Damn... That was inspiering! I guess that I'm one of the luckey who did end up as an aprentice back in the 90's, however... Another carreer got in the way and the newspapers fired their experienced photographers at the same time, giving their reporters a compact digital camera as a substitute for a real press photographer at their side. Now it might be the time to get back inro the dirt! Rhanks for the motivational speach! 😉👍
I work full-time as a press Photographer. I would say to shoot raw and jpeg. You shoot small jpegs and those go to the office via phone on breaking news stories online. You then edit the raw later for the papers. You need a portfolio and pics of your friends and the cat won't do it. So keep an eye on the news and get pics from incident that are on going, like fires, shooting, etc. Be creative, anyone can do a snap shot and they don't stand out, so you need your shots to be special. Be respectful to your subject, and the rest of the crews at a scene. Don't stand in other photographers way, just get your shot and let everyone else get theirs. Part of the reason is, you may end up working for the same company one day, or you may not, if you piss them off... Also, we tend to help each other out at times, even though we work for different organisation
Hi Riley I love your video topics!! I apologize for the length of my reply. I'm not a professional press photographer but I have had many of my fire photos published in the local newspaper or local newspaper's Facebook page. When you talk about traveling light with equipment that caught my attention!! Taking photos for the fire department I struggle when it comes to what equipment to carry because of the photography and weather conditions I encounter. One of the biggest struggles I have is what camera bag to use. They seem to either be too big or too small for the gear. A back pack style is not a good fit when I'm having to switch cameras quickly. I have tried to figure out what equipment to use and probably to the disgust of most professionals I decided to dig out my old Samsung Note 5, LG G5, Pixel 3A, and my current LG V60 cell phones. Those 4 cell phones together doesn't equal the size of a camera. I also purchased a cell phone camera hand grip that has a Bluetooth shutter trigger that trips the camera. It clamps to the phone to make it easier to hold. Obviously a photo can be emailed from the scene. And NO I don't believe a cell phone can replace DSLRs completely. Another camera I had for years and I started to carry for fire photos is my Pentax WG300 waterproof digital point and shoot. It was a God send these past several weeks when we had winter temps at minus ten below zero (F) and wind chills to minus 25 (F) I normally carry my Nikon P900 which is a bridge camera. The sensor is quite small (cell phone sensor size) but it gives an equivalent lens of 24-2000mm. Works great in daylight but not great for night time. The advantage is if I need to be farther away for safety reasons the longer lens length helps. If I need a DSLR for high quality or low light shooting I can use my Nikon Z50, D7100, or D3300 with either my Nikon 35mm f1.8 G, 50mm f1.8 G, or Tokina 11-16 f2.8 lens. Normally there are times I only have one camera with me and it's the wrong one because of the shooting conditions. It's frustrating to me when that happens but I love the challenge because each fire is different. I realize that my photography would not be considered press photography but it's the challenge that I love. I would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions you may have. Best of luck in your photography journey! Duane
Hi Duane, don’t apologise, we love to talk photography here, write as much as you like, it’s always welcome. For me Duane, the best kit you take, is the kit that gets the job done. And if for any reason that’s a camera phone, then that’s what you need to take. Having lots of kit is great, but the photos you take with that kit is the only thing that matters. That and enjoying every photo you take. As ever thank you so much for watching and commenting Duane, always great to hear from you 📷👍🏻😀
I use a police scanner in my area (far out suburbs of New York). I'm usually the only person on scene taking photos. Have had a "freelance" relationship with the local paper for over a year now. And it's building....becoming more frequent, and expanding into neighboring towns' papers. It's just beer and burger money for now. But it's slowly growing. For me, ZOOM capability is what I need the most. Social media and print media don't need gee-whiz state-of-the-art lenses and sensors. They just need a decent picture of something interesting happening.
I guess it is as simple as searching all the press agency email addresses and build a data base. Also all the blogs and vlogs. I can see it is as simple as that and get to all the events in town (Paris for me).
Yes Greg, get the emails of the agencies but they will all be competing with each other so won’t want to be sharing an image, so if you have a photo that you think is strong and sellable , try the agencies one by one till an agency takes it . Try to build a relationship up with one or two. Best of luck 👍🏻
Hi Girgis, I’m a Black Country boy, was born and raised in the world famous glass making town of Stourbridge. For anyone reading the comments and aren’t sure where the Black Country is, it’s an area just about 20 miles west of Birmingham, the centre of the historic industrial revolution, who’s many furnaces and coal fired metal smelters turned the sky black with its furnace smoke and coated everything with coal dust, hence the name, The Black Country. Bostin, as they sat around here 😊
I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this, as someone who’s had 15 years experience in press. I think it’s harder now than ever to make money through press photography. I used to work for the Leicester Mercury until I was made redundant along with 4 others 5 years ago. Then i worked freelance for them until the budgets got cancelled. Now papers in the Midlands and I assume all over the country rely on what they can blag for free, what they can harvest from Facebook and Twitter and archive images. There are no budgets, there is no money anymore. It’s almost all reader generated content but they won’t pay for that, they think a byline is payment enough. As for other outlets, the amount of times I’ve been contacted by the local BBC about images on my Twitter feed is ridiculous, and always the same, as soon as money is mentioned the conversation stops. I’ve tried stock sites like Alamy, waste of time for the money it makes. Maybe I’m a terrible photographer, I’d like to think not, but I certainly don’t think you can make much from press anymore. This isn’t meant to be a rant at you, just my constructive opinion on what you said, I’d love to hear you thoughts. Cheers Alex
Alex is good to hear from you, I’m sorry to hear your experiences after 15 years service at The Mercury, I fear that you are not alone as local newspapers continue their downward spiral, but I do believe things will change. Things like this are cyclical, and a new generation will appear, maybe not in time for us, but wanting news in a different format to digital, like vinyl is the new cd. But I digress. Firstly, you are most welcome to rant on the channel, that’s what I started it for, and all opinions are listened to and respected. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough in the video title or intro. Your opening par suggests me telling people how to make money, but the title specifically says step one, getting noticed. I talk about making money from your camera yes, but it’s a long game. You see, I’m an ex press photographer, over 35 years experience. I was at the Express & Star in the Midlands for 16 years, and I now run a successful PR imaging business. The question I get asked by students and young photographers all the time is how can I get into press photography? Well, the answer Id love to give, is the same way I did, get an apprenticeship on a local paper and learn on the job. But as we know, that is not going to happen. There is no such thing any more. Moreover, there are few experienced staff photographers there to learn off if it were possible. So I made this video in the hope of inspiring young photographers not to give up. To tell them the only way to make it in the business was resilience, persistence, dogged determination and a will to succeed at all costs. I feel it’s my duty to tell people about the fantastic experience of shooting news, and if times have changed and they are going to have to take the initiative and do it by themselves then that’s a better option than giving up. I agree, the thought that you. can cover local events and make cash is stretching reality, but the point is if they continue to put some quality images together, get published, which will help their portfolio enormously if they can get an interview, they can start getting noticed. Then after a few successful assignments, they can ask for some shifts, maybe holiday or sickness cover, paid work. And maybe then they can build a relationship with the chief photographer of picture editor, because let’s face it, what’s the alternative? If you’re 16 and set on news photography, you have to find a way in, a foot in the door. It is so much harder for youngsters now, so my video was trying to acknowledge that, but focus on the positive, and tell them to use digital streams to their advantage. I am with you on pretty much all of your points, and yes, papers are heavily reliant on sent in images, but let’s also remember that quality newspapers have house styles and a quality level for images that they are not prepared to go beneath, and so an awful lot of the images they use for fee, have been paid for by whoever commissioned the photography. It just means freelances might need to look not so much towards the newspapers, but more the commercial sector for their pay cheques. I do apologise for the extraordinarily long reply, but as you have been so kind as to comment in such detail, I felt I should answer in full. Staff photographers have I fear, borne the brunt of the catastrophic slump in printed news gathering, and that saddens me, and I am sorry if my video appears to encourage free working and worsen that problem, that was not the intention of the film. Instead, it was to Encourage young photo into the press photography world, to carve a name for themselves in the picture editors head, and be first in the queue for shifts or future jobs. I sincerely hope that your work diary fills soon Alex, the experience you have is invaluable to the marketing and PR industry, not to mention newspapers. The lock down is not helping of course, but when that’s over industry is going to need to communicate with one another like never before, and that’s when our skills come in. Thank you for watching and for commenting, I really do appreciate it, Best of luck 🤞📷👍🏻
@@rileyphotos hi Phillip, thanks for replying, I do get what you’re saying, I can’t imagine it’s much fun these days for young people trying to break into the industry, I think maybe I’m just a little jaded given the way myself and a lot of press photographers I know seem to have been treated. Like you say it was a fantastic industry to work in but sadly a lot has changed, it would be great if things turn around at some point though. I remember as I’m sure you can a time when if it wasn’t good enough and you were able, you went and did it again, whereas now if it’s free that’s the standard that’s required, it just makes me sad when I think about how passionate and dedicated I was to working in press, from the first time I thought about it, to work experience, the infinite wisdom of Paul Delmar and then onto a paper, I almost had to pinch myself that it was happening. I think maybe I just need to find a bit more determination and persistence at the moment but lockdowns certainly aren’t helping. Hopefully once we get though it events will increase and we can all get back out there working and doing what we love, I certainly have my fingers crossed for that! All the best Alex
You are right Alex, lockdown certainly isn't helping. I know so many photographers who are champing at the bit to get out working more regularly, but as I said before, hold your lines and when the work comes back I think it will come back in a BIG way. In the meantime, if you haven't seen it, I have a video on the channel of my old mate Paul Delmare of NCTJ fame, talking about his career, and another of him and his old rival and friend Graham Gough talking about photographing the Tiger King of Dudley! He's a legend in his own lifetime is Paul 'One-Nil' Delmare, and always a good listen. cheers. Phil
@@rileyphotos I’ve seen one of the Delmar videos, that’s how I discovered you and your channel but I didn’t realise there was another one, I’ll have a look for it! As much as I think Paul is perhaps an acquired taste and not everyone I went to Norton with got on well with him, I always thought he was a good bloke and I feel very grateful for some of the opportunities he helped towards me having, mind you I think there are probably a lot of snappers who’d say that 1-0 Paul!
For balance - 5 years ago i was working in a nightclub getting jealous of the photographers coming in having what appeared to be the best job in the club - and as a manager when I paid the invoice at the end of the night - I knew i needed to buy a camera. So I did. I started taking it out onto the street whilst checking on the promo staff - I soon started getting some half decent shots from just spray and pray in auto and sports mode. I started a FB page up for the photos cos i thought it would be a good idea. went from a D3100 to a D3300. 6 years later - The FB page has 80K followers and i've got a freelance agreement with REACH PLC (Very happy with it). I've been published in the mirror, star, sun, mail, express, metro, and many many more (that's just in the last 2-3 years). Still using the same camera now but have got a nifty 50 and a sigma 18-35 F1.8 plus a basic tamron 70-300 telephoto. I am so glad i bought this camera. Been looking at the z6ii....... and the d850... but i still like my entry level D3300 tbh... Even considered getting a D3s for a second shooter... If you think you wanna be a photographer - the world is your lobster cos today - hardly anyone realises the value of a photo.. Best of luck peeps. (i publish under the name the bpl bible or BPL bible or BPLBIBLE if you wanna look up some pics. I've been credited as a few different variations of that name.
Very inspiring video and so wonderfully told!
Thanks Scott, I really appreciate you saying that, and thank you for watching 👏📷😊
Damn... That was inspiering! I guess that I'm one of the luckey who did end up as an aprentice back in the 90's, however... Another carreer got in the way and the newspapers fired their experienced photographers at the same time, giving their reporters a compact digital camera as a substitute for a real press photographer at their side.
Now it might be the time to get back inro the dirt! Rhanks for the motivational speach! 😉👍
Thanks Niclas, Enjoy getting out there with your camera, hope I see your name by a photo in the news, good luck 👏👏👏
Thank you too !!
It’s a pleasure, glad you liked the video, 👏📷😊
I work full-time as a press Photographer. I would say to shoot raw and jpeg. You shoot small jpegs and those go to the office via phone on breaking news stories online. You then edit the raw later for the papers. You need a portfolio and pics of your friends and the cat won't do it. So keep an eye on the news and get pics from incident that are on going, like fires, shooting, etc. Be creative, anyone can do a snap shot and they don't stand out, so you need your shots to be special. Be respectful to your subject, and the rest of the crews at a scene. Don't stand in other photographers way, just get your shot and let everyone else get theirs. Part of the reason is, you may end up working for the same company one day, or you may not, if you piss them off... Also, we tend to help each other out at times, even though we work for different organisation
Hi Riley
I love your video topics!!
I apologize for the length of my reply.
I'm not a professional press photographer but I have had many of my fire photos published in the local newspaper or local newspaper's Facebook page.
When you talk about traveling light with equipment that caught my attention!!
Taking photos for the fire department I struggle when it comes to what equipment to carry because of the photography and weather conditions I encounter.
One of the biggest struggles I have is what camera bag to use. They seem to either be too big or too small for the gear. A back pack style is not a good fit when I'm having to switch cameras quickly.
I have tried to figure out what equipment to use and probably to the disgust of most professionals I decided to dig out my old Samsung Note 5, LG G5, Pixel 3A, and my current LG V60 cell phones. Those 4 cell phones together doesn't equal the size of a camera. I also purchased a cell phone camera hand grip that has a Bluetooth shutter trigger that trips the camera. It clamps to the phone to make it easier to hold. Obviously a photo can be emailed from the scene. And NO I don't believe a cell phone can replace DSLRs completely.
Another camera I had for years and I started to carry for fire photos is my Pentax WG300 waterproof digital point and shoot. It was a God send these past several weeks when we had winter temps at minus ten below zero (F) and wind chills to minus 25 (F)
I normally carry my Nikon P900 which is a bridge camera. The sensor is quite small (cell phone sensor size) but it gives an equivalent lens of 24-2000mm. Works great in daylight but not great for night time. The advantage is if I need to be farther away for safety reasons the longer lens length helps.
If I need a DSLR for high quality or low light shooting I can use my Nikon Z50, D7100, or D3300 with either my Nikon 35mm f1.8 G, 50mm f1.8 G, or Tokina 11-16 f2.8 lens.
Normally there are times I only have one camera with me and it's the wrong one because of the shooting conditions.
It's frustrating to me when that happens but I love the challenge because each fire is different.
I realize that my photography would not be considered press photography but it's the challenge that I love.
I would love to hear any thoughts or suggestions you may have.
Best of luck in your photography journey!
Duane
Hi Duane, don’t apologise, we love to talk photography here, write as much as you like, it’s always welcome.
For me Duane, the best kit you take, is the kit that gets the job done. And if for any reason that’s a camera phone, then that’s what you need to take.
Having lots of kit is great, but the photos you take with that kit is the only thing that matters.
That and enjoying every photo you take.
As ever thank you so much for watching and commenting Duane, always great to hear from you 📷👍🏻😀
I use a police scanner in my area (far out suburbs of New York). I'm usually the only person on scene taking photos. Have had a "freelance" relationship with the local paper for over a year now. And it's building....becoming more frequent, and expanding into neighboring towns' papers. It's just beer and burger money for now. But it's slowly growing. For me, ZOOM capability is what I need the most. Social media and print media don't need gee-whiz state-of-the-art lenses and sensors. They just need a decent picture of something interesting happening.
fantastic. i will start now. thank you very much
Good luck Daisy 📷👍🏻
I guess it is as simple as searching all the press agency email addresses and build a data base. Also all the blogs and vlogs. I can see it is as simple as that and get to all the events in town (Paris for me).
Yes Greg, get the emails of the agencies but they will all be competing with each other so won’t want to be sharing an image, so if you have a photo that you think is strong and sellable , try the agencies one by one till an agency takes it . Try to build a relationship up with one or two. Best of luck 👍🏻
Before I hit the subscribe button I'd like to know which part of the UK are you, originally . 🤔
Hi Girgis, I’m a Black Country boy, was born and raised in the world famous glass making town of Stourbridge. For anyone reading the comments and aren’t sure where the Black Country is, it’s an area just about 20 miles west of Birmingham, the centre of the historic industrial revolution, who’s many furnaces and coal fired metal smelters turned the sky black with its furnace smoke and coated everything with coal dust, hence the name, The Black Country. Bostin, as they sat around here 😊
Press card also helps if you want to get into downing street.
I have to wholeheartedly disagree with this, as someone who’s had 15 years experience in press. I think it’s harder now than ever to make money through press photography.
I used to work for the Leicester Mercury until I was made redundant along with 4 others 5 years ago. Then i worked freelance for them until the budgets got cancelled. Now papers in the Midlands and I assume all over the country rely on what they can blag for free, what they can harvest from Facebook and Twitter and archive images.
There are no budgets, there is no money anymore. It’s almost all reader generated content but they won’t pay for that, they think a byline is payment enough. As for other outlets, the amount of times I’ve been contacted by the local BBC about images on my Twitter feed is ridiculous, and always the same, as soon as money is mentioned the conversation stops.
I’ve tried stock sites like Alamy, waste of time for the money it makes.
Maybe I’m a terrible photographer, I’d like to think not, but I certainly don’t think you can make much from press anymore.
This isn’t meant to be a rant at you, just my constructive opinion on what you said, I’d love to hear you thoughts.
Cheers
Alex
Alex is good to hear from you, I’m sorry to hear your experiences after 15 years service at The Mercury, I fear that you are not alone as local newspapers continue their downward spiral, but I do believe things will change. Things like this are cyclical, and a new generation will appear, maybe not in time for us, but wanting news in a different format to digital, like vinyl is the new cd. But I digress. Firstly, you are most welcome to rant on the channel, that’s what I started it for, and all opinions are listened to and respected. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough in the video title or intro. Your opening par suggests me telling people how to make money, but the title specifically says step one, getting noticed. I talk about making money from your camera yes, but it’s a long game. You see, I’m an ex press photographer, over 35 years experience. I was at the Express & Star in the Midlands for 16 years, and I now run a successful PR imaging business. The question I get asked by students and young photographers all the time is how can I get into press photography? Well, the answer Id love to give, is the same way I did, get an apprenticeship on a local paper and learn on the job. But as we know, that is not going to happen. There is no such thing any more. Moreover, there are few experienced staff photographers there to learn off if it were possible. So I made this video in the hope of inspiring young photographers not to give up. To tell them the only way to make it in the business was resilience, persistence, dogged determination and a will to succeed at all costs. I feel it’s my duty to tell people about the fantastic experience of shooting news, and if times have changed and they are going to have to take the initiative and do it by themselves then that’s a better option than giving up. I agree, the thought that you. can cover local events and make cash is stretching reality, but the point is if they continue to put some quality images together, get published, which will help their portfolio enormously if they can get an interview, they can start getting noticed. Then after a few successful assignments, they can ask for some shifts, maybe holiday or sickness cover, paid work. And maybe then they can build a relationship with the chief photographer of picture editor, because let’s face it, what’s the alternative? If you’re 16 and set on news photography, you have to find a way in, a foot in the door. It is so much harder for youngsters now, so my video was trying to acknowledge that, but focus on the positive, and tell them to use digital streams to their advantage.
I am with you on pretty much all of your points, and yes, papers are heavily reliant on sent in images, but let’s also remember that quality newspapers have house styles and a quality level for images that they are not prepared to go beneath, and so an awful lot of the images they use for fee, have been paid for by whoever commissioned the photography. It just means freelances might need to look not so much towards the newspapers, but more the commercial sector for their pay cheques. I do apologise for the extraordinarily long reply, but as you have been so kind as to comment in such detail, I felt I should answer in full.
Staff photographers have I fear, borne the brunt of the catastrophic slump in printed news gathering, and that saddens me, and I am sorry if my video appears to encourage free working and worsen that problem, that was not the intention of the film. Instead, it was to
Encourage young photo into the press photography world, to carve a name for themselves in the picture editors head, and be first in the queue for shifts or future jobs.
I sincerely hope that your work diary fills soon Alex, the experience you have is invaluable to the marketing and PR industry, not to mention newspapers. The lock down is not helping of course, but when that’s over industry is going to need to communicate with one another like never before, and that’s when our skills come in.
Thank you for watching and for commenting, I really do appreciate it,
Best of luck 🤞📷👍🏻
@@rileyphotos hi Phillip, thanks for replying, I do get what you’re saying, I can’t imagine it’s much fun these days for young people trying to break into the industry, I think maybe I’m just a little jaded given the way myself and a lot of press photographers I know seem to have been treated. Like you say it was a fantastic industry to work in but sadly a lot has changed, it would be great if things turn around at some point though.
I remember as I’m sure you can a time when if it wasn’t good enough and you were able, you went and did it again, whereas now if it’s free that’s the standard that’s required, it just makes me sad when I think about how passionate and dedicated I was to working in press, from the first time I thought about it, to work experience, the infinite wisdom of Paul Delmar and then onto a paper, I almost had to pinch myself that it was happening.
I think maybe I just need to find a bit more determination and persistence at the moment but lockdowns certainly aren’t helping. Hopefully once we get though it events will increase and we can all get back out there working and doing what we love, I certainly have my fingers crossed for that! All the best Alex
You are right Alex, lockdown certainly isn't helping. I know so many photographers who are champing at the bit to get out working more regularly, but as I said before, hold your lines and when the work comes back I think it will come back in a BIG way. In the meantime, if you haven't seen it, I have a video on the channel of my old mate Paul Delmare of NCTJ fame, talking about his career, and another of him and his old rival and friend Graham Gough talking about photographing the Tiger King of Dudley! He's a legend in his own lifetime is Paul 'One-Nil' Delmare, and always a good listen. cheers. Phil
@@rileyphotos I’ve seen one of the Delmar videos, that’s how I discovered you and your channel but I didn’t realise there was another one, I’ll have a look for it! As much as I think Paul is perhaps an acquired taste and not everyone I went to Norton with got on well with him, I always thought he was a good bloke and I feel very grateful for some of the opportunities he helped towards me having, mind you I think there are probably a lot of snappers who’d say that 1-0 Paul!
For balance - 5 years ago i was working in a nightclub getting jealous of the photographers coming in having what appeared to be the best job in the club - and as a manager when I paid the invoice at the end of the night - I knew i needed to buy a camera.
So I did.
I started taking it out onto the street whilst checking on the promo staff - I soon started getting some half decent shots from just spray and pray in auto and sports mode.
I started a FB page up for the photos cos i thought it would be a good idea. went from a D3100 to a D3300.
6 years later - The FB page has 80K followers and i've got a freelance agreement with REACH PLC (Very happy with it). I've been published in the mirror, star, sun, mail, express, metro, and many many more (that's just in the last 2-3 years). Still using the same camera now but have got a nifty 50 and a sigma 18-35 F1.8 plus a basic tamron 70-300 telephoto.
I am so glad i bought this camera.
Been looking at the z6ii....... and the d850... but i still like my entry level D3300 tbh... Even considered getting a D3s for a second shooter...
If you think you wanna be a photographer - the world is your lobster cos today - hardly anyone realises the value of a photo..
Best of luck peeps.
(i publish under the name the bpl bible or BPL bible or BPLBIBLE if you wanna look up some pics. I've been credited as a few different variations of that name.