Last week the other editors and I received a message of disappointment from a reader, who had sent in a photo of his grandkids with a striper and it never made it into the magazine. It hurts more than you might assume when one of us falls short of coming through on what seems like such a simple and understood promise. But in truth, it’s not always that simple. For instance, in the cited example, none of us could find an email from the reader that sent the photo. Perhaps it was a case of transposed letters in an email address or some other eccentricity of cyberspace?
But for this editor’s log, I wanted to focus on what you can do to have the best chance of seeing your favorite photos in print, the mistakes that might mean your photo is unpublishable and all the places where you should look before coming to the conclusion that we forgot you or lost your photo. And I hasten to add that if I do miss one of your photos, I will always try my best to make things right, if you reach out to remind me.
However, there may be other reasons why your photo didn’t make the magazine. For starters, there is a certain quality requirement with regard to the resolution of the photo; some email providers automatically compress images so that they don’t use up too much inbox space, so please make sure to set your email to send your images at ‘actual size’ or choose the highest resolution, if prompted. Compressed photos often lose critical details, rendering them unusable for publication. Screenshots of social media posts or from other digital photo storage sites are typically not of adequate quality, download the image and send it at full size.
Composition can also be a factor. The Fisherman is a family friendly publication, so images that show people drinking or smoking or if someone in the photo is wearing a shirt with profane words or images, it’s not going to get published. Additionally, we prefer photos that were taken ‘in the field’ showing the fish alive and lit up, not a harvested fish with dulled out colors back at the dock or at home in the driveway. Also, digitally-altered photos, where you’re holding your fish on the wing of the Starship Enterprise or whatever – while funny – have no place in the magazine.
With the volume of photos I receive, especially during the heart of the season, it can take months for the photos to find their way into the magazine. Thank you in advance for your patience. Additionally, there are several places where your photos might be published. The most common one, of course, is the Photo Gallery that’s published in each monthly print edition, these are typically comprised of 8 to 10 photos and it’s a staple of each edition that we’re very proud of. But, did you know that there’s also a digital Photo Gallery that’s published in our digital editions? These include another half-dozen images every month, don’t forget to look there. You may also find your photo as the first page of the fishing reports, the page with the big photo and all the headlines. Further checking of our website might reveal that your photo was chosen as a cover for one of our 26 digital editions that run weekly from April through mid-November; making the cover is a big deal! Further still, your photos might find themselves peppered into the reports section in either a digital edition or one of the monthly (printed) magazines. And that’s still not the end of the possibilities, if your photo was especially crisp and illustrated a certain technique, showed a geographically relevant landmark or captured the joy of a specific species, your picture may have been set aside for use in a future article.
There is nothing that pleases us more than receiving your amazing images and being able print them to showcase the kind of anglers you all are and highlighting your favorite catches. Please, keep them coming! Email your photos to me at (danderson@thefisherman.com), make sure to include all pertinent information (name of the angler, where the fish was caught, the size of the fish, any other important details) and send them in whenever you snap a great pic. I’ll be more than happy to play a small part in your five minutes of fame.
