Sunday, May 11, 2008
National Geographic Traveler
Back in January a photo editor from National Geographic Adventure contacted me and inquired about some mountain biking and rafting pictures of the Ouachita Mountains in my backyard here in Arkansas, so I pointed him to what I had available. I never heard back from him, but a month later the top image that I had directed him to was licensed through one of the agencies that I am with.
The coincidence peaked my interest, however, when a photographer makes a sale through an agency you don't know who the client is because the agencies don't want photographers to bypass them and market directly to their clients. At best, you only know generic information about the usage. In this case, I knew it was for either a retail book, magazine, or newspaper; one within the travel sub-industry; licensed to all English-speaking territories; and with a print run up to 750,000 (pretty large). It sounded very coincidental.
I am very blessed that my images are licensed quite often, but it is still rare that I ever know the specific publications or advertisements unless the sale is handled directly from my office and not through an agency. So I began checking the magazine rack nearly every time I went to the grocery store! And I made a special trip or two to Barnes & Noble as well. The photo editor had listed NG Adventure in his email, but I suspected that stories frequently got moved between NG Adventure and NG Traveler. Each month I attempted to find and check both, and even some of the other national outdoor adventure magazines. In retrospect, I remember I had trouble finding NG Traveler though. However, I knew that if it appeared in a magazine it would be a few of months from the date of sale before that issue was printed. I kept my eyes open for it, but eventually I had given up hope of ever finding it in print.
Which brings us to this past weekend. I was visiting my family in Northeast Arkansas, and Saturday afternoon we went to a couple of nearby flea markets. Photographers love flea markets! I won't go into details, but I have purchased something at one of these flea markets before which has netted me several images and image sales. But that's a story for another time. I had also purchased a Jay Maisel photo book in great condition at one of them before. At one of the tables I ran across a stack of magazines. Two of them were issues of National Geographic Traveler, the April 2008 and June/July 2008 issues. Both were in great shape, in-date no less, and a steal for only 25 cents each.
Did I think about my image being in one of them? Absolutely, but after thumbing through them quickly in the store I didn't see it. It was only when we got back home that I noticed the April issue had "Hot Springs Nat'l Park" on top of the magazine. Sure enough! There it was! On page 50 with an image credit in minuscule type in the margin. Needly to say, I was quite excited!
Below is the image that ran in the magazine. This particular photo trip has proved quite productive. Another image of a vista of the Ouachita Mountains, taken only a few minutes earlier and a few meters away, was also licensed recently for a different publication.
I think the magazine was well-worth 25 cents!
The coincidence peaked my interest, however, when a photographer makes a sale through an agency you don't know who the client is because the agencies don't want photographers to bypass them and market directly to their clients. At best, you only know generic information about the usage. In this case, I knew it was for either a retail book, magazine, or newspaper; one within the travel sub-industry; licensed to all English-speaking territories; and with a print run up to 750,000 (pretty large). It sounded very coincidental.
I am very blessed that my images are licensed quite often, but it is still rare that I ever know the specific publications or advertisements unless the sale is handled directly from my office and not through an agency. So I began checking the magazine rack nearly every time I went to the grocery store! And I made a special trip or two to Barnes & Noble as well. The photo editor had listed NG Adventure in his email, but I suspected that stories frequently got moved between NG Adventure and NG Traveler. Each month I attempted to find and check both, and even some of the other national outdoor adventure magazines. In retrospect, I remember I had trouble finding NG Traveler though. However, I knew that if it appeared in a magazine it would be a few of months from the date of sale before that issue was printed. I kept my eyes open for it, but eventually I had given up hope of ever finding it in print.
Which brings us to this past weekend. I was visiting my family in Northeast Arkansas, and Saturday afternoon we went to a couple of nearby flea markets. Photographers love flea markets! I won't go into details, but I have purchased something at one of these flea markets before which has netted me several images and image sales. But that's a story for another time. I had also purchased a Jay Maisel photo book in great condition at one of them before. At one of the tables I ran across a stack of magazines. Two of them were issues of National Geographic Traveler, the April 2008 and June/July 2008 issues. Both were in great shape, in-date no less, and a steal for only 25 cents each.
Did I think about my image being in one of them? Absolutely, but after thumbing through them quickly in the store I didn't see it. It was only when we got back home that I noticed the April issue had "Hot Springs Nat'l Park" on top of the magazine. Sure enough! There it was! On page 50 with an image credit in minuscule type in the margin. Needly to say, I was quite excited!
Below is the image that ran in the magazine. This particular photo trip has proved quite productive. Another image of a vista of the Ouachita Mountains, taken only a few minutes earlier and a few meters away, was also licensed recently for a different publication.
I think the magazine was well-worth 25 cents!
posted by Terry Smith Images at
10:03 PM
Return to terrysmithimages.com - stock photography and illustration
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home