Jeff Justice at The Punchline in Atlanta, GA.

So you get the big opportunity to show your work to National Geographic. You WOW them with your work and things couldn’t go any better at this point. Then they proceed to the next step in the process–your ideas.

You see there are literally thousands of photographers who if given an idea can execute it well. What will determine if you get a job from them will have as much to do with your ideas for stories.

Story ideas?

Freelance writers and photojournalists are always writing query letters to editors. A query letter gives editors and agents what they want.  Query must be short and grab the attention of the person being written to about the idea.

Your goal is to convince them that your idea is good for their audience and that you are the person to do the job for them.

After my wife took a comedy class from Jeff Justice, I realized comedians are having to generate good ideas for their routines in much the same way photojournalists are looking for good ideas.

Listen to Jeff Justice talk about how a comedian finds a good premise for their routine and then what it takes to perfect this skill.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCRin0AmID4]
Persistence

After I interviewed Jeff we were talking and he mentioned he saw a video that followed three comedians through a year.

In the beginning one was funny, one was OK and one sucked. The one that sucked they even interviewed his parents and they didn’t understand why he was trying to become a comedian.

About half way through the year the guy who sucked stopped pointing to others that were funny and started to see the humor in himself. This was a turning point.

At the end of the year the one who was funny was about the same and so too was the OK guy, but the change was in the guy who sucked.  He was great.

Jeff said the reason he was great is he worked harder than the other two and through his persistence was able to put it together.

If you are not quite there, maybe you need to ask yourself–how much time am I willing to dedicate to photography? If you are not willing to commit to 4 to 5 hours a day, maybe you need to find another path for success.

Jeff Justice’s Comedy Class

Here is a little promo for Jeff’s class in case you are interested:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHHcMo9mjnQ]