Press

Creating a newspaper story

A sense of curiosity is pretty important in freelance press photography. A freelance who isn’t interested in what is happening around him won’t get very far.
This poster (photo) was stuck in the window of a British bar when the football (soccer) World Cup was being held.
Almost the entire country was obsessed with football, but here was someone that apparently hated it.
If the bar owner was willing to talk about his attitude to football (he was), a story and picture like this will sell (it did).
This is because he was an eccentric – or perceived to be, and the media loves eccentrics.

Profile of a snatch shot photographer

What kind of photographer takes `snatch shots’, or photographs of people that are taken without their consent?

Pretty girls photo 13

Pretty girls photo 14

Newspaper

Football phobia

I’ve taken quite a few of these pictures for various newspapers and magazines and I think I was motivated:70% by the urge to make money, 20% by the thrill of the chase, and 10% by the belief that I was doing the right thing.
But in legalised snatch shot photography, defined as when governments or police departments practise it, the motives are probably different.
At a guess, they are motivated 70% by the belief that they are doing the right thing, 20% by the thrill of the chase and 10% by the urge to make money.
One reason for the 70% contrast might be financial status. Most freelance photographers are self-employed, they need the money.
Government and police snatch shot photographers are employed, they get paid whatever happens.

Cheapskate newspapers or greedy Press photographers?

This (photo) is a page from a local newspaper.I took the pictures and wrote the `story’. I sent six photographs to the newspaper and it used three of them. It enlarged these three photos to a pretty large size.
Most newspapers pay their press photographers for each of their pictures that it uses, so it’s obviously more economical to use three big pictures rather than six smaller ones.
Should photographers criticise newspapers for doing this?

Do pretty girls make pretty newspapers?

Pretty girls in short skirts showing stockings and suspenders These photos of pretty girls were taken for a newspaper. that used them to boost its circulation. The ‘paper would place a circle around the face of someone that was in one of the photographs. Pretty girls in see-through short skirtsThis person could then take a copy of the paper to the bar, nightclub or pub where the picture was taken and claim a free drink.
Naturally, they had to buy a copy of the newspaper first., otherwise there would be no point in doing it, duh.

(click on a photo to enlarge it) It’s very unusual to have this kind of content in a local newspaper.
But maybe the newspaper was just being realistic,.
Some people don’t find the local news exciting enough to warrant buying a newspaper.
Maybe this newspaper was targeting people like this.
(click on a photo to enlarge it)

Decline of local newspapers
This `unexciting news’ factor could be one reason for the alleged decline in the sales of local newspapers.