One of the things that distinguishes travel articles from news articles is the sidebar. That’s the box near the end of the article that tells you how to get there, who to call for further information, and the phone numbers and websites of the places you mentioned in the article. You are responsible for writing the sidebar, and you are responsible for making it accurate and up to date. How do you do that? Get help from the resort’s public relations person, from the local Chamber of Commerce, from the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, and from the website that lists regional attractions and events. Double check everything. Or else you’ll end up printing a California 800 number for a Florida hotel! Can you imagine how happy our editor was with us for that little mistake?
Effin & Jules Older run travel writing and photography workshops at Vermont resorts. They¹re at Box 163, Albany VT 05820.julvt@together.net .
Welcome
to ImagaStoxSource.com. Here's where you'll
find information about being a writer-photographer,
photojournalism, writer-photographer guidelines,
and generating great ideas for articles.
Generating Great Ideas for Articles:
Part 2
Like to write? Want to pay for your vacations? The advice below from a seasoned writer can point you in the right direction.
Where Have You Been?
Think back to places you have visited in the past. Which locations impressed you most and what was it about these locations that you liked? You don't need to make a fresh trip to a location every time you want to write an article about it. If there are locations you visited in the past which you would like to write about, consider whether you already have adequate information for your article. However, chances are that if you weren't thinking in terms of writing an article at the time you visited, you won't now have enough details. But don't despair.
You can contact (phone, e-mail, postal) the tourist office of the destination and ask for any information you're lacking. If you traveled with a tour company, that company should also be able to provide you with, for example, accurate spellings of place names, hotels and restaurants, contact details, etc. The airline that flew you there should be able to provide you with an up-to-date timetable and fare information.
Read Widely
Reading widely will help you develop or fine-tune ideas for stories. When reading for article ideas don't just read travel stories. News stories, articles in trade magazines, and reviews can also be a rich source of article ideas.
Use the Internet
Search engines such as Google will cough up articles previously published by magazines and books. Also check out the "Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature" at a major library. Although names and places might be outdated; spellings, distances, and other vital statistics will not have changed.
Brochures are also an excellent source of ideas for articles. Brochures have the additional advantage that they contain a lot of the background information you'll need if you ultimately write a story about that destination.
Request further information when you find interesting destinations and trips in brochures. Many companies, particularly adventure travel companies, provide free "trip dossiers." These dossiers set out further details and itineraries of trips including place names, trip highlights, distances traveled, altitudes reached, temperatures, what you need to bring, etc. They, in fact, provide much of the factual information you'll need should you decide to write an article on the trip.
Other Media
Television and radio travel programs can also be an excellent source of article ideas. As with newspapers and magazines, it's not just the travel programs that will give you ideas
A history program might give you ideas for a story on staying in the finest Scottish castles. A science program discussing how ancient civilizations of South American Indians built observatories to tell the time and seasons might give you an idea for a story on exploring the lost sites of these civilizations. A nature program might reveal the best locations to observe wildlife and find rare flowers. A cookery program might inspire any number of articles linking destinations around the world with fine dining and specific local delicacies.
Trade Shows and Exhibitions
Make a point of visiting trade shows and exhibitions. These are excellent sources of ideas for articles. Just walking around these shows will open your eyes to more subject and destination possibilities than you ever imagined existed.
Visiting trade shows will also help maximize your chances of being invited on press trips. Destinations and tour operators are exhibiting at these shows for one reason and one reason only: to attract visitors to their destinations and tours. For that they need publicity, and many show exhibitors will therefore be prime candidates to host press trips.
Many trade shows have special conference rooms and visiting days for members of the press, when the public is not admitted. Attend shows on these days if you can. These "press days" tend to be less crowded than normal days. You will have a better chance of speaking to representatives of locations you're interested in. Furthermore, representatives of manufacturers, tourist boards, and travel companies are more likely to be on the lookout for writers on these days, and this will increase your chances of being invited on press trips.
John Longford is a freelance travel writer and has produced a course on how to break into the profession: http://www.FreelanceTravelWriter.com .
Business
Notepad
MEETING PLACE
-- Interactive Flickr Now for everyone. Yahoo has finished a redesign of its Flickr home page that emphasizes the photo-sharing site's social aspects. The new home page shows off more of a user's own photos and more from the user's contacts, and it surfaces social activity such as comments on the user's photos, replies to comments the user made on others' photos, and new photos posted to the user's ... Full
Story
As a stock photographer, you become an important
resource for photobuyers if you also have a talent for writing. you can
write copies for your own photo essays as well as those for other photographers
who want to team up with you. You can also ghostwrite for clients who want
to publish but don't have the writing skills to do it.
Not Just for Travel Sections
Try not to impose needless self-limitations. One limitation too many travel writers self-impose on themselves is believing their writing is suitable only for newspaper travel sections and travel magazines.
There are many more outlets for travel stories, especially if you broaden your definition of the travel story.
For instance, a gardening magazine sent us to write and shoot a piece on the world’s largest shovel factory. Said factory was (and is) in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Sure, we wrote about shovels, but we also wrote about Parkersburg, the surrounding countryside, and the mighty Ohio River that flows by the town. We’ve published other travel stories in the national general-interest pages of newspapers, in ski magazines, and even in a children’s book called Hank and Henrietta Take Off.
You can do the same. Find ways to broaden your outlets, not constrict them.
Effin & Jules Olderrun travel writing and photography workshops at Vermont resorts. They’re at Box 163, Albany VT 05820. julvt@together.net .
Let's assume you're writing your first news or human interest article for a newspaper. The standard journalism format is the inverted pyramid (open with the most important sentence and end with the least important). That way the newspaper's harried copy editor can make the article fit the available space simply by clipping up from the bottom.
But there are few rushed deadlines in travel writing. So forego the pyramid and instead make your article as vivid and intriguing as you can. Tell a story. Convey a picture and mood. Capture your readers with the first sentence and don't let them go until the last. Make them want to share your adventure(s) or at least read all about it.
Effin & Jules Older run travel writing and photography workshops at Vermont resorts. They're at Box 163, Albany VT 05820. julvt@together.net .
Of
Interest
Re-publication Permits Privacy Suit to Proceed
Although the language of each state statute may vary, the use of a
person’s name, portrait or picture in a photograph cannot be used for
advertising, commercial or trade purposes, without the person’s written
consent.
This is called the Right to Privacy. The time to bring a lawsuit for
invasion of the Right to Privacy is one year from the first publication
in New York and most other states, but is subject to what is called the
single publication rule. Under this rule, the statute of limitations
begins to run on the date the material at issue is first published or
used. Accordingly, subsequent distributions or uses of the images does
not constitute a separate publication or continuing wrong which would
extend to the date the initial claim accrued.
The purpose of this rule is to avoid an endless tolling of the
limitations statute. For example, a distribution of a work to a library
would be the initial date for statute of limitations purposes, and that
initial date would not be extended each time the ... Full
Story
COST OF TRAVEL OVERSEAS is always prohibitive for the stock photographer
just starting out. One way to skirt around this problem is to become a
Travel Agent.
HOW DO THEY DO IT? Yuri Arcurs - Microstock Entrepreneur - Not content with an
annual microstock income of US$1.3 million and being the top selling microstock photographer, Yuri Arcurs is creating a microstock empire. Here's a summary of his new entrepreneurial activities.
http://www.microstockdiaries.com/meet-the-new-yuri-arcurs-microstock-entrepreneur.html
WHO SAID PHOTOGRAPHERS CAN’T WRITE? History in the Buffer - David Burnett, photojournalist, wrote this piece about his experience "in the buffer" covering the election night in Chicago. A remarkable diary of his election night experience.
http://werejustsayin.blogspot.com/2008/11/history-in-buffer.html
TAKEAWAY: When TIME Magazine made “the computer” the Man of the Year, they sent David Burnett to Pine Lake Farm to photograph me and my new Radio Shack TRS-80 Model II. You can see the picture TIME used at:
http://www.photosource.com/rohntime
