Brendiver's World

Spotting Opportunities - Front Cover Shots

While there are magazines with Contributor Guidelines that ask for certain things from freelance writers and photographers, others don't have any guidance at all.

However, they do give away a lot within their pages - for any budding diving / travel journalist these clues are as good as Contributor Guidelines. 

Take this month's Sport Diver magazine (June 2008) as an example. You only have to go as far as page 3 to find your first opportunity.

The front cover of a turtle and diver is not from any freelance contributor, instead it is from the stock photograph agency, Image Quest Marine. This tells me that the editor is probably short of good front cover shots - so if you have any photographs that would be suitable, now would be a good time to market them. I can guarantee it will cost the editor less to use your photographs than those from an image library.

There are quite a few magazines that even advertise the fact they are always looking for cover shots. Bizarre eh? You would have thought the market would be flooded with underwater photographers clamouring to get their pictures on a front cover.

More about what editors look for in a front cover shot, as well as the other clues they provide in respect of their needs another time.

Keep writing...

Brendan

Writing for Free?

On my seminars and workshops I go into the different paths you can follow to get your photographs and words published.

One route I found very useful in my early days was in the diving travel sector. I'm sure this advice will horrify 100's of underwater photographers out there, but I used to provide my photographs for free to diving travel companies to illustrate their brochures. Eventually I built up a relationship with one called Harlequin, to the point where they would provide flights and all the ground arrangements for my assignments, and I would get an article on the destination published in DIVER. Harlequin would be included in the fact-file and I would provide them with more photographs for their brochure - it's a horrible cliche, but it was a 'win-win' arrangement.

I can think of several trips that would not have happened if I had not initially provided my photographs for free. So the question is - did I really provide them for free?

So, if I were starting off, on my return from a diving holiday I would call the company I used to arrange the trip and offer them photographs and a short write up for their site or brochure. It's a foundation, and you never know where it will lead to.

Here's an example of something I did recently for Dive Worldwide. They sponsored an assignment to Utila and Roatan, and as I wasn't overly complimentary about the diving in the resulting article, I offered to help them by writing something about another destination for their website. As I particularly love the island of Saba, and they were trying to promote it, I put together a short piece on this location. Note how it isn't written in a particularly publishable (for a magazine - unless it's a U.S. one!) style - it's in what is often referred to as advertorial. Not a problem here as this is what their site is. As an aside, it's all true, even if it were for an advertorial piece, I wouldn't tell any lies about a location in my writing.

You can find their website here.

DIVE WORLDWIDE - August 2007

"So, where is the best place in the world to dive?"

As a regular contributor to DIVER magazine I'm often asked this question. The answer? Well, it all depends on what you're looking for. If your search is for a remote island in the Caribbean, with stunning pinnacles, plenty of marine life and bags of character, then you'll be looking for the island of Saba.

"Isn't that in Malaysia somewhere?"

No it isn't, that's Sabah - for reasons I cannot fathom, Saba still remains relatively unheard of. Bizarre as it offers some of the best dive sites in this region and one of my top five dive sites, 'The Pinnacle'. Rising at an angle from 60 metres to its peak at 30; this tower of coral and barrel sponges is only a few metres in diameter. As you spiral round the summit, take a look below, there's almost certainly going to be a shark patrolling the base.

Saba's signature dives are its pinnacles and seamounts - peaking at about 28 to 30 metres they always provide something of interest, shoals of jacks, collections of brightly coloured sponges, frogfish, sharks, turtles. And then there are the drop offs - stunning.

On dry land, the red roofs of the gingerbread style cottages and the people who occupy them take you back to the Caribbean of yesteryear. It's an overused cliche, but the people of this island really are the friendliest I have ever met (try standing on one of the roads for more than 5 minutes without being offered a lift). They also care passionately about their environment, the marine park is well run and where else would you find workers who built one of their roads around a tree, they just couldn't bear the idea of chopping it down.

And for the non-diver, or a diving day off, there is Mount Scenery. Like the underwater pinnacles around it, this island's peak is veiled in year round mist, its rainforest making for a challenging day of exploration.

So, back to the question, where is the best place in the world to dive? If it's the Caribbean you're thinking of, Saba, with its handful of quirky hotels, restaurants, rain forests, remote villages and of course, great diving, is your destination.

Brendan O'Brien

Keep writing...

Brendan

Behind the Scenes - anatomy of a diving and travel article

Have you ever read a diving travel article and wondered what goes on behind the scenes?

I've just had an article published in DIVER magazine called, "Market Forces," about diving in the Algarve, Portugal. Click on the thumb nails to read it, and at the same time I'll explain how it came about.

Like most assignments, it started with a phone call from the editor asking if I would be interested in the trip. Prior to this the PR agency who represent the Algarve had been in touch with the magazine to offer one of its journalists an opportunity to visit the area with a view to putting together an article on the area's diving.

I found out later how for 2007 Algarve Tourism were targeting niche markets as opposed to geographic areas. In previous years they had promoted their business in countries where they wanted to increase the number of visitors. But in 2007 they changed their strategy to attract visitors who wanted to do more than just lie on the beach. So if you were a journalist in a niche area: golfing; cycling; windsurfing or diving, you were an attractive proposition. Hills Balfour Synergy handle the contract for the Algarve in the UK and helped arrange the flights, hotel,diving and hire car through the Algarve representatives in London and Portugal.

So, back to the Algarve. This was one of those trips where I had to find the angle on arrival, and fortunately the first contact we got to dive with was a real character. Salvador provided more quotes than I could use, and also provided a wealth of information about the environmental issues in the area (over-fishing and coastal building work). He's also one of the most prominent figures in the Algarve diving sector and was able to provide invaluable introductions to some useful contacts.

With the blessing of the Algarve Tourism representative assigned to this visit (who met us at the airport with a big smile, despite it being about 2200 on a Friday night following a full day at the office - PR is a long hours game) we changed the programme. Budgets would have been set for this visit, so to go outside of the programme without OK-ing it with the representative would have been poor form.

On the second evening we had dinner with the representative. This is common practice, a way of making sure, in an informal way, that everything is going to plan, and more importantly, whether the journalist is getting enough material. A few evenings later we went back to the same restaurant - our representative was there again, only this time she was entertaining ten Czech journalists. You need to be nice to the representatives - theirs is a busy life.

Unfortunately, the week was set back by poor weather, so we went on a tour of the Algarve checking out every dive operation we could find. Only a small part of our findings went into the article, just enough to rescue the piece as we had only completed five dives before the weather closed in.

We picked up several pages of quotes from visitors, locals and dive guides as well as detailed descriptions of dive sites and the history of the wrecks we dived on. I collect everything while I am on assignment, pamphlets, maps, booklets, photographs of dive sites, I even photograph restaurant menus. I operate on the premise that the one piece of information you decide to leave behind is the one you will need at a later date.                                                                                  

I'm a big believer in quotes - they "people the landscape" with characters and enhance the narrative so it's not all your opinion. The quote which really stood out was Salvador's, the one about the fish being in the market. I knew I would use it when Salvador said it, but just how remained a question at the back of my mind until our last night when the local fishermen were trying to get Salvador to reveal where the fish could be found. Sometimes it really does work out just like this, I knew instantly that I had my beginning and my end. Even after a plateful of good seafood and several glasses of wine, you still have to be alive to the opportunities as they present themselves.

Salvador at the restaurant Marisquera Fialho in Sino de Pinheiro, Luz de Tavira, great place - the best seafood

Back in the UK the process of writing it all up started. I sometimes meet people who think you might do two or three drafts before you send your copy off, but the reality for me is about 40 drafts, sometimes more. So, if you're about to put your first article together, and it all looks a bit messy after your first draft, don't worry, this is the way it is!

While doing this I also contacted Hills Balfour Synergy to provide them with an update on the assignment. I believe it's professional courtesy to report back on how the trip went (but not before you do so with the editor!). They tried to push Monarch Airlines by sending me a proposal for a paragraph that could be placed in the fact-file. We really appreciated the extra legroom seats, the free meal and drinks on board, and they are a quality airline, but they are also competing for the word count. They got a sentence.

As the week progressed it became clear that Algarve Tourism didn't know anything about the diving in the area, so, I prepared a set of bullet points for them on who could be trusted to provide them with some guidance for future trips. Always look after PR contacts, they may be the key to your next trip.

To go with the article I sent about 20 photographs, all captioned with a mix of landscape and vertical,

This one didn't appear in the article - but I kind of like it, and it links in with the opening sentence

above and below the water, including some 'arty' shots of all the anchors lined up on the dunes. This is the sort of shot the art editor might use to illustrate the article as a background shot. But on this occasion it wasn't selected.

Several months after the trip, the article appeared in DIVER.

Are you persuaded yet? Do you still think these assignments are journalist jollies?

Keep writing...

Brendan

Your Story - Elaine Whiteford

Thanks to Elaine Whiteford for her words of encouragement to keep this site going.

Elaine has her own website devoted to underwater photography, film making and photojournalism called Sublime Scuba Photography.

Since 2005 she has been published in a variety of magazines including: The Scots Magazine, The Undersea Journal, The Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine, Chic Chat, DYK magazine (did you know this was owned by the DIVER group?), Nature Photographers Online magazine and DIVER magazine. All of this has been achieved over the past three years - or has it?

Elaine talks about the numerous rejections prior to getting her first article accepted - an all too common story. The magazines she has been published in do not appear to have any contributor guidelines, which often leads to rejection from would be contributors as they submit articles that are not suitable. Note how I say 'not suitable' - they may be very well written and the pictures may be stunning, they're just not what the editor is looking for at that time.

Most budding photojournalists don't realise that even though a magazine doesn't publish any contributor guidelines, they effectively do through their magazine. An analysis of a year's worth of any magazine will tell you precisely what the editor is looking for. Although this process may take time, it will remove the frustration of rejection and reduce the amount of time spent preparing articles that don't get published.

I guess the worth of conducting such analysis is demonstrated in my own story - my first year of submissions were accepted and published in Sport Diver, Scuba World and DIVER, as well as in a handful of non diving related titles. Since then I have only had one article returned as opposed to rejected - it was initially accepted but after two years of knocking around in the editor's 'for publication' box, it had gone past its sell by date. (See "Workshops and Seminars" in the right hand column of my site - during these I spend time on the techniques and practicalities of analysis)   

From Elaine's website it is clear that she has been pro-active in promoting her photographs at every opportunity, from exhibitions to competitions, she has managed to get her name 'out there' very effectively.

Elaine is proof that anyone (can you put two sentences together? That's enough, the rest can be worked on) can get published. I don't say this out of any disrespect for Elaine's work - it's very good, it has to be otherwise it wouldn't get published. Her story is similar to mine, I have no journalist or writing qualifications other than an 'O' -level (basic 16 year old stuff) in English Language. So, if we can do it - so can you.

I'll be featuring more successful photojournalists in the future, but in the meantime, here's Elaine's story in her own words:

How I Managed To Break Into The Photojournalism World And Get Published?

By Elaine Whiteford

Well, it was more of a stumble, really, albeit a stumble at the end of a long and weary journey. But it is important to remember that you don’t get from start to finish without going on a journey; overnight success is very rare.

My journey, like that of many others, was full of rejections. If you are serious about breaking into photojournalism, though, you have to take rejection in your stride, treat it as an occupational hazard and carry on with what you want to do – which is write and photograph. Articles get rejected for lots of reasons, even if they are well written and well photographed. They also, of course, get rejected because they are sub-standard. Let experience be your teacher and grow your experience by keeping writing and by reading the work of others.

Anyway, back to my stumble into photojournalism. Taking as read the years of blood, sweat, tears and rejection, I kept writing and persevering with submissions. My breakthrough finally came when I approached an international journal with an unsolicited dive travel piece.

Although a rejection came whizzing back, it was a rejection with a difference because it came with a question: the editor didn’t think the piece I had submitted was right at that time for the journal but, since I was in touch, did I have anything similar on Barbados since they were looking for a feature on the island?

Well, I didn’t: but I had been to Barbados and I did have photographs so I could prepare a similar article. Thus as any aspiring photojournalist would, I replied that I did have an appropriate piece and turned the article around in 24 hours. The submission was accepted and that was that – I had a cover and a further 25 images in a 2000 word article spread over multiple pages. While I may have stumbled as I broke into photojournalism, as first publications go, the Barbados piece was a pretty substantial feature.

There is no secret to getting published. Success is usually a combination of hard work, perseverance, quality writing and photography, serendipity. And the good news is, you can control all but the last of these!

Word & Copyright - Elaine Whiteford

Conversations with a purpose

As an aspiring or established photojournalist you will have no doubt heard of the phrase:

"People the landscape with characters"

Without some kind of quote from an interesting character your article can appear a bit lifeless - a good selection of quotes can make the difference between publication or the round file.

This is where the best $ you'll ever spend comes in - having a notebook with you at all times is essential if you are to remember all of the small quotage nuggets people come up with all the time. Trying to remember what people have said at the end of the day is highly likely to lead to confusion over who said what, as well as the opportunity to misquote someone.

Here's an example of where an article was livened up through the use of quotes:

I had five days in the Maldives to come up with an angle for an article on the island of Filitheyo. After the first day's diving I found myself struggling until I met Dave, the central character in the article. How we both learnt to cope with the strong currents became the theme. Apparently the island was fully booked for the next period where strong currents would be experienced. Just goes to show how powerful your copy can be and how much of a responsibility it is to get it right.

Keep writing...

Brendan

Possibly the best Contributor Guidelines in the world

Anyone read the UK magazine Wanderlust? As far as travel and adventure writing is concerned, this is one of the best examples you'll come across. Their Contributor Guidelines are also one of the best examples you'll find - write to this 'recipe' and you won't go far wrong.

You'll find their CG page here or, if they go and change this page on their site in the future, click on this link to download a cut and pasted word document containing all the essential stuff Download writing_for_wanderlust.doc 

What I like about these CG:

They are very clear about what they are looking for

Those of you who have heard me talk on the subject of style will have heard me say something along the lines of, " keep your narrative flowing by cutting down on statistics and including personal observations, anecdotes and conversations." So - you can cut out the, "The Maldives are a collection of 756 islands situated 450 miles from the nearest mainland of Sri Lanka...." Trust me, no-one is interested!

The "handy hints" almost make my blog redundant - follow their tips and you'll not need to know much more.

They are very clear about how to submit your copy - whatever you do, with any magazine, don't think, "I know what they really want, they say they don't want phoning, but I'll show my enthusiasm by giving them a quick call." Instant rejection.

Keep writing...

Brendan

Genealogy, Gardening and Monochrome Photography

Where to find the angle? The theme for your article?

In this month's DIVER magazine there are some interesting examples of how an article about a dive site or destination can be made more interesting through the use of a new and compelling theme.

The "So What?" test used by editors (although they may call it something else, or may not call it anything at all!) is there to identify the answers to the, "Why now? Why my magazine?" questions. Having a strong theme which sets your article aside from the competition is what will get you published.

So, in this month's DIVER:

Gavin Parsons writes about wreck diving in Grenada. Not too interesting on its own, but when it's combined with his fascination with monochrome photography, the article becomes far more interesting than a stand alone on diving in Grenada.

The Maldives has been written about so many times I didn't think there was another way of presenting this destination. That is, until David Domoney presented its diving as akin to taking a walk through a park. It helps that David is a gardening world celebrity, but there's no reason why this type of approach wouldn't work for anyone else in any other tropical location.

Four pages about searching for and diving on the U-boat, U 480, is made all the more interesting by John Liddiard, as he follows two brother's adventures as they discover the wreck where their uncle perished. The human interest livens up the article.

You might be sitting there thinking, "but everything has already been written about?" Which is why one editor I know says it's the articles he doesn't know he wants yet that interest him.

Keep writing...

Brendan

So What?

Here's an interesting set of contributor guidelines - from Scuba Diver Australasia magazine. You can find them for yourself at their website.

                   

When a magazine publishes CG it means they are inviting you to write for them, there's no better way of figuring out what they want and how.

                         

Have a read through their CG and ask yourself the following question:

                                                

What are the key messages for me as a photojournalist?

                                                                                                

Read them yet?

                                                                                    

I would suggest the key messages are:

                                                                                     

Where we would like you to cover.

What subjects.

How to propose your ideas.

Typical word count.

We pay!

We may provide you with a commission (your 'ticket' to someone else covering the costs)

What style of writing they are looking for (don't be put off by this, they have a gap between what they ask for and what they publish).

Read back issues to see what has already been covered.

We are looking for characters and quotes.

Someone needs to spell check their own CG!

They need to re-write their CG - "soul of diving," "certain frisson..." " travel as texture." Can anyone tell me what they are on about? If this doesn't guarantee the editor being surrounded by cliched copy I don't know what will.

                                                                                  

And the one I like the most, the "So What?" questions, "Why now, and why in Scuba Diver?" You really need to be in a position to answer these questions prior to any pitch.

                                     

The CG for any publication are there for a reason. However, a common complaint from editors is the number of people who ignore them and do their own thing. Their chance of being published? What do you think?

                                                                   

Keep writing...

                                                                         

Brendan

                                                                                    

I, we, you, they?

David has sent me an interesting question in respect of the 'Sport Diver competition' he is in, the one where one of the post workshop articles from Puerto Galera will be selected for publication by the editor, Mark Evans:

"Brendan When writing articles for diving magazines, are personal accounts unacceptable? I am reading my latest draft and there are definitely a lot of "I"s and "me"s in the article. The book about Travel Writing says that this is a common mistake by beginner travel writers. Apparently only celebrities can get away with this! What do you think? thx DK"

I guess the first thing to say from my perspective is that there are no rules; there are only techniques and practices that work for the target medium. When I say ‘works,’ what I mean is, did the article get published? This really is the bottom line, no matter what you as a reader thinks of it; if an editor decided it was good enough to publish, either with or without editing, then it ‘worked.’

But when you analyse what ‘works’ in different magazines four distinct categories of how to place yourself in the narrative emerge. And if I can emphasise, these are not my rules - they are just my thoughts, and perhaps they are best explained through the use of examples:

I…

In the March 2008’s Scuba Diving, Gil Griffin has an article published called, “Curacao’s Mini Splendored Things.” The predominant style she has used to place herself in the narrative is to refer to the majority of experiences through her own eyes in the present tense, although this would also have worked in the past.

“Even as I gear up…”

“Now that I’m attuned…”

“As I put my right index finger on a spot near the anemone, I wait… I listen very closely to its tiny claws…”

We…

In the October 2007’s Sport Diver, Brooke Morton’s “The Island That Never Sleeps – catch the rush of Puerto Rico,” uses the phrase, “we…” a lot.

“We jump in for a drift dive…”

“We see two hawksbill turtles in 150 foot visibility…”

“Once we arrive at Captain’s Point…”

Note how it’s also described in the present tense – is this an American preference?

 

You…

In the same edition of Sport Diver, Tom Morrisey, their editor at large, has an article called “Pick Your Paradise.”

“…you can see the mountains…”

“Cruising between walls that plummet to perhaps 100 feet below you want to explore each nook and cranny, but the twisting path draws you forward.”

I find this style of writing, where, “you will find…” interspersed with factual anecdotes to describe the environment the closest thing to a press release that you will find in the pages of a magazine. Often referred to as ‘advertorial,’ it’s written in such a way that the author could well have put together the whole piece without leaving their desk (and I am in no way suggesting Tom did). With this technique there’s no sense of ‘being there’ from the author’s perspective.

They…

Good quotes can often mean the difference between an article being viewed as the same old lame, I did, we did, you will see… or a living, multi-dimensional piece of work. Most editors want articles that people the landscape with characters and opinions and the good thing about this technique, you can express opinion without it ever being attributed to you.

I, We, you, they…

Where the article has a mix of all of the above styles. I don’t think there is a problem with either one of these being the lead, with other styles being secondary, but when they are all present in equal measure, your article is likely to be a confusing read and would probably not get accepted – too much work for the editor to repair it to meet their needs.

There’s no one style that I think is best, I have my own preferences, but ultimately it’s not my preference that matters is it? There’s only one person I need to please, to make sure my copy is in their preferred style, and that’s the editor.

David, I hope this answers your question?

Keep writing...

Brendan

   

Thinking outside of the diving magazine box

Your search for opportunities to get your photographs and articles published shouldn't be limited to the big names in diving. There are plenty of magazines that cover scuba diving for a geographic area as opposed to nationally or globally.

One such magazine is South Florida Adventures based in Fort Lauderdale. I met the editor, David Raterman, at the Florida Dive Show last December where we discussed ideas for his magazine. While we were chatting one of the women who had been on my seminar joined us - within five minutes I'd coached her to the point where David agreed to take a look at an article she said she would put together on diving from kayaks. I'm not sure if she ever completed it. But the point is, this was an easy way to get published. and unlike other free magazines, David does pay (I seem to remember it would have been about $100).

But for that you would probably get your name in the mast head as a contributor and maybe a photo and short profile in the contributors page. More importantly you would have a published article to your name for your clip file.

In last years scuba issue there were articles which could be, with a little bit of coaching, matched in quality by most beginners.

Don't overlook local opportunities, and remember, editors need to fill their pages every month with interesting articles, there's no reason why you shouldn't be the author of one of them.

Keep writing....

Brendan