Photograph Submission Guidelines
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Photo Requirements
Content
Submitting Photographs
Credit and Copyright
Questions and Rate Information
Tips for Non-Professionals
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a nonprofit, membership organization serving more than 100,000 early childhood education professionals. NAEYC offers resources for teachers, child care providers, researchers, teacher educators, and others. Young Children, is the Association's bimonthly practitioner-oriented journal. It features engaging, relevant, research-consistent articles that spread awareness of the early childhood profession's best practices. NAEYC also publishes an extensive line of books, videotapes, brochures, and other resources.
Photographs play a powerful role in NAEYC publications. Each photo must be technically excellent and convey an important message about the care and education of children from infancy through age eight. Photographers can review past issues of Young Children as well as recent books, brochures, and posters to see the types of photos used. The photo requirements below will help you select the most appropriate images for submission.
Photo Requirements
Young Children uses color photographs only; our other publications feature color and black-and-white images.
Settings
- Early childhood programs (e.g., child care centers, preschools, Head Start)
- Elementary schools (kindergarten through grade three)
- Family child care homes
- Before- and after-school programs
- Indoor and outdoor child care environments
You might consider photographing children at one of the more than 7,500 NAEYC-accredited child development programs (listed on NAEYC's Website: www.naeyc.org).
Subjects
- Adults and children birth through age eight (third grade) representative of ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States
- Children with special needs (e.g., physical, visual, auditory) playing and learning with children who do not have special needs
- Teachers, family members, and other adults supporting children's play and learning
- Teachers, family members, and other adults talking and meeting together
Content
Children: Typically, photos are close-up shots of lively children dressed in play clothes. In addition, we do need photos of children of all ages who appear unhappy or are engaged in disagreements. We rarely use images of children posing for the camera. You might consider photographing children at one of the more than 7,500 NAEYC-accredited child development programs (listed on NAEYC's Website: www.naeyc.org). We use photographs that depict developmentally appropriate practices as described in our publications and in the position statement Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 (also on the NAEYC Website). Here are examples of what children of different ages might be doing.
- Infants: clutching a toy, crawling, interacting and laughing with an adult, looking at a board book, going for a walk outdoors, playing peek-a-boo, eating finger foods, being cared for by an adult
- Toddlers: doing a simple puzzle, filling a container then dumping the contents, playing dress-up, riding a tricycle, scribbling or painting on paper, looking at books, putting on a coat, talking and playing with other children or adults
- Preschool children: making snacks, playing with sand or water, putting a doll to bed, playing house or store, painting at an easel, writing, listening to a story, reading books, pulling a friend in a wagon, building a block tower
- School-age children: reading, writing, playing a game, solving math or science problems, building a complex block structure, working on a craft project, performing a puppet show, talking with other children or adults
Adults: We need photographs of teachers, family members, and other adults-both men and women of all ethnicities and ages-who appear warm, friendly, relaxed, and pleased to be with children. Here are some examples of what they might be doing (again, more examples are available on the Website and in our publications).
- Reading a story to one or two children, or to a group
- Kneeling down to talk with a child on the child's level
- Lifting a child so the child can see something
- Holding a family-teacher conference
- Leading a staff meeting or staff development session
- Talking informally with other adults (for example, admiring a child's painting, reading information on a message board, discussing daily plans)
Note: We cannot use photos of people wearing name tags or dressed in clothing with commercial messages (e.g., a T-shirt advertising a soft drink), nor can we use photos showing unsafe, unhealthy, or inappropriate environments, activities, or teaching practices. |
Submitting Photographs
Format: NAEYC accepts high-resolution images on CD-ROM in JPEG, TIF, EPS, or other standard formats. PC and Apple platforms are both acceptable. We are unable to return digital submissions, so be sure to keep a copy of your valued images before sending your disk to us.
We also accept color or black-and-white glossy prints (3" x 5" or larger) and duplicate (not original) transparencies. Color prints are preferable to slides. We permanently retain publishable quality images, but will return images we consider unusable.
Labeling: Include your name, postal and e-mail addresses, phone number, and preferred copyright credit on each of your submissions. You can write on a disk in permanent marker. Label the back of each print or transparency mount with your name and address. If you must write on the backs of photos, use color or black pencil only. Pens, felt-tip markers, and highlighters are likely to damage photos and adjacent images as well. Consult a technical or photographic expert if you need assistance.
Packaging: Please package your materials carefully to ensure that disks, prints, and slides are not damaged in transit. Protective plastic sleeves are suggested. Paper clips, staples, tape, or glue should not come in contact with photos.
Model Releases
Photographers must have model releases for all recognizable people in each photo (signed by all the adults who appear in the photo and by the parents or legal guardians of all the children photographed). We may ask photographers to provide copies of the model releases.
Credit and Copyright
When their photos are published in the journal, photographers receive a copy of the issue featuring their work. For other publications, photographers receive tearsheets of the pages in which their photos appear.
The photographer is credited and retains copyright for each photo published. In submitting photos to NAEYC, photographers assign to us the right to use the photo in subsequent printings of the publication in which it appears, whether in paper or electronic format. When NAEYC wishes to use a photograph in a subsequent edition of a publication (as opposed to a reprinting), the photographer will be paid again for its use.
NAEYC will forward to photographers requests from other publications to use their photos. Submitting copyrighted images to NAEYC does not preclude photographers from publishing the same images elsewhere.
Questions and Rate Information
Please contact NAEYC's editorial office for rate information or with further questions or requests about submitting photographs for publication. Please note that payment for photos published in the journal includes subsequent use in any online features associated with that issue.
National Association for the Education of Young Children
1313 L Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005-4101
editorial@naeyc.org
202-232-8777 or 800-424-2460
Extensions 8847 (Publications) or 8422 (Young Children)
Tips for Non-Professionals
Use a high-end digital camera (3.1 megapixels or better) and be sure the highest quality setting is on when you shoot; save the images from your camera media on your computer and on a CD-ROM.
Taking well-lit photos in child development programs and elementary school settings can be especially difficult. Here are some suggestions:
- Capitalize on natural light coming in through windows by raising shades or opening curtains.
- Use more powerful flash attachments, but be sure to "bounce" the light to avoid "red eye."
- Try to be unobtrusive and allow the children and adults to forget that you are there.
- Shoot from low positions (at the children’s level).
- Take many photos but expect only a few to be “just right”.
- Focus the shot on the people in the foreground and take in less of the dark, cluttered background.
- For film cameras, use higher speed films that are better suited for low-light settings and moving subjects.
- Set F-stops at lower numbers.
- Have your developer give you high-resolution images on a CD-ROM.
