Magazine Submissions - Seeing Your Images in Print
Outdoor Photography Magazine
In Outdoor Photography magazine this month (Issue 211, November 2016), on page 110, you will find one of my images :
Without any shame or modesty, this makes me very happy. I'm happy for two reasons. Firstly, Outdoor Photography magazine is my favourite photography magazine. I've been a reader for many years and the quality of the content and the magazine itself is brilliant. Every month I look forward to my issue arriving so I can sit down with a nicecup of coffee and get inspired!
The other reason for my happiness is that it's one of my favourite images of 2016 and it is wonderful to see it in print. I'm ashamed to say that I don't print my work. For some the photographic process isn't complete until you have printed your work. The more I think about it, and the more times I actually see my work in print, the more I'm convinced that this is the truth. I'm going to start printing at home soon, but that story is a tale for another blog post.
Back to magazine though. Seeing one of your favourite images in a well printed magazine like Outdoor Photography is very satisfying. For those that already print their work it's a very tactile experience holding your image in your hand rather than pixel peeping on your monitor.
Inspiration and Motivation
The image above is in the magazines "If you only do one thing this month…" feature. Each month the magazine sets a new challenge and readers submit their best images that meet that brief. I find these monthly themes a great source of motivation and inspiration. So much so that I do try and regularly submit images. Though there is a prize for the monthly winner, I don't enter to win a prize, I enter for the satisfaction of being featured in print. It's much the same motivation that drives me to enter other photographic competitions.
Though I didn't win the competition this month, I did win "Masterful Compositions" in issue 206 (July 2016, page 106) with this image:
I was also featured in issue 194 (August 2015, page 109) with this "Natural Light" image from Swanage:
In issue 192 (June 2015, Page 110) I also had my first image printed in the magazine with this "Low Light Landscapes" image of St Michaels Mount:
St Michael's Mount - Nikon D750, Nikon 16-35mm f/4, 19mm, 30 seconds at f/13, ISO 100
Why Submit?
Now, for some of you this post might all seem very self-congratulatory. And to a certain extent it is. I'm very proud to have a 4th image in Outdoor Photography magazine. What is more to the point though is how seeing that very first image in the magazine has driven me even more to improve my photography. Submitting your images to a competition, even a monthly magazine competition, sets you up with the risk of failure. But I need to take that risk, and no matter the outcome I will use my success and failure to continually drive my desire to improve.
So should you submit your images to magazines? Well that would be up to you. What works or drives me will likely be different for you. All I can say is that seeing my first image in a magazine gave me confidence that I was going in the right direction and made me want to work even harder at the art of photography.
Have you ever had an image published in a magazine or a book? Did it bring you any further success? Do you print your own work? Let me know in the comments.