I am often asked “how do you pick the photos that get published?” My answer is: “never easily.”

A photographer on a typical assignment for the Geographic may shoot around 20,000 images. From these, we may publish around a dozen. Skilled Photo Editors work closely with each photographer to sift through this eye-numbing variety of images shot for each story.

When selecting photographs, the image’s technical quality and the composition are major factors, but equally important is how well each image works together to tell a coherent story. The most successful photgraphs find a balance between art and journalism, with each image uniquely weighted one way or another, but never entirely devoid of either.

In the November issue of NGM is a photographic essay on hunting and conservation by staff photographer William Albert Allard. For this story Bill photographed the opening of pheasant season on a farm that was participating in a program to convert land back to its natural state for hunting.

For that one situation the final selection came down to two very successful images (above). We didn’t have room to run both.
I love the photograph with the truck because of its composition and abstract representation of the hunters. But the field image (top) addresses the camaraderie among the hunters shown within the environment that was being conserved.

Another consideration, which impacts the final selection, is how the images work together in the sequence of the pages of the magazine. The Layout Editor for the hunting story, David Whitmore, noted that the truck image “was a beautiful composition of a quieter moment.” And Photo Editor Sarah Leen added that at this point in the layout “the story needed a boost of energy, and we also needed people. We already had many strong images that were focused on animals.”

The debate between these two images continued when the finished layout was presented to the Editor-in-Chief, Chris Johns. All opinions were expressed and layout options with both images were shown. Chris weighed all considerations and made the final call to go with the field image. The truck photograph was left on the cutting room floor.

But all is not lost. Now, thanks to the web, we can share images online that don’t run in the magazine. Click here to see more of Bill’s hunting photographs.

— David Griffin, Director of Photography

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