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Hi

I am getting into news photography as a hobby, and i enjoy this a lot. I am slowly working out how to find out about events as soon as they happen, but i struggle a lot finding out about the upcoming events. Concerts etc are easy. But for example PM Nicole S was today in Glasgow, 5min walk from me and i did not know about it. I get alerts on twitter from city council, all local news sites etc, but problem is these report news after they happen. How do you stay ahead?

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it's pretty easy here....event calendars galore, venue calendars, association calendars, city calendars, various community calendars....I have things marked in my calendar for every weekend pretty much. Big city, so lots to choose from.

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21 minutes ago, MandyD said:

it's pretty easy here....event calendars galore, venue calendars, association calendars, city calendars, various community calendars....I have things marked in my calendar for every weekend pretty much. Big city, so lots to choose from.

Awesome, thank you Mandy.

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3 hours ago, MandyD said:

it's pretty easy here....event calendars galore, venue calendars, association calendars, city calendars, various community calendars....I have things marked in my calendar for every weekend pretty much. Big city, so lots to choose from.

Mandy I tried to look through internet and find calendars like this. All i find are calendars with entertainment events. Concerts, art galeries, theatre, sport events etc. But there is nothing for political events for example politicians visits to open a new building / investment, press conferences etc.

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33 minutes ago, Pietrach said:

Mandy I tried to look through internet and find calendars like this. All i find are calendars with entertainment events. Concerts, art galeries, theatre, sport events etc. But there is nothing for political events for example politicians visits to open a new building / investment, press conferences etc.

Why not drop the SNP or Holyrood a line and see if they have events newsletters. 

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34 minutes ago, Pietrach said:

Mandy I tried to look through internet and find calendars like this. All i find are calendars with entertainment events. Concerts, art galeries, theatre, sport events etc. But there is nothing for political events for example politicians visits to open a new building / investment, press conferences etc.

where do you live? alot of the political stuff can be seen on the MLA or MP calendars, but I haven't gone there yet....if it's on the internet, I will find it.

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On 23/07/2018 at 16:33, Pietrach said:

This shows my knowledge of politics :) Stand corrected.

 

And thats why News photography is rarely a hobby.. 

News photography is not a case of going out and taking nice pictures, its a case of reporting and reflecting real events with real accurate information.....

The news industry is in enough of a problem ....

 

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55 minutes ago, Julie Edwards said:

 

And thats why News photography is rarely a hobby.. 

News photography is not a case of going out and taking nice pictures, its a case of reporting and reflecting real events with real accurate information.....

The news industry is in enough of a problem ....

 

Agree entirely!

Try buying local/regional/national papers Pietrach, they'll give you a heads up on whats coming to your area. Or call all the emergency services/hospital/council press offices in your area every day, which is what they do.
Sorry to say, but there's no magic solution to what you're asking for.

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Pietrach, it is equally as important to get names, locations context etc correct as it is in getting the image. You will be dropped rapidly by a newspaper/magazine if you drop them in it with incorrect captions etc

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@Matt Ashmore @Julie Edwards With all respect... actually with rather little respect, if the purpose of your reply is to discourage someone form doing what they want, to do, or laugh at someone because of a simple (however big) mistake, then you could have saved yourself and others a lot of time. 

To me it is a hobby. Period. I managed to sell several news images in the last few weeks, and this is enough for me. I am not asking about your opinion if I am good enough, or if I have a change of making it. Look at replies by @MandyD or @TeeCee which answer the question.

 

For the record, I am not interested in politics, but in photography. I do this as a hobby. In my original question I had MP in my head, not PM (again, not even sure if Nicola S is an MP). 

 

I guess the message is to try, at least sometimes, to be helpful rather than beating up the less experienced ones.

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1 minute ago, Pietrach said:

@Matt Ashmore @Julie Edwards With all respect... actually with rather little respect, if the purpose of your reply is to discourage someone form doing what they want, to do, or laugh at someone because of a simple (however big) mistake, then you could have saved yourself and others a lot of time. 

To me it is a hobby. Period. I managed to sell several news images in the last few weeks, and this is enough for me. I am not asking about your opinion if I am good enough, or if I have a change of making it. Look at replies by @MandyD or @TeeCee which answer the question.

 

For the record, I am not interested in politics, but in photography. I do this as a hobby. In my original question I had MP in my head, not PM (again, not even sure if Nicola S is an MP). 

 

I guess the message is to try, at least sometimes, to be helpful rather than beating up the less experienced ones.

 

Woo... chill a moment! The world is far too serious and stressful pretty much all of the time nowadays... a little bit of humour just to lighten the day isn't something to get excited about.

 

For what it's worth, I also enjoy taking "soft news" images when I can too. Facebook events help me. For more serious news, TeeCee has probably given you the best advice available.

 

And for what it's worth, Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish First Minister and would be a SMP (Member of Scottish Parliament) as opposed to an MP which is usually considered to be a member of Pariiment at Westminster (which she is not)

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Pietrach said:

@Matt Ashmore @Julie Edwards With all respect... actually with rather little respect, if the purpose of your reply is to discourage someone form doing what they want, to do, or laugh at someone because of a simple (however big) mistake, then you could have saved yourself and others a lot of time. 

To me it is a hobby. Period. I managed to sell several news images in the last few weeks, and this is enough for me. I am not asking about your opinion if I am good enough, or if I have a change of making it. Look at replies by @MandyD or @TeeCee which answer the question.

 

For the record, I am not interested in politics, but in photography. I do this as a hobby. In my original question I had MP in my head, not PM (again, not even sure if Nicola S is an MP). 

 

I guess the message is to try, at least sometimes, to be helpful rather than beating up the less experienced ones.

I know only too well how easy it is to be defensive, but pointing out that mistake is the most helpful thing on this thread, not saying the other comments weren't helpful, they were.

"I am not interested in politics, but photography, I do this as a hobby' is fair enough EXCEPT when you submit to a professional agency, and even more so when you submit as Live News, where the caption and keywords are at least as important, as the photo, probably more so. (Which is really the case for all photos submitted to an agency. Accuracy is key - do you want to be sued down the line for false information?

"Not even sure if Nicola S is an MP" is pretty shocking for someone who wants to sell news images. Ten seconds on Google told me she's the MSP for Glasgow Govan.

I have photos sitting on my HD because e.g. I don't know who the person is or I'm not 100% certain of a particularly tricky species identification. Only last night I spent over an hour trying but failing to get a positive ID on a bumblebee I photographed in my garden yesterday. I haven't submitted it, though I may submit it just as 'bumblebee' until I get a positive ID.

 

Yes, researching correct information can take hours, but it's part of the job. You have to, if not 'embrace' it, at least just 'get on with it'. I can do it of wildife very happily. I've been gritting my teeth and doing it for recent trips to Birmingham and London, checking and crosschecking photos and maps. I couldn't do it with celebs or politicians. I had a look in Julie's port and wondered who all these people were, and concluded that I really didn't care (even though these images probably sell 1000x better than mine) If I wanted to do that, I'd have to care at least enough to do my research.

 

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3 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

And for what it's worth, Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish First Minister and would be a SMP (Member of Scottish Parliament) as opposed to an MP which is usually considered to be a member of Pariiment at Westminster (which she is not)

MSP, not SMP ;-)

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6 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said:

 

"Not even sure if Nicola S is an MP" is pretty shocking for someone who wants to sell news images. Ten seconds on Google told me she's the MSP for Glasgow Govan.

 

Yes, researching correct information can take hours, but it's part of the job. You have to, if not 'embrace' it, at least just 'get on with it'.

 

Agree., almost. It would be shocking if I submitted an image with such caption. I always do my homework. When I know of an event, I do the required research. In this case there was no event I attended, or was intending to attend. i was talking about an event which happened, and I missed it. therefore I havent done my research, and ended up making an embarrassing mistake. don't worry about my future in news photography, or the well being of the industry - I will try not to destroy it with my poor captions.

Seriously now - thank you for the useful tips.

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29 minutes ago, Pietrach said:

Agree., almost. It would be shocking if I submitted an image with such caption. I always do my homework. When I know of an event, I do the required research. In this case there was no event I attended, or was intending to attend. i was talking about an event which happened, and I missed it. therefore I havent done my research, and ended up making an embarrassing mistake. don't worry about my future in news photography, or the well being of the industry - I will try not to destroy it with my poor captions.

Seriously now - thank you for the useful tips.

 

I was rereading On Being a Photographer (Jay/Hurn) the other evening and noted that David Hurn's (of Magnum) advice was that you need to become at least a mini-expert in the field you are photograhing, you need to have an active interest if not a passion for the subject field. He also made the point that the background work is essential, research before, image editing and keywording and captioning afterwards. He reckoned the best photographers probably spend no more than 25% of their time takingphotographs.

 

A recommended read for any photographer who aims to make money from their work. You just need to see past the rather dogmatic, old-school, style (they were aging guys who had done the miles to earn the right to be dogmatic!) to the underlying messages which are as applicable as they always were, and to all genres.

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44 minutes ago, Martin P Wilson said:

 

I was rereading On Being a Photographer (Jay/Hurn) the other evening and noted that David Hurn's (of Magnum) advice was that you need to become at least a mini-expert in the field you are photograhing, you need to have an active interest if not a passion for the subject field. He also made the point that the background work is essential, research before, image editing and keywording and captioning afterwards. He reckoned the best photographers probably spend no more than 25% of their time takingphotographs.

 

A recommended read for any photographer who aims to make money from their work. You just need to see past the rather dogmatic, old-school, style (they were aging guys who had done the miles to earn the right to be dogmatic!) to the underlying messages which are as applicable as they always were, and to all genres.

I agree with you 100%. And I do this, or at least try, in my full time job. And because I do so, I don't need to worry about the finances too much, at least for now. Hobby however, is a whole different story. I don't want stress. I don't want pressure. I do this for pleasure. If I feel like chasing the news one weekend / evening – I will do so. If I want to leave it for several weeks and forget – I will do so. This is the comfort hobbyists have – and I don't think anyone should be criticised for this.

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