Miobi Photography ... :)
Most of the cover photos for famous magazines and different publications are taken with very simple photographic tools. If you carefully look at the photos, you can probably tell what the light source is from the shadows that fall on the model and roughly understand what really went into making that specific production. While anyone can take a photo using the same tools, it, does not necessarily mean that you will end up with the same cover page.
Idea or a concept
a plot, even. The odds are, if you are in the creative field there are many ideas that ravage through your creative mind. If you do not write them down within 15-30 seconds (I know that it will take longer to write the whole thing down), it will all be forgotten. After all, what harm can it do to write something down, even if you never look back at it again. By luck or by your ever persistent nature what you wrote down might flourish into something beautiful. I would advice you to keep a little black book of ideas. Carry it around, and as inspiration chirps, keep recording your ideas down. Leave some space between each entry so that you can come back and add more notes to it. Sketch, draw, underline, dream about it. Burn with the idea of making it happen. Push yourself and keep reminding yourself that you can do it no matter how hard it may look. I promise, it does get easier and it does get much better. When you think that your plot is more or less ready, go to the next step.
Post processing and presentation
Post processing is one of the biggest parts of a photo production. You may hate it or love it… still have to do it. Minimum or maximum involvement of post processing will depend on your idea for the final product. Post processing is also very unique to you and will give sort of a predesignated recognition to your photos. It takes time to develop a style and it might differ from one production to another. If work is being done for a commercial client, they will often let you know what they want. If the work is for yourself, you alone determine what to turn your photos into. Post production can vary from something as simple as fixing white balance, to much more complex editing in Photoshop that will take hours for a single photo. All up to you!
Models
You have a couple of other options while looking for talent. One of them is establishing a good relationship with local talent/model agencies by offering them to photograph their upcoming/new models for free. This is obviously a two way street and might work out well if you and the models can use the photos in portfolios. Don’t worry, you won’t be taking away work from the photographers that the agency employs, because those photographers get paid to photograph established models for commercial gigs. Keep in mind that the above-mentioned restrictions still very much apply. This is good for models that are just starting out and do not have good portfolios to back them up, so it would be mutually beneficial.