We thought we’d follow up on Tim Kemple’s shooting tips we shared earler today, with some industry expertise from Duane Raleigh.
Duane is the Editor-in-Chief of Rock and Ice, Ascent and Trail Runner Magazine at Big Stone Publishing. We ask him how to get your foot-in the-door, the best way to submit images, common photographic mistakes and what makes a great cover image.
Phase One: What’s the best way for a photographer to get their foot-in-the-door with one of your magazines?
Duane Raleigh: A personal relationship or connection is usually the best way; all the editors at Rock and Ice are climbers so we often bump into photographers out in the field. But in general, I’d advise photographers to find out which editor is best to contact at a magazine and then send them a personal note and a very small submission – but nothing that will take more than about one minute to look at as we get sent so many photos.
PO: What advice would you give to photographers before they send in a submission?
DR: It's really important to study the look and the types of photos that a magazine runs before sending anything in. Look at the different sections; if a magazine runs a training or a medical column it’s good to send a relevant submission for one of those to get your foot-in-the-door. Editors are also always on the look out for a photo that demonstrates a specific technique or a destination – so that's a good place to start.
PO: What is a typical brief that you give to a photographer you’ve commissioned?
DR: We ask for a mix of compositions, including some super-wide, tight shots, horizontal scenics as well as the action photos. Climbing is a vertical orientated sport so most people shoot vertical compositions but in layout the art-director really needs horizontal compositions to help balance the pages.
We also need a mixed colour palette to work with; if your laying out climbing photos and they’re all grey or brown rock it gets really repetitive. But if you have a star trail, night time or a camp fire shot that is black with some reds, it really helps break the monotony of the monochromatic color palette that climbing lends itself to.
PO: What are the most common mistakes that photographers make?
DR: The one big mistake is to shoot all the images with the same depth-of-field. They might shoot everything at infinity, so every photo is sharp from foreground to background. What was really noticeable about Tim Kemple's recent submission (shot with the IQ180) was the narrow depth-of-field he achieved even with a wide-angled photos. The big (80mp) file size also gave us a lot of cropping options – we don’t crop photos very much but it’s nice to have that choice.
PO: What makes a great Rock and Ice cover image?
DR: Every magazine cover needs some clear space up top for the masthead and some copy room either down the left or right margin or both. The cover composition also has to allow for that text on the photo; so that means it’s usually a really simple image with plenty of negative space and plain tones – complicated shots with a lot of foliage or clutter don’t generally get cover consideration. The covers that really sell have an active photo that is bright and there needs to be some reader engagement, so eye contact is important – we don't usually use dark images where a climber is looking away.
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