Daily Archives: September 17, 2018

 

I have been a fan of National Geographic almost my entire life, but my real interest started in 1968 when I fell in love with the craft of photography!  I went to the local Toyota dealer this morning to have a bulb repalced in one of my fog lights and while waiting, I found this old copy of National Geographic from 2013,  their 125th Anniversary.  I was engrossed with the articles and images and it re-sparked my love for this wonderful craft and hobby!  When I was a young photographer I admired the shooters for this magazine immensely!  Later in my career I got to know a number of them personally and I benefited greatly from their friendship and knowledge!  Now that I have been a student and teacher of photography for over 50 years, looking through an issue devoted to some of the great images that have appeared in this magazine, I saw them with different eyes!  So much of what I’ve learned and taught through the years are in full exhibition in these pages!  Armed with only the most important basic principles of photography,  these images jump out as sterling examples of doing the craft extremely well!

 

This  magazine articles are broken into catagories of what they believe their images do:

 

WITNESS

 

PROVE

 

RELATE

 

REVEAL

 

CELEBRATE

 

PROTECT

 

I believe their images and countless stories have accomplished those goals through the years.  It gave me the opportunity to see if my work, that is not photojournalism, which theirs are, have any other attributes?

 

I hope my work has:

 

INSPRIRED

 

DOCUMENTED

 

SHARED / TAUGHT

 

GIVEN INSIGHT

 

ENCOURAGED HOPE

 

Now, while I acknowldege that Natuonal Geographic has more than met their goals in their catagories, it is not for me to say whether or not I have.  I can only continue to see, capture and hope my goals are being met!  I do thank God for the great example of excellence they have set before all of us, and I continue to learn from them, and share that learning with you!

 

What a privilege it is to go through life holding a camera!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim