OK, I’m officially clueless:
How does Model railroader choose the photos for the trackside section? Do you have to submit your pictures? enter contests? Work for the magazine? (Say with Italian mob/Soprano accent) Know some people who know some people? WHAT [banghead]
All hail the mighty HO scale![bow][(-D]
Good question. I’d like to know myself now!
Some of the pictures are obviously extras from published articles but on balance I’d say you have to submit your photos to them
Dave Nelson
All of the above!
[;)]
George
Truer words have not been spoken. [:D] They solicit submissions from their readership, and I believe they publish their policies on the subject in each issue. If you have been published there or elsewhere, you probably have a better chance at recognition, all things being equal, and if you are a well-known modeler, or if you work for that publication, you are going to have that much more credibility. Still, I am confident the editorial staff enjoy looking over what they see since the heavy majority of it is sure to be reasonably good. You’d think they get anywhere from 50-200 submissions every month, if not most weeks, so they can’t possibly do worse than to carefully select and publish only a very special few.
Take the rags, tools, chemicals, cleaners, brushes, drips, paint, towels, and other knick knacks OFF that layout!
LOL.
Speaking as someone who has had quite a number of images published in MR over the years (the latest example in this month’s issue), be advised that MR has very high standards and is particularly selective in choosing what images will appear in their publications.
So…first off, your images need to be absolutely first class, well composed, sharp, well lit, with good color balance and DOF. Just as important is for the image to either tell a definite or interesting story, be particularly dramatic or realistic, or maybe quite unusual in some manner. Needless to say, the modeling being photographed must be of the first order, with nothing that is unfinished, poorly finished, or out of place evident within the frame.
What you see in Trackside Photos that isn’t from the MR “staff” is, by and large, the best of the best of what does not quite place in the top 5 from the latest photo contest, or of this same caliber but submitted independently.
I’ll also add that, even if you have your image selected for publication, it is unlikely to actually appear in the magazine for a year, sometimes more.
CNJ831
Just change your name to Lou Sassi, and you will have photos in each issue! [:D]
CNJ,
That’s very interesting to know. I would, however, like to comment.
While most of the photos I see in MR are very, very good and definitely worth emulating and learning from, on occasion I have seen a few that are, IMO, just “okay” and far from what I’d consider “of the first order”. I’m not speaking necessarily of the picture quality so much as for the picture subject quality.
Sometimes it might be the quality of the scenery. Other times it might be the overall design of the layout. And, on one occasion, I did see a blurry picture for one of the steps of a “How-to” article. (It was taken in too low a light.)
I’m not saying that these layouts were terrible to view or look at. They were just…again, IMO, okay. To be honest, I’ve seen some entrys posted on the WPF or elsewhere on the forum that I considered of better caliber and quality than these “okay” pictures.
So that no one misunderstands me, I’m not implying or crying that any of my work is of “periodical importance” nor worthiness. (I still have much to learn both about RRing and MRRing, as far as my own layout is concerned.) I might add that, even with layouts that I wouldn’t necessarily emulate, I can still find that there is always something to learn from them - albeit a design aspect, subject matter, or theme.
I also realize t
When Thompson was the editor I sent him pictures of my last HO layout and he wasn’t interested, then I improved my digital picture taking abilities and he was interested. They have some serious requirement for digital pictures, no emails, must be submitted on disc and not in the JPEG format. I understand that for calrity, I am not a photographer, but I play one on TV! (LOL). I was told my a modeler and LHS owner that they like it better if a professional modeler photographer takes the pictures. Is Lou Sassi available, sorry I don’t model B&M.
MR has fairly high (though not impossibly high) standards for photo submissions. The reason Lou Sassi gets so many photo credits is that he understands those standards and (apparently) has the time and ablity to visit layouts all across the country.
While all of this results in a very visually sophisticated magazine, it also means that the work of fewer and fewer “average” modelers will see the light of day - at least in MR.
As the ranks of model railroad magazines are getting thinner all the time, the competition for available photo slots to display ones work will only get worse.
George
Which photo is yours?
Tom
Shipyard Brewing, in the September issue.
A very nice photo. Thanks for pointing it out.
Tom
This is one of the paramount requirements for posting photographs on Weekend Photo Fun!!! Some of the best photos I have ever seen of paint brushes and glue bottles and spray bottles I have seen on Weekend Photo Fun!!!
[quote user=“PA&ERR”]
Yes, and MR commissions him to do the travelling to photograph the layouts, no doubt paying his expenses.
A few years ago I was talking to a modeler in Ontario, he had received a letter from MR stating Lou would be in his area at a certain date photographing other layouts in the area, and would do his at the same time. His layout was supposed to be in the following year’s Great Model Railroading, but it wasn’t. It didn’t make it the following year either, and the modeler was getting antsy. He asked me to photograph his modular layout when it would be at a local area show, which I did. The setting wasn’t the greatest, in an arena, and I wasn’t pleased with the photos I took. By that time he was back in Ontario. His layout did finally appear in MR itself some time later, not long before the modeler passed away.
So it’s hard to compete against someone who is paid to travel the country taking photos for MR. I assume they use some photos from layouts that might not be used in their Trackside Photos. He also has plenty of his own work used in MR. He definitely has an “in” with MR.
[quote user=“Railphotog”]
Good work if you can get it, eh Bob? [;)]
George
I have to reveal the abysmal depths of my ignorance with this question: if a photo on a disk in not a jpeg photo then what is it?
Tom,
A JPEG is a compressed format. Also called “lossy”. There are quite a few formats that are standard - jpeg seems to be the most popular among the “masses” (I used it for everything!). I imagine MR mag wants the images as “raw” as possible. One file format that comes to mind is TIFF. The files are of course much larger.
Also remember that mr owns all they print so if you submit a photo and twenty years from now they want to print it , fine, and if they want to do it 5 years later they can do it without your permision(or I should say with as you give up all rights as part of their photo acceptance), and as I understand the contract you onl;y get paid the first time. If this policy has changed, let me know as the info came to me at the time I was writing an article( thats why I say their copyright issue for putting their old mags on cd is garbage( garbage is not what I wanted to say but this sites policys and decorum dictates it).