Brendiver's World

From Photograph to Byline workshop

For the budding photojournalists among you I've just put the finishing touches to the next, "From Photograph to Byline" workshop - an ideal opportunity to learn the skills required to break into diving photojournalism. How you could, in your spare time, get your photographs published and become one of the 'names' in the diving press.

                                                                     

The workshop will be run over the weekend of 4/5th October at Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire.

                                          

      

                        

Not your run of the mill location, this hotel, with its modern conference facilities is really quite stunning.

                                                   

                           

                              

                                                     

Co-host

                           

Maria Munn from Oceanvisions will be co-hosting this event, she'll be taking care of the "photo" while I cover the "journalism."

                           

Guest Speakers

                                              

Mark Evans, the editor of Sport Diver magazine (UK) will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about approaching editors, the role of the freelancer in the magazine industry and ultimately, how to get published. Mark will also be joining us for the workshop dinner on the Saturday evening.

There may well be more guest speakers from the world of diving photojournalism - watch this space.

                                                   

What the weekend will cover

                                                                              

For the "journalism" in photojournalism:

                                             

Establishing your dream - what you want to get from the weekend

Market research - where are the opportunities?

Editors - what are they looking for?

PR / Marketing Agencies, dive travel companies - the part they play and how you can utilise their services

Different ways to get your foot in the door - looking beyond the obvious

House style - why yours may have to wait

Commissioned assignments - your key to travelling on someone else's budget

Magazine photography - why you won't win any competitions

Practical issues - the best £ you will ever spend

Structure - completing the jigsaw puzzle

The art of the 'wordsmith' - how to use simple and eloquent descriptions

Interview skills - how to get the effective quotes

Identifying new angles - from hospital beds to industrial wastelands

The route map - knowing your destination and how to get there

                                                                                                   

Maria will be covering magazine photography skills using a digital compact camera, and in-case anyone is thinking you'll have no chance of getting published using one of these, Mark Evans from Sport Diver and Steve Weinman, the managing editor of DIVER magazine both use a digital compact on their assignments.

                         

The price

                                                                     

£299 for both days based on one person or £279 for two people, both prices include bed & breakfast - the Saturday evening meal will be an optional extra.

                                                         

Our Credentials

                                                                        

The UK's leading underwater photographer, Maria Munn, LRPS, specialises in teaching underwater photography with digital compact cameras.

                                                            

Maria has taught hundreds of divers using her easy-to-understand, jargon free  methodology and she has a reputation for dramatically improving photographic abilities in just a few hours.

                                                      

The Royal Photographic Society recently awarded Maria a licentiateship for her underwater photographs taken on a compact digital camera. Maria will combine her experiences of using these cameras with her genuine passion to help others develop their skills.

For more information on Maria's courses, click on the thumbprints for an article I wrote last year for DIVER magazine.

                                                                                                

The proof of Maria's abilities? Simple - her students are now winning underwater photography competitions and getting published.

                                                

See my website's introduction for my story. Briefly, for the past 12 years I have been published in Sport Diver, Scuba World and DIVER magazine and for the past 10 years I have freelanced exclusively for DIVER.

                                                                           

During this time I've been on numerous assignments across the world. I've interviewed diving celebrities, covered issues, events and competitions, reviewed books, DVDs, hotels, restaurants and even apres dive bars. In total - over 300 articles, features and news stories.

                                                             

With a background in adult education (I have a Masters in Education as well as a host of vocational training qualifications), you can be confident you will be learning with someone who has an established track record as both a photojournalist and educator.

                                                               

For further details of how you can join us e-mail me at: brendiver@aol.com

                                                                     

What people have said about previous "From Photograph to Byline" workshops and seminars:

                                    

Elizabeth Quinn, Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Enjoyed your seminar, you taught very well.

                                                                                                   

Mina Cassandra Kuhn, Miami - The seminar was awesome! Thank you for sharing it - full of practical and important information, unwritten information that nobody wants to give away, except you. I think everyone who attended your seminar found doors to underwater photojournalism. Your new blog site is as great and informative as your seminar.

                                                                                              

Doug Counts, Scuba News, Jacksonville, Florida - I learned a lot in the short time I was at your seminar as you were talking about international dive travel, this is a new area for our publication and I'm learning as I go.

                                                                                    

Craig Koltasz, Australia - Superb insight into the magazine world, your enthusiasm really helped.

                                                                              

Bob Yee, California - The course was great, not what I imagined it would be, saved me a considerable amount of time.

                                                                                 

Chris, Boston, USA - It was eye opening and your encouragement and involvement was really amazing.

                                                                                                             

David Kittos, UK - Lots of insider tips and insider info about magazines, plus ideas about how to come up with new angles, all very useful. You could have charged twice as much!

                                       

Virginia Fage, London - I really enjoyed it, I now know I didn't have a clue before.

                                                      

Christian, Singapore - The Top Tips were useful; even if they all seemed obvious, but they are the things you don't think about beforehand, like how to contact editors.

            

I hope you will be able to join us.

                                           

Keep writing...

                                                                           

Brendan

Your Story - Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards

Here's a question for you, at what point would you consider yourself to be a photojournalist? Is it when you have your first article published? Or maybe when you 10 articles published in a variety of magazines. Or is it when you go on a nationally recognised course or get a qualification in this field?

The answer? I have no idea. I guess it's when you feel comfortable with the label - if you believe you are a photojournalist then others will to.

Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards aren't yet convinced, but the thing is, they've been published on more than several occasions in a variety of magazines (see the thumbprint to the left for an example). I believe they are photojournalists and the evidence for this is their stunning work.

To highlight their abilities I've added some of their work to this post (with their permission of course, for which I am very grateful).

You should take note of Cor and Julie's learning curve in respect of using photography competitions and writing for free as a means of getting your name out there - wise advice.

Although they haven't mentioned this - Cor and Julie are active moderators and contributors for Wetpixel. There's another message here - unlike the media world of yesteryear, I believe it is highly unlikely you will get on unless you are contributing in a similar way to the body of knowledge in your area of expertise, for an example click on "Finding Macro," Cor's contribution to UWP magazine (for another example, look at Alex Mustard's contributions to digital underwater photography on the Wetpixel forum). This is typical Generation Y behaviour - sharing information, expertise and ideas using social media.

Unlike the mid 90's when I got started in this world, there's a lot of writing going on out there, on blogs, travel and club websites, non profit making e-zines and magazines - so much that it's almost a certainty you will need to start off by writing for free. But it's all good practice, it gets you to the point where you don't suck at it any more and provides you with the clips the editors of the magazines that do pay might ask for.    

Keep writing...

Brendan     

Your Story - Cor Bosman and Julie Edwards

It is telling that when Brendan asked us to write a piece for his blog he directed his question to the both of us. This is really our story, as Julie and I have been in this together since the very start. My first reaction to his question was that we’re not photojournalists. He insists that we are but I remain unconvinced. If anything we’re extremely enthusiastic photographers. Neither of us was trained in journalism or photography, but we have both taken photography classes. I do find it interesting to see though that a lot of people educated in Computer Science like myself have become skilled photographers.  Somehow the creativity necessary to become good at programming, design or other CS related fields must translate well into photography. 

It all began when Julie made me go diving in 1994 during a family visit to St Croix. She in turn had been  pushed into diving by her mother during high school. Obviously an indispensable skill for a strong independent woman.  That same year we bought a small underwater camera and underwater photography has taken over our lives ever since.

Our journey into being published coincided with passing a certain image quality threshold. Our first steps into having an article published were rejected and looking back at those attempts I can see why; the images were just not good enough. This changed when we found ourselves placing in international contests, which definitely opened some doors.  The first person that gave us the opportunity was Peter Rowland and I’m grateful for that chance. Writing for Underwater Photography Magazine for free helped us to land several paying assignments very quickly thereafter. It helps a lot to be able to show something to an editor when you’re presenting an idea.    

We’re now in a pretty comfortable zone. We write for magazines and our own travel journal, but it’s not our primary source of income. We enjoy what we do, and try to pass that on to others.

 

Your Story - Maria Munn

Maria Munn is well known in the diving industry for her compact digital underwater photography courses, and although she probably leans more towards the 'photo' part of photojournalism, I'm very pleased to include her story on this site.

There are many capable underwater photographers out there running workshops for the minority who use SLRs, but Maria's approach is to target the majority who use digital compact cameras. By doing this she has carved her own niche in the competitive world of underwater photography.

For any budding photojournalist finding your niche is essential. John Liddiard (DIVER magazine) is a UK diving specialist, John Bantin (DIVER magazine) is an equipment guru, Dr. Alex Mustard (numerous titles) is an expert in marine biology and Charles Hood (DIVE magazine) is a specialist in wreck photography.

I guess my niche is people - I tend to lean towards assignments where there are divers to interview and quote. My other niche is the ability to review and evaluate diving courses. I have a Masters in Education where I specialised in training and evaluation as well as a vocational background in learning and development (A1 and V1 assessor and quality assurance qualifications as well as a host of other units).

Maria has achieved a lot in the years she has been exploring her niche - she has been a member of the Royal Photographic Society for the past four years and they recently awarded her a 'Distinction' for her underwater photography with a Fuji compact camera.

Maria also has an outstanding track record in delivering quality workshops - the proof? Well, her students regularly get their photographs published. You can find out more about her UK based day long workshops and overseas trips at her website.

Last year I joined one of her courses on behalf of DIVER magazine (click  on the thumbnails), I was so impressed I am currently planning to join Maria in delivering photojournalism workshops - Maria will take care of the 'photo' while I cover the 'journalism.'

As soon as we have firmed up the dates and locations we'll let you know.

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Your Story - Maria Munn

I’m always asked how I broke into the world of underwater photography and journalism and the answer is really by accident.  I was on a journalism course at the time and I happened to take along a portfolio of my photographic work.  As soon as I finished the course I was asked to lead underwater photographic trips with Emperor Divers.  I targeted the idea of teaching beginners how to use digital compact cameras underwater as no-one had ever specialised in this area before and I knew that they gave great results.  I then approached editors with different angles on the same subject, always with the focus on my guests and what they could achieve and the rest as they say is history.  Huge amount of willpower, late nights at the computer and huge amounts of coffee mixed with a ‘yes’ attitude have definitely helped to make an underwater recipe for success.

                                                                               

Maria Munn, May 2008

Spotting Opportunities - Front Cover Shots

While there are magazines with Contributor Guidelines that ask for certain things from freelance writers and photographers, others don't have any guidance at all.

However, they do give away a lot within their pages - for any budding diving / travel journalist these clues are as good as Contributor Guidelines. 

Take this month's Sport Diver magazine (June 2008) as an example. You only have to go as far as page 3 to find your first opportunity.

The front cover of a turtle and diver is not from any freelance contributor, instead it is from the stock photograph agency, Image Quest Marine. This tells me that the editor is probably short of good front cover shots - so if you have any photographs that would be suitable, now would be a good time to market them. I can guarantee it will cost the editor less to use your photographs than those from an image library.

There are quite a few magazines that even advertise the fact they are always looking for cover shots. Bizarre eh? You would have thought the market would be flooded with underwater photographers clamouring to get their pictures on a front cover.

More about what editors look for in a front cover shot, as well as the other clues they provide in respect of their needs another time.

Keep writing...

Brendan

Writing for Free?

On my seminars and workshops I go into the different paths you can follow to get your photographs and words published.

One route I found very useful in my early days was in the diving travel sector. I'm sure this advice will horrify 100's of underwater photographers out there, but I used to provide my photographs for free to diving travel companies to illustrate their brochures. Eventually I built up a relationship with one called Harlequin, to the point where they would provide flights and all the ground arrangements for my assignments, and I would get an article on the destination published in DIVER. Harlequin would be included in the fact-file and I would provide them with more photographs for their brochure - it's a horrible cliche, but it was a 'win-win' arrangement.

I can think of several trips that would not have happened if I had not initially provided my photographs for free. So the question is - did I really provide them for free?

So, if I were starting off, on my return from a diving holiday I would call the company I used to arrange the trip and offer them photographs and a short write up for their site or brochure. It's a foundation, and you never know where it will lead to.

Here's an example of something I did recently for Dive Worldwide. They sponsored an assignment to Utila and Roatan, and as I wasn't overly complimentary about the diving in the resulting article, I offered to help them by writing something about another destination for their website. As I particularly love the island of Saba, and they were trying to promote it, I put together a short piece on this location. Note how it isn't written in a particularly publishable (for a magazine - unless it's a U.S. one!) style - it's in what is often referred to as advertorial. Not a problem here as this is what their site is. As an aside, it's all true, even if it were for an advertorial piece, I wouldn't tell any lies about a location in my writing.

You can find their website here.

DIVE WORLDWIDE - August 2007

"So, where is the best place in the world to dive?"

As a regular contributor to DIVER magazine I'm often asked this question. The answer? Well, it all depends on what you're looking for. If your search is for a remote island in the Caribbean, with stunning pinnacles, plenty of marine life and bags of character, then you'll be looking for the island of Saba.

"Isn't that in Malaysia somewhere?"

No it isn't, that's Sabah - for reasons I cannot fathom, Saba still remains relatively unheard of. Bizarre as it offers some of the best dive sites in this region and one of my top five dive sites, 'The Pinnacle'. Rising at an angle from 60 metres to its peak at 30; this tower of coral and barrel sponges is only a few metres in diameter. As you spiral round the summit, take a look below, there's almost certainly going to be a shark patrolling the base.

Saba's signature dives are its pinnacles and seamounts - peaking at about 28 to 30 metres they always provide something of interest, shoals of jacks, collections of brightly coloured sponges, frogfish, sharks, turtles. And then there are the drop offs - stunning.

On dry land, the red roofs of the gingerbread style cottages and the people who occupy them take you back to the Caribbean of yesteryear. It's an overused cliche, but the people of this island really are the friendliest I have ever met (try standing on one of the roads for more than 5 minutes without being offered a lift). They also care passionately about their environment, the marine park is well run and where else would you find workers who built one of their roads around a tree, they just couldn't bear the idea of chopping it down.

And for the non-diver, or a diving day off, there is Mount Scenery. Like the underwater pinnacles around it, this island's peak is veiled in year round mist, its rainforest making for a challenging day of exploration.

So, back to the question, where is the best place in the world to dive? If it's the Caribbean you're thinking of, Saba, with its handful of quirky hotels, restaurants, rain forests, remote villages and of course, great diving, is your destination.

Brendan O'Brien

Keep writing...

Brendan

Your Story - Elaine Whiteford

Thanks to Elaine Whiteford for her words of encouragement to keep this site going.

Elaine has her own website devoted to underwater photography, film making and photojournalism called Sublime Scuba Photography.

Since 2005 she has been published in a variety of magazines including: The Scots Magazine, The Undersea Journal, The Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine, Chic Chat, DYK magazine (did you know this was owned by the DIVER group?), Nature Photographers Online magazine and DIVER magazine. All of this has been achieved over the past three years - or has it?

Elaine talks about the numerous rejections prior to getting her first article accepted - an all too common story. The magazines she has been published in do not appear to have any contributor guidelines, which often leads to rejection from would be contributors as they submit articles that are not suitable. Note how I say 'not suitable' - they may be very well written and the pictures may be stunning, they're just not what the editor is looking for at that time.

Most budding photojournalists don't realise that even though a magazine doesn't publish any contributor guidelines, they effectively do through their magazine. An analysis of a year's worth of any magazine will tell you precisely what the editor is looking for. Although this process may take time, it will remove the frustration of rejection and reduce the amount of time spent preparing articles that don't get published.

I guess the worth of conducting such analysis is demonstrated in my own story - my first year of submissions were accepted and published in Sport Diver, Scuba World and DIVER, as well as in a handful of non diving related titles. Since then I have only had one article returned as opposed to rejected - it was initially accepted but after two years of knocking around in the editor's 'for publication' box, it had gone past its sell by date. (See "Workshops and Seminars" in the right hand column of my site - during these I spend time on the techniques and practicalities of analysis)   

From Elaine's website it is clear that she has been pro-active in promoting her photographs at every opportunity, from exhibitions to competitions, she has managed to get her name 'out there' very effectively.

Elaine is proof that anyone (can you put two sentences together? That's enough, the rest can be worked on) can get published. I don't say this out of any disrespect for Elaine's work - it's very good, it has to be otherwise it wouldn't get published. Her story is similar to mine, I have no journalist or writing qualifications other than an 'O' -level (basic 16 year old stuff) in English Language. So, if we can do it - so can you.

I'll be featuring more successful photojournalists in the future, but in the meantime, here's Elaine's story in her own words:

How I Managed To Break Into The Photojournalism World And Get Published?

By Elaine Whiteford

Well, it was more of a stumble, really, albeit a stumble at the end of a long and weary journey. But it is important to remember that you don’t get from start to finish without going on a journey; overnight success is very rare.

My journey, like that of many others, was full of rejections. If you are serious about breaking into photojournalism, though, you have to take rejection in your stride, treat it as an occupational hazard and carry on with what you want to do – which is write and photograph. Articles get rejected for lots of reasons, even if they are well written and well photographed. They also, of course, get rejected because they are sub-standard. Let experience be your teacher and grow your experience by keeping writing and by reading the work of others.

Anyway, back to my stumble into photojournalism. Taking as read the years of blood, sweat, tears and rejection, I kept writing and persevering with submissions. My breakthrough finally came when I approached an international journal with an unsolicited dive travel piece.

Although a rejection came whizzing back, it was a rejection with a difference because it came with a question: the editor didn’t think the piece I had submitted was right at that time for the journal but, since I was in touch, did I have anything similar on Barbados since they were looking for a feature on the island?

Well, I didn’t: but I had been to Barbados and I did have photographs so I could prepare a similar article. Thus as any aspiring photojournalist would, I replied that I did have an appropriate piece and turned the article around in 24 hours. The submission was accepted and that was that – I had a cover and a further 25 images in a 2000 word article spread over multiple pages. While I may have stumbled as I broke into photojournalism, as first publications go, the Barbados piece was a pretty substantial feature.

There is no secret to getting published. Success is usually a combination of hard work, perseverance, quality writing and photography, serendipity. And the good news is, you can control all but the last of these!

Word & Copyright - Elaine Whiteford

Assignment from DIVER magazine

If you were looking for a way to get into the world of diving magazine photojournalism, here's an opportunity.

DIVER magazine are hosting an underwater photography competition where the winner will represent the magazine at the SanDisk shootout in Israel.

If you were looking for a foot in the door this could be it. Many of the photojournalists, including me, who contribute on a regular basis to the diving media started off in photography and used their skills in this area to get their foot in the door.

See the DIVERNET website for further details.

Keep writing... and in this case, get practising on your photography,

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

Why editors won't like your photographs

I was chatting to a real life full time above water photographer today, you know, one that makes a living out of taking pictures.

On his business card he had some examples of incredibly inventive and beautiful photographs. So when does he get to take pictures like this? "Hardly ever," came his reply, "my time is spent taking shots of 'important' people shaking hands at conferences and smiling folks next to a new 'something' for newspapers." As for the artistic shots? "it's editorial that earns the $ - whether you like it or not, that's just the way it is."

This reminded me of the difference between mainstream underwater photography and photography for magazines. Unless the magazine is the equivalent of National Geographic the likelihood is that the editor won't want the types of pictures you take.

Sure, they'll opt for some of them, but chances are, they won't tell a story, they won't illustrate your copy in the way the editor / art editor will want them to. And as for front covers? Did you know there are several editors out there who are always on the look out for front cover shots? The thing is, most underwater photographers don't look for shots that will make a front cover. Think about cover shots, do they follow the rule of thirds and all that kind of stuff?

A few examples:

I was in Bermuda on my second commissioned assignment and one of the central themes was a wreck called the Xing Da. It's in small pieces now, but back then it was quite an impressive sight. Note how the photograph has divers in it and how it shows the scale of the dive site. the inset is a shot of the ship sinking I took the year before. Editors like exclusivity, and this page delivered, there are few divers who have shots of the ship sinking and in its pre-smashed to bits state.

This next set of pictures helped tell the main theme of another article pictorally, how most of the dive   centres in Eilat wanted to give me extra weights to get me to 'sink.' What better than a set of pictures showing divers launching themselves into the water?

So, next time you are out with your camera, think, will this shot tell a story? How will it look on the pages of a diving magazine? How can you appeal to the editors? You're not there to please the readers, remember who will decide whether your shots are good enough to support your copy.

More about commissions / assignments another time. Until then,

keep writing

Brendan

In what format do you require my photographs to be submitted? Question sent to Mark Evans, editor of Sport Diver

Following an e-mail discussion, David has sent the below to Mark Evans at Sport Diver in respect of the "competition" for the article covering Peurto Galera's diving.

Hi Mark

my name is David and I was one of the participants at the diving photojournalism workshop which Brendan did last March (at Puerto Galera).

I was wondering how would you like the pictures to be sent to you when we finish our articles.  Email or CD?

Also, do you have any specific technical requirements e.g. max file size for each picture etc.

There's going to be six or seven of us sending you stuff, so I will forward your reply to everyone else to save you time.

(in case someone else has already emailed you about this already, please ignore this email).

regards

David

Update to follow

Keep writing......

Brendan