My Photo in a Magazine

A few months ago, I got an interesting email. Someone was asking about using one of my photos. I get those from time to time. “We would love to use your photo. We can’t pay, but we will give you proper credit.” Most all of the time, I politely turn those down, or I just politely don’t reply to the email. But this time it was from a major magazine, and they were willing to pay to use the photo. How could I decline?

The magazine was Southern Living. I don’t know how widely read that one is outside of the southeastern United States, but around here it is pretty big. Maybe not quite as big as it used to be, but still big enough that I would consider it to be a major publication. Of course, just the fact that I had heard of it and that most people I could mention it to had also heard of it also made it a major publication. “Major” is in the eye of the beholder, after all.

The lady from Southern Living said that they were doing something comparing Paris, Tennessee, to Paris, Texas. She had seen a photo of mine from the Tennessee version of Paris, and she was asking if they could use that in their magazine. I said that they could, we agreed on a price, and I emailed a high-res version of my photo. But that wasn’t the end of it. She said she would let me know if my photo would actually be used.

About a month later, I finally heard back from her. She said that my photo would indeed be used, and she asked me to send an invoice for the amount we had agreed upon. Needless to say, I was excited. A few weeks later, I received my check, and then I started checking the stores for the issue of the magazine.

Finally, I found it. Take a look at this page, from the April 2013 issue:

See that photo of the Eiffel Tower on the left? Does that look familiar? If so, maybe it is because you have seen it right here at The Adventures of Steve. Actually, the lady from Southern Living had seen it at Flickr, where I post photos about a week after they are posted here. I have always thought that all the visibility I can get for my photos helps, and you never know where people might be looking.  I’m glad she was looking there.

If you have that issue, the page that my photo appears on is TX10. At least that was the page in the copy I bought. According to a friend who subscribes to the magazine, it was on page TN10 in his copy. Separate issues for Tennessee and Texas, maybe? Hmm.

And as for the proper credit, I did get that as well, although you have to look in the fold of the magazine to find it. But here it is:

How cool is that? So if anyone out there ever wants to use one of my photos in a magazine or some other form of media, just send me a message, and maybe we can work something out!