As Technical Editor of EOS magazine, I’m in a unique position to give you some insight into those questions.
Photo submissions

Your first step when considering a submission is to get hold of several copies of the magazine that you’re interested in and take a good look at the photos it uses. What’s the purpose of the photos in the magazine? Do they illustrate specific photographic techniques? Are they stand-alone images or are they part of an article? Do you recognise any of the names in the photo credits – are they professional photographers or magazine readers? How much post-processing have the images gone through? All of these points help you get a feel for the types of photos used in the magazine.
It helps to be a regular reader – if you’ve read every copy of a magazine published for the last year you’ve probably got a pretty good understanding of their requirements. If it’s the first time you’ve seen this particular magazine, it will take you a bit longer.  Our photo requirements at EOS magazine are quite specific. To start, all the images in the magazine must be taken on a Canon EOS camera. We use photos to illustrate very specific photography techniques. Some of the topics we’ve covered in recent issues are hyperfocal distance, mirror lockup, astrophotography and Picture Styles.

If you read our magazine you’ll notice that we use a lot of comparison photos. As an example, in the Picture Styles article we showed the same photo processed with several Picture Styles so readers could see the differences between them.

What’s the best way to get published in EOS magazine? In the first instance you should read our photo library submission guidelines, available online at www.eos-magazine.com/photolibrary. The information about the types of photos we need, and how to send them to us, all are there.

Once you’ve sent us some photos, we’ll add them to our library and they may get used in the future to illustrate an article. Admittedly, this is bit hit and miss as we have thousands of images on file, and our requirements depend on the articles that we’re writing. But you can increase your chances of publication massively by sending in high quality images that illustrate specific photographic techniques and include comparison photos. If your photos are good enough, they will get noticed.

The second approach is to send some lo-res images by email to our editor (you’ll find her email address in the guidelines). I don’t want to encourage general submissions that way – you should only email images if you have strong set that illustrate a specific technique. So, for example, if you have a set of photos that illustrate the use of Speedlites, then send them in. If the photos are good enough, and we haven’t published anything similar in recent issues (that’s where your market research comes in) we may use them – we may even write an article about the techniques you used if the photos are interesting enough.

We also look for newsworthy photos – such as a set of photos with an interesting story or technique behind them, or a project (such as 365 project). This is the sort of thing that may appear in the news section of our magazine.

Every photography magazine is different and you should study your chosen magazine carefully to see how your photos may be used. Some magazines have a section where they invite readers’ submissions and this can be a good place to get started. I got my first photos published this way. A word of warning – not all photography magazines pay for photos published in these sections. It usually says in the submission guidelines (you did read those didn’t you?) – the magazine may pick an image to receive a prize or you may just get the glory. It’s up to you whether you think this is worthwhile.

What photography magazine staff look for
At EOS magazine I view a number of submissions sent to the magazine. So, what do I look for? There are two important things. First, the quality of the photos has to be excellent. You really need to ask yourself if your photos match up to the quality of the photos already published in the magazine. It’s always difficult to be objective about your own photos, so don’t be afraid to ask for someone else’s opinion. If your photos aren’t up to the required standard then take the time to work on your technique and creative vision until they are.

A little while ago we had a submission from a photographer who had some great images but they were covered with dust spots. That’s not cool. It looks unprofessional and we had to ask him to fix them.  Second, the photos must be relevant to the content of the magazine. They must illustrate a certain technique and do it well.

Photo buying

As well as dealing with images that are submitted to the magazine, I sometimes need to hunt for images that we need. For example, I wrote an article about reverse lens macro photography for the current issue of the magazine. It was surprisingly hard to find good images to illustrate it. Normally I search on Google, or on photo sharing sites like Flickr, 500px or 1x.com.
How can you increase the chances of me or another photo buyer finding your photos? A blog helps immensely. I always search Google to see what I can find when I’m researching articles. If you’ve got some good photos, then write an article about them on your blog. It greatly increases your chances of being found. For example, if you have some great reverse lens macro photos, post them on your blog and explain how you took the photos. The next time that a photography magazine writes an article about this topic, they may find your blog.
You can also post them to the above mentioned photo sharing sites. It’s a good idea to post a detailed description with the images. If I’m looking for photos, I normally have very specific requirements. If your caption mentions the camera, lens, relevant camera settings and explains the technique you used I can see right away whether it fits our needs.
It doesn’t bother me whether you’ve been published before or not. I don’t care whether you’re a professional photographer. All I need to know is whether your photos are good enough for the magazine. Having said that, if you act in a professional manner it makes a good impression and lets me know that you may be a good person to work with in the future too.
How to be professional
If you say you’re going to do something – do it (and do it well). Add a signature to your email account with a link to your website. Don’t have a website? You should – anyone can go to wordpress.com and start their own free website. Don’t think you have to have a professionally designed website, while it would be nice the important thing is to have a professional looking showcase for your images and stories and that’s easy to do at wordpress.com (it’s good enough for Steve McCurry).
Edit your photos. You should only have your best ones on your website. The same goes for photo sharing sites as well, especially Flickr. It makes a much better impression if all the photos you’ve uploaded are high quality – and a poor one if I have to wade through all the rubbish to get to the good stuff.  Play to your strengths. If you’re a Photoshop expert, make sure I get that when I look at your website. If, on the other hand, your specialty is low light photos, make sure that visitors to your site can’t miss that fact (Brent Pearson is good at both).

Long term relationships

Never be afraid to ask about money. It’s OK to ask a magazine what their publication rates are, and it’s always best to double check in case they don’t intend to pay you. It’s rare, I’m sure, but it does happen. I got told once by the editor of a UK photography magazine that they ‘have no budget for photography’.

Photography magazine usually have fixed rates for photos and won’t go beyond that. They may make an exception for a ‘name’ or professional photographer, but generally speaking you’ll have to accept what they tell you. It won’t make you rich, but it could be the start of a long term business relationship.

Photography magazines like EOS magazine have an insatiable need for relevant, high quality imagery. We have a problem to solve each issue – how to fill it with inspirational images that illustrate the techniques we write about. Can you help us solve that problem? If your images will help the magazine fill its pages, you’re on your way to getting published and building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

For example, we have a photographer who supplies us with most of our requirements for photos taken with portable Speedlite flash units. He’s been working for us for years. He’s great at what he does, his photos are creative, the quality is excellent, and if we ask him to do something he always does it on time and delights us with the quality of his photos. If you want to build a long-term relationship with a publisher, that’s the sort of thing you need to do.

One thing leads to another and long-term relationships bring long-term benefits. For example, one of my first published photos appeared in Practical Photography magazine. They asked me to write an article about the story behind the photo, which led to several more photos and articles being published. If I hadn’t ended up working at EOS magazine, that relationship would probably have developed further.

Your photos, our needs

If your photos are good enough, they’ll get published. It may take time – not only do your photos have to be of the highest standard, but they also have to meet the needs of the magazine you’ve sent them to. If you send me some reverse lens macro photos next week, it doesn’t matter how good they are, they won’t get used because we’ve just written an article on that topic and won’t revisit it for another two years at least.

However, if you’d sent them a month or two ago they may have been published. Timing, and luck, are everything. You can increase your chances by asking if the magazine has any current picture requirements. If you have persistence, and the understanding that this is a long-term game, combined with sound photographic technique and a collection of high quality images, sooner or later you’ll get published.

It’s always a pleasure to publish someone’s work for the first time. While I was researching the reverse lens macro article I mentioned earlier, I came across the work of Roni Delmonico and we used some of her images to illustrate the article. She was delighted and wrote about it on her blog. If you act on the advice in this article, next time it could be you.

Andrew S Gibson is a freelance writer based in Auckland, New Zealand. He is the Technical Editor of EOS magazine and writes photography eBooks for Craft And Vision. including The Evocative Image. Follow Andrew on Facebook here.

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/getting-published-in-photography-magazines-an-editors-view#ixzz1TSuZXJes

1. Get up early, let the rest of the family sleep in or enjoy a few cartoons before breakfast while you get the best light to go on your early morning photo walk.

2. Give your kids point and shoot cameras, get them involved in the shoot. Depending on their age, give them a theme for the day, clues to look for, objects of a specific color, etc. You’ll all have fun looking at their pictures later and you may discover a natural talent!

3. Include your children in the pictures. If you are traveling in a different culture, try to capture those candid moments instead of posing them in front of a monument. I’d rather have a picture of my son eating a croissant in a Parisian café than a picture of him posing in front of the Eiffel Tower.

4. Work fast. You can’t expect non photographers (children or adults) to wait patiently behind you to compose the perfect shot every 15 minutes during your vacation. They’re on vacation too. Set some time aside without a camera. Just family time. Memories are all that really matter!

5. Kids can be a great ice breaker when you want to do people or street photography. You are a lot less threatening to strangers if you ask permission to do a street portrait when you have a coupe of kids by your side. This will also open your children’s eyes and make them appreciate different cultures.

6. If you are traveling with your children and your spouse or significant other, plan for a day just for yourself. Trade off. You get your photo day, he/she gets a fun day too when, in turn, you spend quality time with your kids.

7. Don’t set your expectations too high and be willing to make some compromise. Your kids will not be kids forever and you’ll have plenty of time to go on photo trips on your own after they move out. In the mean time, enjoy every minute, with or without a camera

Homeless in San Francisco

I took this image while on a trip to San Francisco.  My kids made capturing street photography easier.  Valerie says “kids can be a great ice breaker when you do street photography. You just have to work fast and not set your expectations too high.”

Well, you have picked a tough and competitive business that requires a lot of hard work, patience, and the ability to take rejection well and often.

There is a simple fact about the business of modeling… The most successful models fail many more times than they succeed.

It is simply the nature of the business. Generally several models if not ten or twenty are submitted for the same job – not everyone can get the job and nobody is picked for every job.

On the plus side, it is a business that can give you the opportunity to meet lots of creative people, have a lot of fun and make some money and who knows, for the very lucky few even travel and notoriety.

The reality is that this is a BUSINESS–just like any other business–that requires constant research and marketing to keep up with trends and to keep your face in front of the agencies that you have employed to market you.

Models must take care of themselves and work hard to maintain a marketable image. Photo shoots can be long and difficult and take place in less than desirable conditions.

If you are serious about success… read on. You will not find a more complete modeling resource anywhere… [Read More...]

Whatever your needs, be it family photographs or something for commercial purposes an experienced Sacramento Photographer is there to help. It is quite common for people to have a family photographer who takes pictures at family gatherings. Sometimes the services of a professional photographer may be required to shoot pictures commercial purposes, perhaps for an advertisement or brochure illustration among other things.

A photographer is often known for the type of subjects they take pictures of. Most obviously a family photographer is a professional photographer who takes pictures for one or more families during special family events. A family photographer will often spend a while developing a familiarity with his clients that allows him to take surprisingly candid shots of family members. Because of his rapport with his subjects he is able to capture all the cute and endearing idiosyncrasies of family members which are the fabric that holds families together.

A Sacramento Photographer also explores subjects such as landscape, portraiture, still life, fashion photography, commercial photography, documentary photography and photojournalism. The photographs that you see everyday in newspapers, magazines, billboards or even those pictures on top of a cereal box are all the work of commercial photographers. A variety of industries solicit the creativity and skills of commercial photographers – television, newspapers, publishing, advertising and photographic studios are but a few among many others.

The experienced Sacramento Photographer knows what works and what does not. Get in touch with a Sacramento Photographer whether you need a commercial photographer for your business or a professional photographer to cover a family function and they can meet your every need.

A Sacramento Photographer has many talents including commercial photography. Whatever your needs, be it an advert, brochure, website, billboard or even the side of a soup can, a Sacramento Photographer will take just the right pictures for you.

Commercial photographers are very well versed in the every detail of photography, from setting up the perfect shot to developing the picture in the dark room. Lighting, effective usage of backdrops and digital photography are all skills that a professional Sacramento Photographer is highly trained in. Photographs are often retouched or modified in today’s commercial world. This requires the extensive use of computers and advanced photography software. The specialized knowledge of computers and software is something that a professional Sacramento Photographer will have and it will be a huge advantage when it comes to commercial photography.

A professional Sacramento Photographer will travel to your special event such as a wedding, or picture days at school for taking group or individual photographs. Your final premium quality portrait will have been taken with the portrait photographer’s high quality photography equipment. The Sacramento Photographer understands that you are not paying for the time that is spent on taking the photographs but for the end result of the portrait. Portrait photographers make sure that they spend their time effectively capturing the best shots of you and your family.

Most portrait photographers often start as assistant to other reputed portrait photographers, so they have a wealth of experience and exposure behind each click of their camera.

An important aspect of portrait photography especially when photographing large groups is that everyone should be in the picture looking his or her best and everyone should be looking at the camera at the time the picture is clicked. To make sure that the picture doesn’t appear too casual everyone must face the same way with similar expression on their faces. Ensuring that this happens is the responsibility of the professional photographer. A portrait is meant to be a visual record of your family that can be kept for many years and also given as a present to friends and family. A beautiful portrait is the result of meticulous attention to detail by a skilled Sacramento Photographer.

Only an experienced Sacramento Photographer can take fine family portraits. Taking pictures of families which include small children can be especially challenging as it is very difficult to get the children to stay still enough to be photographed. When taking pictures of children most portrait photographers or even commercial photographers have an assistant who distracts the children with a small toy or puppet while the pictures are being taken.

Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a great moment to photograph, but missing the opportunity to do so. I’ve missed my fair share of great moments either due to timing or worse lack of preparedness. Either way it’s no fun to miss a photo whatever the circumstances. The Art Of Being Prepared is just that, an art. So what can you do to minimize the chance you’ll miss that next great photo? Here are 12 ways to never miss a photo…

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/12-ways-to-never-miss-a-photo-opportunity#ixzz14clD39Db

2. Pick a photographer based on his/her style. If you like his/her photos from past weddings, then you’ll probably like the photos they capture at your wedding! Find out what is the photographer’s primary style? Traditional posed shots? Candid or artistic? Photojournalistic? Other? Then decide which style you like best.

3. Try not to meet with too many photographers. Ideally you will want to select less than 5 wedding photographers in your area whose style you like and who are in your price range (don’t be afraid to ask this question when telephoning). Meeting with too many photographers will get confusing and will likely be counterproductive to your search.

4. Do you like the photographer you met with? This is the person that will be following you around for hours photographing you, your fiance and family/friends on your big day. Be sure it’s someone that you feel at ease with; otherwise your uneasiness will show up in the photos.

5. Ask to see images from an entire wedding (start to finish). Just about anyone can put together a slideshow of good pictures they have taken over the years. But a professional wedding photographer can capture great photos from every segment of a single wedding – bride dressing beforehand, ring exchange, kiss, formals, 1st dance, bouquet toss, etc.

6. Request a wedding day photo schedule. One element (possibly the most important) of wedding photography that is frequently overlooked is the Wedding Day Photo Schedule, which details when shooting begins/ends (i.e., number of coverage hours), who will be photographed during formal photos and provides a specific time line for each wedding event that will be photographed. If the photographer doesn’t provide one, then request it – it will be invaluable.

7. Is there a limit to the number of photos captured? Find out how many photos the photographer estimates will be captured on wedding day and how many photos will be provided after image selection/editing. Most photographers who use digital cameras can give you an estimate based on the number of hours of coverage provided at the wedding.

8. Do you get a CD with full-sized images? Many photographers are reluctant to provide you images from your wedding on CD, even though you may pay them handsomely for covering the event. Ask about getting the images on CD and if this costs extra.

9. Inquire about back-up cameras and equipment. Does the photographer you are meeting with have back up equipment in the case that his/her equipment malfunctions or fails? Professionals will frequently have on hand 2-3 cameras, numerous lenses, and at least 2 of everything else. Wedding photographers always have to be prepared for the unexpected!

10. Beware of inexpensive photographers. The old saying “you get what you pay for” is applicable when it comes to wedding photography. If someone posting on Craig’s List offers to shoot your wedding for $250, it’s probably b/c they are new to photography. If your wedding budget doesn’t allow you to hire a professional and you think that photographs from wedding day aren’t that important, then hiring an amateur may be OK. However, if images from the big day are important to you, then don’t skimp on photography; hire an experienced professional. You’ll be glad you did.

If the person is to be the most important – say, it’s an outdoor wedding photo, then don’t have too much in the background. A single tree would enhance the picture, rather than distract the eye into looking at something else. A large, gnarled tree-trunk often forms a wonderful background for an outside snapshot of a person or group. The thing is not to make the background too busy.

If you are taking a photo of a scene, it can add appeal to have one side at the top framed in some close vegetation like branches. Or there may be a tree or rock that could feature to one side. Look through some geographical magazines for shots like these. Some of them are beauties, and you can do that too. If you photograph a building, try moving it from the center of focus to the side for greater appeal.

Lighting is another point of outdoor pictures. Mostly the light is great outdoors, but just watch the play of light and shade, particularly on your subject’s face. If you have your back to the sun and it’s late, watch that your own shadow is not featured in the snapshot. An easy tip to get the shadow off your subject’s face is to use a light colored cardboard or T-shirt to reflect light onto it. Someone who is not going to be in the photo should hold this – and you must be careful you don’t accidentally get them in.

Composition consists of who and what is in the photo and what they are doing. A straight line of cheesy grins may be okay, but you can make it so much more interesting with a few props. When taking children at play, you still need them to look at the camera; otherwise their faces will be half hidden. To do this, quietly focus the camera on them, then call their name or just say, Hey! Click as soon as their heads jerk up, but before they have a chance to get out of play position.