tennis2618 wrote:
I have the fortunate opportunity to frequently go on photo trips with Nat Geo photographers and know several of them pretty well, although none of the ones readers of the magazine recognize as the superstars. There has been a lot of incorrect info in this stream. Nat Geo goes have strict editorial guidelines which could be summed up as not allowing any more than the basic "editing" capabilities as were possible back in the film days. The equipment that they shoot with is pretty much the same as the more serious who I read regularly on this site. I was surprised to see on a trip last month that three of them were using mirrorless-each a different brand. Two of them were just trying them out. And they were getting great pictures. They do get equipment support from the manufacturer of equipment they use, but normally this amounts to use of new cameras or lenses--which they can purchase at a discount after the shoot.
What they do better than us which leads to so many excellent shots is practice. I have heard one say that he will be playing with the controls on his camera every day when he is relaxing over tv, etc, so that he will be very familiar with every control on his camera when he is shooting--not having to think about how to adjust something, but just doing it. They all say they shoot daily, even if they don't have an assignment. For the most part they use our equipment and glass and get better results because they do this for a living and they have a great eye for what they want to get in a picture. I have been challenged by these people as I try to get pictures they might be proud of. My first such shot occurred in the Arctic shooting a polar bear on sea ice. She was jumping from one ice flow to another and I caught it perfectly--all four feet off of the ice, sharp, great light, etc. (the picture is on the dust cover of my book of the trip). One of the Nat Geo people has become a good friend and he was taking pictures of the same activity. He told me that none of his got the scene like mine--the proudest photo experience in my life! By the way, that hasn't happened since then.
I have the fortunate opportunity to frequently go ... (
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"I was surprised to see on a trip last month that three of them were using mirrorless-each a different brand".
What's surprising here? Mirrorless cameras are rapidly becoming mainstream and used by an increasing number of photographers, professionals or not. For good reasons....