National Geographic’s Kurt Mutchler, Executive Editor, Photography

OK, admit it. If you are serious about your photography, you would like to see one of your photos in National Geographic. Sadly, the odds of that are about as good as they are for starting in an NBA basketball game. So the next best thing is to meet one of National Geographic’s photo editors. That dream came true for me last week.

Kurt Mutchler at OSU (a total of nine iPhone photos stitched together with Autostitch)

Kurt Mutchler, National Geographic’s executive editor for photography, was at The Ohio State University last week for a presentation at the School of Environment and Natural Resources.

Mutchler making his point about the proposed Pebble mine upstream from a major spawning area for salmon.

If you have a chance to hear Mutchler, don’t miss him.  He knows his stuff, he makes his points well, he tells great stories (and backstories) to illustrate his points, and he has all of those wonderful photos by National Geographic photographers to use as illustrations.

Mutchler and a National Geographic article from December 2010.

It wasn’t long before I pulled out a camera and lenses to take some pictures. I started with a pano created on the spot with my iPhone and Autostitch.  The light on Mutchler was terrible for photography until he stepped in front of one of the projectors. That was my opportunity to create some interesting images. His gesture and shadow on the screen created some visual interest. Unfortunately, he blinked just as I clicked the shutter (photo immediately above). What can you do? Keep taking pictures.

Mutchler talks about the stream of bubbles that is created as penguins explode out of the water up onto the ice. Photography in service of science.

Of course it occurred to me that this was the first and probably the last chance I would have to show any of my photos to a National Geographic editor. What better photo to show him than a photo of him in action? In the photo above, I was intrigued by the appearance of “stripes” on the penguin’s flippers and how they created a pattern on Mutchler’s head that look a bit like an exotic head shave or a tattoo. As he moved in front of the projected image, I waited until the lines were located where I wanted them on Mutchler’s head and clicked the shutter. It all took place in just a few seconds. He moved quickly through the presentation and there were very few second chances to grab the right image.

Listening to Mutchler.

When his presentation was over, I showed him a couple of my photos and crossed another item off of my bucket list. What a great day!

I would have missed the whole thing if I hadn’t opened an email inviting me to the presentation. I had just returned home from a long trip and I opened the email about 3:10 pm. Mutchler began his presentation at 3:30 pm.  I grabbed my photo backpack and made a mad dash across town!