Increasingly, It's People Not Interested In National

I Did A Story For The Geographic On Meriwether Lewis And William Clark, And Stephen Ambrose Was The Writer. He Said, "i've Got The Easiest Job In The World. I Just Have To Re-tell The Story Of The Greatest Fishing, Camping, Hunting, Canoeing Trip Of All Time. You, Sam, Have The Hardest Job, Which Is, Pretend Like Nothing Has Happened In The Last 200 Years.

And That Desire-the Strong Desire To Take Pictures-is Important. It Borders On A Need, Based On A Habit: The Habit Of Seeing. Whether Working Or Not, Photographers Are Looking, Seeing, And Thinking About What They See, A Habit That Is Both A Pleasure And A Problem, For We Seldom Capture In A Single Photograph The Full Expression Of What We See And Feel. It Is The Hope That We Might Express Ourselves Fully-and The Evidence That Other Photographers Have Done So-that Keep Us Taking Pictures.

Even Though I Teach With 35mm, My Method Takes People By Surprise, Because It Isn't Fast, And It Isn't About Hardware Or Software, Or Even Great Results. It's About Great Process.

People Say To Me, "who's Your Favorite Kind Of Photographer?" Or "who Would Be Your Favorite Photographer To Have In A Workshop?" And I Always Say, "my Dad."

I Have This Awareness That The More Dynamic The Situation Is, The More On Guard I Need To Be That The Dynamic Isn't Controlling The Situation. I Found That Myself In The Galapagos. For The First Time In My Life I Was Around Very Exotic Animals, Colorful, Beautiful, And Immediately Present, All Around. Birds, Turtles, Iguanas, Seals. I Was Being Seduced By Their Exoticism, I Was Taking Pictures.the Pictures Weren't Well Lit, There Was No Moment In Play, There Was No Depth To The Pictures. I Was Just Gawking With My Camera At Something I'd Never Seen Before.