National Geographic

[Scott Murray]

Has anyone else recieved this email?

Hi Scott, You're invited to join The Great Nature Project—a worldwide celebration of the planet and its wonders. To get started, go outside and discover the great nature in your neighborhood. Then snap a picture of a plant or animal and upload it to a photo sharing site like Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, or National Geographic Your Shot, making sure to tag it #GreatNature. You can also help us set a Guinness World Records® title for the Largest Online Photo Album of Animals by adding #animal to any animal photo! What can we learn from this global snapshot of biodiversity? How does the Great Nature Project further conservation efforts already underway? Learn more by joining our live video discussion on Tuesday, September 24, at 1 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. UTC). We'll be talking about some amazing plant and animal species and how everyone can help to document and conserve them. #LetsExplore, The Community Team

 

[RockyNH_RIP]

Not me scott!

Pat in NH

 

[BackdoorArts]

Yep. There's a part of me that resists giant photo grabs like this as it is just one more step towards fully eliminating the working pro photographer (see a couple threads currently active in the Photo Business section to see what I mean). I have long loved and respected National Geographic for their photography, and the urge to be recognized by them is very tempting. But I also looked to them as a hallmark of nature photography, and to have to weed through literally thousands of tweeted photos taken with phones is disappointing to me. "Instant Photography" has become one more way for someone to "belong" in society today, and I get that. But it just bugs me when I see NatGeo doing it.

Pardon the minor rant - it wasn't directed at the fact that you posted this.

 

[Browncoat]

Ditto what Jake said. I received that email as well, and it makes me sick, frankly.

A lot of kids grow up wanting to be like Michael Jordan or Shaq. I grew up wanting to be an artist like Van Gogh. My mother has one of those memories books, where you record information each year on your child. In second grade, I wanted to be Han Solo when I grew up (LOL), but another year I wanted to grow up to be a photographer for National Geographic.

That's not such a bad thing for a kid to aspire to is it? Get to travel the world and take photos of exotic places, people, and animals. I guess the point I'm trying to make here in my own rant is that my son will probably never get to have that same dream. NatGeo is just following suit and crowdsourcing their photos.

 

[Sambr]

No surprise here. I was waiting for NG to something like this, what surprised me is that it took this long. Everyone is a photographer these days however very few are artists. The people that want to make a living with photography I wish them the best. The digital era, internet & cellphones are driving the final nails into the photography as a living coffin.

 

[ohkphoto]

I agree with all of you and am disappointed with NatG. I hoped that they would have held to their standard of professional quality photos, but sadly, like everything else in this world, it's all about money.

I refuse to participate in any of these "global. free photo thingies" . . .

For the dedicated, serious photographers, it's even more important to work on developing a style that stands out among the masses. EVENTUALLY, people will be sick of look at mediocrity . . . the masses of junk on Flickr . . .I know I am, . . . and something about your photo will stand out for somebody.

Somebody in another thread also mentioned the "ethics' think in photojournalism. These publications using 'free' photos have no guarantee that a "fabulous" photo hasn't been photoshopped . . . honor and ethics mean little today compared to money and fame.

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