This past January, I received an email while at work with the subject line "National Geographic Photo of the Day." With the constant barrage of email advertisements and spam that arrives DAILY (this is my own fault, but not the point here), my immediate reaction was to do two things: 1) highlight the email and 2) delete it. Fortunately, I was well caffeinated this hour and my eye wandered into the first sentence of the email, which began with "Congratulations!" ...What?
Needless to say, I opened the message and it turned out my photograph was chosen for National Geographic's Photo of the Day for February 14th. Again, my instincts kicked in and I immediately thought this was a scam. I looked for a link in the bottom half of the email asking to enter in my personal information or some set of instructions to send a check to a far away country (no offense to the various princes of Nigeria). Nope. Not there. All I found was an electronic signature from the sender and their title beneath with a fax and phone number. What was my reaction you ask? I did what any 20 something year old would do in this day and age. I google searched her name and phone number. Yep, I was STILL in disbelief.
Result? Her name appeared on Linkedin with the job title "Photography Producer at National Geographic Society." The phone number matched and the area code was from Washington, D.C., the city where Nat Geo is based. This is the point in time where I slowly leaned back in my chair and almost blurted out loud "holy sh*t..." (still at work).
Now granted, earning photo of the day on Nat Geo's website is no where NEAR the realm of earning a spot in their magazine. But to me, this was huge. Think about it. The photography producer must look at thousands of images every week. So when an image hits her eye for that half second, it has to make an impact. In addition, the Photo of the Day is usually reserved for images taken by their staff photographers. February happened to be a month where images from the community were being chosen. As a side note, the National Geographic website has an open photography gallery where anyone from around the world can submit a photo for viewing and rating (you are limited to one photo a month, so it better be good). Earning that half second in her eye is one thing. Receiving recognition by earning one of those 28 spots in February is another.
The point of all of this is that what may be a very routine task for the Photography Producer at an internationally-recognized magazine company (a simple email that was probably pre-scripted) was a HUGE motivational boost for me as a photographer. I am still riding that high and I can feel the remaining excitement as I write about it here over a month later. Take home message: if you like an image and you know the person who took it, take the extra 5 seconds and tell them you like it. Trust me, it goes a long way.
One last thing I want to mention is the importance of continuously shooting. You can buy the most expensive camera bodies and the best lenses at all the available focal lengths (16-35mm, 24-70mm, blah blah blah). But in the end, if you don't put yourself out there with the camera on your eye on a regular basis, you will not have anything to show for it. The image that won recognition was taken on an entry level DSLR with an entry level lens (for the gear heads, Canon T4i with a 50 f/1.4). It was also taken at the end of this one (of many) weekend strolls through the city. Had I decided to take the bus home early instead of walking towards Seattle Center that evening, I would have missed it all. That one shot (see below).
Gear does not matter.
Get out there and shoot.
National Geographic Photo of the Day February 14th, 2013. See the Photo Editor's Notes Here.