Australian Photography Magazine : December 2011 Cover

[Dylan & Marianne]

I'm stoked again that Robert Keeley and co. from the editorial staff at Australian Photography have chosen one of my images for the cover of December's magazine.
It was taken just North of Clare during Canola season at the end of September on a chilly 2 degree morning with clear skies and little wind.
Interestingly , the caption reads that it was taken by Marianne and me which is odd - unless one of us was holding the camera and the other depressing the shutter :confused013
A minor detail though - still very happy to see this in print - great article by Michael Snedic inside about treks too (it seems he carries even more gear than I would!!)

82215
putting the scanner to use but I need to play around a bit more - there seems to be a lot of cross hashing going on

[ricktas]

Are you and Xenedis taking it in turns for this honour...hehe

Congrats again Dylan

[Dylan & Marianne]

thanks Rick :) - perhaps we have made a pact with Robert Keeley (or a more sinister being!) lol - I'm waiting to see John's next cover :P

[old dog]

good for you Dylan...and Marianne of course...:D also, now I know where your POTW was shot :th3:

[kaiser]

Fab image Dylan - it's nice to see some colour - surrounded by lots of browns and drab greens out here.

[agb]

Great image again Dylan. Worth the effort of the cold morning.

[Kym]

:wd: Wow!! What fun!

[Dylan & Marianne]

thanks again all - matt, I definitely dont get to see that much colour here either! I know where I'm headed every year in late september now ;)

[Bennymiata]

Nice shot, and congratulations!
A real honour!

[Geoff79]

Awesome shot, and congrats on the cover. Interesting looking magazine, too.

[kiwi]

Well done Dylan. Awesome to have you here to brag with.

[KLi]

Great shot!! You HAVE to tell me more details about the location! I have been dying to find a canola field for fashion type shoot.

[Paul G]

Great stuff again Dylan!

[geoffsta]

Should we start calling you; "Sir Dylan", "Mr Celebrity" or "Captain Capture"
Well done Dylan (and Marianne) You deserve it.

[Dylan & Marianne]

thanks again all -
no titles geoff , all first name basis even at work :P
KLi - the location would probably vary from year to year depending on the field used? This is the one I used for this shot - you'll find the folk up there very nice and generally willing to let you use their property! (google map location : -33.753496,138.58866 ) - I just left a card on one of their cars with a note asking if I could and they rang back a couple of days later to say no problem :)

[matt shepherd]

Well deserved mate.

[Analog6]

Congratulations!

[Shelley]

Congrats and your work deserves this showcase.

[rellik666]

:wd: More amazing work from you Dylan!

[jeffde]

Well done - Cover shots are so great !!!!

[mongo]

not surprising and well deserved :th3:

[Roo]

Congrats, you must be pretty proud as punch, nice pic.

[WhoDo]

putting the scanner to use but I need to play around a bit more - there seems to be a lot of cross hashing going on

Agree with all that's been said, Dylan, so I thought I'd go straight to the scanner issues. The cross-hatching effect is the result of scanning a page with a reflective surface. If you have some clear matt plastic, try scanning through that to reduce the reflective cross-hatching. I hope that helps, mate. Lord knows you don't need MY help anywhere else that I can figure out! :p

[Tommo1965]

well done mate..I might go and buy that Mag now :D

[Michaela]

Congratulations, Dylan - it's a beautiful shot! :th3:

[Tikira]

Well done Dylan. The yellow canola really stands out and is great for a cover for the magazine.

Wayne

[CHardy]

Congratulations!....and I have just received an email from Australian Photography magazine promoting a 40% off subscription sale...food for thought for those who dont already subscribe....

[Dylan & Marianne]

thanks everyone !
and Waz - the help is very much appreciated - would you believe this is the first scanner I have owned in maybe 10 years (since I moved out of home originally) lol- I'll try it with a non reflectve surface plastic as you suggested!

[peterb666]

Great work on the photo. Between you and the x-man, circulation of AP mag has probably doubled.

Not too certain that the glossy surface is causing the cross-hatching. Glossy surfaces may create hot spots from the scanner lighting but cross-hatching is usually a result of interference between the screen used on the image and your scanner resolution.


The sceen will normally be between 90dpi and 120dpi or maybe even a litte higher. Your scanner needs to scan at least double that. If your scanner was left at the default mixed media colour settings, it may have scanned as low as 150lpi.

Either manually set the scanner resolution to 300lpi or choose the colour photo scan setting. The latter is usually around 300 or 600lpi, depending on the scanner.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[ApolloLXII]

Australian Photography is the one photography mag that I buy on a regular basis. I saw this cover the other day and it sure does have the "wow" factor. Absolutely worthy of being on the cover and something to be very proud of Dtoh. A great achievement. :th3:

[Dylan & Marianne]

thanks peter - I'll check out some of the unused shiny buttons on the scanner and software lol I found the same happening for some scanned photos as well
it's a canon pixma 880 series one

[bricat]

Congrats . Btw this and mountain shots you cover everything. And I see why you get results because you are out of bed taking shots while we are still sleeping. Well done cheers Brian

[Xenedis]

I'm stoked again that Robert Keeley and co. from the editorial staff at Australian Photography have chosen one of my images for the cover of December's magazine.

Congrats!

Y'know, when my plastic-wrapped copy arrived in the post, I looked at it and showed it to Xenedette, saying "I don't think that's a Dylan".

When I opened the magazine and saw the caption, I said something that cannot be repeated here. :-)

I wouldn't have picked it as one of yours.

I'd like to see that tree moved over to the right third; there's lots of negative space there for that tree. :-)

[Xenedis]

Are you and Xenedis taking it in turns for this honour...hehe

It does seem that Dylan and I have been hogging the magazine lately.

Dylan's had four or five covers this year and at least two feature articles, and I've had one of each.

I should probably call Robert Keeley and see if he's needing something for February. :-)

[Dylan & Marianne]

haha thanks John - I was particularly happy with this shot because if wasn't something I would usually compose for but took his advice in terms of keeping in mind the magazine when I'm out shooting
I'm sure he'd appreciate an article - we've got one in the works for early next year too - content is a bit common sensish but he has given us free reign with the images for it which is nice!

[Xenedis]

haha thanks John - I was particularly happy with this shot because if wasn't something I would usually compose for but took his advice in terms of keeping in mind the magazine when I'm out shooting

When I was going through the motions, he spent a good 90 minutes on the phone with me (he simply doesn't have time for that!) giving me lots of information on shooting covers. As you know, merely having a 'wow-factor' image doesn't make it cover material.

As you also know, he's more keen on landscapes due to the huge number of seascapes he receives. That, of course, puts me at a distinct disadvantage, although he did run your Port Willunga seascape right after my Long Reef seascape.

I guess it depends on the image, but he is decidedly more keen on landscapes for cover images.



I'm sure he'd appreciate an article - we've got one in the works for early next year too - content is a bit common sensish but he has given us free reign with the images for it which is nice!

From my experience working with him, I think that once you've proven not only your photographic ability but your writing ability, he keeps you in mind for future opportunities and may let you run with things more independently. Of course, he is too busy to hand-hold anyone!

I might get on the phone next week and pitch some article ideas, as I had a few when my first article opportunity arose.

[peterb666]

This is of course really commercial photography (even if you don't get paid or are not paid much for it). Consideration needs to be given to where the various printed elements of the magazine cover are placed as well as meeting the visual "wow" factors; and in some instances taking in context of what is inside the magazine. The latter is quite important at times when there is a special "feature" article inside. All of those factors will be taken into consideration when a photograph is being selected.

One of the main requirements is for the photo to be in portrait mode rather than landscape and that will scrap many hopeful contenders just there. Your chances of future success are greatly enhanced if you take the requirements of the magazine into consideration before submitting your work. By design or otherwise, I know you guys are there but for others it is where you need to start.

Good work guys and I wish you both future success as well as success to all the hopefuls.

[Xenedis]

This is of course really commercial photography (even if you don't get paid or are not paid much for it).

Feature articles pay more. :-)



Consideration needs to be given to where the various printed elements of the magazine cover are placed as well as meeting the visual "wow" factors; and in some instances taking in context of what is inside the magazine. The latter is quite important at times when there is a special "feature" article inside.

Not so much.

The issue of the magazine which contained my feature article on creative light painting had a mist-laden landscape on the cover.

The cover image needs to be highly attractive to entice people to first look at the magazine, and then read the sub-headers before ultimately buying the magazine (as opposed to reading it in the newsagent, which is best reserved for gossip rags).


One of the main requirements is for the photo to be in portrait mode rather than landscape and that will scrap many hopeful contenders just there.

You'd be surprised how many people actually send landscape-format images to Robert Keeley despite the patently obvious requirement for portrait-format images. He told me that some 90% of what he receives gets summarily dismissed.



Your chances of future success are greatly enhanced if you take the requirements of the magazine into consideration before submitting your work. By design or otherwise, I know you guys are there but for others it is where you need to start.

In one issue of the magazine quite some time back, Robert ran an item on the magazine's requirements for cover images. I cannot remember which issue contained this (it could have been two years ago by now, and I have every issue going back to late-2005, so I'm not about to thumb through them all); but at any rate, when I submitted my images to Robert, I kept that in mind. Portrait-format was the first consideration, and was certainly referenced in the magazine.

Also important point as you mentioned was the leaving of liberal space for elements such as the masthead, bar code/price box and the sub-headers. Robert has to stagger these around so they don't overlay important visual elements of the scene. As such, you need to leave plenty of space, and rule-of-thirds composition isn't always desirable. For covers, the key subject needs to be more centralised due to the text overlays which are positioned near the edges of the paper; hence, adhering to strict rule-of-thirdsism isn't going to work.

The magazine does have an editorial guidelines document which details the requirements for writing and cover images amongst others. I keep a copy here. It's very important to read it and adhere to what it says.

The easier you make it for the editorial committee to work with you, the greater your chances of being published. I'm referring here not to the quality of your images and writing (which is obviously very important), but ticking all of the other boxes in terms of providing what's needed in the required formats, with the required information (such as image captions), and in a very timely manner.

The magazine is almost a one-man show, with Robert Keeley overseeing and/or doing practically everything. He doesn't have time to do much editing of people's articles, and if your cover image submission needs a lot of his time, or you don't give him what he needs, it could get passed over.



Good work guys and I wish you both future success as well as success to all the hopefuls.

Thanks for adding your input on the matter of cover images. Hopefully your advice and mine (and Dylan's, if he chimes in) will help others who wish to aim for a cover image.

I might have another crack at a cover image in the new year.

As I mentioned earlier, Robert Keeley is more interested in landscapes, as he just doesn't receive as many of those as he receives seascapes.

[Dylan & Marianne]

I think your chances of getting a cover are greatly enhanced if :
- you take the time to communicate with Robert Keeley and link him a portfolio
- the images you consider meet the criteria for covers - the most important (other than Wow factor) being that at least the top 1/3 needs to be 'empty' headroom
- the more buy in you get with the one man show and make it easier for him, the more he will approach you for content and not viceversa!
(ie if your submitted articles require very little correction, pictures submitted in the right format, captioned correctly etc)

[Xenedis]

I think your chances of getting a cover are greatly enhanced if :
- you take the time to communicate with Robert Keeley and link him a portfolio

I was surprised at the amount of time he and I spent talking, given his schedule.

During one conversation, he was browsing through my gallery, looking at what appealed. He liked a lot of my images, but the problem was that some of the cover material he identified was in landscape-format.



- the images you consider meet the criteria for covers - the most important (other than Wow factor) being that at least the top 1/3 needs to be 'empty' headroom

Yep, there needs to be a liberal use of negative space to allow for the masthead and other text overlays.


- the more buy in you get with the one man show and make it easier for him, the more he will approach you for content and not viceversa!

So far I've had limited experience with one cover and one feature article. Apart from being approached for the article, I've not been asked for any other material yet. The article wasn't intended; it was actually one of my images he had, in which he saw a story.

It might be good at this stage for me to pitch some ideas with accompanying images.

In fact, I'm going to do that now.

[Lance B]

Another fantastic achievement and well deserved, Dylan! :th3:

[peterb666]

The magazine is almost a one-man show, with Robert Keeley overseeing and/or doing practically everything. He doesn't have time to do much editing of people's articles, and if your cover image submission needs a lot of his time, or you don't give him what he needs, it could get passed over.

I have know a few graphic designers that have worked in magazine publishing and it is a pretty sorry state of things at the moment. All but one I know is now out of the mag market.

[britinozz]

Well done Dylan and well desired a awsum image.
i wish i lived close to you and went out on a shoot with you so i could pick your brains lol.

[Dylan & Marianne]

thanks again - definitely don't move to SA though haha - really have to wrack my brains about where I want to go tomorrow morning that's different ......and could be made interesting with clear skies