[Ehlacore]

Anyone have experience?

How did you get yours?

How do you recommend others getting published?

[ezechiel]

Hi,

there are several ways to get published:

Contacting magazines by yourself:
First of all, you need to have a book. And depending on the magazine you aim,
you need to build your book in consequence.
A fashion magazine won't be interested in your insect macrophotography, that's evident

So try to contact them, tell you have pictures that might interest them and have an appointment/interview with them.
If they're interested, you maybe could sell them some pictures.


Publish on the Internet and get a lot of attention
This is not the most easiest way, but with very low chance rate since there is a lot of rubbish on sites like Flick-r
(my first photos were very bad too! I should remove them from Flick-r ).
And a lot of people say Waa and Hooo and Wooow, nice bokeh etc... even if the picture is not interesting at all.
Very hard to get noticed (and then published) IMHO.


Participate in national/international/famous/etc. contests
This is another good way for getting published, at least, if you are among the best.
If so, media will get interested in you and you may get proposals (right word?) for getting
published in a photo-dedicated magazine.
I think this is the most glorious way for getting published.


Become a journalist/reporter
And make a lot of good pictures. If people appreciate them, more and more,
you'll become a recognized reporter and people will know you exist.
This is not very easy though. Mayeb start with local press.


Get a contract with some brand
This applies allmost 100% to studio photography. But this is a way to have a 4x12 meter
poster of your photo and model (human or not) on the side of the road.
I don't have much knowledge about this, how to get in the business, but it is a solution.


Maybe there are other ways, but these are the most evident for me..
I'm sure other people will have some other ideas.

Anyway, I wish you good luck!

[Ehlacore]

So there isn't a stock photo site you can just sell post your shots on and when they get used you get notified and paid?

[Ehlacore]

I've been looking more and more at photography in advertisements and products here in Japan... the quality is terrible!

[Ron Kruger]

Get a copy of Photographer's Market and study it.
The easiest way to sell photos is in a package, if you can write a story and illustrate it. If that is the case, get a copy of Writer's Market as well.
Advertising and product photography pay the best, but they also require a much bigger invenstment in equipment and are much harder to break into. What looks great on your computer screen and in 8X10 prints may be sorely lacking for billboards and magazine layouts.
There are many stock photo sites around, but for time invested the return is dismal, and it is getting worse all the time, because the market is saturated.
Whatever you do, the best advice I can give is to specialize.

[Ira]

Get a copy of Photographer's Market and study it.
The easiest way to sell photos is in a package, if you can write a story and illustrate it. If that is the case, get a copy of Writer's Market as well.
Advertising and product photography pay the best, but they also require a much bigger invenstment in equipment and are much harder to break into. What looks great on your computer screen and in 8X10 prints may be sorely lacking for billboards and magazine layouts.
There are many stock photo sites around, but for time invested the return is dismal, and it is getting worse all the time, because the market is saturated.
Whatever you do, the best advice I can give is to specialize.

I totally echo this advice, and here's a good route to getting published fast. (If you can't write, just do the photos part, but when you review the below, I bet you'll see that you can handle the writing.)

Go to your community's/city's web site and look for upcoming events. You will find something as boring as Interfaith Day (where city religious leaders get together and hold hands)...something really cool, like Lindsay Lohan cutting the ribbon of the new downtown detox center...or something boring again, like the Mayor's walk in the park with the citizens.

Get to these events, do a good job, send a few of the best shots with a story to your local community newspapers, and see what happens. It may only be 25 or 50 bucks at first, but do a few of these and you'll start making connections at the publication(s), and they'll think of you first for future work.

You can take this to a higher level by searching out events and happenings in your area that would be of interest to NATIONAL magazines. For example, a nationally sponsored barbecue competition taking place in your town...a regional bowling competition...or a nationally sponsored fishing event (a true fishing competition or father/son type event).

These are just examples, but the point is, these are events where the national publications in question wouldn't send someone to your area to cover them (distance and cost), but they would be thrilled to receive your good photos and story to help them fill pages.

(Being unemployed, this is what I should be doing myself, and maybe you inspired me to get off my ass.)

I have a background in both publishing and advertising work, though not in the photography arena. Having worked in both, I can tell you there's more money in the ad work per project (for example, shooting a restaurant's exterior and interior for an ad), but there's more work in the publishing end, doing photos for newspapers' and magazines' editorial content.

Good luck, and have fun with it! And if you take a look at some of the photos you'll now see in your local newspaper, I guarantee you can learn to blow them away.

[Mike Cash]

He's going to have to wait until he gets back home to do any of that. Ira. He is illiterate where he is now.

[TaoMaas]

I followed the route laid out by ezechiel in the first method he listed. It was suggested to me by the instructor of a workshop I had attended. I looked around and found a magazine that used pictures like the ones I had been taking. Then I called them to see if they accepted submissions. I put together 40 slides that fit with the style of the magazine and dropped them off at the magazine's office. That initial submission started about a 5-6 year period where they'd use some of my shots every month or two. People who read the magazine noticed my work and called me for permission to use my work in brochures and post cards. It's really dependent upon how hard you want to work at it. I didn't work that hard because I had a good full-time job and was only interested in making back some of the money I'd been spending on my hobby.

[Ira]

He's going to have to wait until he gets back home to do any of that. Ira. He is illiterate where he is now.

You can translate for him.

[Ehlacore]

I followed the route laid out by ezechiel in the first method he listed. It was suggested to me by the instructor of a workshop I had attended. I looked around and found a magazine that used pictures like the ones I had been taking. Then I called them to see if they accepted submissions. I put together 40 slides that fit with the style of the magazine and dropped them off at the magazine's office. That initial submission started about a 5-6 year period where they'd use some of my shots every month or two. People who read the magazine noticed my work and called me for permission to use my work in brochures and post cards. It's really dependent upon how hard you want to work at it. I didn't work that hard because I had a good full-time job and was only interested in making back some of the money I'd been spending on my hobby.

Thats awesome!

[Ehlacore]

He's going to have to wait until he gets back home to do any of that. Ira. He is illiterate where he is now.

Word!

I:ve also tried (not with as well thought out of intentions as yours) to take photos at several Japanese events.

Fashion shows, Public Theaters, and Festivals and I get constantly told that I cant take photos...

Japan (outside the tourist areas) is a pretty rough place for a Gaijin

You can translate for him.

I agree ^_~

I will look into English publications and see if I can find any around. The good knews is that even though I work 3 jobs, Saterday is my free day, and thats the day that most events are held!

[Mike Cash]

Word!

I:ve also tried (not with as well thought out of intentions as yours) to take photos at several Japanese events.

Fashion shows, Public Theaters, and Festivals and I get constantly told that I cant take photos...

With the exception of festivals, which I have never heard of having any restrictions on photography, quite often the situation is that a professional has been hired for the event and has an exclusive on it. For some events it actually makes good sense, as you would otherwise have ruining the show countless amateurs with no consideration for either audience or performers as well as countless family members with no idea how to turn off the utterly useless flash on their P&S.

Japan (outside the tourist areas) is a pretty rough place for a Gaijin

Actually, the English-speaking westerner is coddled to an alarming degree, the country places few if any demands upon him, and with the advent of the internet and the accompanying technology boom life for the foreigner in Japan is easier than it has ever been. Combine that with the fact that very few of them actually make much meaningful effort to assimilate or even step outside their largely self-imposed gaijin-ghetto social cocoon I find it difficult to work up much sympathy for their complaints.

[Ira]

Actually, the English-speaking westerner is coddled to an alarming degree, the country places few if any demands upon him, and with the advent of the internet and the accompanying technology boom life for the foreigner in Japan is easier than it has ever been. Combine that with the fact that very few of them actually make much meaningful effort to assimilate or even step outside their largely self-imposed gaijin-ghetto social cocoon I find it difficult to work up much sympathy for their complaints.

Hey--this should be in politics and religion.

Besides:

How the hell can anyone learn, or want to learn, that a picture of a house with a bird crapping over it actually represents the word "The."

[KxBlaze]

Someone told me that National Geographic has something on there website where you can submit a photo of a specific topic and if they decide to use it they will pay you for it. I have yet to research/verify this, can anyone here?

He also told me that besides National Geo there are more websites out there that do the same. Can anyone verify this as well?

**The person that told me has a ton of $h*t spewing from his mouth so there is a good chance he is lying, but this actually might be the 1% chance of truth.

[Mike Cash]

Hey--this should be in politics and religion.

Besides:

How the hell can anyone learn, or want to learn, that a picture of a house with a bird crapping over it actually represents the word "The."

It's a "when in Rome" thing. If a person wants to get into something (for example: getting access to photograph and having photos published) which involves interaction with a native population speaking a language other than one's own then it is normal to expect that it is the odd man out....the foreigner....who is going to have to learn to function in the language of the majority. And it is also normal to expect that any person who is illiterate is going to be at a distinct disadvantage. Unfortunately, the typical western foreigner is in Japan for only a very short time....typically one year, perhaps two, and only rarely more than three....and due to a variety of reasons and circumstances doesn't choose to put forth the time and effort required to become able to wipe their own linguistic butts, figuratively speaking.

The use of pictures of birds crapping on houses actually facilitates learning to read Japanese, in my opinion, but the larger point is that it is what it is and no amount of wishing it otherwise is going to change it. So anyone wanting to function here as an independent adult has to put in the effort to learn to read it. (And there is no word corresponding to "a, an, or the" in Japanese).

I dislike seeing Japan unfairly smeared as some sort of systemically racist/xenophobic nation conspiring to limit the involvement of foreigners when in the vast majority of cases it is actually the lack of effort on the part of the foreigners which creates the limitations they perceive. Is there racism here? Yes, but your typical westerner on a one-year English-teaching tour is highly unlikely to encounter the genuine article. Discrimination in housing? Very unlikely as their employers typically arrange their lodgings for them. Discrimination in employment? Almost by definition impossible as the sole reason they get the jobs they get is that they are foreigners.

The factor that generally gets overlooked when leaping to the easy conclusion that the Japanese are systematically exclusionary or racist is that in interactions between people there has to be some underlying reason and commonality for the interaction. The English teacher is daily surrounded by people who have a desire to learn English and who for the most part seek out interaction with them for just that reason. It is normal for new teachers to spend the first six months or so feeling like a rock star, so much are they the center of attention. Then after a while they realize that there is very little personal about it and the student would be just as satisfied with practically any warm body to practice English on (and in fact usually prefers a steady supply of "fresh meat"). Being surrounded by people who are seemingly fascinated with them just for being a foreigner, they are taken aback when they move outside that circle and find out that Japan is chock full of people who don't really care to learn English and find their foreign origins not the least bit interesting. Sadly, this lack of interest often gets written off as "racism".

Paradoxically, once a foreigner makes the effort to learn the language and has some common reason for interaction (sports, hobby, job, etc) it is the people who don't give a damn that you're a foreigner who are the most open and accepting of foreigners while the gang who only wanted something to do with you while you were providing them a service still only want something to do with you while you can provide them a service....what a surprise.

Japan can be two very different countries, in terms of perception, depending on whether you choose to premise your stay on "just because" or "even though". If you are able to live here and support yourself "just because" you are foreigner then you will have a very different experience from someone who puts forth the effort to live here "even though" he's a foreigner.

I suppose this all looks like off-topic thread drift, but within the context of the question of getting published or having improved access to access to photographic advancement in Japan I think it still manages to fit.