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| Frequently Asked Questions It takes a certain kind of person to work as a photographer, and it takes a certain kind of photographer to work for National Geographic. As you'll see, it's not all fun and games while traveling around the world. The reward for a job well-done is an amazing photo, but the process of getting one can be very un-glamorous. If you're curious about working for National Geographic, interested in photography, or want to know how Joel got his start, you've come to the right place. Read on for more. |
 Joel with the Chicken Dale Dancers at Chicken Days in Wayne, Nebraska |
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How do I get a job like that? - or - How did you get started with NG? This is the one question I'm asked more than any other. "By being very persistent," I reply. And while that's only the short answer, it's definitely true. I first worked for a newspaper in Wichita, Kansas for six years, first as a photographer, then as their director of photography. About halfway through my time, I met James Stanfield, one of the legends of photography at National Geographic. He graciously looked at my work and gave me a recommendation to send my portfolio to the Society's headquarters in Washington, D.C. For the next two years, I sent in clips of my best work from the newspaper, usually in three-month intervals. That eventually led to a one-day assignment, followed a few months later by a nine-day assignment, and so on. In other words, being very type-A, obsessive-compulsive helped me a great deal in getting the Geographic to notice me. But, be careful if you're thinking about going down this road. There is a fine line between eager and enthusiastic and just being a pain. If you come across as the latter, your chances of getting anywhere in life are diminished. I have to work to calm myself down after I get back from an assignment, or I would drive my family crazy. Early on in my career, I didn't photograph much wildlife. I was fighting focus and exposure until well into my newspaper days, mostly just worried about getting good enough photos to make the front page. It never occurred to me that nature photos could do that too. I've always been interested in nature, though. I loved going to zoos as a kid, and marveled at all the exotic things in them. Still do. A big part of my interest in the environment comes from going fishing and hunting with my father nearly every weekend. He taught me about the need for habitat from day one. We were in the midst of a giant industrial agricultural zone, and so many acres were being lost to development each year that we could literally see the game failing. Lose the habitat and you lose the wildlife, it’s as simple as that. What is your background in? I got into photography late in high school. A friend’s father had an old Olympus camera and let me borrow it. I was enthralled. My degree in journalism is from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Since I changed my major several times before settling on photojournalism, I took a fairly wide range of courses including everything from astronomy to bee-keeping. Job-wise, before working at the Wichita Eagle I worked at a gas station, a tropical fish store, ran a lawn care business and worked for the school paper in college. Advice for Beginning Photographers My advice is this: work hard, preferably for someone or some organization who will help you out in the business. This could be a newspaper, website, anything. Run a ton of images through your camera. Every new situation you shoot has the potential to make you better. Listen to your editor and respect his or her ideas about how you can improve your work. Learn to accept criticism and use it to better your work. Photography is a tough business, and editors don't always have time to handle photographers with kid gloves when giving suggestions. In the same vein, look at photos thoughtfully. When you find another photographer whose work you admire, take time with their images to figure out what makes them tick. Generally, it's important to be curious about life, to be pleasant and to try and make sure you're in photography for the right reasons. If you're in it for money and recognition, you're going to be sorely disappointed especially when starting out. Some people shoot great pictures for years and are only "discovered" after they die. If you're in it to make the world a better place by photographing and documenting important subjects, making people happy with your images, and making others see the world in a different way, chances are you'll enjoy a long and healthy career. As mentioned above, persistence is key. Many of the best shots come at the end of the day when you're worn out and ready to pack it in. If you leave early, you'll miss out on some of the best opportunities. If you really want to do well in photography, you have to go after it with all you've got. As for a good school, it depends on what kind of photography you want to pursue. In any event, the degree doesn't matter as much as the person receiving it. As for actually getting a job in photography, it is a bit rocky now, and I'm sorry to have to say it because photography is so dear to me. Basically the scenario is this: to start from scratch now and actually earn a living, you have to be willing to shoot what folks can't get for free off the Internet. This often means shooting weddings and formal portraits. Almost everything else, from polar bears to penguins, is available for free online, with more being added every day. All that said, if you're really excited about this, I say go for it. I still believe that those few who are truly passionate will find a way to make a living doing what they love. What is your favorite subject to photograph? I like photographing endangered species, especially the smaller creatures that nobody has ever heard of. Good photographs of rare plants and animals can be used to give them a voice. In some cases, a well-timed article can save a species by drawing attention to its plight. It’s the little things that drive ecosystems, really, and yet they don’t get any attention. There’s a great line by Doug Chadwick: "There’s as much beauty in the beat of a butterfly wing as there is in the howl of a wolf." I’m paraphrasing here because I’m too lazy to find the exact quote, but you get the point. It’s the little creatures that drive everything, and we’re losing them at an alarming rate. I think we should show good stewardship to all species, great and small. Clearly the best course of action is to protect entire ecosystems so that individual species don’t get into trouble in the first place. How much can a National Geographic photographer expect to make? For starters, the editorial rate in the u.s. is about $400-$500 per day. This sounds like a lot until you consider that you don’t work every day and must pay for your own equipment and insurance. Being a freelance photojournalist in general is not for the faint of heart and takes financial discipline. It's feast or famine - definitely not a steady nine-to-five job. What are my chances of making a living as a wildlife photographer? Anything is possible, but the truth is that your chances are not very good. There are many reasons to believe this. First, nearly everyone has a pretty good camera these days, that is, one that has autofocus and autoexposure. It's hard to take a technically bad picture with most of the cameras sold now. Second, many of the people taking pictures now are giving them away, as in free or very close to it, via the internet. And the pictures aren't bad. In fact, many times they're quite good and have been taken in some places that are very difficult (translation; expensive) to get to. Need a good picture of a penguin in Antarctica? It's available, for free, online. Need a polar bear feeding on a seal from the top of the world? That's not a problem either. (Some fields, however, like wedding and portrait photography will continue to be profitable because the internet offers no good alternatives.) Hopefully you see my point. With an abundance of hobby photographers who are ready, willing and able to shoot good pictures all over the world and then give them all away, professionals are justified in being nervous right now. Why would a client hire you for something they can get for nothing? They wouldn't. And it doesn't stop with still photography...the move to video has never been stronger. Many magazines and newspapers are shifting toward web-only publication, for two main reasons. First, they are chasing a younger demographic (who, by the way, expects online content to be free). These younger folks want short bits of moving footage, edited tightly, with lots of movement and noise to hold their attention. Stills, while graceful, beautiful and iconic, are often quiet and thoughtful, and as a result, many times they can't compete in our increasingly noisy and attention-bereft world. Oh, by the way, there's more than enough free video to go around, too. The other reason for a shift to web-only publication is that magazines save money by not producing an ink-on-paper version. So how to survive in this age of all things digital? Simple: Be the very best at what you do. Be passionate about every project you become involved in. Shoot the best photos anyone has ever seen of that subject. Make sure people know how to find them. You'll be fine. And if you're not the kind of person who's driven to be the absolute best, all the time, every time? Well, good luck. What kind of gear do you use? My first camera was a Nikon FM2. I paid extra to get the all black body. No motor drive. It came with one short, fixed focus lens, probably a 28mm. My first big lens purchase was a Nikon 180mm f.28. It was tack sharp and put a lot of pictures into my early portfolio. Things have changed a lot since then, though. These days, I only use digital cameras. They're great because the feedback is instant, allowing me to experiment a little more than I might with film. The downside is that the equipment is more expensive, and digital files are costly to archive. The other problem with digital is that there is no surefire way to store the images. The only way to be absolutely certain you'll be able to view an image in twenty years or more is to transfer it to paper or film. Whether it's film or digital, you need to be prepared for the worst. Equipment can and does fail, and there's nothing worse than having to cancel a shoot because your gear isn't working. I always carry more than one camera body, more than one lens, more than one battery and more than one charger. It makes for a lot of extra baggage, but better that than a missed opportunity. When traveling by air, I take the minimum I need to hit the ground and start shooting in a carry-on. That way if my checked baggage is lost, I can still accomplish the mission. A typical field setup includes the following:
With digital comes computers:
We still have a couple of film bodies around, too:
Specialized gear includes
In studio setups, Joel uses the following equipment:
On Photoshop: In most cases, we use Photoshop only for basic "traditional darkroom" functions like cropping, color correcting, spotting out dust and so forth. Any advice on shooting digital in extreme conditions? In wet weather, keep your gear as dry as possible. In cold weather keep spare sets of batteries on the inside of your jacket and swap them out occasionally. Also, I prefer Compact Flash cards to MicroDrives, since CF cards have no moving parts and are more difficult to damage. What was your favorite/least favorite assignment? My favorite assignment was the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker story (Dec. 2006 issue of NGM). The search for the ivory-billed woodpecker was a pure delight to work on because I’ve been a huge fan of the bird since I was a child. I got to see firsthand where the bird was sighted, with the very people who had seen it. I even got to speak with Nancy Tanner, widow of famed IBW expert James Tanner. Via telephone she described her encounters with the last of the birds back in the early 1940’s in the Singer Tract of Louisiana. My photo editor, Susan Welchman, my assistant Katie Joseph, and I were on the other end. That was just icing on the cake. As for a least favorite, it's a tie between Madidi (very physically uncomfortable) and Connecticut (all-around unpleasant.) Do you think the ivory-billed woodpecker still exists? I do believe the bird exists. Too many qualified people have seen it to deny it. Now somebody just needs to get a good picture of if. Wish it would have been me, but I went down there knowing that more than 20,000 man hours of looking produced just a few fleeting sightings. My goal was to photograph the searchers. How many times have you almost been killed? More than I care to tell my wife about for sure. I've been in a couple of car wrecks while on assignment, once driving in bad weather and the other when a guide fell asleep at the wheel. In rural parts of South America, the roads are pretty rough and the bridges are even rougher. I've been in a helicopter that overheated and had to set down on a highway, and an airplane that went into a high speed stall, complete with screaming pilot (very disconcerting). While I try not to do anything terribly stupid, I have put myself in risky situations while working at heights, in swamps and with animals that have sharp teeth. Most of the time, it was my own stupidity that led to the unfortunate incident. I try to learn from my mistakes and not get killed. You can’t take any more pictures if you’re dead. When working with wildlife and nature in general, it is absolutely crucial to respect your subject and surroundings. This means the usual outdoors etiquette (leave everything as you found it and take your trash out with you), and with wildlife it means disturbing your subject as little as possible. Before you even set foot in the field, research your subjects and talk to people who know the area you'll be working in. Do your homework and don’t waste the time of the people who are helping you out. Show up when you’re supposed to, and ALWAYS send the prints that you promise them. Learn what the rules of conduct are, what a respectful distance is, what behavior to avoid, and what the "back-off" signal is. To get good photos of any animal, doing your homework is critical. The goal is to safely get good photos of your subject behaving normally, not showing aggression or running away from you. And even if you do your best, wildlife is still unpredictable. I've been charged by musk oxen and grizzly bears while on assignment, and either one of them could've very easily killed me. But in reality, very few people are killed or wounded by wild animals. To give you some perspective, an average of 15-20 people die in the u.s. each year from domestic dog bites, while only one person per year is killed by a bear on the entire North American continent. See the next question, too -- it's the little stuff that gets you. What's the sickest you've been? Most times, wolves and anacondas aren't the biggest sources of concern while on assignment. In many parts of the world, photographers face malaria, yellow fever, typhoid and myriad other diseases. While on assignment in Madidi, I was bitten on the leg by a female phlebotomous sand fly who was carrying leishmaniasis, a microscopic flesh-eating parasite. A month or so later when I was back at home, I noticed a hole on my leg that wasn't healing. After consulting with several doctors, we found out that it was leishmaniasis. The only way to treat it at the time was chemotherapy -- an IV of an antimony solution. Like all chemo, it wears you down and can make you pretty sick. It also throws several of your internal organs out of whack. It was six months before I felt normal again, and I was lucky the doctors figured it out when they did. (More info on leishmaniasis is on the WHO website.) Do you generate your own story ideas? It's sort of a mix; I've pitched a couple of stories that have been picked up, one on Nebraska and the other on the endangered Attwater’s prairie chicken. In most cases though, I hear of a story that is being considered and I request it. While I don’t always get what I ask for, it helps to let them know that I’m interested in a particular topic. I’ve also had stories assigned to me about which I know nothing. At that point it’s good to pay attention and do as much research as possible to get up to speed quickly. Do you do all of your own research? I'm in charge of making sure I know what I need to know before going out into the field. I get lots of help from scientists and experts who know the subject I'm working with, people who live in the areas I'll be working in, and people who have worked with a subject/area previously. The photo coordinators at National Geographic are also a big help when it comes to locating books or magazine articles, hunting down phone numbers and doing the several dozen other tasks that go along with putting story research together. They're life-savers. The way I research is to read up on a topic, find out who I need to talk with to learn more, and then make phone calls. Sometimes our line is busy all day, and I've had more than one $1,000 phone bill -- talking to those in the know is one of the best ways to prepare. How does the assignment process work? As mentioned above, I'll either submit a story idea or have one suggested to me. The first step in getting a story approved is doing what's referred to as a one-pager. It's a single page straight-to-the-point write-up that (a) tells why a story is important, (b) explains what will make it unique, and (c) gives justification for National Geographic spending the resources to pursue the story at this point in time. Every pitch must meet those three criteria or it won't even get out of the gate. The next step is to research the topic (see above) and come up with a general list of situations to photograph. On each story, I'm assigned a photo editor at the magazine. They help me come up with ideas and make sure they're all worth going after. Once that's done we'll put together a budget, take care of the logistics and I'm off to shoot. Half-way through an assignment, I go in to the Geographic's headquarters in DC to meet with my editor and the higher-ups at the magazine to assess progress on the story. The photo editor and photographer put together a "half-way show" of the best pictures we've gotten so far. My editor and I both discuss the story's progress with those at the meeting and they decide whether or not the story will be finished. When the story is completed, we go back for another show similar to the half-way show, except this time we show the best of the best from the entire assignment. Then, the editor and others sift through these to find the images that will be published. On an average assignment, I'll shoot anywhere from 20,000 - 40,000 images. Only a small number (anywhere from ten to a couple dozen depending on the story) will be published. Once the frames are selected, I'll go back for the layout process, when the text and pictures are assembled in final form for the magazine. After that, I help with fact-checking, writing captions (or legends, as they're referred to at NG), and tying up any loose ends. A story is usually published one to two years after it's shot, and during that time I'm bound by contract to keep the details of it confidential. When the story is finally printed, it feels great to see a completed project. I know of no other magazine besides National Geographic that works this closely with photographers, and I'm very happy to have a hand in the editing and layout process. Do you travel with the writer? Not necessarily -- I have on a few stories simply because it was convenient, but the writer and I have each generated our own coverage plans and we each follow them. We talk often about what we're doing so that we don’t miss anything important. However, the photos often stand alone with their captions, allowing readers to get the more information than if the story and photo essay simply repeated each other. Do you have to photograph what the writer writes about? As mentioned, we each have our own coverage plans, so I may not necessarily photograph everything the writer mentions in the text. NGM's stories are designed so that the text and the pictures complement each other. Do you take your family on assignment with you? My wife and children have come with me in the past on short trips, but they don't generally like to come along because I'm working from sun-up to sun-down (and often later) every day. I'm constantly making phone calls and moving/cleaning gear. I'm also in Type-A mode where the job is the most important concern at the moment, so I'm keyed up and have time for little else. Many of the places I go have little in the way of amenities and so my family wouldn’t have a whole lot of fun, especially since my children are still quite young. A lot of people think that working as a photographer is a pretty leisurely job where you see beautiful parts of the world, meet interesting people and snap a picture when something strikes you. I do see beautiful things and meet interesting people, but often I'm so focused on getting good photos that I don't have a chance to really enjoy it. Wildlife photography is work. It involves hauling 70-100 pounds of gear into and out of the field every day, sitting still for hours on end in all sorts of weather, and waiting for the light to get good or for your subjects to do their thing. It's often very frustrating, and especially when you're working for National Geographic. There are no excuses for failure, and nobody clocks out early. How is Kathy doing? Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 2005 and finished treatment the following year. We are happy and very grateful to report that she has been cancer-free for over a year. Joel's essay about the experience is featured in the April, 2008 issue of National Geographic Magazine and also aired on CBS Sunday Morning. Click here to read the essay and watch video clips. Do you hire assistants and how do you find them? I've hired lighting assistants for complicated shoots, guides when I'm working in unfamiliar areas, and translator/guides when I'm working in a place where I don't speak the language. Usually, I ask other photographers or scientists who have worked in a particular area about assistants. I need somebody who knows every square inch of the area we'll be working in (for example, which cliffs around here do macaws nest in?) and somebody who is willing to work almost around the clock. The very best assistants are not only good at what they do, but also have a positive attitude and a sense of humor. When the going gets tough, being able to see beyond the current crisis is a valuable skill. Can I go on assignment/intern with you? Never say never, but here are some reasons why most people who ask this question don't end up in the field:
As for interning, I'll let my studio manager do the talking: "I'll be perfectly honest -- interning here at headquarters would be disappointing and probably boring to most people. Joel doesn't do that much actual shooting in Nebraska and almost none of it is under traditional 'studio' conditions. What we do at headquarters is run a stock photography business, which means answering phones, writing e-mails, tracking images, filing photos, taking care of billing, and all the tasks which normally go with running a business. Most of the time, Joel is hunched over the light table and I'm staring at a computer screen. While Joel's three kids and his dog wander in every once in a while, we don't see much wildlife other than what's out the window. It also takes a while to pick up the skills necessary to participate in a stock photography operation. We have our own filing system, specialized software, and mysterious piles of paper everywhere. The computer programs we use, Photoshop especially, take a lot of time to learn well. An inexperienced person can unintentionally do something wrong, which can create hours' worth of work when we have to fix it. Learning how to put together a selection of images for a client is a nuanced process -- one that I still don't understand fully after six years -- and we only get one shot at a sale. We've had some great, tolerant, and hard-working interns in the past. They've come in for a few hours each week and helped take care of things like stamping slides, running packages to the post office, filing published work, re-filing slides, cleaning the gear room and occasionally helping me or Joel carry something heavy up out of the basement. They've also all worked for free and lived around Lincoln -- we just wouldn't feel right having somebody move out here to intern only a few hours a week. If that's not enough to scare you off, feel free to e-mail us with your inquiry." How did you get interested in nature and the environment? My mother had a set of Time-Life picture books. One was called The Birds. In that book was a look at several birds that have gone extinct including the heath hen, the great auk, the ivory-billed woodpecker, the Carolina parakeet and the passenger pigeon. The very last passenger pigeon, a bird named Martha, was shown alive in a photo taken just before her death in the Cincinnati Zoo back in 1914. I was astounded. This was once the most numerous bird on Earth, with an estimated population of five billion, and here it was reduced to this single female, with no hope of saving it. I couldn’t understand how anyone could tolerate this. I still feel the same way, and I work hard to prevent this from ever happening again. Of course, things have gone much farther downhill since then, but that doesn’t mean we don’t all keep trying. My first couple of assignments for NGM were the first real nature photography I did. Eagles on the Rise was a small story about an effort to hand-rear and release southern bald eagles into the American southeast. The second story, on America’s Gulf Coast, was much broader, literally spanning from the tip of Florida to Brownsville, TX. You can’t help but think about the environment constantly on a story like that. The development going on along the coastline was virtually non-stop, and taking a very heavy toll on the plants and animals that live there. In addition, I photographed mosquito spraying in Florida, which kills far more invertebrates than just the target insect. Then I’d go to the beaches near Galveston and there were dead dolphins on the beach surrounded by garbage including medical waste and plastic bottles from around the world. I also remember taking a boat ride up the Houston Ship Channel. The boat captain said he’d not seen anything alive in the channel in 20 years, but that he had seen it catch fire. All of these things really opened my eyes. The environment was in such terrible shape yet people just ignored it. Why should we care about the environment? It is folly to think that we can destroy one species and ecosystem after another and not have it affect humanity. When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves. For more, see Joel's essay in our Fragile Nature gallery. Photography and the environment Photography can do a huge service in two ways. It can expose environmental problems as nothing else, and it can help get people to care. The stakes could not be higher. It's ridiculous to think that we can destroy so many of the Earth’s plants, animals and ecosystems and not think it can happen to us. All of this will come back to bite us, and sooner than we think. It will not be pleasant. I hate to be so negative but that’s what I’m hearing from each and every one of the NG natural history photographers that I know. It is all starting to fall apart now. The world’s oceans are over-fished terribly, the air continues to grow filthier each year, and there are no signs of any slowing on the human overpopulation front. We may be winning some battles here and there, but we’re losing the war. The saddest part is that we all saw this coming, for decades, yet did very little to stop it. So what’s the root cause of all this? I believe it goes deep into human nature itself. We are so successful as a species because we are resourceful, driven, greedy and we are never satisfied. No amount of material goods or money is ever enough. I’m afraid this will be our undoing. But all of us can and should do things to help turn the tide. Though things may be bad, it's now more important than ever to try and save the Earth. You don't have to be published in national magazines to make a difference, either. Local photographers can have a tremendous impact in getting their viewers to think about what’s going on environmentally. Ever see a series of photos shot from the same spot showing a meadow or a forested hillside being bulldozed and developed? You can’t look at a sequence like that and not stop to consider where you live as well as how you live. Or, what about a photo essay on industrial food production? There’s no end to the material, unfortunately. Groups like the International League of Conservation Photographers are starting to get photographers thinking environmentally and are also raising public awareness, from the man on the street to heads of state. Cristina Mittermeier has done an amazing thing in founding this group. Now it’s up to all of us to really show the world what’s happening out there. There’s not a moment to lose. It is not enough, nor is it responsible journalistically, to show just pretty animals in an idyllic landscape. We must now show the threats to these creatures as well. Do we need to continue to show the beauty of nature? Absolutely. But we can’t pretend anymore that everything is lovely. Our photos need to inform readers of what’s really going on out there. The good news is that there are many publishers who want to publish stories on environmental issues. Let’s hope that all of the ILCP members hear the call. What can I do to save the environment? All of us can make a difference. And it is imperative that we try our hardest to do the most good we can with our time on Earth. Heroic acts aren't necessary, and small things can add up to a big difference. You simply have to care. For some concrete things you can do to help the Earth, visit our Fragile Nature gallery. Interested in a career in conservation? Since Joel’s work often focuses on conservation and environmental issues, we occasionally receive questions about working in that area. Cristina Mittermeier of Conservation International and founder of the International League of Conservation Photography gives advice far more eloquently than we could: "As you probably already figured out, no one gets rich doing this, but the rewards are immense in every other way. In a large conservation organization there are many skills in high demand. Of course, one of the most important is conservation science. Although we have many PhD-level scientists, we also have several brilliant people who have no degree at all, just an innate understanding of taxonomy or systematics of a particular group or brilliant statistical abilities, etc. Computer skills are also in high demand. Other positions are GIS, mapping, translation, legislation, foreign diplomacy and policy, fundraising, event planning etc. In short, whatever you study, think about how you can apply it to conservation and you will find a job that suits you in an NGO." |
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