Take It with You When You Go

by Joel Jacobs 
 

A long-time writer friend of mine calls this business of writing for magazines, ‘ezines, and newspapers, wordsnpix. Today, I do too, but for years, had I had a handle for it, I'd have called it picsnwords, since I began my career as a photographer. 

Photographer or no, it seemed that every time I started out the door on assignment, someone would say, "Take a pad. Take notes." It wasn't long before the notes became captions and the captions, not long after, expanded to stories. Years later, the words hurled, as I started out the door, became, "Take a camera," for I had made the transition from a photographer who took notes to a writer who shot pictures. Today, it's a rare assignment that I don't take pad, camera and laptop, picking them up, not necessarily in that order, as I go out the door. 

The dual skills -- the skills that make up a photojournalist are exactly that -- journalist and photographer. All too many photographers think of themselves as photojournalists when they are, in reality, just photographers. But, what if you are just a writer? What does any of the foregoing about photography have to do with you? 

More money. 

Let's say you're sitting in Milan's Malpensa airport reading a magazine called The Wilted Lily while waiting on your flight to Honolulu, and something in the article you're reading, about growing roses in France, suddenly strikes you with this great article idea for Gopher Catchers International. You quickly peck out an email, locate a phone you can use to zap off the electronically ensconced words to the editor, and when you touch down at New York's JFK International, you rush to a phone and connect your laptop to learn: 

"Dear Xenophobe,  
Your idea about catching gophers in Utah using vacuum cleaners is great. We can use 1,200 words for our March 1999 issue. Since we are heavily illustrated, we require one hundred color transparencies in order to have a sufficient selection to choose from. We'll pay $5,000 for the package; have it to us by December 15th. 

There's a P.S. on the email:  
"Should this work out, you can anticipate additional assignments from us. 
Regards,  
I. M. No Editor." 

Photos? They want photos? I'm not a photographer. What the hell am I going to do now? 

Consider your options. 

You can hire a photographer, ask the magazine to furnish a photographer, buy photos -- if they're available and you can find them -- or take them yourself. 

If none of these options is available to you, you're out a sale -- a big one -- and you're also not working for big bucks international now or in the future. 

The above scenarios, in one form or another, are all too common in this business, and they're apt to become even more common as publishers seek to cut costs wherever possible. It's the rare publication that will spring for expenses for two these days, particularly when expenses, including airfare, hotels, cabs, and other odds and ends can quickly run into thousands of extra dollars. 

So, if you can provide an editor with a package of photos and words, you stand a much better change of scoring with publications that rely on the use of wordsnpix. They may spring expenses for one, but not for two, and, then, the entire $5,000 is yours to share with the IRS. It'll also earn you big future bucks. 

It should now be evident that, yes, you do need to buy a camera, and you do need to learn to use it sufficiently well to illustrate your articles. No, you do not have to produce photos that could grace the cover and pages of National Geographic; that would be nice, but it's not necessary. 

You do, though, have to produce photos that enhance your words, give greater depth to the story, and thereby "relax" an editor who has readers to satisfy. If you can provide both wordsnpix you'll enhance your bank balance far more than just words alone ever could. 

If you are one of the rare writers who actually understands what you read, you can learn the basics of photography from  books. Better still is to take a basic photography course from your local junior college or university. Barring that, pay, or barter with, a photographer to give you basic photographic instruction -- this must include critiques of your photos, or the instruction is useless. 

Convinced but confused as to what type of photographic equipment you should buy? 

Cheap, but not inexpensive to the point of being useless. Nearly all of today's cameras -- many of which will fit into a shirt pocket or belt pouch -- have zoom lenses, automatic loading, and automatic settings. For 80% of everything you'll do, this is all you'll need. If the camera does not have a built-in flash attachment you should add an external one. For those writers who specialize in ‘ezines, you should make the leap to digital cameras. Digital cameras are the one area in today's photographic market where you truly get what you pay for. The more bucks you spend, the better off you are. But talk to photographers who are using them before you buy one. Do not assume, based on what I just wrote, that a $500 camera is superior to a $400 one; often that is not the case. The limitations of the digital camera is in its ability to produce photographs in low light levels and in capturing movement. It takes "bigger" bucks to have a "computer that takes good pictures," for that's what digital cameras actually are. 

To check out digital camera reviews online, use the search feature at ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com, and to look at conventional cameras, try: http://www.photonut.com. 

Whatever it is you do in this field of wordsnpix, whether it's words on paper, words tucked into the bowels of computers in minuscule electron bits, or just photos, don't forget to take the pads, computers and cameras with you when you go -- they'll add bucks to your bottom line. 

   -- JJ  
   © 1998 Joel Jacobs 
 

More digital camera reviews: 
http://www.shortcourses.com/ 
http://www.pcphotoforum.com/ 

For more conventional camera reviews: 
http://www.ans.com.au/~chrisb/photo/equipment/ 
 
The International Writer’s guest columnist, Joel Jacobs, has enjoyed nearly 40 years of writing and taking pictures around the world. He is a retired US Navy photojournalist who has visited 55 countries and traveled in all 50 states. His work has appeared in magazines and newspapers from Hong Kong to Rome, and from New York to Hawaii. He has worked in public affairs and in radio and television broadcast news, and has edited an international trade journal in Milan, Italy. He resides in Texas and writes novels and screenplays when he is not hunting, drinking fine wines and Cognacs, or listening to classical music and opera. When he can't be found doing some of those things, and he's not traveling between the United States and Italy, check the kitchen, for he's probably whipping something up for dinner -- he cooks in several languages.