I think the chapter about presenting ideas is a chapter all freelance photographers should pay attention to. It is truly vital for freelancers to understand how to pitch ideas if they want to be successful in having their ideas accepted by publications. I feel that it is important for photographers to understand the importance in being able to present ideas strongly because some people feel that photographers only take pictures, and it is the reporter that comes up with the ideas. We are just as smart and eligible to take part in presenting valid and newsworthy ideas. We just need to understand how to present our ideas’ importance. I have heard this from the very beginning of photojournalism: you must know your market. This is important so that our ideas aren’t redundant, because they will be immediately turned down by a publication, unless we can express their importance using a different viewpoint or way to tell the story. Another important aspect of presenting ideas is the fact that we must express our knowledge in why we must do a story on our idea. It is not enough to just say, “I think we should do __.” We must include valid reasons as to why our idea is important enough to pursue. We have to persuade editors the importance of our ideas by giving them facts and helping them understand why our idea would be so strong for their publication. I also think that it is important for photographers to understand how to pitch their story ideas. Our ideas aren’t anything if we can’t get editors to even consider them because our pitch isn’t right. Being concise, knowledgeable, and understanding what to include in the pitch (like a portfolio or examples of the visual possibilities) is key for editors. I hope that more photographers can take this advice and show that reporters or editors aren’t the only people that can think of valuable ideas for publications. This chapter has helped me take more into account when thinking of ideas for the future and how I would go about getting them into a publication.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Multimedia POYi
I feel like I learned a lot about what to put into a multimedia project in photojournalism after listening to the judges talk about this category. I watched the judging for Issue Reporting Story-Multimedia. After they went through all the narrowed down projects, they started discussing about the 8 that they decided to keep. They played each one all the way through and I noticed right away the story about the boy who had been molested. I knew after seeing that one that it should be first because not only was it such a powerful subject, but it had such powerful photography and audio as well. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the photographer made the photos, even with the difficulty of not being able to show the subject's identity. She had a great variety of photos which included some of using reflections in a mirror, shadows, hand holding, and contrasting of light and dark that kept me interested. I also thought her interviews with the mother and the boy were awesome. She included such great and powerful quotes that told the story so clearly. You could tell from the audio that the boy presented himself very well and his explaining of what happened was very mature.
It was interesting to hear how the judges picked out the winners so quickly. I thought it was true of what the male judge was talking about when he said he thought that because this was supposed to be a photography competition, that they should consider that with all of the entries, which is why most of the 8 left were voted out. I agreed that all of the multimedia projects were terrifically reported, but that some were photographed better than the others. Although the career fair was reported on very well, it seemed more like a tv documentary or something you would see on the 5 o'clock news than something in POYi. I think the winners for this category were picked correctly for their their issue as well as content, photography, and audio. Take a look at the winners!
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