Have you ever wondered what it takes to capture images for National Geographic? I had the opportunity to ask our friend Bob Holmes just that and what his approach is to making images that are worthy of National Geographic. Here’s what he said:

1. Know Your Equipment

You have to prepare yourself to accept images that give themselves to you. And you prepare yourself by knowing your equipment inside out so that the camera doesn’t get in the way. The camera’s the biggest barrier to great photographs very often, because you’re thinking too much about the equipment to concentrate on the subject. So you have to know your equipment absolutely inside out, know how it’s going to react to certain situations.

2. Develop Your Eye

You also have to develop your eye and educate your eye. And I’ve done it through a passionate interest in painting, particularly 20th century. I love the abstract expressionists for example.

3. Find Punctuation

One of the things that you need in strong composition, is some punctuation photographs often need a punctuation point. In this photo, the young boy practicing is the punctuation and, I guess you could call it a decisive moment. But it’s a moment when his attitude was good. You could read him as a ballet dancer. It’s obvious that he’s practicing a ballet stance. And those kinds of details are absolutely critical.

Photo by Bob Holmes

3. Be Responsible for Everything in the Frame

I’m able to go into a place and see photos and see images that work. I can compose things very rapidly without thinking about it. I like getting close to subjects so that you feel part of the scene. And then the composition I do almost intuitively, I’m always scanning the edges of the frame automatically because we’re responsible for everything in that frame. You know, as a photography, it’s your fault. If there’s something in there that shouldn’t be. If there’s an antenna coming out of someone’s head it’s your fault. You should have seen that. You have to be very, very aware.

Photo by Bob Holmes

4. Be Fully Involved with Your Subjects

I think the most thing after you know your camera, and have prepared yourself visually by looking at other media and other forms of visual arts that you relate to that can affect you whether you see, I think it’s very important to be fully involved with your subjects. To take your very best photographs, you have to be on your own. And you have to give the subject 100% of your concentration. You have to be there and aware of everything. And that includes when you’re looking through the camera. Even before you look through the camera, be aware, everything is going on in that image that you hoping to capture. So in this photograph, for example, the people on the bridge, these small people.

Photo by Bob Holmes

And the same as these two guys here. I moved in close. But I wanted them down here for scale to show how far they walk with these tremendous loads on their back. And by getting in low down with a wide angle lens, it gave an impression of the weight of these things coming down from the top of the frame. And that’s the kind of photograph I love. That’s what I’m always striving for.

Photo by Bob Holmes

I hope you enjoyed Bob’s wisdom on how to develop a National Geographic style, and will put it to good use. Thanks for joining us again. Please share like, and leave your comments. We really love hearing from you and until we see you again on our next show. Be sure to subscribe to our channel and our blog to stay up to date on all our content. If you’d like to get more in-depth on how to improve your photography, we have our Secrets to Amazing Photographs From the Masters course that you can take right now!

And as always, remember to get out and capture your own images of life.