There’s hardly a subject that couldn’t be worked into a story idea, yet many photographers do very little with their compilations once they’ve finished. Making story proposals, however, can be a way to break into new markets, meet new photo editors, and show that you’re a working pro.

Story ideas from photographers appeal to magazine photo editors because they offer another voice, another opinion and another viewpoint in the editorial process. If you’ve done your homework, you know your story proposal fits with the type of content the magazine typically publishes and you’ve presented your idea briefly in words (a page or less) with a sampling of your images, which the photo editor can take to a planning meeting to pitch.

In many cases, magazines have their own writers, and if they like your proposal, they will assign one of them to write the story to go with your images. Sometimes the photographer is asked to provide the total package – story and photos. Flexibility rules.

Tailor your story proposals to each publication. Obviously, you shouldn’t send bloody war images to a children’s magazine or a proposal on vacationing in Italy to a craft magazine, but there are less apparent distinctions as well. For example, a duck-hunting magazine is probably not interested in seeing your images of children feeding pond mallards, and it receives so many “first hunt” articles that those two words translate almost immediately to rejection.

It’s a waste of everyone’s time to submit a story to a publication unless the story is tailor-made for it. Know your source. Look at the other images published in the magazine. Consider not just subject matter, but also how the magazine uses images. Some use a lot of sequences, for example. Others go for macros over wide angles. Still others publish an eclectic assortment.

One subject can produce hundreds of stories. Take the time to come up with ideas that have an unusual twist, make sure the story hasn’t been done to death already, and arrange your images with the potential client in mind.

Additional tips on selecting photos for submission:
1) Even though you are trying to sell your images, think in terms of the text when presenting a photo story – have a beginning, middle and end – and be sure there’s a focus that flows through the images.
2) Vary the light and color – avoid monotony – but also consider using color as a theme within your photo story.
3) Select images taken from different distances. In the field, don’t take every shot of a subject using the same lens from the same distance – that’s boring.
4) When a person is the subject of your story, show him or her in a variety of clothing and settings – the same person in that same red shirt in the desert won’t be very interesting after awhile – unless, of course, that person gets covered in mud or volcano ash along the way!
5) Don’t select too many images where the subject is dead center. One may be too many.
6) Create tension with the images in your photo story. In your presentation, one image should naturally lead to the next.
7) Don’t worry about covering every aspect of the subject. You should be able to tell your story in 4-5 images. If you have great depth on a subject, send a list of categories that you have covered within the subject, and offer to send more to the photo buyer if there’s interest.
8) Let the photo buyer know what you were trying to accomplish with your images – perhaps she’d be willing to work with you, even assign you, to finish the story with her publication’s own personal vision. For example, if you’ve proposed a story on chili peppers, maybe she’d send you to cover the National Chili Pepper Festival in Pennsylvania.

Another way to tell a story is with a single image. The story can be breathtaking beauty, a comical situation, unusual behavior, spectacular sights…something that makes the viewer stop and think or reminisce or laugh. These single images do everything an entire story does, but in one frame. Whether through skill or planning or luck, every photographer has at least one killer shot.

Niki Barrie and Sharon Cohen-Powers publish The Loupe, a print magazine of photo stories and concepts. Their magazine is a great way to advertise your story ideas – and killer shots (individual, spectacular images) – to 10,000 industry photo buyers at one time. Check out their website, www.loupemedia.com, for details on how you may benefit from their service.