An Unexpected Opportunity

Out of the blue, way back in January, I received an email via my Flickr from the photo editor of the National Geographic Traveler magazine in Washington. They were planning to write a feature about rail holidays in Switzerland and were keen to include one of my photos in their publication! The photo was of the Beau Rivage Palace. It made me realise the importance and effectiveness of tagging and captioning images accurately. Of course I gave them permission to use the image, still shocked that they had chosen mine out of the many out there on Google images.
Yesterday I received two complimentary copies of the National Geographic Traveler magazine with my photo in it. The whole process gave me an insight into how photo editors and photographers operate and just how long it takes to go to print.

Being able to contribute to something that has a huge circulation was highly motivating. During my progression through the OCA syllabus I have been wondering which area of photography to specialise in. Editorial work is definitely something I would like to explore further.
Funnily enough, I started DPP with a devotion to all things digital and that uploading to the Internet marked the end of my workflow. However recent events have shown that there can be various opportunities to use a photograph. This will help me to think more carefully about what it is I’m photographing and what I will use it for.