Question about journalism photography...

journalism photography

Hi Nameless,
As nobody has picked up on your questions yet, maybe I can try to give you an abridged answer, for what you are asking really calls for a lengthy reply and that's inappropriate here.

As you have not given any indication of your experience level - either with a camera or about your reporting skills - I shall presume that you are starting right at the very beginnings of a career in photo-journalism.

Perhaps self evident, but worthy of mentioning, is that you do need to be good with a camera and your camera will need to fulfill the requirements of the client or clients you plan to work for. Also you will probably need some means of editing and tweaking your digital pictures before submitting them because unless you are very lucky most of your images will be inherently noisy and clients do not like noisy images - hence the need for tweaking software.

You also need to be good at capturing and recording pertinent information to enable you to provide a clear, concise, written background to the event you are covering. Incorrectly spelt names are a 'no no' and indicate unprofessionalism - which will quickly get you side-lined.

Qualification as a journalist / photographer - this is an area that will probably open up a whole range of comments from other members but in my opinion there are two main routes you can go. One is to gain employment with a local newspaper and gradually 'work your way up' and the second is to go down the route of taking professional education in journalism / photography then hope to get employment so that you gain experience before branching out as a freelance. Neither of these routes guarantee you success unless you are really dedicated, almost fanatical, in striving to achieving your goal but both are likely to be a lot easier than working as a freelance.

Press accreditation and access to the larger events generally go hand-in-hand and necessitate that you are employed by the media and thereby obtain official press documentation (i.e. Press ID Card and possibly an International Press Card) or can demonstrate to the satisfaction of one of the press organisations that you are suitable to be issued with official press identification. It's a catch 22 situation if you seek official accreditation - but not every freelancer has this - and those that don't usually won't get press access to large events.

I suggest, for starters, you spend time on the internet hunting for and researching information about the job. Also, make full use this site as it has many useful features. That should give you a better insight into what is needed than can be given in this forum.

Hopefully some other members engaged in photo-journalism will add their comments and give you more 'pointers' but I do feel it's fair to say that it isn't a job that you can simply jump into - life just isn't like that.