Share your cover shots - stand forward and be proud!

[Jill H]

I don't know if this has been done before, but I thought it would be a great time for us to share our cover shots - whether they were on the front of a magazine, book, newspaper, whatever. Share your covers with us, and the story behind it. And be proud of your achievement - it's not easy. Here is mine......

As a casual "in my spare time" freelance journalist one of my greatest ambitions is to have a cover shot on a magazine. I had my first magazine article published in 2002, and since then every time I take a photo for a story I am looking for that elusive cover shot.

Early in 2008 I took an envelope from my mailbox, opened it, and out came Australian Coast and Country magazine with one of my photos on the cover! Words would fail to adequately describe how I felt at that moment - ecstatic! It was amazing to walk into newsagents for the next three months and see my photo staring at me from the magazine stand.

Cover shots, whether magazine, book, newspaper -whatever print media - are hard to come by. Amongst the hundreds of photos editors sift through, your photo must grab the attention of the editor in order to make the cover.

Below I have posted my cover shot - it is a photo of the thrombolites at Lake Clifton, near Mandurah in Western Australia. Thrombolites are living fossils, built up by micro organisms over thousands of years. This was actually a lucky shot. We had never visited the thrombolites before, and we were on our way home from Perth and I asked my husband if we could side track to go and look at them. As luck would have it it was late in the afternoon and the setting sun set a beautiful golden glow over the scene - as you can see in this photo. I took the photo and it was my first cover shot. It goes to show you should always carry your camera. A little while after this I was asked by Coast and Country to write a magazine article about Mandurah and the new rail link from Perth - amongst the photos I sent, was this one of the thrombolites.

I must add that writing and photography is not my day job, I do it in my spare time, so if I can achieve a cover shot then so can you. I am still trying to get that second cover shot - I know it will happen one day if I keep taking photos and send in that photo that will grab the editor's attention.

I look forward to seeing yours - so please share them with us by adding them to this thread. Thanks!

Here is the original shot...

From Life Images by Jill

And the cover.... (I think the colour might be a bit out of spec when I scanned)

From Life Images by Jill

[chrean]

I would love to have a photo of mine published, but I guess it will be very, very hard...

Cheers for your achievements Jill!

[jennie]

wow! what a lovely shot Jill! it really belongs to a magazine cover..
i am very new to photography and having my work published is still a dream..

[leonaashlee]

Although I've had photos published, I've not gotten to that illustrious status yet....
Well done Jill.

[Jill H]

thanks everyone. I am looking forward to seeing your cover shots. Like I said, if I can do it, so can you!

[Ella1267]

Beauiful shots...

[kgb224]

Congratulations Jill.
My best So Far is on this Link Jill
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/share-your-shots/90413-front-page.html

[SoxAddict]

Lovely job Jill, and fabulous shots. I've never had any of my photos published for photographic sake (although in fairness I've never entered anything! Maybe I should try) - only in the context of scientific journals!

[SoxAddict]

Oh I think my friend lives in Mandurah - the town name rings a bell. She emigrated there from England a couple of years ago.

[tamcry]

I had a picture of mine put in the local paper. I took this shot at Spencer Smith Park in Burlington. These "little people" were waiting to go on the ice for the first time.

This is the original shot


I cropped it
Then sent it to the paper and they loved it and placed it on the front page


Full size pics are on my Flickr site. It was really a good feeling to see my picture there.