and Renee joined us and I did get to write the article on diving in Roatan.  

More in part II (when I get round to it) - how I broke into the world of travel and diving photojournalism. How I discovered how easy it was and how anyone who can put two sentences together can do it.

Keep writing...

Brendan

This is how the PR machine works

I subscribe to quite a few PR and marketing e-mail update services - they're a useful way of gaining an insight into their bizarre world.

This one caught my eye today - it's self explanatory in respect of how the PR machine works to get articles featuring diving into newspapers and magazines.

How much do you think this will cost the industry? And do you have any idea of how dive centres, hotels and airlines will be involved, even if they don't really want to be?

I've got my own ideas based on my experiences but I may just e-mail the PR contact to find out - watch this space.

Keep writing..

Brendan

"Invitation to become a certified scuba diver

Do you know how many of your readers are certified scuba divers or are
pre-disposed to becoming certified scuba divers?

Based on third party affirmed research*, it has been determined that readers of
travel publications have the lifestyle characteristics that pre-dispose them to
becoming scuba divers. In fact, they are 38% more likely than the national
average to have this affinity.

**WRITERS ON STAFF AT LARGE CIRCULATION DAILY NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES ARE INVITED
TO PARTICIPATE ON ONE-ON-ONE DIVE CERTIFICATION PRESS TRIPS**

DEMA, the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association, is the largest
international membership organization dedicated to the promotion and growth of
the recreational scuba diving and snorkeling industry, and is extending the
opportunity to become a certified diver and report to your readers how easy it
is to be a part of one of the fastest growing recreational adventure sports
around.scuba diving! The sport of scuba diving is exciting and social, easy to
learn, and is a healthy lifelong activity for virtually everyone.

DEMA will provide writers on staff or frequent contributors to large circulation
daily newspapers and/or magazines a complimentary open water certification
course including all required course materials and equipment at a nearby dive
shop, and fly you to a destination in the Caribbean, Mexico or Hawaii to
complete the certification process, in order to provide you with the amazing
first hand experience of scuba diving, and therefore, better equip you to
personally report to your readers about the ease, excitement and benefits of
being a scuba diver.

The entire certification process, including classes and traveling to an exotic
destination for your open-water dive, can be completed in as little as two
weekends, and for your convenience, the entire process will be arranged to best
fit your schedule.

Please contact Sarah Biggerstaff at sarah@adams-pr.com for more information.

*Research conducted for DEMA among 308,000 active certified divers and
integrated into the lifestyle characteristics of the PSYTE geo-demographic
database to determine affinity."

I, we, you, they?

David has sent me an interesting question in respect of the 'Sport Diver competition' he is in, the one where one of the post workshop articles from Puerto Galera will be selected for publication by the editor, Mark Evans:

"Brendan When writing articles for diving magazines, are personal accounts unacceptable? I am reading my latest draft and there are definitely a lot of "I"s and "me"s in the article. The book about Travel Writing says that this is a common mistake by beginner travel writers. Apparently only celebrities can get away with this! What do you think? thx DK"

I guess the first thing to say from my perspective is that there are no rules; there are only techniques and practices that work for the target medium. When I say ‘works,’ what I mean is, did the article get published? This really is the bottom line, no matter what you as a reader thinks of it; if an editor decided it was good enough to publish, either with or without editing, then it ‘worked.’

But when you analyse what ‘works’ in different magazines four distinct categories of how to place yourself in the narrative emerge. And if I can emphasise, these are not my rules - they are just my thoughts, and perhaps they are best explained through the use of examples:

I…

In the March 2008’s Scuba Diving, Gil Griffin has an article published called, “Curacao’s Mini Splendored Things.” The predominant style she has used to place herself in the narrative is to refer to the majority of experiences through her own eyes in the present tense, although this would also have worked in the past.

“Even as I gear up…”

“Now that I’m attuned…”

“As I put my right index finger on a spot near the anemone, I wait… I listen very closely to its tiny claws…”

We…

In the October 2007’s Sport Diver, Brooke Morton’s “The Island That Never Sleeps – catch the rush of Puerto Rico,” uses the phrase, “we…” a lot.

“We jump in for a drift dive…”

“We see two hawksbill turtles in 150 foot visibility…”

“Once we arrive at Captain’s Point…”

Note how it’s also described in the present tense – is this an American preference?

 

You…

In the same edition of Sport Diver, Tom Morrisey, their editor at large, has an article called “Pick Your Paradise.”

“…you can see the mountains…”

“Cruising between walls that plummet to perhaps 100 feet below you want to explore each nook and cranny, but the twisting path draws you forward.”

I find this style of writing, where, “you will find…” interspersed with factual anecdotes to describe the environment the closest thing to a press release that you will find in the pages of a magazine. Often referred to as ‘advertorial,’ it’s written in such a way that the author could well have put together the whole piece without leaving their desk (and I am in no way suggesting Tom did). With this technique there’s no sense of ‘being there’ from the author’s perspective.

They…

Good quotes can often mean the difference between an article being viewed as the same old lame, I did, we did, you will see… or a living, multi-dimensional piece of work. Most editors want articles that people the landscape with characters and opinions and the good thing about this technique, you can express opinion without it ever being attributed to you.

I, We, you, they…

Where the article has a mix of all of the above styles. I don’t think there is a problem with either one of these being the lead, with other styles being secondary, but when they are all present in equal measure, your article is likely to be a confusing read and would probably not get accepted – too much work for the editor to repair it to meet their needs.

There’s no one style that I think is best, I have my own preferences, but ultimately it’s not my preference that matters is it? There’s only one person I need to please, to make sure my copy is in their preferred style, and that’s the editor.

David, I hope this answers your question?

Keep writing...

Brendan

   

Thinking outside of the diving magazine box

Your search for opportunities to get your photographs and articles published shouldn't be limited to the big names in diving. There are plenty of magazines that cover scuba diving for a geographic area as opposed to nationally or globally.

One such magazine is South Florida Adventures based in Fort Lauderdale. I met the editor, David Raterman, at the Florida Dive Show last December where we discussed ideas for his magazine. While we were chatting one of the women who had been on my seminar joined us - within five minutes I'd coached her to the point where David agreed to take a look at an article she said she would put together on diving from kayaks. I'm not sure if she ever completed it. But the point is, this was an easy way to get published. and unlike other free magazines, David does pay (I seem to remember it would have been about $100).

But for that you would probably get your name in the mast head as a contributor and maybe a photo and short profile in the contributors page. More importantly you would have a published article to your name for your clip file.

In last years scuba issue there were articles which could be, with a little bit of coaching, matched in quality by most beginners.

Don't overlook local opportunities, and remember, editors need to fill their pages every month with interesting articles, there's no reason why you shouldn't be the author of one of them.

Keep writing....

Brendan

Free Beer!

Following on from the post about free dive trips, what about free beer?

How does 24 bottles of Cobra lager sound?

If you look hard enough you'll find there are numerous opportunities to get published and you never know where these might lead.

We'd just finished a meal at a city centre restaurant and on the way out I did my usual trick (I love reading other people's stuff) - I picked up a pile of free magazines from the rack at the entrance.

One of them, Urban Life, had an interesting section in its back pages called "Food for thought." This is how it goes, you write a 200 word review about a restaurant and they give you a case of premium beer!

I put together a quick review on the restaurant we'd just been to, and here's the thing to bear in mind, it was in the style of the magazine. I've done hotel, bar and restaurant reviews for DIVER before, but this was for a magazine with a completely different readership. And so I dug out a review by the editorial team - it didn't matter what the review was for, a film, concert, the latest fashion. What was important was to write the restaurant review in the same style. The other thing to bear in mind is that by writing a review about a place which stocks the freebie, its publication has marketing potential for the freebie's advertising team.

Next month it was published, and I picked up my case of beer from the magazine's offices.

I was interested in how I managed to get published so quickly, so I gave the editor a call, "loads of people tell me they will do reviews for me, but they never get round to them," he said. "I'm continually being let down, you haven't been to any other restaurants have you?"

I politely explained how I had enough "work" elsewhere. But here's a thing, the same group that owns this freebie has numerous other titles, and one of the bigger ones has just done a feature on diving in the Red Sea. I can almost guarantee the conversation at the editorial office (it will be one big open plan space) went something like this:

Editor of big newspaper: "I've got an offer for a trip to the Red Sea to cover it's diving, any of you do scuba?"

Staff writer: "Yeh, I do, when is it?"

Editor of big magazine: "June sometime."

Staff writer: "No, can't do it, it's my sister's wedding."

Editor of freebie: "I've got someone who does restaurant reviews for me, good as gold, always delivers copy on time, in our style and to the word count."

Editor of big magazine: "Excellent, send me their details..."

Budding journalist - two months later, somewhere in the Red Sea: "Hi my name is..... I'm one of the freelancers from the XXX group here to do an article on your diving...."

Trust me - that is how it could work out for you. The media world is full of freelancers, and as a diver, you have niche skills. Take every opportunity to write 'stuff,' as you never know where it will lead. And if nothing else, doing this will help build up your clip file, which will prove your writing doesn't suck and just maybe someone will be willing to pay you for it.

Keep writing....

Brendan 

Free Dive Trips - Vacation or Work?

I've been asked the following question by one of the subscribers to the site:

Do you think photojournalists should mention in their article wheher they paid for their trip or got it for free? By doing so, the reader has a better way of assessing the "objectivity" of the author.

Good question.

I'll leave this one open for comments, and in a day or two, I'll post an update on what really happens out there.

To give you an idea from my experience:

Five days in Bermuda, total expenses - about £10 (cocktails).

Five days in Mauritius, total expenses - £19 (bar bill and a taxi fare)

One week in the Maldives, total expenses - £35 (nothing but beer)

One week in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac, total expenses - £0

Two weeks in Sri Lanka, total expenses - about £25

Two weeks in Canada, get back in pocket by about £200, and that's before any article has been written up.

Just under three weeks in Australia, business class with Singapore Airlines, lots of diving and great hotels, total expenses - about £30. Oh yes, and for this trip there was no article, I didn't write up a single line.

How can this be right!?!

How does this work?

And you might be thinking, how can I get some of this?

Welcome to the bizarre world of PR and Marketing.

Your thoughts please :)

Brendan

 

Alex's foot - their door

I'm very fortunate to have Dr Alex Mustard's permission to reproduce a post from wetpixel where he suggests some routes to getting published in the magazine world.

With a few additional comments based on my experience at the end.

If you're reading this and you have had experience of getting published, I'm sure there are people out there who would love to hear about it, e-mail me with details or post a comment.

Anyway, here's what Alex has to say:

"Many underwater photographers look at diving magazines and say "My shots are as good as those", but this is NOT enough to get them published. Your best chance of getting them published is to have the editors asking you to submit, rather than sending them in on spec.

Each month the Editor has to fill the pages of his magazine - so they are on the lookout for new contributors to do this. But new contributors mean risk. The regular guys and gals you see each month are the contributors that the magazine trusts to produce quality material, ON TIME and to the correct length.

A new contributor is a new risk for the editor. Remember they HAVE to fill those pages each month. Maybe their material will be below par, maybe the images won't relate to the story, maybe they will write too many words, maybe they won't deliver at all. This is why magazines tend to stick to the same few reliable names. Those people have a track record of trust.

So to break in to this circle you need to offer something that is better than the existing contributors or at least different. And prove you are reliable.

One of the best ways to get noticed as a photographer is to enter the big competitions that the editors see. This usually means the ones that are open to pros as well as amateurs. If you are targeting a particular magazine then you can enter their in-house competition too. Of course, this does not prove you can write, but it is an important step to getting noticed. All editors are interested in identifying the up-and-coming talent.

It is also well worth going to shows and actually meeting editors face to face. The best one for this is the Antibes festival - because there are usually so many editors there and it is a relaxed and social occasion. The diving media world is very small and it does not take long to get to know everyone. You don't necessarily need to bombard an editor with material at an event - but you can promise a follow up email a few days later.

Each magazine is different. Each has a very different take on diving and all think that their way is the only correct way to write about diving. So before submitting study the "house style" and make sure you article fits.

The final point I would make is practice. The more you write the easier it gets. So volunteer to write articles for your dive club etc - learning the ropes so that you know what you are doing when you get your chance to impress."

Wise words Alex and thank you again for the permission to reproduce your post.

I would add that editors are real people (contrary to the image they may present) and they do like to be approached with ideas, but make sure you have prepared your pitch before you do so.

Here's what some editors I know have said to me on this subject:

"When people phone up, they're often really surprised that I answer the phone. I do like to speak to people who have new ideas."

"If you don't encourage new talent you will eventually run out of writers, they don't stick around forever."

"Don't be upset if I don't speak to you or if I'm short with you - if it's the busy time of the month I won't have time."

The dead give away to whether editors want to be spoken to, e-mailed, or not bothered at all, is their contact details in the masthead.

If they have a telephone number next to their name then they don't mind being called. If it's an e-mail address, then they prefer to be e-mailed. If they have neither, then you'll have to go through the switchboard, where I would ask if the editor ever speaks to would be contributors, and if they do, when is the best time.

You might find that the magazine has contributor guidelines, in which case, follow their 'contact us' advice to the letter. Failing to do so is a sure fire way of annoying the editor - you can just imagine the scene as you try and speak to them after they have put, 'please write in the first instance...' in their guidelines:

"I write up guidelines, and this dufus can't be bothered to read and follow them!"

Chances of getting published following this? 

Keep writing.....

Brendan

Press Releases

Elizabeth, one of the subscribers to this site has asked a question about writing press releases.

I have to hold my hand up, I've read lots of them, but haven't written any.

However, this wouldn't stop me if I was asked to put one together. Instead of going to a big book on "how to write press releases," I would go to examples of successful businesses and look at theirs. Follow this with a break down of how exactly they put it all together and there you have it - your very own press release.

Duplicate success by imitating what others do (try the Virgin group, they have a segment of their site dedicated to press releases).

Keep writing....

Brendan

I am Cliche

You know how I like to read and review diving magazines.

I was flicking through Sport Diver (US) and Scuba Diving when it struck me how they love to sell their articles as "Insider Knowledge."

What a cliche I thought!

And then I saw my own blog banner - oh dear!

I am cliche.....

Brendan

The Rules

I've just put this on wetpixel in response to someone who had posted a question about feeling insecure about underwater photography competitions and stuff.

I guess the pictures advice applies equally to writing for magazines. Replace the someone / your friends with 'the editor' and you'll get the gist. There are no rules as to what works as far as writing is concerned. Sure, there are heaps of books out there that try and tell you, but the bottom line is, they're mostly boring, are poorly written, have been put together by someone without a track record and continuly blab on about past particples, verbs and adjectives and stuff.

Anyway, here's the post:

Rule number one:

If it looks good on your wall, or someone else likes it enough to ask if they can have a picture for their wall, then you have done good.

Rule number two:

Don't bother with advice from people who want to babble on in some kind of super-geek language, they're more interested in showing off that they know loads of 'stuff' about something you probably don't need to know about, than genuinely helping you develop your skills.

Rule number three:

When you begin it can take quite a while to get over the scathing feedback of those in rule number two. I'd just come third in the BSoUP 1995 Beginner's Portfolio competition in London and the front row people (very important front row people - VIFRP) asked each one of us who had come 1st to 3rd, to stand up infront of our photographs and do a self critique. Mine went something like this, and bear in mind I wasn't ready for this and had supped about 5 pints of something which had a name like 'Futtocks Old Dirigable.'

Me: Erm, well I kind of like this one 'cos it's on one of my friend's bathroom wall, and his kids love the fish on it.

VIFRP: Yes, but it's not moving anywhere, the fish has no-where to go.

Me: it's a photograph, it's not supposed to move.

VIFRP: But it needs some space.

Me: Yeh, whatever, anyway, this one is one all my mates like, they say it looks like a hand reaching up into the blue, and the divers and the boat make it seem like the hand is massive.

VIFRP: Yes, but it doesn't follow the rule of thirds.

Me: Rule of what?

And so it went on, after a few minutes more I stood down, deflated and determined to drink more beer.

A few months later DIVER published the hand reaching... shot on their front cover. I cancelled my membership to BSoUP and for the past 13 years have been very happy in my ignorance. My stuff still looks good on the wall, at least I think so, and isn't that all that matters?

End of post

So, you see, you don't need to impress the VIFRP, just the editor, he or she is the one that will decide whether your stuff is good enough to, 'hang on the wall.'

Keep writing....

Brendan