The National Geographic Magazine's Top 10 Photos of 2011

I am a big fan of the National Geographic and have been reading and learning from it since the 1960's. As a boy I used to put their maps on my bedroom wall and pour over them, as well as reading articles on everything scientific and geographical over the years. I also love the photographs - you can pick up any National Geographic magazine and wonder at the quality and brilliance of some of the photos.

Photo by Joel Sartore - "Rift in Paradise".
Image link to Top 10 Photographs of 2011
on National Geographic.

The National Geographic magazine's top 10 photos are now available on-line. As usual there are some stunning photos shown - my favourite is the one with the lion in the tree. I wish I could take photos like this - I'm sure hours of practice and patience went into setting up this shot. Also certain in the digital age that perhaps several photos were taken of which this one was selected - perhaps it was even uploaded to the Internet on the spot. Imagine that in the recent past that the photographer would have had to go back to a studio to develop the film and wait to see the end result!

It's a great credit to the National Geographic that they are still in existence and continue to be popular despite the digital age when anybody can shoot almost professional photos with basic digital cameras. Many of their photos are available as free wallpapers for your desktop, and are certainly worth browsing. A fantastic learning resource.

New Portrait Photo - Ego Moment

I had my photo taken yesterday so that my picture can hang in the Boardroom of the National College of Ireland along with all the other members of the NCI Governing Body. It's a tradition in the College that this is done, so the excellent Bonnie shot me in the Atrium of the College - to the right is the result that we settled on. I like the photo so much that I decided to use it as my new profile picture for Moodle, LinkedIn, and Twitter (@eoloughlin). Not since my wedding in September 1986 have I posed formally like this for a professional photographer, so it was almost a new experience. 

In this photo, I think I look a lot like my Dad when he was a bit younger. He's 79 now, so looks a bit older than me - all I've got to do is look at him to see what I will look like in 28 years time!

Getting your photo taken is a a very common experience for us all, but is also unusual. I take a lot of photos myself, but very often my "victims" are uncomfortable,  and often don't really want their photo to be taken. Nevertheless, when we do get our picture taken we all want to look our best - hence the clean shirt, tie, and jacket above, I even trimmed my beard! One of the big advantages of the digital age is of course the ability to immediately delete the photos we don't want, or are not happy with. The above picture is destined to hang in NCI for may years - perhaps only being removed when wall space becomes a problem (or people get fed up looking at my mugshot!).

A big THANK YOU to BC for her professionalism in taking the above, and putting me at ease despite the fact the the photo was taken in the busiest part of the College with colleagues and students passing by.