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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2005-07-17
Photojournalism: When going to class is not enough
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
Looking beyond the classroom for photographic opportunities is the first step for aspiring photographers to break into the field.
What is there to do in small-or large-town America?
A big push could be toward getting published. Ideally a student can start with the campus newspaper. No matter if this is weekly instead of daily. It is getting published that counts, the generating of fresh work on a regular basis.
If there is not a campus newspaper, or the opportunities there are taken, look around the campus for the occasional magazine. This might exist in the journalism school. If not, English and art departments sometimes have magazines that publish their students work. This opens the door for the photojournalism student.
Short of that, look elsewhere on campus. Sometimes students can work for the university. Check out the athletic department. They regularly need mug shots and more of athletes and coaches. Sometimes they need game coverage. Find the Sports Information Director (S.I.D.) who is often charged with getting the word out to the public and sports world. See if he or she needs pictures. Often covering so-called minor sports or club sports (field hockey, rugby, water polo) will get a photographer in the door, since those sports often receive less coverage than the big moneymaking sports.
If sports is not your thing, the public relations office at the university often needs fresh pictures of the campus, classes, outstanding teachers and the like. The pictures might appear in catalogs, brochures and handouts.
And if you find your university has a professional photographer on staff that does this work, do not despair. Invariably they are overworked and have more requests for pictures than they can cover. See if the photographer needs a back-up shooter for those night and weekend assignments he or she does not want to cover. Failing that, see if they just need an assistant to help with existing shoots.
Another strategy: Find the departments on campus that raise their own money. The funds they raise are often subject to fewer restrictions than those from government sources. This means if the business school, engineering department or research sciences want pictures to promote their programs, they can afford to pay someone to make those pictures.
On the flip side, even tight budgeted programs like theatre and dance need promotional pictures for their student and faculty performances. Someone has to be paid for those pictures. It might was well be you.
Off campus, the nearest local daily newspaper is a source for possible work. They might need a stringer in your town for news or sports. They might need a lab or imaging assistant of some kind. For big events such as election night coverage, visits to the area by major politicians or large sports events, they might need help since their regular staff might be stretched to the limit. If you see these occasions as times when local news organizations have a problem, you can be part of the solution.
Weekly publications should not be overlooked. Photographers at weekly papers often work as hard-every day-as their colleagues down the road at the daily. The publication may come out only once or twice a week, but the assignments are there every day.
And foreign language publications are not to be overlooked. With the growing Spanish speaking population in this country, Spanish language newspapers are appearing in nearly every city of significant size. This is an excellent chance to perfect the Spanish learned on campus. It is also a way to hone one's Spanish skills prior to going to a foreign country as a photojournalist where Spanish can open doors and get photographers serious access to storytelling possibilities.
Students who speak Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese or Korean may see they have even greater career enhancing opportunities by starting at local foreign language publications and later taking this experience to large dailies who are often hungry for qualified second language speakers.
Bottom line: Get published. Having your work in a professional publication-newspaper, magazine, website, whatever-signals other professionals "you are one of us," even if you are starting small.
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
Jim McNay's Member Page
Brooks NPPA Student Chapter
Brooks Institute of Photography
Related Email Addresses:
Jim McNay: jim.mcnay@brooks.edu
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