Photo credit: Rory Sagner Photography & Fine Art
– Rory Sagner in her own words:
“LUMINOUS” is now the second of my photos to be published in a National Geographic [NatGeo] Your Shot Story and of course I am completely thrilled. The first photo of mine they published (April 2016 in “When Death Comes”) was a portrait of my mom taken two days before she passed away. While having that published was an amazing event in my life for many reasons, after the initial excitement ebbed, I did wonder if I’d ever be able to “do it again.” Artist’s insecurity I suppose.
One of my hummingbird photos, “LUMINOUS,” was just published on 8/25/16 in the National Geographic Your Shot story “Our World In Motion.” http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/stories/our-world-motion/
It was taken on June 11th this year, one of 54 shots I took that morning while sitting on my front porch in Rainier, WA, drinking coffee and communing with the birds and other critters….something I love and do almost daily. The hummingbirds are some of my very favorite visitors and I have taken literally thousands of photos of them.
Not long before the submission deadline for the story, the editors announced that they would allow an additional submission (usually only 3 are allowed per assignment). I knew I wanted to submit a hummingbird photo, but out of so many that I’ve taken, it was difficult for me to choose. I liked LUMINOUS very much and while it certainly did evoke the feeling to me of the extraordinary way in which hummingbirds move, I thought it was probably too abstract for the assignment. I very nearly did not submit it at all, but time was growing short and I was busy so said to myself, “what the heck” and submitted it anyway. I chose to convert it to a black and white photo as I felt that emphasized the bird’s movement over its color.
The next thing I knew, both story editors marked it as an “Editor’s Favorite,” then in short order posted a really lovely “Editor’s Note” on it in my gallery. For me and probably every other photographer on Your Shot, that is a great honor. Subsequently two more National Geographic editors also chose it as a favorite and it was published, causing a lot of joyful whooping and jumping up and down around my house!
Finally, I found out the day after the publication about this video where the two National Geographic story editors discuss their selection process for “Our World In Motion,” the story my photo was published in on August 25th, 2016. I did not know until I watched this that my photo was one of only 25 they chose to publish out of 14,342 total submissions.
The editors talk about my photo and why they chose it at 20:46 minutes, but the whole video is worth watching.
Click here and then then click on the video labeled “Facebook Live.” You can watch it there on the NGYS website without going to Facebook!!!
Click here where “LUMINOUS” and my story were published: “OUR WORLD IN MOTION” –
My photo is the 8th one down.
Editor’s note:
Rory tells the Yelm Community blog that she is available for private photography assignments including portraiture and even commercial photography.
Rory Sagner
Photo credit: Rory Sagner Photography & Fine Art
Rory Sagner Photography & Fine Art
Websites:
Rory Sagner Photography & Fine Art
National Geographic Profile
Facebook
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