Not that Oragel isnt great but I want a real photo published

I am an intern here at Backpacker Magazine. Now this internship is pretty straightforward. I do what needs to be done with all things photo in the Magazine. This does not include shooting or anything out of the office. This is quite the dream job/internship for me so I have been doing all I can to get as much out of being here as I can. I have been gear testing for the editorial department and that has been awesome. The one thing I have not done yet is get a big photo published. Now I have done some gear photos (Oragel, Rugged Maps) but I want a photo photo to get in. To do that I look over the shot requests that gets sent out to our contributing photographers from all over the country, and shoot it myself in my free time. Here are a couple of shots I took recently for a shot request for a hiker with a heavyweekend pack. The section in the magazine is for strengthening your back to have a heavier load and longer hike. I multiple approaches to how to shoot this but here are a few examples. (I had nobody around to do some modeling so I shot someone who I could depend on to have the same scheduale as me...me)

"Be confident that you can carry your pack to and frou..."

This angle is for the ladies...that and my hiked up shirt which nullified this shot :P
"Make it feel like your pack weighs nothing at all"

My Boss liked the shots, gave me some great advice to use while I head out all this week to try and shoot some more! Keep your fingers crossed for me!