The Further Adventures of the Explorer Kids

Last spring the 15 winners of the 2009 National Geographic Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge headed for Peru and 12 days of exploration and adventure. They observed the area's wildlife, experienced a bit of the local culture and visited Machu Picchu. The kids' ticket to the expedition was a winning 300-word essay and a photo that described what they'd discovered as hands-on explorers of their world.

Each winner was accompanied by a parent or guardian, and the expedition was led by National Geographic staffers. Nikon, one of the co-sponsors of the event, supplied each of the kids with a D60 and arranged for noted photojournalist Bruce Dale, who has published numerous articles in National Geographic, to go along to document the adventure and provide photo instruction and tips.

"Some of the kids were pretty advanced," Bruce says. "For the kids with little photo experience, we just set the D60s on auto and they just took the shots as they came. Mostly what I did was suggest ideas for photos."

In one case his idea was, simply, take more pictures. "One of the younger kids didn't seem to be shooting much. I asked him, 'Did you take any pictures today?' He said, 'I shot one yesterday.' I said, 'We can do better than that,' and I took him aside where there was a lady weaving, and I suggested he take some pictures of her. He did and then I said, 'Now get down closer to the ground and take a few more.' Then, 'Why not lay down right on the ground and shoot up toward the sky?' And he did that, and pretty soon he was getting into it. I pointed him toward ideas for subjects and compositions. I tried to show him what was possible and what makes a picture better than a snapshot."

There was no shortage of subject matter, and the kids were given some assignments, like self-portraits" and portraits of each other. "They seemed to be as into the sharing and viewing of photos as the taking of them," Bruce says. "They loved showing each other what they'd got."

Bruce's verdict on the kids' skills? "I'm glad I'm not getting started in photography today because the competition would be so great. Today, if a person has a good eye, he can capture great pictures."

The entire expedition got a glimpse of what Bruce knows very well: the problems a photojournalist often encounters. The expedition was well planned and organized, but not everything can be anticipated. "We ran into a bus strike in Cusco, a cold front, some rain and lots of mud," Bruce reports. "But it was a spectacular adventure. Machu Picchu is just incredible. It comes upon you suddenly—you hike up this back trail and if you closed your eyes the last 50 feet, you could open them up and be looking right down on it, just like a postcard. We had the kids do that—they held hands and we walked them into position and said, 'Okay, now you can look.' It was really neat."

Bruce Dale's website, www.brucedale.com, features a selection of images published in National Geographic magazine. You can find out about National Geographic Kids at kids.nationalgeographic.com.