Photo/Journalists, wisdom needed

The only advice I have is to buy a camera if you haven’t already and start taking pictures.

Furqan’s advice is spot on. You need to take pictures and work on a portfolio. Even if you’re going to take classes it’s helpful to have a portfolio. PIck up a copy of John G. Morris’ “Get the Picture”. This is not a how-to book. It will give you a base history of photojournalism that will hopefully give you perspective on what’s come before you. Find a photographer or photo editor who will look at your pictures and give you constructive criticism. At some point try to get a freelance job for a small newspaper that can give you occasional assignments. It won’t pay much but will give experience. Austin, this is a terrible time to be getting into photojournalism. There are few jobs and opportunities. Hopefully if you have an eye, work hard and have some ideas for stories you might pull this dream of yours off. Chances are it won’t work for you. There are many photographers who are out there who have already proven themselves and can’t find any photography work. It will be a rough road. Good luck.

Thank you both. First off I have my camera gear even know its probably not held as professional d7000, d5100 although i dont think its much the camera that makes the professional as much as the lens and experience/skill. I have been taking pictures and reading up on every possible angle for quite sometime now.

As for the portfolio, I don’t know what would be good to put in there. Would the pics for that be of people or in a documentary sense or just any photos that show your photographic eye per-say.

As for the bad time to start that doesn’t sway me either way just adds to the challenge. When I get something of a challenge in my head I will do next to anything to accomplish my goal or die trying.

Also everything is going to digital media with the dawn of tablet publishing just over the horizon. They still and always will need stories/photographs to keep the commonwealth occupied and fed with current events. Just Might have to work harder to make a living at it but I’m willing to travel anywhere and cover just about anything.

Hi Austin,
Most newbies here in the UK tend to hunt down protests and start selling their images through Demotix a Citizen Journalism Agency (now owned by Corbis) and while I have serious doubts about Demotix, it is working out for others. Another Agency, is Alamy which now also dose news. As for Books try Photojournalism: The Professionals’ Approach: 6th edition Kenneth Kobre

As for your previous comment above, its great to see the lack of work as a challenge, jumping of a cliff is a challenge, but you need to survive and that is about business and as a business man it may be that the figures just don’t add up and therefore would not go with the idea if they could not find a solution.

Most newspapers (or likely buyers of photojournalism stories) have been slow on the switch to the internet and fewer still have figured out a way to get paid through tablet publishing

Hello Austin,

A former member of Lightstalkers wrote two years ago a great and still relevant post answering the same questions you are making.

http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/advice_for_young_photographers

From my side the best advice I can give you is one I heard a long time ago “You are as good as your last photograph…”

I also like Tod Papageorge’s spin on Robert Capa’s quote: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t reading enough”.

Good luck,

Thank you every for taking time to help a newby and your different views and way of seeing things. I very much appreciate the article, and to date is almost the most helpful thing I have read.

I second Gary’s advice on getting Ken Kobre’s book. It deals with a lot of practical aspects of photojouralism, I think it’s a great value.

thank you it is on the way from amazon now

Hello:
You want to be a photographer OK you need: 1: Take pictures (very easy) 2: editing the pictures: a very very hard work because you need a criteria, YOUR criterion. I recommend to you see the classics (Gypsies-Koudelka, Americans-R Frank, Otras americas-Salgado Thesufferinoflight-webb….)and someone new who likes you (to me Trent parke), when you know well this photographers forget them and start taking pictures seriosly and editing merciless ( to me aprox 1000:1 ). Take pictures about themes that you like and do not think in get money, try to get a small archive and develop your own “way of look” before make a portfolio.
Very good idea to learn a language (but no HTML ,really do you need it? ir you learn it the risk is to stay the rest of your life in front of a computer screeen loading pictures of anothers).
You need a good camera(5D Mk II), no a expensive camera.
(I apologize for my english…español es una de las lenguas que puedes aprender).

Hello:
You want to be a photographer OK you need: 1: Take pictures (very easy) 2: editing the pictures: a very very hard work because you need a criteria, YOUR criterion. I recommend to you see the classics (Gypsies-Koudelka, Americans-R Frank, Otras americas-Salgado Thesufferinoflight-webb….)and someone new who likes you (to me Trent parke), when you know well this photographers forget them and start taking pictures seriosly and editing merciless ( to me aprox 1000:1 ). Take pictures about themes that you like and do not think in get money, try to get a small archive and develop your own “way of look” before make a portfolio.
Very good idea to learn a language (but no HTML ,really do you need it? ir you learn it the risk is to stay the rest of your life in front of a computer screeen loading pictures of anothers).
You need a good camera(5D Mk II), no a expensive camera.
(I apologize for my english…español es una de las lenguas que puedes aprender).

Austin, who do you think will employ you once you are “employable”?
This isn’t what you want to hear but, to save yourself a lot of heartache further down the line, you really need to do some research now into whether the job you want to do still exists.
Try to find someone who is doing what you want to do and talk to them. Things look very different from the outside.
I would suggest that you need to know how to shoot stills and video and to master the whole production process for both. Even that won’t guarantee being able to earn a living.
Above all, you need to have unique ideas.

I love seeing all the helpful angles thank you guys for taking time out of your day once again. As for the 5d mII I like but I don’t want to have to switch and I like the d300s the most. So unless crop is absolutely unacceptable then I would rather not go to full frame but I wouldn’t have much of a problem cause I don’t have a great deal invested in lenses. Truly would like to get a fuji or lieca, not to be cliche but I noticed even today shooting in Seattle people get gun shy around a dslr they notice and either smile or whip around and duck per-say lol.

As for the being brutal on my edit I understand it but definitely need to work on that aspect. I noticed that my compositions went from great when I used to shoot film and grannie would develop them to alright when I got my digitals in my eyes so who knows what the means to others, but time to grow up lol.

As for the my “Way of look” I like turning landscapes in to something that would be hard to recreate and every thing else I like to be right up in the middle of everything. Kinda from the quote “If your pictures aren’t good enough, your not close enough” Robert Capa and lol yes I know he died from getting to close to a mine.

In the end I would rather do this and fail later then not having tried it at all. A pride thing I guess. But I take every inch and pixel of advice you guys are dishing out and using it leaving it like a bitter twisted piece of shrapnel.

A visit to the Newseum is on my list- fantastic Pulitzer prize-winning photo exhibit is a must-see. It’ll generate lots of emotions and motivate you to take your photography to the next level!

Another thing that I would urge someone starting out to do (in part because I am heading there next week myself to teach and photograph the event) is to attend the non-profit Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (http://www.foundryphotoworkshop.org/) which is held each year in a different region of the lesser-developed world for the benefit of emerging photographers in that region. It is a way to get some awesome training from some of the best photojournalists and editors in the world…people like Ron Haviv, Maggie Steber, Alison Morley, etc., and at a price you’ll never find elsewhere. It also will put you into a subtle but excellent network of people in photojournalism.