Category: Unit 11

National Geographic

National Geographic is known for covering several different topics including; history, science and travel. However there most common topics are animals and wildlife where they host annual photography competitions based solely around photography.

These contests don’t have to be solely animals, it can be landscapes of different countries as well as the culture. They don’t have one winner, however, they have several different winner slots for different categories. For example, this year’s competition they had; four total winners for the ‘travel’ contest, five winners for the ‘nature’ contest including an honourable mention and finally, five total winners for the ‘people’ contest.

I have always been passionate about National Geographic – I grew up obsessing over their many nature documentaries and found myself fascinated by their photographer’s brilliant work. As I grew up surrounded by pets and lived in a rural area, I only found National Geographic that much more interesting.

As a child, I was constantly spewing out animals facts to my parents having watched the documentaries or read a book revolving around the ‘weirdest’ animals discovered.

Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to work with animals – I had a big plan on how I was going to do so, however that did in fact change, but I am still adamant on working with animals.

Other Influences

I also watched people such as Steve Irwin, Steve Backshall and Bear Grylls – I watched Deadly 60 on repeat and loved learning new things about nature or wildlife in general and I still do to this day.

During 1998, Steve Backshall worked for National Geographic to produce a series, however he only made the pilot before selling it to them. For three months he tried to walk solo through rainforest in the western of New Guinea – known as Irian Jaya. He was a producer and presenter for the show for five years.

He presented the expedition series Game for It and then the environmental series EarthPulse and then for the Bootcamp series he completed the Israeli special forces selection course, running 60 miles overnight to earn their red beret.

Bear Grylls is a very well known name, most commonly recognised for his series Born Survivor in 2006 in the UK but was broadcasted as Man vs Wild in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. The show consisted of him being dropped into inhospitable environments and show viewers how to survive. The series caught people’s attention to the extreme methods used as it wasn’t something you would see on national television. Grylls performed stunts such as climbing cliffs, ice climbing and parachuting from helicopters, etc.

However, the show did gain controversy in 2012 after a programme consultant revealed Bear Grylls actually stayed in motels on some of the nights, including an episode filmed in Hawaii where Grylls was “stranded” on an island. Grylls did apologise to any viewers who may have been misled.

Steve Irwin is definitely one of the most well names out of the three – he first gained his fame during 1996 on The Crocodile Hunter series. In 1970 Bob and Lyn Irwin opened Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park , which was later co-owned by Steve and his wife, Terri in 1991 where they renamed it to Australia Zoo. Steve had grown up working at the zoo; working with a variety of animals, but mainly working hands on with the crocodile – hence gaining the name, Crocodile Hunter.

However, in 2006 Steve Irwin was reported dead after an incident with a stingray occurred whilst filming for a documentary Ocean’s Deadliest.

There are many routes you can take when choosing photography as a career. Some people go down the advertising route and work for companies to take photos of the product/s being advertised; this can be for restaurants such as McDonalds to photograph any new items that are to be advertised on posters or even billboards. It sounds like an easy task however some photographers who specialise in advertisement go above and beyond in order to get those final results. It takes several different attempts before getting that perfect final shot, it takes time and precision – meaning it takes a lot of patience.

Admittedly, everyone knows that the food advertised never looks as appetising as the image, however some of the techniques that are used in order to get the final image/s are very impressive.

Some people go down the nature route where they photograph wildlife and landscapes around the world. National Geographic is notorious for the nature photography, however it isn’t just a simple “filling out an application form” most photographers who work for National Geographic have already had around 5 to 10 years of previous experience in photojournalism with other magazines or newspapers. They are also highly skilled in various areas such as; landscape, wildlife, aerial and portraiture photography.

National Geographic has a assignment to assignment basis where a group of photographers and then they begin to develop stories internally. These articles take months to plan – in some cases, years in advance. The assignment are given to the photographer/s who are best fitted and will have the best outcome.

The salary for a National Geographic photographer varies from £18,000 to £30,000 but can very depending on the individual.