30 Years of BAD Nat Geo pictures

December 21, 2010 11:46 AM

30 Years of BAD National Geographic Pictures - Some of the highlights of Bruce Dale's 30 year career at National Geographic including 10 trips to China beginning in the late 1970's, the hologram cover for the 100th anniversary edition, and mounting a camera on the tail of a jumbo jet for in-flight photographs.
posted by roaring beast (25 comments total)

Aw, I was hoping for blurry shots of tribal dances and of bare branches where exotic birds had been sitting moments before.

But hey, these aren't so bad.
posted by Maaik at 11:58 AM on December 21, 2010 [9 favorites]

I too was expecting outtakes but these are cool too!
posted by special-k at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2010

That was lovely. (I'm not getting much work done this afternoon!)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 12:13 PM on December 21, 2010

Very nice. Although the unbearable pedant in me needs to point out that ain't a jumbo jet.

Also, the below water / above water pictures - were they taken in one shot or is it a montage, or a special lens? I don't see how the above water image can be so sharp if half the lens is underwater.
posted by jontyjago at 12:25 PM on December 21, 2010

Although the unbearable pedant in me needs to point out that ain't a jumbo jet.

It was when he took that photo.
posted by loquacious at 12:38 PM on December 21, 2010

Also, the below water / above water pictures - were they taken in one shot or is it a montage, or a special lens?

The focus isn't too hard as long as you have a deep depth of field. The tricky bit is the light levels are so different that you need a half filter otherwise one side or the other would end up pitch black or pure white. There's actually a wikipedia entry on it.
posted by smackfu at 12:44 PM on December 21, 2010

The focus isn't too hard as long as you have a deep depth of field.

Looks like it was bright day and a wide lens, so maybe depth of field would not have been a problem if the lens was stopped right down.
posted by carter at 12:57 PM on December 21, 2010

That was enjoyable, thanks.
posted by Fizz at 1:08 PM on December 21, 2010

"Marge, when kids these days say 'bad', they mean 'good'. And to 'shake your booty' means to wiggle one's butt."
posted by OverlappingElvis at 1:14 PM on December 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

To quote Run DMC -- Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good.
posted by symbioid at 1:38 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Thanks, smackfu. Always wondered about those kind of shots.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:34 PM on December 21, 2010

Yeah, I definitely think you should've changed the post title here. I almost skipped it, expecting to see the worst of Nat Geo's images.
Cool find, though.
posted by KGMoney at 2:36 PM on December 21, 2010

Wait a sec. Everyone in this thread keeps referring to "bad" as an adjective - in this case, isn't it capitalized because it's his name? I'm assuming Bruce something-beginning-with-A Dale?

Because given that, I thought it was a rather clever post title.
posted by dendritejungle at 2:59 PM on December 21, 2010

(Bruce Albert Dale, in fact?)
posted by dendritejungle at 3:00 PM on December 21, 2010

Wait a sec. Everyone in this thread keeps referring to "bad" as an adjective - in this case, isn't it capitalized because it's his name? I'm assuming Bruce something-beginning-with-A Dale?

You didn't actually watch the video, did you?
posted by special-k at 3:18 PM on December 21, 2010

Sadly, not yet: I'm not at a computer with speakers.

*hangs head in shame*
posted by dendritejungle at 3:22 PM on December 21, 2010

Sadly, not yet: I'm not at a computer with speakers.

No biggie. Your concern is addressed in the first part of the video.
posted by special-k at 3:23 PM on December 21, 2010

Sadly, not yet: I'm not at a computer with speakers.

No biggie. Your concern is addressed in the first part of the video.

And your mind is blown in the last part of the video.
posted by kurosawa's pal at 5:40 PM on December 21, 2010

Holy shit, it's like Mythbusters with that globe.
posted by bwg at 6:01 PM on December 21, 2010

That was cool. Thanks for sharing.
posted by dejah420 at 7:43 PM on December 21, 2010

that ain't a jumbo jet

The L-1011 is significantly smaller than a 747, but both are technically widebodies. Jumbo is an unofficial term sometimes applied just to the 747, sometimes to the whole category.
posted by dhartung at 10:10 PM on December 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

The L-1011 is significantly smaller than a 747, but both are technically widebodies. Jumbo is an unofficial term sometimes applied just to the 747, sometimes to the whole category.

Kill all pedants. And I mean that in a symbolic way.
posted by IvoShandor at 10:59 PM on December 21, 2010

His quote about spending so much time working on getting fantastic shots and then in retrospect wishing he'd been to the fantastic places in his pictures is why I don't take a camera on hoidays.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 7:09 AM on December 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Silentgoldfish, my photographer SO is the same, so from holidays we get slanted crooked and truly (lovely) bad pictures taken by our offspring. Win!
posted by dabitch at 9:11 AM on December 22, 2010

OTOH, places can look a lot nicer in the photos than they do in real life.
posted by smackfu at 12:06 PM on December 22, 2010