... Can I ask, did you just send images to them in the hope the would print them? ... Any tips on how I should go about this and what loss of rights do you incur iof any, as a result of them using your image(s)?...
Dave, in the case of this particular magazine (UK's Digital Photographer), it all started by me uploading an image to their readers' gallery. Several weeks later, I got an email, asking for permission to use it on
the cover. They paid decently for it.
However, for photos inside the magazine, they use crowd-sourcing. In their
forum section on the web, editors would often post what type of images they are currently looking for (in the case above, it was "water" images). You then send them an email with low resolution jpegs and if they like it for publishing, they would ask you to submit a full-size version. As with any crowd-sourcing, they do not pay for it.
Most other UK magazines have similar policies. Some would only accept CDs or DVDs, some also online submissions. And there are some who would even (surprise, surprise) pay for the use.
In terms of copyright, you retain it, they would credit you if printed, and use it only for the particular article. At least that was my experience so far.
Incidentally, they told me recently that they will print in a forthcoming issue a page or two with six of my New York photographs, together with my mugshot and a short text/bio