How to become a photojournalist?

MarkyMark22 · 02-02-2013 12:12pm #1

Hey guys,

I'm applying to the CAO this year and I'd like to become a photojournalist, I'm just wondering what is the route to go down?

Photography or Journalism? I assume maybe both?

Get a degree in one and then perhaps a degree in the other?

Thanks for any advice..

AnCatDubh · 02-02-2013 12:18pm

Paddy (PCPhoto) is your man for insight here - maybe if someone see's your post they may give him a nudge or drop him a PM if he doesn't turn up on forum.

dazftw · 02-02-2013 1:29pm

I'm in the same boat as you. I've not applied for photography or journalism. I've applied for Social Science, Fine Art and Multimedia.

Social Science is probably the weakest there career wise but there will be opportunities and most of the famous photographers I've looked up to have studied that or political science.

Fine Art will lead me into education if I go down that route!

Multimedia is a very broad degree to get me good at a lot of things while having aspects of photography and video with good opportunities at the end for work. A photo editor for example.

If you can afford it, you could go abroad to the uk to study documentary photography, if not you could go to GCD or GCC depending where you are. Study Journalism and Visual Media. I'd love to study this but at €5200 a year it's expensive.

What kind of journalism do you want to cover? Sport? News? You really don't need a degree! If you have an eye you can do it yourself.

PCPhoto is the man to talk to though. I've made some money sending images to papers and it was thanks to him. I think if I wasn't from Waterford Id be after making more money by now.

.Longshanks. · 02-02-2013 1:33pm

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Paddy (PCPhoto) is your man for insight here - maybe if someone see's your post they may give him a nudge or drop him a PM if he doesn't turn up on forum.

Wasn't he perma-banned over a copyright argument on the soccer forum?

MarkyMark22 · 02-02-2013 6:28pm

dazftw wrote: »

I'm in the same boat as you. I've not applied for photography or journalism. I've applied for Social Science, Fine Art and Multimedia.

Social Science is probably the weakest there career wise but there will be opportunities and most of the famous photographers I've looked up to have studied that or political science.

Fine Art will lead me into education if I go down that route!

Multimedia is a very broad degree to get me good at a lot of things while having aspects of photography and video with good opportunities at the end for work. A photo editor for example.

If you can afford it, you could go abroad to the uk to study documentary photography, if not you could go to GCD or GCC depending where you are. Study Journalism and Visual Media. I'd love to study this but at €5200 a year it's expensive.

What kind of journalism do you want to cover? Sport? News? You really don't need a degree! If you have an eye you can do it yourself.

PCPhoto is the man to talk to though. I've made some money sending images to papers and it was thanks to him. I think if I wasn't from Waterford Id be after making more money by now.

Thanks, very helpful.

I'd probably like to cover news stories but I have a keen interest in sports too so I wouldn't say no.

I have multimedia in DCU on my CAO but it's currently my 4th or 5th choice. I have DIT Photography and DIT Journalism along with DCU Journalism.

Griffith College is too expensive for me also, €5200 a year really isn't worth it. Flat that price I could have degrees in both Photography and Journalism!

I'm in two minds and continuously change my opinion every day or two as to what course to put first. I think DCU have a photography module on their journalism course.

UL have a good journalism and new media course but the distance is too much, I live in Dublin myself.

dazftw · 02-02-2013 7:55pm

MarkyMark22 wrote: »

Thanks, very helpful.

I'd probably like to cover news stories but I have a keen interest in sports too so I wouldn't say no.

I have multimedia in DCU on my CAO but it's currently my 4th or 5th choice. I have DIT Photography and DIT Journalism along with DCU Journalism.

Griffith College is too expensive for me also, €5200 a year really isn't worth it. Flat that price I could have degrees in both Photography and Journalism!

I'm in two minds and continuously change my opinion every day or two as to what course to put first. I think DCU have a photography module on their journalism course.

UL have a good journalism and new media course but the distance is too much, I live in Dublin myself.

Also the multimedia course I have applied for in CIT I can go on to do a masters in Journalism and New Media.

Honestly if having a lot money isn't a main life goal. Go for what you REALLY want. You'll be happy doing something you love and making a living out of it and it could be very lucrative if you're good. I see so many people these days looking for careers that will having them wiping their bums with money but don't have any passion for it.

MarkyMark22 · 02-02-2013 9:16pm

dazftw wrote: »

Also the multimedia course I have applied for in CIT I can go on to do a masters in Journalism and New Media.

Honestly if having a lot money isn't a main life goal. Go for what you REALLY want. You'll be happy doing something you love and making a living out of it and it could be very lucrative if you're good. I see so many people these days looking for careers that will having them wiping their bums with money but don't have any passion for it.

Well I have a passion for photographs and have a passion for news so I thought why not combine both? Ideally I'd love to be a wildlife photojournalist, my other passion is animals. Not a lot of jobs, though. Unless you're good enough and lucky enough to work for something like National Geographic. I'm just in my early 20's so I have enough time to get a degree in both before worrying about buying a house and starting a family etc.

I'm just unsure which to do first. What I think is, you don't need to have a degree in journalism to be able to write well and you don't have to have a degree in photography to be able to take a great photograph.

But the qualifications on the C.V are important.

I have to have my photography portfolio into DIT in the next few weeks, I think it's early march.

mdebets · 02-02-2013 11:31pm

One thing you might also consider (especially if you're thinking more of written journalism and are already thinking about two degrees) is to take a degree in the subject you want to report about (main would be politics or economics).
For wildlife photography, a biology degree would be helpful as well.

MarkyMark22 · 03-02-2013 11:49am

mdebets wrote: »

One thing you might also consider (especially if you're thinking more of written journalism and are already thinking about two degrees) is to take a degree in the subject you want to report about (main would be politics or economics).
For wildlife photography, a biology degree would be helpful as well.

Yeah I was thinking of that, I'm not the most sciencey of people, though.

I'm not sure there's a lot of wildlife biology courses in Ireland, a quick search shows one in Tralee.

Ballyman · 03-02-2013 12:16pm

.Longshanks. wrote: »

Wasn't he perma-banned over a copyright argument on the soccer forum?

His friend Corkbah posts here now instead so he might help out

Corkbah · 03-02-2013 1:40pm

I havent heard from Paddy in a few weeks (since shortly after the Andy Carroll thing)

have texted and emailed - I'm sure he'll get back in touch when he wants to....I do live a couple of hundred miles from him....was talking with his brother a few days ago and he says he's fine....he saw him at Christmas.

candle_wax · 04-02-2013 12:24pm

MarkyMark22 wrote: »

I think DCU have a photography module on their journalism course.

I did that a few years ago. Don't count on it too much!
It might have changed since I did it, but we were basically just given SLRs - without much instruction - and given weekly assignments. Most of us had never used SLRs before so we were too preoccupied trying to get a bloody clear picture, let alone the actual journalistic side of it.
For anyone who was competent, I'd say the module was a bore tbh.
And it's only what, 12 weeks in a three-year degree, (it was in final year when I did it) so I wouldn't bank on it for too much if your interest is only on photojournalism.
That said, you can do a photography assignment for your final thesis (well, you could when I was there), which you have four or five months to complete, so you could get something decent out of that.

MarkyMark22 · 05-02-2013 12:18am

candle_wax wrote: »

I did that a few years ago. Don't count on it too much!
It might have changed since I did it, but we were basically just given SLRs - without much instruction - and given weekly assignments. Most of us had never used SLRs before so we were too preoccupied trying to get a bloody clear picture, let alone the actual journalistic side of it.
For anyone who was competent, I'd say the module was a bore tbh.
And it's only what, 12 weeks in a three-year degree, (it was in final year when I did it) so I wouldn't bank on it for too much if your interest is only on photojournalism.
That said, you can do a photography assignment for your final thesis (well, you could when I was there), which you have four or five months to complete, so you could get something decent out of that.

Out of curiosity, how did you find the course in general?

thebaz · 05-02-2013 2:15am

Rathmines used to do a good course in journalism - but I'm going back years ( when I was young) , not sure if the college is still up and running - wish I had done it myself , instead of wasting my youth

Ballyman · 05-02-2013 7:42am

thebaz wrote: »

Rathmines used to do a good course in journalism - but I'm going back years ( when I was young) , not sure if the college is still up and running - wish I had done it myself , instead of wasting my youth

That's all moved to DIT Aungier street now. A friend of mine did that course years ago and I'm pretty sure that degree is still running there.

Ballyman · 05-02-2013 7:45am

This is the one - http://www.dit.ie/study/undergraduate/programmes/dt582/

candle_wax · 05-02-2013 12:02pm

MarkyMark22 wrote: »

Out of curiosity, how did you find the course in general?

I really liked it, but I think by the end I was in the minority in my class... You can sort of specialise in areas by selecting similar modules each semester, but there's a lot of academic stuff to deal with as well (law, political science, communication theory, etc). I liked the balance, but a lot of people found it frustrating that there wasn't more practical elements

dinneenp · 05-02-2013 12:22pm

Buy a gasmask, taken from here

melekalikimaka · 05-02-2013 6:00pm

The GCD course would be most specific, a few in my year - straight photography, stayed on and entered 4th year journo and vis media, and they enjoyed it, you can focus mainly on the photojornalism side, of course its not cheap. Other than that, Do photo degree than masters in dcu in journo, i have a number of friends who did very well after than career wise

Corkbah · 08-02-2013 11:21pm

A suggestion for anyone interested in photojournalism would be to photograph the protests around the country.

have a google at protest images ireland and see what normally hits in the papers and shoot similar, try to get names of the people in your pics....actually try to get "who what where when why " details.

Who is the person (if its a small number of people, if its a large group a general are or group name)
What are they at
where is the photo taken, where is/are the person/people from ?
when did it happen (i.e. yesterday(Saturday))
Why was the event on.

dazftw · 09-02-2013 12:14am

Corkbah wrote: »

A suggestion for anyone interested in photojournalism would be to photograph the protests around the country.

have a google at protest images ireland and see what normally hits in the papers and shoot similar, try to get names of the people in your pics....actually try to get "who what where when why " details.

Who is the person (if its a small number of people, if its a large group a general are or group name)
What are they at
where is the photo taken, where is/are the person/people from ?
when did it happen (i.e. yesterday(Saturday))
Why was the event on.

The name can be a difference between nothing and a page 1. Had a guy from the examiner tell me this.

How to become a photojournalist?

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