Photography/Journalism, is there a niche?

Squidgy Black

I'm researching college courses at the moment, and one of the options I've looked at is doing photography and journalism, so as I'd have journalism as a fallback, or so I could do more press related stuff.

Is there much of a niche for this kind of thing? Or is it mainly newspapers just getting shots from agencies or freelancers?

I'm just interested to see how it all works, and whether I'd be better off just doing a media course and then going on to do photography

PCPhoto

the best way to get started in photojournalism is to get a job with a photo agency.

in order to work as a freelancer in Dublin or Ireland you need to build contacts/connections.

its a fairly tough area to break into - there's plenty of people who want to get into it but don't realise that it takes a fair amount of commitment

- for me as a freelance photojournalist it feels like you need to be available 24/7 ..... it can/will be fun, you can meet/photo plenty of famous people and get access to sports events and news as it is happening - even sometimes news which most people wont know about until they open a paper the following day or following sunday.

it takes time to build up a name/reputation within the business.

As regards trying to do both .... its frowned upon within the industry .... the various unions don't like "double jobbing"

With college courses like photography with journalism - these type of courses are aimed at introducing you to the industry and usually have more of a lean towards journalism (how to write, what to write etc etc).... even journalism is a tough area to get into with soooo many people offering to work for free, submitting articles and doing their own blogs.

Squidgy Black

yeah I figured that.

To be honest, I wouldn't want to go down the freelance route, it's just too unstable for my liking.

So I take it it's not the case of where newspapers hire journalists who are photographers then? And just independent journalists and photo's from agencies and freelancers?

Who are the main agencies for PR? I know most of the sports agencies.

PCPhoto

Newspapers generally have their own reporter goto the news event - if they do not hear about it until after the event they might use freelance copy (from a trusted source - a regular writer) or agency reports.

with regards to photography - similar things happen, if they can get a staff photographer to the event they'll do that, failing that they will use images from an agency (assuming the agency gets someone there) and last but not least - a freelance photographer.

in general if a trusted source of photographs (a regular and recognised freelance photographer) send in a pic - they can phone him/her and write a story based on this.

Main agencies for PR ....thats tough there's loads in Dublin...... Maxwells, Fennells, Jason Clarke etc. some news agencies also cover PR .... like Collins photo agency, Photocall etc

some of the PR agencies dabble in news, some of the news agencies dabble in PR.

Squidgy Black

Seems like it's really a hit and miss job, connections get you everywhere?

Thanks for the advice PCPhoto, you've been more than helpful

I'd love to get a job that involves photography, but there really is nothing

PCPhoto

the best advice I can give you is learn about photography and build up a portfolio.

Squidgy Black

That's the one goal I've set myself for the end of the year, I just need to choose my 3 subjects/topics, like a test run of the actual one's needed for college entries.

I've learnt quite a bit from the internet, books and stuff, but I've always figured doing a course could never hurt. It's just a LOT of money for a decent course like in IOP.

PCPhoto

for photojournalism its all about getting out there .... getting the pic.

irish147

PCPhoto wrote: »

the best advice I can give you is learn about photography and build up a portfolio.

Should a portfolio be a online portfolio, or a printed portfolio, with 12x8 prints with mounts now-a-days, or a digital online portfolio?

M

Squidgy Black

irish147 wrote: »

Should a portfolio be a online portfolio, or a printed portfolio, with 12x8 prints with mounts now-a-days, or a digital online portfolio?

M

depends what your portfolio's for. most have an online portfolio, college's require prints of an a3 size, or most wedding photographers have print portfolio's to show customers when they're out on a shoot etc.

PCPhoto

a portfolio for photojournalism work is a lot different to college application portfolio.

Mine was in hard copy format - printed and mounted..... but then again it was several years ago that I last showed my portfolio, nowadays I rely on my reputation to get me work.