Photography magazines also run regular competitions, some on a monthly basis, which can provide a decent income. See ‘Winning Competitions’ for more details.
Another accessible market is local magazines that cover a particular town, city, area or county. While their freelance budgets are often modest, they are usually delighted to hear from photographers who either have strong local material or are able to shoot to order. They rarely have a staff photographer and are usually run by a small team, with limited resources either to track down the images or to get out and take them specifically.
The geographical area covered by the magazine may not be large, and the subject matter will therefore be ‘on your doorstep’ – which means that the time and effort involved is often minimal. You might even be able to build a reasonably comprehensive set of images as you go about your daily business, grabbing a few frames here and there when the weather and light is at its best.
A good starting point, as ever, is to get hold of a copy of your chosen magazine and study it carefully. Does it look as if they use freelance material? Is it the kind you could supply? If so, either give them a call or send them an email saying that you are a local photographer with pictures of the area, and ask if they would be interested in seeing a submission. Most will say yes.
If possible, send a selection of photographs of the subjects most likely to be used in the magazine for them to hold on file. In this kind of publication the focus is normally on people, natural history, and heritage in addition to specific locations. Don’t send in anything too arty or unusual, unless you’ve seen that kind of material published. County and local titles tend to have an older, more conservative readership, so shots that are straightforward in style are more likely to succeed.
If your images are right for the magazine, they will steadily get used over time – with a small but welcome cheque following on each occasion. But don’t rest on your laurels. Once you have made your first sale, continue sending material – and if possible get to the stage where it’s you the magazine contacts when they need a particular image.
That’s what happened to me with a local magazine called Stamford Living. I’d had a number of stock images published in it, and had developed a good relationship with the editor, when he rang up and asked me to shoot the Christmas cover – for the following year. With seasonal issues like this, you have to work a year ahead – the Christmas edition needs to be published at the same time as the festive lights go up, so you can’t do it the same year. So I spent a couple of pleasant, if chilly, evenings at dusk in Stamford’s picturesque streets, capturing the scene that was published the following Christmas.
UNUSUAL SUBJECT MATTER
Quirky images can be sold to a range of publications, so keep your eyes peeled for anything that’s out of the ordinary.
Note that not all local magazines will consider photographs on their own; some only accept complete words-and-pictures packages. Therefore, it’s worth learning how to write a simple article (see ‘The Write Stuff’ for some tips) to maximize sales in this area.
Some magazines are of general interest, not specializing in one particular area. Many have large circulations, often several hundred thousand copies a month or even a week, and are aimed at either a male or female readership. The good news is that general-interest magazines are often extremely profitable, and as a result have a healthy budget to spend on photography. The bad news is that most of the images either come from leading picture libraries or are commissioned from experienced photographers. That doesn’t mean there are no opportunities for the freelance, but it does mean there’s little point submitting a selection of shots. For a start, what subject would you send? With a fishing magazine, you know they want fishing pictures, but with a general-interest title the content changes every issue, and you have no way of knowing what will be featured.
COVERLINE SPACE
When taking pictures for possible use on a cover, make sure you leave enough room for the magazine’s masthead and the ‘tasters’ that describe what’s inside.
However, if you’ve got to the stage of having tear sheets of published work, and specialize in a particular area that comes around regularly – such as work–life balance in the women’s press or health and fitness in the men’s press – it is worth getting in touch so the magazine has your name on file.
One of the biggest growth areas in recent years has been in the market for celebrity magazines. The shelves are now heaving with titles that show the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Some like to show them at their best, with the pictures perfectly styled, in a sumptuous location such as their own home. These are normally shot by established celebrity photographers, and it’s not easy to join that elite group. One approach might be to research any stars living in your area and approach them to see if they would allow you to take some pictures of them – perhaps offering prints they can use in their portfolio or website in exchange. If you hit lucky and get someone to agree, and the shots you take are good, that could open the door to more celebrity work. But don’t expect overnight success. This is an extremely competitive field.
Other magazines are more voyeuristic. They feature the rich and famous caught in an unguarded moment, often accompanied by a ‘witty’ caption. Sometimes what they’re doing is mundane, such as eating a hamburger in the street, and sometimes they’re doing something ‘wild’, such as rolling in the worse for wear after a night on the town. If that appeals to you – and it can be extremely lucrative if you get the right picture – you might want to join the hundreds of paparazzi wannabes who effectively stalk celebrities every minute of the day and night.
A more realistic option for most of us is to keep a camera constantly with us in case an unexpected opportunity comes along while we’re out and about. But even then you need to have the ‘killer instinct’ to do anything about it. I, for one, don’t have it. A few years ago I was returning from Nice, and ended up stranded for a few minutes on the tarmac outside the aeroplane. Standing alongside me was an A-list celebrity holding his young daughter in his arms and leaning against his wife who was holding their son. They all looked tired, dishevelled and fed up. It was a picture that would have been easy to take – I had a camera in my pocket – and even easier to sell. But I didn’t have the heart. They were clearly on their way home from a holiday and I felt it would have been intrusive to have exploited the situation. Others would not have felt the same and would have grasped the opportunity.
TRADE SECRETS
There are hundreds of ‘trade’ magazines covering many different kinds of business and industry, all of which have picture requirements.
As well as the ‘consumer’ magazines I’ve discussed so far, which you can buy in newsagents anywhere, there are also ‘trade’ magazines, read by people working in particular industries or professions. You won’t find many of them in your local newsagent, or even in high-street outlets. Many are mailed directly, and unless you are in the business yourself, you won’t even be aware of their existence. That’s when a copy of The