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I Made the Front Page!


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<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2568801001_c7086697fe.jpg"

width="500" height="375" alt="08.06.08.042.C" /></a><p><i>The Aegis</i>, a

county-wide news paper in Harford County, Maryland, will run the above image that

I took on Sunday with photo credit on Wednesday's front page. The image is being

used as a feature photo showing how some residents have taken relief from the

recent/current heatwave here in the Mid-Atlantic.<p>Michael J Hoffman

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Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone!

 

No, there was no payment involved, but I did get photo credit. I have a day job to pay the bills. I would like to be a working PJ, but it would require that I take a relatively substantial pay cut. I can retire from my current job with a pension when I'm 52; what I could make as a local PJ would nicely supplant the difference between my pension and pre-retirement pay. I figure if I submit and get published here and there over the next 16 years, I'll have a decent portfolio when I go looking for a retirement gig.

 

So far, I've had images published nationally in two photo magazines; I've had a front page photo, and a front page photo and feature story in two different, local newspapers, and I've had photographs included in two international calls for jurored exhibitions in Philadelphia and Denver, respectively.

 

I am pretty much locked into my current profession until I get my full 30 in. I enjoy photographing, and enjoy when my images get recognition. I like seeing my name "up in lights", albeit in the form of a tiny, little photo credit. I photograph for the love of photographing, and as a means to a professionally successful end that may be a very long while in arriving.

 

I was introduced to my current profession by way of volunteer service, and it has worked out nicely (good pay, excellent bennies, tons of paid time off). I'm hoping for things to work out similarly in the PJ field, but when the time is right.

 

Thanks again, everyone, for all the encouragement!

 

Michael

 

P.S. Its there, Nancy, but I can e-mail a copy to you if you can't get it here.

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Michael,

 

Congrats on the front page placement.

 

Good pay, excellent beenies, tons of paid time off - that ain't photojournalism.

 

Bad pay, no beenies, tons of unpaid time off otherwise known as unemployment, along with being teargassed, beaten up, having your equipment stolen, hours waiting for something anything to happen, being cheated by your agency and generally not being paid for your efforts - NOW THAT'S PHOTOJOURNALISM.

 

But when the S**T hits the fan and the adrenaline starts pumping and the whole world gets compressed in your viewfinder and you're shooting frames like a machine gun - that's when it gets fun.

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Point well taken, Richard.

 

Right now, I am volunteering my PJ services. I'm hoping those volunteer ops will help me to build a portfolio and to establish contacts, so that when I can retire from my current profession I can get a paid gig (or regular freelance assignment) as a PJ. I know I won't have the benefits, time off, great pay, etc., etc. But, I won't NEED to make my living that way; I'll be doing what I WANT to do, and that is the biggest benefit any professional opportunity can provide!

 

Michael J Hoffman

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