Rejection and a Silver Lining

Last weekend, I took some pictures of a jousting tournament using my new 80 - 200mm f/2.8 lens. Some of them turned out really well - so well that I decided to submit them to the local newspaper, the Surrey Herald.

Initially, the photo editor said, "We don't pay for photos". He then admitted that he didn't actually have any photos of the event, despite wanting to run a story on it. I wasn't happy about giving good quality pictures away for free to a commercial newspaper (the Surrey Herald isn't a freebie local), so I withdrew my offer. Within seconds, the editor changed his mind and agreed to a price of £35 per picture used. I sent my images over.

Sadly, they weren't used. Instead, the Surrey Herald ran with some images donated by another local amateur for free. I won't knock his work on my blog, since he can't really reply, but I've had a look at some of his images on his website and they're not up to much. Often his images are soft, overexposed and lacking a subject. Nevertheless, I was rejected.

However, I was very quickly contacted by the performers themselves, who had found their images on Flickr. They liked them - a lot. So much so, that they have asked to use them for their portfolio shots as they join the National Stunt Register. This made me very happy, and reinforced my belief that my pictures were not technically or artistically deficient. They may provide more photo opportunities in the future, so I happily let them have a couple of images for free.

I did my bit to try not to undermine professional photography, but it seems that no matter what you do, you just can't beat free.