Photojournalism – a Career as Rewarding as Color-laden!

It involves a hard and hefty task to position yourself amongst people who are willing to take themselves to the farthest edge, just so they can capture an awe-inspiring photograph.

If you want to be a photojournalist, you should be ready to amalgamate photography and journalism. (AFP)

Want to get into photojournalism? It may all seem quite appealing and beautiful to travel and take a glance into the world of visual storytelling, getting engaged with history, learning about various traditions and cultures, and discovering novel perspectives of seeing things. It does sound refreshing and enthralling to the mind. But the reality behind this heavy picturesqueness is not a cakewalk. It involves a hard and hefty task to position yourself amongst people who are willing to take themselves to the farthest edge, just so they can capture an awe-inspiring photograph. With the ever expansive digital space, the world of photojournalism is shifting its course, and learning as much about the industry has become imperative as the way variations taking place. If you want to be a photojournalist, you should be ready to amalgamate photography and journalism. Take some photography courses before diving inside photojournalism besides enrolling in mass communication or journalism courses to learn the ethics of journalism and conventional news writing from the experts. However, if you are too passionate about photojournalism and have a knack for visual storytelling, then absence of formal education will never be a hindrance. Generally known to be a fast-paced career, photojournalists have to travel a whole lot, and need to be mindful and highly aware about the surroundings they are exploring. Timing is everything when it comes to current news stories. One single miss in a brief moment of time can change the course of events. You have to be really quick to field the best stories across. Being a photojournalist can be tough, as this field will not only test you physically, but also affect you emotionally. Depending upon the niche you chose, you may encounter situations that can be really upsetting and frustrating. War-torn areas, calamity-hit places, are some of the fields where you’ll capture brutal truth at the cost of putting your life at risk. However, the outcome is rewarding – both financially and personally. Mostly photojournalists choose to be freelancers; however, the career opportunities are aplenty at media houses, news agencies, publications, magazines, and other digital platforms.