Brendiver's World

That's interesting, I wonder why...?

A few posts ago, I mentioned how, as a journalist, it's good practice to be constantly looking at your world from different perspectives. To ask questions like:

That's interesting, I wonder why / who / what / where / when / how?

Often known as the 5WH method of interrogating an issue, if you ask these questions you will probably end up with plenty of new material to write about.

I'll give you an example.

Several years ago I was visiting the Tate gallery in the Albert Dock complex in Liverpool, when I looked down into one of the dock complexes basins. Just under the surface I saw an anemone, which then led to a few questions, all starting off with:

That's interesting, I wonder:

How that got there?

What else is under the surface?

Where you can dive this basin from?

When this first started to happen? (I remember when it was just a pile of sludge)

Why this water is clearer than the water outside of the basin?

Who is managing all of this?

And so, I went away and researched these and several other questions which led to this article in DIVER magazine.

I'm always alive to the potential for what I call, "good quotage," and the two police officers who approached me as I was kitting up provided just that.

As well as quotes to make the article interesting, I also tracked down the academics and the organisation behind the project for some facts and history. To top it all off, a few quotes from some divers provided the icing on the cake.

I remember writing this article and the difficulty I had in platting together the different strands, the diving experience, the history, the reasons why it all came together and the quotes.

Eventually I decided to split them up, the first part of the article dealt with the diving (and I can't remember why, but I wrote that part in the present tense, not my preferred style). The second dealt with the history behind the redevelopment and who was was involved together with some quotes and interesting anecdotes. To end the article, I looped the last few paragraphs back to the beginning with a return to the diving and more quotes from divers.

The very first sentence was a stumbling block - when this happens I save it until something inspires me. On this occasion, it was one of those out take programmes on the TV where Fred the Weatherman had a naked man run across the TV set which floated on the surface of the water in one of the docks.

I had to talk this through with the editor as we weren't sure whether enough people would associate with Fred the Weatherman (the first sentence). In the end we decided he was a sufficiently well known person (well, he was in 1999) for him to be included.

So you see, the opportunities really are out there - you just have to ask the right questions.

In some future post I'll tell you about how a night in a hospital inspired an article for a diving magazine. You can't afford to switch off - even when you think you are going to die! 

Keep writing...

Brendan

Behind the Scenes - anatomy of a diving and travel article

Have you ever read a diving travel article and wondered what goes on behind the scenes?

I've just had an article published in DIVER magazine called, "Market Forces," about diving in the Algarve, Portugal. Click on the thumb nails to read it, and at the same time I'll explain how it came about.

Like most assignments, it started with a phone call from the editor asking if I would be interested in the trip. Prior to this the PR agency who represent the Algarve had been in touch with the magazine to offer one of its journalists an opportunity to visit the area with a view to putting together an article on the area's diving.

I found out later how for 2007 Algarve Tourism were targeting niche markets as opposed to geographic areas. In previous years they had promoted their business in countries where they wanted to increase the number of visitors. But in 2007 they changed their strategy to attract visitors who wanted to do more than just lie on the beach. So if you were a journalist in a niche area: golfing; cycling; windsurfing or diving, you were an attractive proposition. Hills Balfour Synergy handle the contract for the Algarve in the UK and helped arrange the flights, hotel,diving and hire car through the Algarve representatives in London and Portugal.

So, back to the Algarve. This was one of those trips where I had to find the angle on arrival, and fortunately the first contact we got to dive with was a real character. Salvador provided more quotes than I could use, and also provided a wealth of information about the environmental issues in the area (over-fishing and coastal building work). He's also one of the most prominent figures in the Algarve diving sector and was able to provide invaluable introductions to some useful contacts.

With the blessing of the Algarve Tourism representative assigned to this visit (who met us at the airport with a big smile, despite it being about 2200 on a Friday night following a full day at the office - PR is a long hours game) we changed the programme. Budgets would have been set for this visit, so to go outside of the programme without OK-ing it with the representative would have been poor form.

On the second evening we had dinner with the representative. This is common practice, a way of making sure, in an informal way, that everything is going to plan, and more importantly, whether the journalist is getting enough material. A few evenings later we went back to the same restaurant - our representative was there again, only this time she was entertaining ten Czech journalists. You need to be nice to the representatives - theirs is a busy life.

Unfortunately, the week was set back by poor weather, so we went on a tour of the Algarve checking out every dive operation we could find. Only a small part of our findings went into the article, just enough to rescue the piece as we had only completed five dives before the weather closed in.

We picked up several pages of quotes from visitors, locals and dive guides as well as detailed descriptions of dive sites and the history of the wrecks we dived on. I collect everything while I am on assignment, pamphlets, maps, booklets, photographs of dive sites, I even photograph restaurant menus. I operate on the premise that the one piece of information you decide to leave behind is the one you will need at a later date.                                                                                  

I'm a big believer in quotes - they "people the landscape" with characters and enhance the narrative so it's not all your opinion. The quote which really stood out was Salvador's, the one about the fish being in the market. I knew I would use it when Salvador said it, but just how remained a question at the back of my mind until our last night when the local fishermen were trying to get Salvador to reveal where the fish could be found. Sometimes it really does work out just like this, I knew instantly that I had my beginning and my end. Even after a plateful of good seafood and several glasses of wine, you still have to be alive to the opportunities as they present themselves.

Salvador at the restaurant Marisquera Fialho in Sino de Pinheiro, Luz de Tavira, great place - the best seafood

Back in the UK the process of writing it all up started. I sometimes meet people who think you might do two or three drafts before you send your copy off, but the reality for me is about 40 drafts, sometimes more. So, if you're about to put your first article together, and it all looks a bit messy after your first draft, don't worry, this is the way it is!

While doing this I also contacted Hills Balfour Synergy to provide them with an update on the assignment. I believe it's professional courtesy to report back on how the trip went (but not before you do so with the editor!). They tried to push Monarch Airlines by sending me a proposal for a paragraph that could be placed in the fact-file. We really appreciated the extra legroom seats, the free meal and drinks on board, and they are a quality airline, but they are also competing for the word count. They got a sentence.

As the week progressed it became clear that Algarve Tourism didn't know anything about the diving in the area, so, I prepared a set of bullet points for them on who could be trusted to provide them with some guidance for future trips. Always look after PR contacts, they may be the key to your next trip.

To go with the article I sent about 20 photographs, all captioned with a mix of landscape and vertical,

This one didn't appear in the article - but I kind of like it, and it links in with the opening sentence

above and below the water, including some 'arty' shots of all the anchors lined up on the dunes. This is the sort of shot the art editor might use to illustrate the article as a background shot. But on this occasion it wasn't selected.

Several months after the trip, the article appeared in DIVER.

Are you persuaded yet? Do you still think these assignments are journalist jollies?

Keep writing...

Brendan

Dreaming of Heaven? Dream on

The key to becoming an invaluable asset for any magazine, whether it be about Diving, Canal Boating, Koi Carp or Cross Stitching (I must tell you about my mischievous cross stitching antics some time), is to be multi skilled.

It's one thing to write great diving travel articles, but can you do: the equipment reviews? The interviews? The features? The news items? The coverage of events and competitions? And if you're really lucky, read books?

Just about all magazines contain book reviews and although I wasn't too enthralled at the idea of reading lots of books, I decided at a very early point in my 'career' that this would be a good way of getting my name by-lined in different parts of the magazine.

And so, back in 1998 I asked the editor of DIVER if he needed any help in doing the book reviews.

He sent me one of the worst books I have ever read. Perhaps this was a subtle test? A way of finding out just how far I was prepared to go to tell it the way I saw it?

I almost feel sorry for the guy who wrote it - this was his dream, to write about how to become a professional in the diving industry and to see his name on the front of his very own book.

And then I came along and destroyed his dreams (click on the image for a larger size picture).

But at least he gave it a go, he just kept writing even though his writing sucked, and bizarrely someone paid him for it!

So you see, there really are no rules!

Keep writing...

Brendan

Flexibility and a little bit of luck

You never know when an opportunity will turn up. One that will have consequences for your photojournalism career that at the time you cannot even begin to imagine. Bizarrely the opportunity might only present itself as a result of someone else's poor luck.

But when you get that phone call or e-mail, are you be flexible enough to take advantage of the situation?

Back in 1998 one of the regular writers for DIVER, a journalist of some repute, slipped and hurt his back. This was not good news on two fronts, one - he'd hurt his back, very painful, and two - he was about to leave the UK to cover the World Freediving Competition in Sardinia for DIVER magazine. With just two days before its start, they had no-one who could go.

On a normal Wednesday afternoon the editor called me asking me if I was busy the next week, "next week? Actually, yes I am, I have several commitments," I answered. Completely the wrong answer.

"Never mind," said the editor, "there's this assignment we need to find a replacement for - I thought it would be something you'd like." At this point I knew I'd given him the wrong answer and I felt frustrated with myself. Editors want flexible go-getting individuals on their books, and despite being the second choice (or maybe others had said no before me?) the correct answer should have been, "next week? No problem, what's the job?"

This was the first time I'd been offered an assignment and I was turning it down! Fortunately the editor told me what the assignment was, and with dreams of being in a real life, The Big Blue, I promised him I would call back in an hour with a yes or no.

Friday morning at 0400hrs I was checking in at Gatwick for one of the best assignments I've ever had. This was the first time I met with 'real' journalists, ones who had travelled from all over the world to cover this event. It was quite daunting, but as far as they were concerned, I was the representative of a very prestigious magazine and so, I was part of their 'gang.'

I listened to the way they spoke and to the ideas they bounced off each other. This was where I discovered the greatest skill I believe a photojournalist needs, the ability to communicate effectively - to build up a rapport, to listen and to ask intelligent questions. At the beginning of the week I felt like I should have been in one of those 'faking it' type programmes, by the end of the week, I'd seen and heard enough to know that I had a great story - I was as much a photojournalist as they were.

All of this led to the publication of a seven page story about the event. My original brief had been to do a one page (at the most) news feature about the British team, however, the editor liked what he heard so much, he presented me with the opportunity to write it up as a full feature.

I didn't know it at the time, but this article would open some incredible doors for me over the next year or two.

Skills I developed that week?

Flexibility - always find some way of saying 'yes' to the editor

Confidence - other photojournalists might try and phase you with their apparent knowledge of the business, but when you scratch under the surface, they're not 'all that.'

Communication - listen, watch, build up rapport and ask good questions. When I returned I had the BBC calling me for further information on the event. Can you believe that? I had information they needed for a documentary! Incidentally - they were the only ones who blanked me out that week, which is why I fed them duff information coated in a small amount of truth, and they used it on the programme!

Pushiness - You discover what elbows are for in the quest for good pictures!

In a future post I'll explain how fate, flexibility and a smattering of luck led me to further assignments, all as a result of this one.

I've no idea who slipped and hurt their back - but thank you anyway, and I hope the back got better.

Keep writing...

Brendan

 

   

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

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 

The life of the roving reporter

As an established freelancer you sometimes pick up assignments that to any budding photojournalist must seem like a win on the lottery. But is the life of a roving reporter all it's cracked up to be? Pleasure or work? Or is it something in-between?

OK - time to bust some myths, this is an example of how it goes.

The editor of DIVER asks if I can fly out to Mauritius to cover the 2007 CMAS World Underwater Photography competition. He knows I love to cover this sort of event, and so the answer was always going to be, "when do I fly out?"

Wednesday morning - leave the UK. Two flights later, a missed transfer bus and a long wait followed by a taxi gets me to the hotel at about 1100hrs Thursday. There's no time for a post flight rest on any assignment, you're straight to work, which on this occasion means: introducing myself to the organisers; picking up my press pass; working out who would be worth speaking to and who I must speak to; sorting out the next few days diving; ensuring that I could dive with one of the teams; planning my own timetable around the one suggested..... It's a long list.

Within an hour of arriving I'm out with my camera working out where I should position myself to capture the best shots for the evening's opening ceremony. This is followed by hanging around the teams as they return from their practice dives, introducing myself and picking up quotes.

The opening ceremony goes well and I get the pictures of those who I've already figured out will get included in some way for what was at the time just going to be a news piece.

Friday - diving all day with the Mauritian team. All of the other journalists leave to dive on other sites as guests of the Mauritian Scuba Diving Association. Big mistake - aren't they there to cover the competition? Estee de Rond and Gerald Rambert from the Mauritian team turn out to be great dive buddies and eventually become a central theme for the article. The perfect underwater model? That'll be Estee.

Saturday - another day diving with the teams. I'm picking up so much material - great anecdotes, colourful characters and some great quotes. I know that this will be more than just a news piece, but how to write it up in a way that is more like a feature? I still haven't worked that out yet.

Saturday evening, still out and about meeting people. You can't just go and hide in your room for a rest, you're an ambassador for the magazine and as such, need to act like one.

Sunday morning - Dive on the other side of the island with the rest of the journalists. I'm feeling quite smug as they start to realise how much material they have missed out on by going on leisure dives.

Sunday lunch - meet with the editor of Asian Diver, her husband and Joe Moreira, managing editor of Ocean Geographic magazine (this contact proved invaluable - but that's another story).

Sunday afternoon - some rest, channel surfing in my room. There's not much on so I settle for a South African documentary about a beach fishing competition. I'm amazed at how the commentators make the landing of a fish onto a deserted beach so exciting. That's it, I'll write about the CMAS competition in a similar style - perfect!

Sunday night - judging, prize giving and closing ceremony.

Monday at stupid o'clock, leave for airport, fly home, I'm still collecting material in departures lounge and on the plane.

Tuesday morning - back to regular full time job, everyone insanely jealous. Me - knackered, don't they know I've been working? And now I have to write up the copy?

The life of a roving reporter? One big holiday? Not quite - but I wouldn't swap it for any other part time job.

Keep writing

Brendan

Teacher, Pharmacist, Gardener, Diver?

One of the ways to get yourself known to an editor is to think about your professional area of expertise and to link this with the diving world, to produce something no-one has come up with yet. Or maybe they did a few years ago, and this time you can do a better job. Some ideas:

As a pharmacist - you could put together an article about things you must pack in your diving first aid kit.

If you are gardener, you could compare the layout of coral gardens and how to best view them with land based gardens (David Domoney has just done this in this months DIVER magazine)

And if you have an educational background you could evaluate diving related training courses (this is my particular area of expertise, see my review of Maria Munn's photography course in March 2008's DIVER magazine).

In all of these cases, you are rightly portraying yourself as an expert to produce what one editor I know calls, "the stuff I didn't know I wanted."

So what next?

A previous attendee on one of my seminars has a background in hydrogeology, so after a recent exchange of e-mails, she is looking to take up my advice and put something together about rock formations.

Another attendee is an accountant, we spoke about an article looking at the financial pitfalls of making your hobby your career - "Run your own dive business? Ten pitfalls to avoid." Throw in a few case studies and you are bound to find an editor who will pick that one up.

The common denominator - you are selling yourself as an expert. Everyone in the media loves them, especially when there is a disaster. Following an earthquake there is always some obscure professor on the news or in the newspapers answering questions about why last night the earth really did move.

With all of this in mind, I'm still wondering what Bob, our very own expert rocket scientist from NASA will come up with?

Keep writing

Brendan

Arthur C Clarke - the underwater explorer?

I was quite saddened to hear of Arthur C Clarke's death several weeks ago. I was reminded of a marvellous day in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where I interviewed him for DIVER (I think this was in 1999).

He struck me someone who could have achieved anything he wanted to, and although he is famous for his science fiction novels, he isn't quite as well known for his diving exploits.

The thumb prints should open up a full page for you to read.

And for budding photojournalists this is the sort of thing editors are looking for.                                                                                                                                  

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