Ian Lloyd appearing in Canon's ads

The infamous yellow border magazine has a circulation of 10 millions in various languages. The society also publishes 3 other magazines - National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic World and recently National Geographic Adventure. The magazine is celebrated for publishing top notch, extraordinary photographs that its photographers bring back from their assignments.

Ian Lloyd has long been working for National Geographic on its magazines and books. But the young Ian, just like any aspiring photographer, had to keep knocking on their doors years back when he was still relatively unknown. He sent his work, which he thought were excellent then, to NG and received a polite rejection. NG is one of the few magazines that will take the trouble to send u a 'no but thank you' letter for your rejected submission. Not giving up, he continued to send them his books whenever he published one.

Working with NG may not pay as much as what most people would have thought. Editorial day rates have remained static for the past 20 years and Ian has to supplement his income to support his wife and child by selling stock and doing commercial work. However, being a NG photographer will set him apart as the elite and provide him the credential to his clients for commercial work.

In the past NG did not set a limit on the budget for an assignment. Thus Ian was able to rent a helipcoter for an aerial perspective for a story. Aerial photography is expensive and may not be easy but all it takes is just that one shot to justify the expense. He is also able to borrow long lenses and special equipment from the society and they are shipped to him immediately by courier in 2 days. Equipments can even be custom-make for a particular assignment too! This is the kind of support NG provides to its photographer to create all those impossibly stunning photographs.

Behind the fame though is the fear of failure. Nobody complains about the amount of your expenses on the assignment though until you fail. There goes your career and you will never hear from them again. Ian never gets the chance to review his work during the assignment because he has to send every roll unprocessed back to NG. NG will see every frame that was taken, including the accidental shot of his feet. When he has done with the assignment, he may have to fly down to their Washington HQ during the final selection of photos for publication. It can be frightening for him to have as many as 20 odd staffs looking at his pictures and giving whatever opions or critics they may have.

The magazine requires him to provide factual details like where the photography is taken and who is the person in the picture. But how is he going to provide such details when he has to send NG all his rolls unprocessed and never gets to see the pictures until they are published in the magazines? He carries a small tape recorder such that he can later jot down the details for every specific frame of every specific roll to be sent back to NG! The magazine takes it seriously and once called him up in the middle of the night, forgetting that he was staying half the globe away, to verify if there was indeed a forest fire in Halls Creek as reported by him for the biking story round Australia.

Duration of assignment varies from weeks to months. Or it could be broken up, with him joining the writer or explorer at different time and place. Such long and frequent duration away from family is the reason why it is difficult for NG photographers to maintain relationships with wives and family.

Not every assignment will bring him to a beautiful location with photogenic subjects. But his job is to produce extraordinary photos out from ordinary scenes and subjects. Ian had to find different ways to photograph writer and cyclist Roff Smith when he covered the story about a cycling trip round Australia. At one point, he was flat on his back on a trolley cart pulled by another bike, so that he can have a different perspective of Roff cycling. For the first time in 20 years, the story ran in 3 parts in the yellower border magazine. He also needs to understand different photographic areas like underwater and wildlife even though he does not specialise in them.

His job can be dangerous at times like leaning out of the helicopter to have a better view. When doing so, he takes extra precaution to tape up his safety buckle. For him, safety is more important than getting the photograph. Assignments can also take him to places with exotic cultures. The hospitablity of the locals, often expressed in the feast they host, could mean he has to force himself to eat or drink something strange. Getting food poisoning is the last thing that he would want during his assignment. Not all cultures he encountered are friendly though. An aborginal Jarawa tribe in the far stratched India's Andaman Islands, which has not been touched by modernisation, threatened to kill a busload of people in defence for their land. Ian was there on assignment and he decided to take a boat around the island to avoid dangerous and unpleasant contact with the hostile tribe.

He has learned never not to take a photograph. In the cost of Victoria in Australia, he was debating if he should stop by and take the photo of the Twelve Apostles as this landmark had probably been photographed a millionth times. Nonetheless, he took the shot with a 85C filter and it ended up as a full page display in NG! You'll never know exactly what the photo editors want.

When shooting for the magazines, picture composition may not always follow the golden rule of third. As the pictures are often published together with in picture text and with the magazine title for the cover, the composition has to carter for such. Empty space is left intentionally on the top for the magazine title and subjects are placed off centre to the side such that text can be placed by the side. Ian has what he wants in mind and will compose the picture accordingly to tempt the editors to use it to his intent. And a simple photograph may turn out unexpectedly as a beautiful and attractive cover when the texts are typeset on it artistically.

Not all assignments will be published in the magazines. He had spent 2 years covering a story about an explorer taking a bamboo raft from Hong Kong to America (refer to the above picture of Ian - the poster of the bamboo raft appears in the background ). Huge amount was spent but the article was never run. It is not unusual for NG editors to change their mind and find it inappropriate to run the story after the assignment has satisfactory been completed. You too can do it if your magazine has 10 million readers!

He carries his gear in a belt system for quick access and seldom uses a tripod for his journalism style of photography. He often uses the Canon EF 17-35, 28-70 and 70-200mm f2.8 L lenses. He also raves about the Canon EF 300mm IS which he uses occasionally, swearing that the image stabiliser technology works for him and allows him to hand-held at low shutter speed even with a 1.4X converter. Of course, his tape recorder has to be always with him!

Ian's favourite film is Velvia, rating it at 40 and often pushes it to 80 for faster speed. For low lights, he uses Kodak E200 and may push it up to 640. He likes the 85C filter that does wonders, giving a warm colour of the morning light to an otherwise poor lighted scene. With high saturated film like Velvia, he seldom uses a polarizer now though he has one with warming effect without leaving a blue cast like the conventional filter.

Ian works alone and does not have an assistant which will double the cost and add up his responsibility. He prefers to ask for help on the spot should the situation call for it.

His advice for wannabes is to keep their day jobs and contact the editors of the magazine with a story outline first. Anyway, if you really have some stunning photographs like snowing in Singapore, they certainly could be interested in using it.

Wee Keng Hor
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