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How A National Geographic Photo Editor Rejects a Photographer

A year ago, someone from the National Geographic Cable Channel had seen some of my photography and sent me an email asking if I would like to meet with a photo editor at the magazine. Being a nature photographer I was flattered and excited to have the opportunity to show my work to National Geographic. A meeting was arranged with a Senior Photo Editor of the magazine at the National Geographic building.

I brought 50 images and what I thought would be a 20-minute meeting lasted an hour. The photo editor was very impressed with what she saw.
She asked me to put together a broader portfolio and I told her it would take a couple of months as I had taken over 300,000 photos in the last five years and wanted her to see the best. I put together 700 of those images and sent them on a DVD at the beginning of August...with delivery confirmation. After six weeks I sent her an email to see if she had reviewed the images. She did not respond. A month later I sent another email to see if and when she might have a chance to review my work. She did not respond. I waited another two months and asked her to please return the images...they were full resolution and not watermarked. She did not respond.

The person at National Geographic who originally contacted me was embarrassed and unhappy about my treatment (or lack thereof). Six weeks after I requested my work be returned...it arrived with no note...nothing in the envelope but my images. I followed up with a note to the photo editor's superior detailing my treatment. He never responded.