Phil Monahan
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John B,
If you are going to send RAW images on a DVD, make sure that the magazine tells you immediately when they’ve chosen something for publication, and make sure you tell them immediately when you’ve sold one of the images to someone else. (Trust me: it’s worth your while to be “bothered.”) If you’ve got disks with RAW or hi-res images floating around out there, you’ve lost partial control of your stock, and you run the risk that two magazines will publish the same photo without your knowledge. If that happens, you are the one who will take the hit to your reputation.
JMW,
I don’t think that fine-art prints compete with magazines. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Philip,
A good lo-res image is one that is big enough that I can blow it up enough to see that all details are in focus, but small enough that it doesn’t take 20 seconds to load on my iMac. And I like organized files, as stated above.
One other thing: Every photographer needs to know how to send images via FTP. Mailing or shipping cds or dvds is, like, sooo 1990s.
Hope this helps,
Phil
Corey,
Online lightboxes are fine. I use them all the time, as well. My only problem with some of the lightbox programs is that they don’t allow you to blow up the images enough.
There’s no problem with images being “published” on the photographer’s own site.
Phil
John,
If you are simply sending out a general portfolio, I don’t think you need to worry about multiple submissions. However, if you go on a specific trip and get specific shots that you think are great, send them to just one editor. If he doesn’t want them, send them to the next guy on your list, and so on.
If you send portfolios to multiple editors, keep careful records of what gets used and where. You don’t want to sell the same photo to editor A because you forgot that editor B used it six months ago.
Once an image is chosen, it is dead…for awhile anyway. Magazines buy first American rights, so technically you can resell the image as soon as it’s published.
Here’s the way I like to receive such submissions:
1. Fill a CD with LO-RES images. The more the better, and the collection should be representative of your stock.
2. If appropriate, organize them into folders (trout, steelhead, bonefish, etc.)Hope this helps,
Phil
Editor
American AnglerKevin,
In order to really succeed as an editorial illustrator, you’ve got to work for BIG magazines because they’re the only ones with budgets large enough to support quality illustration. That also means that the competition is fierce.
However, if you can sell prints, cards, and posters on a Web site (or even in shops), you can double-dip on the income from a given piece of work. A good example is Joe Tomelleri, whom we use for all our fish illustrations. The guy is world-renown for his ability to render the exquisite details of native fishes, but he’s still selling paintings, prints, and cards on his site ( http://www.americanfishes.com/ ). He even puts out his own catalog. I have no idea how much he earns from it all, but it’s his full-time job.
Good luck,
Phil
As an editor of an “Outdoor Magazine,” lemme say that I almost never ask anyone to work for free. We pay for all photographs and illustrations, with 3 exceptions I can think of:
1. The illustration that goes on the back page is a “fine art” painting, usually, and is seen as advertising for the artist (who sometimes gets an actual advertisement, as well). These are pre-existing images NOT created for the magazine, and they are usually for sale. This is a deal that the art director works out with his connections.;
2. When someone who obviously doesn’t need the money voluntarily waves payment. For instance, in the new issue of AA there are a couple shots of the swollen White River by Zach’s dad, who said he didn’t expect to be paid. (When I don’t have to pay for shots like those, I have more budget to pay photographers like all y’all); and
3. When the images offer free publicity for an advocacy group, outfitter, tourism destination, etc. These are usually small, newsy images in the front of book or illustrate travel articles.Other than that, EVERYONE gets paid. We have published rates, and everyone gets paid the same, whether he’s a lifelong pro or a weekend warrior.
Check out the table of contents in the new issue to see a lovely image by one of your own.
Phil
Oh yeah: and for old-timey, bluegrassy stuff, check out The Duhks, The Greencards, and Old Man Leudeke.
Sorry to play the Old Guy card, but y’all are nuts if you think someone should start listening to REM with “Automatic,” which came out in 1992 and was their EIGHTH full-length album (not including some B-side collections and stuff). If you like indie music, go back and listen to “Murmer” (1983) and “Reckoning” (1984) their first two albums, which are amazing works of jangly, Rickenbacker-fueled, off-kilter genius. If you want to stay with the more mainstream stuff, start with “Fables of the Reconstruction” (1985). THEN work your way forward.
Sheesh. Kids these days…..
Zach,
Seems to me you’d also have to factor in costs such as storage, mailing, scanning, etc. My art director never wants to see another slide again, so you’d need a pretty good scanner, as well. All that Fedexing of slides is now a thing of the past, too. But then, of course, you need to add computer stuff to the equation.
The most important benefit of digital, I would think, is that you know relatively immediately if you got the shots you need. Otherwise, you gotta bracket the crap out of everything and hope you didn’t screw anything up. Then you wait for the slides to find out if you’re right.
On another note, would you guys be interested in having my Photo Needs list for each issue published here? Zach’s on the mailing list, so he could put it up when he receives it. (Of course, he’d be inviting competition for his own work.)
And I welcome submissions from all corners of the globe–even Canadia. Now that it’s so easy to send hi-res images via FTP, I invite our brothers from the Southern Hemisphere to get in the game. When it’s January here and I need a specific angling image, the guys and gals in NZ and Australia have a big advantage over the competition.
Okay, enough bickering. Now who’s sending me brilliant fly-fishing photos? I promise to look at all of them.
Thanks,
Phil
Well, I guess since I’m the only one around here who’s on the other side of this equation, I oughta wade in to the discussion.
David, I’m not sure what your definition of “professional” is, but I can assure you that the Becks make a large percentage of their income from the photographs they sell. Their photo business now supports three (3!) part-time employees in their Pennsylvania office. You can argue about the artistic merits of their work all day, but there’s no questioning their professional success. The big advantage the Becks have is a truly monstrous stock list—much of which they shoot on the trips they host—but equally important is their knowledge of fly fishing. The most difficult part of my job is finding photographs that fit the how-to content of the stories I publish.
For instance: a couple years ago, I wrote an article about fishing tandem-nymph rigs. I had illustrations for the second and third spreads, but I didn’t have an “opener”—an image to launch the story. I called Barry at 11am on a Monday and told him what I needed. He grabbed an angler, went down to the river a mile from his house, and shot some images. By 2 in the afternoon, I had four lo-res images to choose from. Because he could understand the specific fly-fishing language I was using, he got the shots right the first time. That sounds pretty professional to me.
As far as rates go, we pay everybody the same. Barry Beck makes the same amount as Zach’s little sister with the “lucky” shot. And our rates are published: Cover: $700, Spread: $350, Single Page: $250, 1/4-1/2 page: $100, postage stamp: $50. No one’s getting rich off us, that’s for sure.
I get discs from photographers all the time. Most of the stuff is, in fact, not very good. But some is. I ALWAYS look forward to finding new photographers who can offer a slightly different take on the sport. Feel free to send me a disc of lo-res images, or even if you really nail 1 perfect image, you can email me a lo-res.
Phil Monahan
Editor
American Angler
9 Church St
P.O. Box 810
Arlington, VT 05250
802-375-6528
phil.monahan@gmail.comAny other questions?
Phil
Oh yeah, and the new editor of Fly Rod & Reel is my friend Joe Healy.
Here’s how Dispatches opens:
There was a map of Vietnam on the wall of my apartment in Saigon and some nights, coming back late to the city, I’d lie out on my bed and look at it, too tired to do anything more than just get my boots off. That map was a marvel, especially now that it wasn’t real anymore. For one thing, it was very old. It had been left there years before by another tenant, probably a Frenchman, since the map had been made in Paris. The paper
One of the things I always tell people who want to read Ulysses or Faulkner or Pound, etc. etc. is this: You do not have to understand everything you read in order to enjoy it. There are times to simply let words and images wash over you. Yes there is a point of diminishing returns (viz Finnegans Wake), but you don’t have to read everything as if you’re gonna have to write a paper on it later. When you look at a painting, do you try to “understand” every brushstroke? Sometimes it’s great when a powerful piece of writing strikes you on a level beyond or below understanding. Sometimes I think that high-school English actually ruins reading for a lot of people.
Rich, I have read and do admire The Things They Carried, but if you’ve read Dispatches, you’ll see it’s a completely different kind of writing. Herr tries to capture the manic insanity of the war not just by describing it, but by representing it in the writing itself. I once had a semi-famous fishing writer tell me he didn’t like Dispatches because “it doesn’t have much of a plot,” and I wanted to cock-punch him. Talk about missing the point….
I love “Islands in the Stream”! The blending of Kenney Rogers and Dolly’s voices is just gorgeous. ;D
Anyhoo, Zach, all that experimentation you attribute to Faulkner comes, of course, from Joyce. Faulkner just gave it a Southern accent and introduced black vernacular. Both Faulkner and (surprising to some) Hemingway were huge Joyce fans.
As for the grammarian in you that wants to fix McCarthy’s punctuation: would you also want to fix all the crooked lines on a Picasso? I can guarantee you that McCarthy knows all the rules of punctuation. Part of being a brilliant writer is bending the rules for effect. One of my favorite examples of this is Dispatches, by Michael Herr, for my money the best book about Viet Nam and the best nonfiction book ever, from a stylistic perspective.
Dr. Keith Berend, who used to write a medical column for me in American Angler, has a book called Fit to Fish: How to Tackle Angling Injuries.
http://www.amazon.com/Fit-Fish-Tackle-Angling-Injuries/dp/1571883541
He published the first ever peer reviewed study on fly-fishing injuries back in 2001, and he covers casting-related shoulder ailments in the book. Be careful of oversimplified diagnoses. Berend writes:
The most common causes of shoulder problems and shoulder pain are the Four Horsemen of shoulder ailments—bursitis, impingement, instability, and arthritis. Now, all these can also be intermingled or independent of each other. Add to that the complexity of the fly-casting motion, and we have an almost impenetrable combination of problems to discuss.
Hope this helps.
Phil
Hey Simon,
When are you coming through SW Vermont? I can hook you up with some absolutely gorgeous brookie water. That’s pretty much all I fish for these days. Drop me an e-mail or give a call.
Phil
Phil Monahan
Editor
American Angler
160 Benmont Ave.
P.O. Box 4100
Bennington, VT 05201
802-447-1518
phil.monahan@gmail.com