“If you say you really want my job, okay, here’s the deal. There are no more hobbies, no more fun. You can have fun doing the work, but you have to be completely obsessed with it. I think 99% of the people think that professional photography is travel and adventure, and they forget that photography is very, very hard work. You’re “on” all the time. When you go out the door to take pictures, nobody cares about any of the excuses about bad weather or logistics, or how the authorities wouldn’t let you do your job. All that matters is what the photos say, how much money the magazine spent on that time, and whether or not it’s a successful coverage. Most people don’t really want that.”

- Michael Nichols / National Geographic

Check out more from Michael Nichols in this fascinating video how he made his famous tree image for National Geographic…

Regular readers here and followers of my work will know that the main focus of my photography is on environmental issues. In recent years, notably on access and availability of water in Asia, specifically China. I came across this short video on the National Geographic website that I wanted to share here with you. It tackles the question, “Why Care about Water?”

“If you took all the water in the world and put it into a gallon jug, less than one teaspoon of it would be available to us.” – Alexandra Cousteau – National Geographic Emerging Explorer

We have precious little usable freshwater to play with in the world. With our global population skyrocketing and demand for water increasing everyday, access and availability to water is going to be one of the most crucial factors determining how our future develops.

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

If you happen to be in Washingotn DC this week, you may want to drop by the Newseum to check out a slideshow that will be on show in the main lobby. The show is being hosted by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and National Geographic Society to mark World Water Day, showing images from around the world depicting the global water crisis.

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

I’m very happy to have a couple of my images from China included in the show. The show runs from March 17 to April 1, so should hopefully reach out to many people passing through the main atrium in the Newseum. If you’re in town, stop by and let me know how it looks!

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

A quick post today to share with you a great video from a TED talk by David Griffin, former Director of Photography, at National Geographic. It’s a few years old now but it’s well worth your time to watch, in case you missed it the first time around.

From TED: “The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.”

National Geographic have just released a series of very interesting articles in their latest issue, on the status of humanity’s population. As part of their interactive features, they released the video above titled ‘the face of 7 billion’, depicting what is the most common face on the planet. Do you have it?

It seems that there have been a few of these kinds of graphic’s coming out recently, most notably one which was going around the internet a few weeks ago of composite images of women from different countries in the world. It’s quite an interesting technique.

The National Geographic series of articles on population are up to the very high standards you would expect from them. They have some fascinating graphics which break down the current statistics surrounding our global population. It’s well worth taking time to explore.

Recently, I’ve read with interest a couple of lists that have emerged about the best photography blogs out there. It seems we’re all blogging now and it’s hard to find ones that consistently deliver great content. It’s a tough job. Blogging takes a lot of effort in both time and resources which makes it impressive when material is regularly updated, especially from individuals working alone.

Click Here

So, I decided to spread some photographic love/respect/links and point you in the direction of what I believe are ‘Probably the Best Photography Blogs in the World’ – please insert tongue in cheek here.

In absolutely no discernible order, and without any official criteria, these are my favourite photo-related blogs that I visit on a pretty regular basis. Why do I visit them? Because they consistently deliver useful, fun, stimulating and interesteing information that enriches my life.

Once you have visited the blogs below, please do remember to come back to mine though

1. Burn - Curated by Magnum and National Geographic Photographer, David Alan Harvey, Burn is one of the best of the best. Showcasing new photo essays every few days, it introduces readers to an eclectic mix of photography. Comments regularly run into the 1000′s and are often insightful, entertaining and emotional.

2. Duckrabbit – I love Duckrabbit’s tagline, “We produce beautifully crafted multimedia”. They do exactly what they say on the tin and also throw in a daily updated blog full of witty and sometimes acerbic viewpoints and comments on the world of photography and multimedia. This UK based team’s fresh approach pulls no punches.

Continue Reading »

[vimeo width="580" height="300"]http://vimeo.com/10864307[/vimeo]

I am delighted to announce here on my blog that this month’s issue of National Geographic China contains a 12-page essay of my images and text, about my Pulitzer Center-sponsored work on “China’s Growing Sands”. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to a new audience in China and bring wider attention to the issue of desertification, which is gripping the north of the nation.

I considered just posting photographs of the layout here as a traditional tearsheet display, but then I thought it would be more fun to create a short video to showcase the layout. Also, this story only appears in the Chinese edition of National Geographic this month, so I wanted those not based in China to be able to see the excellent layout, as if you were flicking through yourself.

Please click on the video above to begin and thumb-through the magazine article with me on Vimeo. If you prefer YouTube, please go here. Continue Reading »

Inside a Photographer's Notebook | Images (c) Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos

<<Return to the Learning Zone I haven’t done one of these posts for a while, so thought it was about time I shared another page from my notebook. If you haven’t seen the previous posts on this, you can head here and here to see them. The concept is simple. When I was beginning in photography I compiled a notebook of pictures, phrases, poems, sayings etc. that inspired me. I did so that when I was out shooting and I maybe had a down moment, or was lacking inspiration, I could turn to it to help me get going again.

The above page are pictures by the legendary Magnum and National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. I chose them because for me they represented the exoticism of the places he photographs and I wanted to be reminded of the dynamics of a photo that you could create using objects within a frame (see pic on left) and the power of a simple, well-lit portrait (see pic on right).

At the time, I believe I was reading a book by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. I was completely captured by how he wrote about life and losing love in Japan. One small haiku that stuck with me was the following:

“furin ya, koenaki kaze wa, uta wa seru”

The translation, although not literal I believe, was interpreted as:

“alone, the wind has no voice, but when it moves through the wind chimes, it sings”

For me at that time, the photographer became the wind and the camera the wind chimes. I liked that idea very much and wanted to remember it.