[Ron Boggs]

Remember, a Nat Geo photographer may be on assignment for several months for the shoot. It's anything but willy nilly.

When it was film, the cost was not a factor...getting the perfect image was the only goal...same as now.

As for cost, with film there was no cost of computer and software and Nat Geo got the film wholesale and processed in house, moderating the costs a bit.

In that era, I commonly shot more than 10 rolls a day in wildlife rich areas. For week long trips I would carry 100 rolls, though I never shot all of it in a single trip. One day in Denali I shot 22 rolls of 35mm transparencies plus 8 rolls of medium format roll film. Got a couple decent shots that day. One was so good I printed it at 30x40 and sold a 16x20 to someone who saw the bigger version. Hard to recoup costs then and still hard to recoup costs now. Add the cost of travel and it's easy to see why so few photogs actually make pro income...

[bossa]

With digital, I'm not surprised. With film, I am.

Whatever happened to taking your time, planning your shot, and getting success?

With motor drives and bulk film backs on Nikon F's they used to just blaze away and sort out the shots later.. much like many do these days but without the film processing costs.

[sqjaw]

With digital, I'm not surprised. With film, I am.

Whatever happened to taking your time, planning your shot, and getting success?

It went out the window when Digital came in the door, But if you look hard you just Might see camera
People taking their time when shooting

[bossa]

National Geographic photographers were known for using these, especially for wildlife.

[Ex Finn.]

National Geographic photographers were known for using these, especially for wildlife.

Some serious high capacity magazines. Kinda kills any ergonomics.

[Ron Boggs]

I guess my point is that we shouldn't presume that because a Nat. Geo article requires many thousands of shots that those shots are somehow less thought out than any other pro photography situation. Nat Geo shots are commonly thought out very thoroughly and taken over several months...I guarantee they aren't holding down the shutter button to rapid fire landscape shots. For wildlife, most folks shoot some bursts...

[derekkite]

If what you are shooting is unpredictable such as wildlife, you are at the mercy of the elements and the subject. Planning or thinking out happens in a different way than framing a shot. It is learning about the creatures, where they go, their peculiarities. As well as figuring out the lighting of the various places. Then you wait in your blind, and take shots of the subject under as many conditions as possible. There is no asking the subject to lift it's head and tilt it towards the light, then setting up the perfect shot. A series of shots while the animal moves it's head may be a series of nothing, or there may be one where the light is perfect, or catches some expression.

Or maybe tomorrow the same number of shots in slightly different lighting conditions may give you the one you want. Then there are situations where things happen, some conflict with another animal, where catching the event as it lasts requires many shots. Again, you are at the mercy of events, and having lots of shots gives the possibility of having one or a few that capture details or action. There is no setup other than being there and shooting.

No doubt in all the shots taken there will be quite a few very nice ones, but only one or two very special shots that end up being published.

[bossa]

The point is (if the pictures we used to see were chosen from 1,000's of candidates from bulk film rolls where the motor drive chewed through the film at a rate of knots) there's no real choice involved at the time of shooting apart from pointing the camera and the exposure settings. This part of the process seems more like data collection which is sifted later on - in some situations I can see this being the best approach. The photographers working in this manner are making their major decisions after the fact by the choices they make as to the final shots to be published. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that approach either as it would probably get the best outcome in the end in certain situations. I don't know how many shots I've missed due to shutter lag or by not shooting a continuous stream of shots either.