Hi there,

I'm planning on applying for a job with the local newspaper, and I'm wondering based on some of my work in Iraq, if you think it will be decent enough for them to hire me. I have put together one small gallery, and plan on putting more together.

Critique is welcome. I'm mostly requesting advice on how to organize the gallery, make the portfolio and what I can add or subtract from it.

Do you think this is a decent representation of what I can do? My background is about 7 years of amateur shooting. I'm proficient with the camera and obviously have good enough equipment to work with.

Here is my website: http://www.mikeip.com/

Thanks in advance.

Is this your portfolio you are going to present to the paper? Is this a big paper? How many others on the photo staff? Do you have a PhotoJ degree? Do you already do some work for this paper?

Staffing jobs are becoming more and more rare. I know that at our paper here in Cedar Rapids Iowa (cir 65,000 daily, and 85,000 weekends) we had 300 people apply for the staffing job.

This is going to be a portion of the portfolio I'm going to present to the newspaper. I've done mostly still life stuff for stock, and the material on my website is a good deal of the photojournalistic material I have done.

The paper is rather small, looking on the website, they've got 6 staff photographers in addition to the photo editor. I'm hoping for a stringer position and build a rapport from there.

I don't have a PJ degree, I have a computer science degree, and I don't do any work for the paper as it is.

Hows it looking so far?

"Fairly small" and 6 staff photogs and an Editor doesn't exactly seem "fairly small." Our 100,000+ (150,000 on Sunday) paper has around 7 staff photogs and a Photo Editor and maybe even a Director of Photography. If there are 6 staff photogs than I, honestly, doubt you would be able to make it on staff even as a stringer.

I've said all of this BEFORE even looking at the photos.

After doing a little more research I found the circulation was: Circulation: 29,849; Sunday: 33,588.

That's relatively small right?

Well based on my anemic portfolio, how would you suggest I bolster it up? Add some feature and lifestyles to it?

Mike,

Definitely pull out the 2nd image, Soldier in disbelief as it is OOF.

Good luck..

dweldon wrote:
Mike,

Definitely pull out the 2nd image, Soldier in disbelief as it is OOF.

Good luck..

Pulled the image. I think that could have been a great one had I been able to hand hold it steadily. Oh well. Thanks for the advice.

Hey Mike, im a freelance photographer here in the las vegas area. Have you considered freelancing as a start? Staff photographer slots are very difficult to get into. Just a thought.

Some actual thoughts after looking at your gallery; how about incorporating some shots outside of Iraq. It's awesome that you had the opportunity to get those shots, but I think they overwhelm your portfolio. Incorporate your best 3-5 shots from there and make the editor want a little more. Were you active duty?

Other than that, a little tweaking of your cutlines (comments), and you are good to go. Looks good bud.

Hyunk,

Thanks for the advice. I'll see which 3-5 I can use and intermingle them with my other stuff. I'll probably have to send myself on some self assignments to bolster up my portfolio. Yes, was active duty

I haven't considered freelancing at all, but now that you mention it, I'm thinking about it. Quick question about freelancing.... do you basically shoot what you and shoot and call photo editors and try to sell your photographs or what?

Local papers want local news and human interest stories with pics. Some papers want more pics than others.

One way is to attend a function and sublit one or two reasnably good pics with captions and then follow up with a phone call to see if the supplied material was any good.

A portfolio of pictures can be very tricky, it can work against you ~ news papers as oppostd to magazines want up to the minute material.

Mike Ip wrote:

I haven't considered freelancing at all, but now that you mention it, I'm thinking about it. Quick question about freelancing.... do you basically shoot what you and shoot and call photo editors and try to sell your photographs or what?


Nope, you get assignments just like the in-house staff photojournalists. The only difference is in the pay. Salary vs. freelance.

Approach a paper within your area, ask for contact info. Talk to the editors. Head photojournalists aren't neccessarily the people you want to talk to, because at the end of the day you are the competition. It's a vicious cycle. There will always come a day when someone will do what you do for less, such is photography.

Work on your portfolio a little. It's already looking great! My real advice for your portfolio; start incorporating cutlines (comments). This will be your responsibility when you submit your assignments. SPELL CHECK, GRAMMER CHECK. Get names, dates, etc. Be creative. Best of luck to you Mike.

gbee wrote:
Local papers want local news and human interest stories with pics. Some papers want more pics than others.

One way is to attend a function and sublit one or two reasnably good pics with captions and then follow up with a phone call to see if the supplied material was any good.

A portfolio of pictures can be very tricky, it can work against you ~ news papers as oppostd to magazines want up to the minute material.

I freelance for 6 papers and a major (500,000 circulation paper), here in town and I've never had an editor that didn't want to see a portfolio. You are right that too many pictures isnt the best. It's a rule of thumb (mine?) to keep it down to 20 of you best shots. If you can, ALL of your images should have comments.

Gbee and Hyunk,

Thanks a ton for your advice. It certainly is invaluable. I've got the email of both the art and photo editor of the local newspaper. I'll be working on my cutlines as you suggested and go from there. I'll keep you guys informed how it goes.

When working at a newspaper, you will probably be asked to shoot everything from ribbon cutting boring stuff to feature stuff like grand opening of a new fabric store, to head shots of people "in the local news", breaking news, sports, and everything in between. It is a good idea to take a sunday paper and go through each section, see what they have by their photographers and try to include in your portfolio photos in the same category or up that same ally. Don't copy stuff, but go for stuff in the same genre, with your own look to it. The more stuff you can do the better chance you have of getting a job. I know a lot of newspapers what people that can shoot studio stuff all the way up to breaking news grab shots, sometimes working with week long deadlines all the way down to we need a shot in the next 10 minutes type stuff. Look at 20 to 25 hard copies printed out along with a cd of those same photos formated to work flawlessly on both Mac and PC. When they return your hard copy, they can keep your CD on file. If you do not get the job now, keep up dating your portfolio and drop them off a CD update monthly and schedule a meeting with the photo editor every so often. That will keep your name in mind. You may not get a staff position but they may start using you as a freelancer which could lead to a staff position down the road.

Good luck

I think that you need to get closer to your subject matter. An overall shot is nice in a photoessay, or if your trying to make an overall statement, but if I'm trying to study a event/place, I like putting on a wide angle and getting right in someone's face, or using a telephoto to observe from the outside. I like the building on fire and the shot of the meeting, but the other's (imo) lack focus and I think you can improve that by choosing your lighting/point of view to add drama. Take a look at old Life Magazines for some ideas of how to improve on "War" photography. It doesn't mean you can't get a job, it just means that you can make a better impression on a photo editor.

Just my ideas...Good luck!

CB