Getting your photos to news wires/papers/services

[Rajah Sulayman]

Fleet Week is upon us in San Francisco, and I'm prepared this time. Weather services are predicting a beautiful day, I've got a 400mm f/2.8 big monster of a lens, and more memory cards than I can shake a stick at.

So how do I get my photos to the places and people that can get them out there?

When the Olympic Torch Rallies were going on here in SF, I got a bunch of great shots which I proceeded to send off to all the local papers within an hour. I never heard back from any of them.

Is there a specific process to getting your picture in papers and news magazines? I know a lot of these publications don't keep many photographers on payroll, preferring to deal with freelancers and right-place-right-time photographers.

So how do I get in on that action? Is the process much harder for AP and Reuters? Do they prefer to staff photographers? What do I need to know about getting my photo out there?

[Sela]

You may want to try posting this question at some freelance photojournalist web forums, there are probably more people there who could help you out.

But in my opinion, events like Fleet Week are covered by thousands of photographers, and I'm willing to bet that for such a big event in SF that a staff photographer (and possibly more than one) is covering it. You would probably have better luck having your photos get into the newspaper if you cover something less photographed by other people. However you could possibly sell the pictures from Fleet Week as stock photos somewhere.