Outdoors Unlimited® Online | The award-winning publication of the Outdoor Writers Association of America

By Dave Carlson

Houses start in the forest. Steel, ore. Plastics, oil. Glass, sand. Boots, a cow.

On and on.

In the cosmic high-definition world of TV, images in and of themselves are meaningless if not linked.

Linkage is editing. And editing begins in the field.

Plans and themes guide the gathering of images, whether photography or videography. A basic videography principle: you can’t use it if you don’t have it!

Shoot spontaneously! Shoot prolifically. Get a feel for what your producer and host wants. And how they begin to use your stuff. You’ll learn what to shoot by process of elimination and inventiveness. In the end, shooting plenty of the good stuff makes everybody’s job easier, especially the job of the editor.

Look for the pearls. Those are the pretty treasures – sound or video, or both – that become pegs for good storytelling. Shake them out the way a creek miner pans gold.

As you photograph for the editing bay, think wide, tight and tighter. Think cutaways: faces, objects, signs, passersby – those “thank God I got that” extra shots bridging your unedited chains of video. Try to keep the scenes that attract a viewer, who then gets the full story with details in the narrator’s or the subject’s words.

Other suggestions:

• Don’t break the 180-degree rule. Stay within that plane with people, objects and landscapes. Breaking time is a no-no, too!
• Sparingly replace natural sounds with music of any persuasion.
• Experiment with varying speeds when panning, zooming and slowing motion.
• Don’t interrupt a series of dissolves with a clean cut.
• Glitzy edits can substitute for solid journalistic storytelling for only so long.
• Eliminate camera jarring often found at the end of a scene because the videographer has moved before shutting down the equipment.
• Use longer (several seconds) sound pauses more often than not. This gives viewers a chance to absorb what’s said and anticipate what’s spoken next. Clip those disturbing ticks and other audio glitches. Trash the cliches!
• Maintain extensive B-roll files. Search out alternative video sources, usually governmental. Usually free.
• Make sure to credit sources and people used or appearing in the product.
• Ask subjects on field tape to spell and pronounce their names and titles.

Lastly, develop a style. The most successful shows are those that look different and sound different.

That’s usually because they are. ◊

Dave Carlson is a writer, producer and host for “Northland Adventures” and a field editor for Wisconsin Outdoor Journal. A member since 1988, Carlson resides in Eau Claire, Wis. Contact him at dcarlson@wqow.com.

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By Paul Queneau

With stock agencies on the skids, online sharing sites offer a powerful way to get your work in front of buyers. Just choose your keywords carefully.

I recently typed “Grand Junction” into Google Earth and plunged toward western Colorado like a meteor. Once in town I skated east with a flick of my mouse to state highway 65, then south to get a birds-eye view of a new conservation easement I was writing about in my job as an editor of Bugle magazine at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Pure magic, and that wasn’t the half of it.

A tiny dot appeared near the easement linking to a geo-tagged photo on Panoramio, a Google-owned photo-sharing site. I clicked on it to see a gorgeous lightning-strike photo right over the very spot I aimed to write about. All because the photographer had tacked on latitude and longitude for his shot as he posted it to Panoramio to share it with the free world.

Sometimes the free world has a pocketbook

A moment later I was sending him a message to see if we might purchase the image to fill a full spread in our magazine to accompany my short write-up.

Talk about easy for us both. These days there is a real opportunity for photographers and videographers to troll their finest work by harnessing the popularity of sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, Pbase, Youtube, Vimeo and a myriad of others. Most are free, and most offer powerful search engines.

It wasn’t the first time we’d made such a purchase. When our bimonthly photo requests for little-known locales come up short, we’ve mostly quit turning to the stock agencies for lack of success.

We search Flickr and Pbase, and sometimes Google Images. We rarely have to search further. The thought may terrify those who fear posting to these sites will result in stolen photos. But a well-watermarked photograph will do more for you out where buyers can find it than hidden from the world on your hard drive.

Limiting the size of your images to 1,000 pixels or so wide and creating a substantial watermark will do much to keep your photos from being illegally appropriated. Just don’t watermark it to death. You have no idea how many photos editors pass over because they can’t stomach the frame-width watermark.

Every hook needs a barb

When it comes to search engines, an image is only as good as the information you describe it with. Take the time to properly label your photos. The work you do on the front end will pay dividends once a search engine catalogs it.

Be forewarned, though: a person can go loony trying to think of every possible keyword for any given image. Believe me, I’ve been there. Here are a few hints to make it easier:

1. Channel your quarry’s query: Start putting yourself in the shoes of your buyer. Who would purchase your image and why, using what search terms? Brainstorm a few keywords that best summarize your image, but give yourself a time limit, for the next step might just make it unnecessary. Then think of a catchy title but provide solid info in your caption.
2. Borrow the billionare’s powertools: Google has made a killing with its keyword-based advertising—$21 billion in 2008 alone—so it’s invested wisely in creating a killer tool to generate keywords. Dubbed the Adwords Keyword Tool, its intuition can be uncanny. Luckily it’s not limited to advertisers, so co-opt it for your own needs: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.
3. Get with the program: Once you’ve got your keywords, you can plug them in as you upload photos or video to various websites. Better yet, though, is to employ the power of modern photo suites to insert your titles, captions, keywords and copyright info as metadata that will travel with your image wherever it goes. This often relieves you from having to retype or re-paste it every time you upload it somewhere, and it’s just good etiquette in this day and age. Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture truly streamline this with easily customized keyword-sets and options to insert keywords as you import images off your camera. Many applications also allow you to automatically inject elegant watermarks to help protect your work from would-be cyber-thieves. Both also have direct upload tools available for Flickr, Picasa and other many other sites.

Ever the optimist?

It’s easy to feel your images will get lost among the endless chaff of photos and videos, but stay positive that the quality of your photos will carry them. You have to choose wisely about what images to take the time to prepare, though, and as always, only include outstanding shots.

But also keep an eye toward the multitudes of forgotten markets out there. Case in point: at Bugle we get an endless supply of stunning images of elk sent to us. We buy a fraction of them. But shots of elk crossing busy highways or standing among new housing developments are actually very hard to find.

People don’t realize the potential of the everyday things. If anyone can send us decent video of a wild elk walking in front of a bulldozer, I can almost guarantee we’ll buy it if the price is reasonable. Most folks would turn off their camera at that moment, but such imagery perfectly illustrates the Elk Foundation’s mission. I remember book publisher Bill Schneider telling me that he once couldn’t find a good photo of a red-breasted robin from stock websites to save his life. Look carefully at the topics magazines are covering and practice being perceptive about the sorts of images they might need. And if you see a crystal ball for sale, buy it.

Blogs are no exception

A couple years ago I was searching for a shot of Rifle Falls, a scenic waterfall in Colorado, for our “Name That Elk Country” department. After we’d searched the major stock agencies, I resorted to searching Google. I found a photographer’s Blogger page who had visited the falls on vacation and written up a short travelogue complete with her fine photos.

A day later she wrote a new post about selling her image to a magazine she’d never heard of before.

Take the time to optimize for search engines, whether it’s a photo, video or a Web page. If there is a spot to enter keywords, don’t ignore it. It may be your best route to let your work find its own way to new markets. ◊

Paul Queneau is conservation editor of Bugle magazine at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, where he also works on video, television and Web productions. Contact him at pqueneau@RMEF.org.











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By Mary J. Nickum

Does criticism by other writers really help? The short answer is yes, it can. How can criticism by other writers, especially those who don’t write the same kind of articles I do, help me?

First of all, you won’t just be criticized; you’ll get some praise too. While feedback from other writers as focused as you can be frustrating and exhilarating, there’s a flip side. You will have to return the favor. How? Read on.

But aren’t critique groups just for fiction writers or graduate students? No, they are an important part of any writer’s life, no matter the genre. Editors and publishers state that a major reason for rejecting submissions is poor organization and writing skills. This problem can best be overcome by the writer receiving feedback from other experienced writers. Fresh eyes can spot problems you might overlook in your attention to subject matter detail. You, in turn, can look at other writers’ work with fresh eyes and spot deficiencies or find explanations of details expressed that are entirely new and meaningful to you. There is give and take in a critique group.

While practice is the best way to improve your writing skills, you won’t know whether you’re on the right track—what you’re doing right or wrong—unless you get feedback. You have to show your story to others.

At first, while you’re still feeling your way, you’ll probably show your story to friends and family. But friends and family don’t know how a story is created, only whether they like it. “I like it” is not a constructive comment, no matter how well-intentioned the reader. People who know nothing about writing can do little to help you improve your writing. So where can you get constructive feedback? From other writers. And you connect with other writers through writers’ groups and critique groups.

Critique groups can benefit you in more ways than the obvious one of having good and bad aspects pointed out in your stories. As strengths and weaknesses in others’ work are called to your attention and examined in critiques by experienced members, you’ll learn about the elements of good writing and techniques you can apply to your own work. It’s often easier to see mistakes in others’ work than it is to see what’s wrong in your own. You’re too close to your own work to see its flaws. As you learn to recognize weaknesses in others’ work, you’ll be able to distance yourself from your writing to apply new analytical skills, allowing you to recognize and avoid those same weaknesses.

How to Critique:

1. Don’t think you have to cover every point in a story. Look for ones that stand out for you and comment on them.
2. Do try and give feedback on what could be changed to improve the piece.
3. Don’t say: “You should have written it like this.” We all have our own styles and we should respect that. That isn’t to say you can’t offer examples of how you would have written it, but that is all they should be, examples.
4. Do say what you felt about the piece as a reader. As a writer we need to know what readers feel about our work. So say whether it moved you, confused you or made you laugh.
5. Never criticize the author, only give criticism of the work.

How to Receive a Critique:

It is equally important to know how to react to a critique of your work. Submitting your work to others is daunting, but if we are to be published writers then this is something we must do.

1. Do take time to thank the person who has done the critique. Reading and providing feedback on works can take a long time. It is only polite to acknowledge.
2. Do think carefully about the comments that have been made.
3. Don’t immediately fire back defensive messages. You might feel that the reviewer has got it all wrong, but wait before you act. Take time to re-read your work and consider the comments made about it. It is hard to see your work being criticized, but if you want to grow as a writer, you need to learn to take criticism and learn from it where you can.
4. Do post clarifications if you think they are necessary and valid, for instance “The source’s dialogue is deliberately misspelled because that is an indication of how they pronounce the words.” Or “I was intending to hide the sex of the speaker by means of …”
5. Do take the time to critique others’ work, too.

Critiquing isn’t hard. It isn’t an obscure science. It does, however, take time and practice. Remember the critique is only a suggestion. You, the writer, have the final say as to how the work is presented for publication.

Mary Nickum, of Fountain Hills, Ariz., has been an OWAA member since 2000. Her recent children’s chapter book, “Mom’s Story, A Child Learns About MS,” is available from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com as well as her Web site: www.marynickum.com. Contact her at mjnickum@hotmail.com.

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By Tony Dolle

Jim Low’s article, “Need Work? Think Weeklies,” featured in the May Outdoors Unlimited, prompted me to add to what he wrote. Low was correct when he said weeklies are a growing market and a great venue for those looking to syndicate their work.

Yep, that’s right, syndicate – and survive. Well, not just survive, but probably flourish, especially if you find yourself looking for a job or extra income. It isn’t that hard, despite what you may think. You can use not only your writing skills, but also your photography skills, to earn enough income from 10 newspapers to pay the mortgage and buy groceries.

This is especially easy for an outdoor columnist (that would be you) with some time on his or her hands due to job loss or a writer (again, you) who wants to supplement a regular job. Low suggested finding 15 newspapers and writing two pieces for each every week, for $20 per piece. Good advice. Not a bad business model.

However, why not write only two pieces a week and sell the same two pieces to those same 15 weekly newspapers for the same $20 (or more) per article? That’s called syndication. That’s easier and leaves you with a bit more time for other pursuits. Well, in theory anyway.

Two friends (one in the mid-1970s and the other in the 1990s) did exactly this with outdoor columns in Missouri and Tennessee, respectively. Both utilized outdoor columns, re-writes of their state fish and game agency press releases and their own photographs. After creating an outdoor “package,” they drove to nearby towns with weekly and small daily newspapers. They would go to the newspaper’s office and invite the editor to lunch, where the writers pitched their columns. They sold these newspaper packages, localized to each newspaper’s community, for $10 and $40, respectively.

Their philosophies were similar: “I eat lunch, he eats lunch, let’s eat lunch together.” That idea worked more often than not and both ended up with more than 15 newspapers running their outdoor packages. They made pretty good extra incomes and kept it up until the demands of full-time jobs and their families forced them to give up the columns.

“Good weekly newspapers are thriving because they make themselves indispensible to small, local audiences,” Low wrote.

The outdoor packages my friends created helped facilitate that very idea for small papers they worked with. The papers were too small to afford a full-time outdoor writer, even though the papers’ readers enjoyed articles related to the outdoors. The writers helped the newspapers solve a problem.

Making sure their columns pertained to the newspapers’ coverage areas kept the writers in their editors’ good graces. They sent their packages early in the week and wrote of events to come, not past.

They wrote about the readers, not themselves. One of the writers hooked up with two newspaper groups (each with six newspapers per group) and his packages were sent to papers that turned him down when he had stopped by months earlier. The newspaper groups paid for use of his column in all of the groups’ newspapers, even if some papers didn’t print his material. Talk about a good deal!

I’ve met other writers who have done similar types of syndication – most out of necessity. If I found myself out of work or needing to supplement my income, syndicating an outdoor package to weekly and small daily newspapers would be one of my first moves. I might not get rich, but I certainly would have paid work I could use for many endeavors.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Call your state fish and game agency and get on their media lists. Almost all of them send out media packages on a weekly basis. Regular information about hunting and fishing seasons, limits and changes in regulations are always important.
2. Call marinas during the fishing season and create regular reports on where the fish are biting and what they are hitting.
3. Offer to take photos (no charge) for every retail business in your paper’s coverage areas that holds a big buck (deer season) or longest beard (turkey season) or biggest fish (summer months) contest. Use the photos in your weekly packages.
4. Interview the winners and use the interviews as column material or for a how-to article.
5. Once you get a newspaper to buy your package, don’t forget about them. Once a month, send a thank you note. At least once a quarter, stop by and take the editor to lunch. Be sure to put the newspaper editor and staff on your Christmas card list, if possible.

Of course, you can think of many, many more ways to help yourself, but the idea is to make it happen. ◊

A member of OWAA since 1979, Tony Dolle is OWAA’s first vice president. Dolle is also president of Advantage Communications and a freelance writer and photographer. Contact him at tdolle@ducks.org.

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By Bill Graham

Lazy words are the writer’s quiet enemy.

Just because a word fits in a sentence doesn’t guarantee a writer’s full emotional or factual intent enters the reader’s mind like a flaming arrow striking kerosene-soaked straw. Dull words are difficult to root out because they’re not obvious. Lazy words hide among the facts and turn of phrase without causing harm but also without adding enlightenment or entertainment.

They quietly tiptoe into a sentence and keep mum as our eyes scan the lines. Where there’s no harm there’s no problem, we like to believe.

We feel relief when a story has a beginning, middle and end that basically says what we intended to say. Ah, but then being professionals we give it the polish. Cliché words or phrases are zapped (or is replaced a better word?). Running spell check again doesn’t hurt. Quicker transition sentences and some paragraph tightening seemed to help the story flow.

So we’re all done now, right?

Well, I often prove myself wrong.

There’s a difference between copy that will make it to print but not make a splash and stories with the extra zing to make editors and readers smile.

Good pace, active tense, interesting facts and solid reporting all make the basic pie edible. But looking hard at each word in a sentence and asking if there’s a better one sweetens the taste.

A lazy word is one that works, but one that doesn’t work the best.

For example, I attended a workshop once where an Associated Press writer remarked that he never, ever uses the word “facility” in a story. It’s a bathroom, a factory, a gym or whatever it actually is, he said, but facility tells us little.

I’ve never been able to use the word facility again, either, because I decided he was right. But I also discovered myself applying the rule to other words that are nondescript, such as nondescript.

What facility avoidance taught me is that general words are easy but boring, while accurate and precise words are more difficult for the writer’s mind to find but far more interesting to read. A single word change may trigger me re-writing a whole paragraph. But the result is more clarity.

Words that describe action are especially important. Turn “he landed the fish” into “he grabbed the bass by its lower lip and lifted it into the boat.”

Being a veteran writer or broadcaster can lull you into lapses of word choice. When I judge OWAA contests, I spot generalized words in print, radio and video. Lazy words bog down Internet copy despite brevity in word counts.

I read through my copy numerous times to polish it while the story is in its original file. (Note to readers: I started to use “file of creation,” [so Biblical] but then I decided “original file” is cleaner and more accurate.) Most of my freelance work gets sent to editors via e-mail. It’s very, very rare that some words don’t get changed right before I hit the send button. How could I miss them, I wonder?

Complacency is the writer’s enemy. Editors can help. But many editors today are harried by deadlines and staff cutbacks. They don’t always have copy-polish time. Some may not have the copy-reading experience that the writer possesses.

This is a do-it-yourself business when it comes to greatness. Studying the power of individual words is your sharpest tool. ◊

Bill Graham recently served on OWAA’s board of directors. Contact him at plattefalls@centurylink.net.

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By William H. Mullins

In these days of decreasing income amid increasing expenses, any way to save a few dollars is welcome. The following tips and tricks are certainly not earth-shaking; just simple advice to help with day-to-day problems encountered by outdoor photographers.

1. Duct Tape. Duct tape is perhaps one of the handiest repair items for anything from gunstocks, fishing rods and camera gear to even temporary patching for rafts or float tubes. However, a full roll of this handy fix-it stuff is bulky and heavy. Instead of packing a full roll in my already-overloaded camera pack, I wrap several layers around a tripod leg. It is quickly accessible, takes up little room, adds minimal weight, is easy to find and costs very little.

2. Tripod leg protectors. Fancy polyethylene tripod leg covers are available from a variety of manufacturers. These covers function as insulation for aluminum legs in cold weather and provide padding when carrying a heavy telephoto/camera combo on your shoulder. These foam protectors, designed especially for tripods, cost $40-50 from mail-order camera outlets. You can buy 6-foot polyethylene pipe insulation tubes from home improvement stores like Home Depot for less than $2.  You need two to do the job. Simply slit the tube down its long side and slip it around the tripod leg. To keep it on, wrap the leg with camouflage camo duct tape, which costs about $8.

3. Tripod foot protection. Tripod legs tend to sink in marsh muck, loose sand and other soft surfaces. An easy way to prevent this and keep the bottoms of your tripod legs clean is to take a tennis ball, cut an “x” into it and pop it on the tripod leg. Easy to install, easy to remove. A tube of three new tennis balls is less than $3.

4. Rain protection. Look in any outdoor photography magazine and you will likely find ads for fancy camera “rain coats.” Cheaper ones go for about $7 per pair. Heavy-duty garbage bags can be altered to fit any camera-lens-tripod combination. A package of 10 bags costs less than $3. They are also useful for making short jaunts in boats (i.e. shuttles from a boat to land) where bow spray can be problematic. Simply cram a half dozen or so with your gear; they are lightweight, take up little room and are cheap.

5. Lens caps. I am always losing lens caps. You can buy lens cap keepers, but a piece of the aforementioned duct tape works great when placed on the cap and the lens barrel as sort of a hinge. The cost is next to nothing.

6. Image captions. This has more to do with saving time rather than money. I sometimes photograph animals in zoos, especially in foreign countries. Sometimes, there isn’t time to write down all the caption data. Instead, I take a picture of the nearby interpretive sign so I can quickly move on to the next subject. Unless you are shooting film, there is no cost.

7. Beanbags. For keeping your lens steady, beanbags are the next best thing to tripods. They are also quite heavy, especially when flying with today’s strict weight restrictions on airplanes. I take several large Ziploc bags and fill them with sand, rice or whatever is available when I arrive on site. Don’t overfill – just enough to make a shallow cradle for your lens. A heavy jacket or similar piece of clothing can also serve the same purpose.

8. Reflectors. Reflectors are great for bouncing light onto a subject to add drama. Several collapsible reflector discs are available commercially, but cost anywhere from $20 to $60. A cheap alternative is to carry a few sheets of aluminum foil and a piece of cardboard. When you need the reflector, crinkle the foil to reduce hot spots, wrap it around the piece of cardboard and use it to reflect sunlight onto your subject. Adjust the intensity of the reflection by adjusting the distance between the reflector and your subject. The total cost is a few cents – just remember to recycle the foil.

Use these tips to help you save a few bucks and solve problems you may encounter in the field.

Happy shooting! ◊

William H. Mullins, of Boise, Idaho, is a freelance photographer, retired wildlife biologist and a 20-year member of OWAA.

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By Bill Graham

A reassuring feeling came from opening the office door, sitting down in the familiar cubicle and logging onto the computer as a team member.

After all, I’d worked in the bureau of a major daily newspaper for 25 years. I’d become the veteran who knew the turf and I was the go-to guy when big daily stories broke in our coverage area. My opinion column graced the weekly neighborhood news insert, too. Plus, I carved a natural science beat that let me put outdoor stories on the daily’s front page and metro section.

Life was good. The bi-weekly paycheck arrived in my checking account via automatic deposit without fail.

Then the fractured advertising market and profit taking by corporate honchos was followed by the rise of free news and classified advertising on the Internet. Finally, an economic depression crippled display advertising flow.

I survived two voluntary buyouts and three rounds of forced layoffs. I did not survive the fourth round in March, and neither did many colleagues who were also veterans.

Unfortunately, many of my OWAA newspaper and magazine colleagues are in the same boat, or they’re still on the ship but eyeing the lifeboats and wondering if there will be room for them.

I offer this report from the layoff battle front lines in hopes that a tidbit or two will help someone else get a toehold or be better prepared.

Time management is issue number one.

In the first days after my two-week notice, I sat at my desk and imagined the spring and summer ahead. Uncertainty was frightening. But on the upside, I imagined myself hunting and fishing almost daily and having many postponed home chores done by June.

Wrong.

I did kill a gobbler, catch a few crappie and put in a little better garden.

However, most days I was on the run tying up loose ends from the newspaper, getting Cobra running, dealing with 401K and pension rollovers, enduring unemployment insurance hassles, watching for job openings and getting started on new freelance ventures to pay some of the bills. Plus, since my wife has a day job, by default I became the kids’ fulltime chauffer rather than splitting that chore.

You won’t have that much extra time after layoff if you’re going about the business of starting over. Use time wisely.

Another issue with time is that you’re now in charge of your own schedule. There’s no editor coming down the aisle to your cubicle to ask when the next day’s story will be done and how the weekend feature is progressing. It’s up to you to get started and make stories happen.

This is easy at first. But then the adrenalin wears off, new realities dampen your spirits and self motivation becomes something you have to reach deeper inside to find.

Recreating some familiarity helps. I need a work station with reference books, notebooks and telephone at hand. Eventually, I recreated my cubicle resources at home for freelance purposes. In retrospect, knowing that layoffs were likely, I wish I’d had the home work station already set up and running.

The upside is that good computers, printers and extra hard drives for storage are very affordable now. Tools you used at the company office can be easily replaced.

Everyone you meet will ask you if you have a new job yet. Due to various family factors I’m rooted to my current residence, and that has limited my search for a new job.

If you can move, there are jobs out there. If you can’t, it’s going to take longer. My laid-off colleagues who have found work have moved into public relations for government agencies, television news production or positions that combine research and technical writing.

However, most of my immediate co-workers, like me, remain unemployed.

Freelance writing is a place where you can find a big morale boost and a little bit of pay. But be warned, even veteran big-time outdoor freelance writers talk about tough times and diversifying to other markets and Internet work to survive.

That means it’s even tougher for newcomers to crack the freelance market. But it can be done. Just don’t blow your severance package on a trip to Vegas because you figure freelance money is going to make the house payment and put shoes on the kids.

Writing a freelance story now and then in your spare time from the steady job is one thing. Trying to sell a bunch to pay bills is another matter.

I started by writing two columns for my suburban town’s local weekly paper. One is a general opinion column and the other is an outdoor column. The second one is the first fulltime outdoor column I’ve had and I love it. The pay isn’t great, but the spirit boost is, and at least there’s a base of some steady income to build upon and a gathering of material that can be used for stories sold in other markets.

The Internet obviously beckons. But beware again, Net publishers are not committed to you like your old newspaper bosses in the newsroom, where tooth and nail battles over copy and editing are part of the lifestyle.

I lost a music column gig because I complained about a person who was suddenly brought in to do some editing for the Web site. This person, whose identity was never revealed to me, changed my opinion column lead, added two fact errors in sentences composed with his writing style, deleted stuff and made unneeded word changes – all without my knowledge until it was already posted on the site. This was my first dispute with the site publisher. But he dropped me because I complained. I was easily replaced by links posted to stories printed in other publications and posted on the Web.

So don’t approach your new freelance bosses in far-away places like you would a crusty metro editor; it doesn’t pay.

I have enjoyed the satisfaction of cashing a few checks for freelance magazine stories and unwrapping the complimentary extra copies. KEY TIP: I worried about spending money to attend the OWAA conference, but the freelance connections I made there were well worth it.

My future is still uncertain.

But I’ve found something that keeps the blues at bay – doing constructive work each day. Sometimes that’s as simple as making sure I bring back some photographs and notes from a hunting or fishing trip that would have been pure recreation before the layoff.

Today I quail hunted by myself and found no birds. Near the end, I found some standing corn and foxtail beside ground where the corn was harvested. I decided it would make a photo of ideal quail habitat for my outdoor column. I leaned my Browning over-under against a corn stalk, called the dog in and took his photo running toward me beside the shotgun.

I came home with a photo that will work nicely for my column and be part of a digital stock collection I’ve now started.

I’m not secure because of this approach, but I’m not whipped yet, either. That’s the most important part of the layoff battle. ◊

Bill Graham recently served on OWAA’s board of directors. Contact him at plattefalls@centurylink.net.

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By Tom Watson

Most editors I work with generally do not accept previously-published submissions – and understandably so. However, there is nary an assignment or photo trip where I am not thinking of how to turn one outing’s material into many submissions.

Instead of being concerned about sending the same story, I gather enough background information, quotes and photos to generate several stories for each targeted publication.

A sidebar topic for one magazine becomes the subject of a separate article in a competing publication. Loyalty to an editor will assure he or she gets the first and foremost story as well as suggestions for other pieces that might stem from the primary article. However, if the editor passes on any follow-up story, I can develop the idea for a new publication.

Reworking a piece not only adds freshness to an exiting article but assures the editor the same piece won’t appear in another publication. My camping column articles are often rewritten with a kayak or canoeing focus for my paddling column and vice versa. Both come from the same experience, field trip or research venture but are written specifically for different audiences.

Along with the reworking of copy for each article, I go back and see what photos will work best. I rarely submit the same photo with similar articles. If I have one so strikingly suited, I will let the editor know this – and still offer alternatives. Many of those other choices are merely second and third composition shots of the first subject. Sometimes they are cropped segments of one master photo (shot specifically with cropping in mind). Most often, however, they are separate photos captured sequentially for the purpose of being used in similar articles.

On rare occasions, I come across a publication well suited for an article I wrote several years earlier. I will mention in my query that it is a rejuvenated piece, the original publication and year, but offer new photos to support the piece.

Even though multiple submissions are often frowned upon or not accepted at all, using a strategy that works to expand and enhance an initial piece is an effective way to increase the frequency of being published in a competitive market.

Tom Watson is a freelance writer, columnist, book author and active member of OWAA and the Association of Great Lake Outdoor Writers. He writes from Appleton, Minn. E-mail him at wavetamer@hotmail.com.

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By Wayne van Zwoll

Woe to those for whom the measure of a hunt can be taken with a tape. What’s dead may represent the end of the chase, but it is hardly the essence.

That said, photographing the essence can be difficult. How to frame camaraderie? What F-stop the moment of truth? Can any shutter speed catch a skipped heartbeat?

We make do with the results: a carcass. Or, in the case of a fish, a creature we hold unto the verge of suffocation or until the lens gets its fill, whichever comes first.

Death itself is by most standards ugly. But the animal you shoot can remain beautiful in death for awhile. And the photos you shoot can preserve, in part, the climactic moment. They may not return the lead to your legs or the fire to your lungs, the trip-hammer beat of your heart or the cotton in your mouth. But if you mind what you’re doing, a photo can pull you back to another place, another time.

Sadly, many photos of dead game are artless and crude, and offensive to people who don’t hunt. They’re often shot in haste. Depending on conditions and your photo skills (or your partner’s), you’ll do well to allow an hour for photos. No meat spoils in an hour. It’s little time indeed in which to record the results of an expedition months in the planning.

I recall an elk-hunting client handing me a disposable camera. “I think there are a couple of frames left,” he said. Then he sat on the elk that had just cost him $10,000 and grinned. I humored him with two worthless shots, returned the camera and told him politely that as a responsible guide I couldn’t let anyone leave such a fine animal without photos of my own. They consumed 40 minutes. Months later, he conceded that the images delivered to his computer had been worth the trouble.

Good photographs impress not only your colleagues, but people who may not have killed game and can’t understand why anyone else would want to.

The first thing to do before you dig out the camera is make sure the animal is dead. OK, laugh. A goodly number of hunters have been embarrassed, even bloodied, because they assumed fallen animals never rise. Next, give the carcass a photogenic pose. Big bears and moose, buffalo and eland are hard to move; an elephant might as well be rooted. But with a little planning you should be able to position most game in a manner that shows you a lot of the animal, emphasizes the antlers, horns or other important physical elements, delivers mood and a sense of place and makes the best use of available light.

Clean the animal of dirt and blood. A thin red thread about the lips can be hard to eliminate from lung-shot game. Live with it. But blood on the hide or in the nose is neither necessary nor acceptable. Keep exit wounds hidden from the camera. Cover entrance wounds with leaves or a limb or snow, or position the animal to hide them. I carry paper towels for clean-up; pre-moistened towelettes are better.

A partner is a huge help in getting a photo record. If you are by yourself, without a tripod, you may have to settle for images of the rifle leaning against a shoulder. If alone but able to get help soon, leave the animal intact. Once you gut big game, you limit yourself to front-end shots only. With a photographer – or when photographing for someone else – you have many, many more options.

I typically take two series of photos: one with the animal resting as if it had just fallen, hunter on the approach, and the other “set up,” nose on the ground, hunter kneeling behind. For the first series, a rock or a branch under an antler will keep it from sinking into sand, snow or litter and out of sight. To set up the animal, roll it on its knees and prop the head with a stick behind the ear. Take advantage of natural assists. A dusting of snow not only hides blood but contributes to mood. Fluffing hair adds color and size. Bending a limb can deliver light to antlers otherwise in shadow. If by waiting a few minutes you will get better light, plan for the shot, set it up and wait. When conditions are right, shoot fast.

Try to get the glint in the animal’s eye before it glazes. You will have half an hour or so, depending on conditions. I’ve carried glass eyes used by taxidermists. They extend camera time, restoring a fresh-kill look if there’s a delay in reaching the game. Of course, you’ll bracket for exposure, vary composition and, with a zoom lens, add and subtract background. Experiment with perspectives. Shoot with a low camera to put antlers cleanly against the sky, and from a high angle to exaggerate them against the torso. Remember that wide-angle lenses (zoom settings under 55) boost center images and diminish those at field edges.

(Click on thumbnails below to view gallery and more tips from van Zwoll.)

When composing, lead the viewer’s eye through the frame. Place the animal or its most important part off-center. Mentally divide the frame into thirds, horizontally and vertically. The trophy (antlers, horns, a bear’s head) should appear at one of the four intersections of those imaginary lines, the hunter at another, diagonally across from the trophy. I photograph an approaching hunter from well behind the animal (and out of focus) in stages to just behind. Typically, he is looking top left to bottom right or top right to bottom left. The mass of the animal most commonly puts it in the bottom third of the frame.

Vertical and horizontal lines are less interesting than diagonals and tend to divide the photo. Never place a strong vertical or horizontal image (tree, horizon) in the frame’s center. Hunters should be moving or looking into the frame, with the main part of the field in front of them.

I like to frame trophy images with natural objects: trees, rocks, vegetation, deadfalls. Sometimes I shoot from behind a screen of brush, keeping it in soft focus while composing to show the salient features of the animal in sharp focus.

Insist on a clean background for antlers. Mottled backgrounds hide them. Avoid taking photos of antlers and horns against camo clothing or a matrix of trees and shrubs. Shafts of light illuminating a trophy in front of shade can mitigate the camouflaging effect of background. You can also pop the animal from its surroundings by opening the lens aperture, reducing depth of field. Take care; antler tines and especially the eye must be tack-sharp. Before you press the shutter, check for branches sprouting from the hunter’s ear or adding points to antlers.

When posing the hunter for a “trophy shot,” keep him behind the animal, hands barely visible as they support the head. You want the trophy to be the center of attention. A hand on the animal’s ribs is OK; sitting on or putting a foot on the carcass is blatantly disrespectful. I like to photograph the hunter looking at the animal, besides getting traditional at-the-lens grins. Fill flash softens hat shadows.

Pay attention to foreground. After a few dozen photos, ground gets trampled, vegetation torn, snow muddied. You want the place to look fresh.

Experiment with light. Light from the back or side can outline antlers or a bear’s coat and make the image more appealing than the traditional front-lit shot. Keep the camera lens shaded! And remember that often a vertical image works much better than the traditional horizontal. Mind the horizon, especially on slopes, which can skew your notion of what’s level. Tilted horizons ruin photos!

Sometimes weather or fading light will prevent you from getting the shots you want. Last fall, I killed a mule deer buck at dusk. To get photos, we transported the deer back to camp, where I cleaned it and posed it, propping it as rigor mortis set in. The night was very cold, so I did not gut the animal, instead perforating the rumen with my knife to release gas. Before dawn my partner and I hauled the deer to an east-facing hill. Presently a red sun shot through a slit in a dense gray cloud-bank, illuminating the buck. I shot furiously for perhaps 15 minutes, until the sun vanished for the day. The result was worth the fuss. And yes, the venison was fine. ◊

Photo credit Wayne van Zwoll.

Wayne van Zwoll is a book author, magazine writer and photographer specializing in hunting, conservation, rifles, cartridges, optics and shooting gear. Contact him at wvanzwoll@amerion.com.

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The only thing changing faster than resolution of photographers’ cameras is their options for sending off images to those persnickety editors.

But what method is best?

Outdoor Life photo editor Justin Appenzeller says he prefers low-resolution files via e-mail. That’s partly for ease—if it’s not what he’s looking for, he simply hits delete. He also feels like it’s a partial guard against simultaneous publication of a photo elsewhere, as an editor would request a full-resolution file from the photographer that sends out low-resolution shots, hopefully alerting them to their gaffe before it went to print in two places. He says he is also fine with digital lightboxes—basically a password-protected online gallery of handpicked photos for a specific request.

Luke Duran of Montana Outdoors magazine states clearly in his photo guidelines that he will look at digital lightboxes only after reviewing high-resolution TIFF files that come to him on CD or DVD. Duran also warns he won’t so much as open e-mails with low-resolution JPGs attached.

Wyoming Wildlife Editor Chris Madson also prefers full-resolution TIFFs sent by disk or via an FTP link. This way he needn’t go through a second step of requesting the larger version of a particular photo. Chris admits to missing the days when he could grab a sheet of slides and head for the light table.

“The broader my search, the more tedious it is digitally,“ he says. “I really feel like it takes me longer to find what I’m looking for.”

When I spoke to Madson he had just dealt with one of his first digital lightbox submissions—bird photos from Michael Furtman—and was optimistic about its simplicity.

John Hafner is a freelance photographer published in numerous hunting and fishing magazines. He said he often uses Adobe Bridge to create a single PDF file of a set of photos for submission. This way an editor can just scroll through the options and request full-resolution of particular shots using the file names below the photos. Hafner says he also soon plans to begin creating custom lightbox submissions using Smugmug.

Photo editor Randi Mysse of Bugle magazine prefers low-resolution images by e-mail, but says she is open to most kinds of submissions. One pet peeve: giant watermarks across photos. “It really limits their chances of getting in,” she says.

So, clearly there is no single, simple answer. A photographer needs to figure out what each editor prefers. Perhaps in the near future digital lightboxes will become the standard format. Pay services for this include Photoshelter and Smugmug. A good free option is Google’s Picasa, which gives users a gigabyte of space and the option of creating unlisted and password-protected galleries that work well as a lightbox for submissions. ◊

Paul Queneau grew up in Colorado hunting, fishing and backpacking. He started with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Bugle Magazine as an intern and is currently the conservation editor.

What do you think? Post a comment below, and let’s get a discussion going on the subject.

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