The first rule in photography: The photographer has to be there to make the picture. Yet getting there is more than half the effort. Working on a National Geographic story requires a great deal of research, planning, and preparation, as well as an undeterred effort to gain permissions and permits and negotiate access. Remove those obstacles from the process, and photographers would be able to channel much more of their energy into the actual act of photographing.
And so our best advice is that photographers should photograph what they know best. Where are you? What do you know? What do you see? What’s in front of you? Perhaps it’s your profession, your hobby, something that defines you, or perhaps it’s your observations about something or someone you know well.
Take us there—inside, beyond the gates, backstage, and behind the scenes—with a photo that says, “You should have been there,” or, “Wish you were here.”