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Great zoom lens, ideal for photographer with large and strong camera bag, large and strong assistant, mule etc.
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Creating a career in photojournalism
The business of photojournalism
The site is entirely
about how to make money out of photojournalism - as a business.
It is aimed at helping you to work for yourself and
earn a full or part time income out of photojournalism.
There's more about photojournalism in Oh My Gosh Photojournalism, a
photojournalism blog. The posts in the blog aren't
aimed at
helping you to make money out of photojournalism, although
they
probably will. I've been a working photojournalist for
several years, and
I'm
also self-employed. There are quite a few issues with running
your
own business, some are personal and some are
financial.
Risky business
if you are considering photojournalism as a new
career you
should be aware that although it's satisfying it can also
be very risky.
My advice is to take a good look at yourself and ask yourself if
you really do
want to work for yourself and be your own boss.
Do you really enjoy taking risks? Don't flatter yourself by
telling yourself that you are a natural born risk-taker
that's ready to take on the world.
Ask someone you trust and who knows you very well whether they think you are
a `run your own business kind of person.' Alternatively
seek professional advice. It reallly is that important,
because once you give up that secure but totally boring day job it
might be difficult to return to it if things go wrong.
Self employed personal qualities
Self-employed people have to have a certain amount of self-discipline. They have to set money aside for emergencies, for the times when they might not be working. If you're a natural saver, you won't have a problem with this. If you like to spend your money as fast as you make it, you might have a problem with it. Try to get into the habit of saving before you start to work for yourself.
Photography equipment
Buy the best digital SLR camera you can afford, but don't choose a higher specification than you have to do. For a lot of photojournalism, a 10MB resolution is acceptable. But to be sure about this, go to photography shoots, news stories, the kind of events where press photographers and photojournalists gather, and look at the model of camera they are using. You only need the model and the model type, you can research the specifications later.
Compact digital camera
Always carry a compact digital camera around with you. Fix a long strap to it and carry it around your neck so that it's easy to reach. They are easy to use but if you you don't use it very often you might have to spend a few seconds becoming familiar with it again. These `lost' few seconds could be important if it's a fast-moving news story, so practise using it in a hurry, in the privacy of your own home, as they say.
Video news story
Probably just as importantly, become familiar with
the camera's
video mode, if it has one (most do.) Video footage sells. Most
newspaper web sites feature video footage of news stories, if the
story justifies it. The newspaper might have its own
videographer on the scene of a story but if it doesn't, it will
probably be interested in your video.
Looking at various newspaper web sites, the video footage seems to be
from around 10 to 15 seconds long. This isn't conclusive -, it isn't
the result of years' of research, it's just something that
I've
noticed. Try to include an interview with someone who is
involved
in the story. This might be a victim, a witness or a police officer, if
they are willing to give interviews. Typically you'll cut to this
person, then cut to the scene, and maybe cut back to this person for
some kind of conclusive comment. Fit a reasonably-sized memory
card, maybe around 4MB, in the camera. This will easily
handle short news stories. As a guideline, I
recently shot a 15-20 second
video news story which used 100MB of memory
card space.