After being slammed by a Class 4 avalanche and buried in snow, anybody would fight for survival. But his professionalism overrode even his basic instincts, and instead Cory Richards turned his small HD camera on himself and took photographs of himself crying, traumatized and then thankful to be alive.

Themed under the EOS Amazing Photo Hour, National Geographic works with Canon to bring you 2 documentaries:125th Photos That Amaze Us, and Killer Shot: Lost Eden with Tim Laman. The documentaries will revisit stunning shots by the educational National Geographic magazine to celebrate the National Geographic’s 125th birthday.

Scenes of pricelessly personal and extreme photography will also be featured in 125TH Photos That Amaze Us, and Killer Shot: Lost Eden with Tim Laman. Watch National Geographic lensmen, Richards and Tim Laman in the hour-long documentaries that put you in the front row seat as they capture some of the least known places and experiences on the planet.

In 125TH Photos That Amaze Us,  National Geographic 2012 Adventurer of the Year, Cory Richards, shares his experiences on the challenge of scaling 5 unclimbed peaks in Antarctica.

Richards, now 32, began his love affair with climbing when he was 5, as his avid climber of a father, brought the boy along with him.

Looking back on his 13-year-long career, Richards, who was in Singapore on Nov 1 tells UrbanWire the 3 reasons he became a professional photographer: He wanted to climb, tell stories and take photographs.

“We are doing something hard and that’s when we become raw and emotional, that’s when we are at our best because that’s when we are real, we are not pretending anymore.”

As a Nat Geo photographer, Richards, who used to do fashion photography, wants to bring the lesser-known parts of the world to the rest of the world and “inform people that the world is very huge, but much smaller in terms of human experience”.

Richards, who has been to Uganda and South Africa, hopes to spend more time in Africa. Struggling to find the right words to explain why, he simply says, “There’s just so much to tell there.”

Tying in with the 125th anniversary celebration, photography enthusiasts aged 18 and above, can participate in the Explore to Inspire Photo Contest that will end on Nov 30. Held in conjunction with Canon, the winner of the competition will walk away with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III (body), and an opportunity to fly to San Francisco for the prestigious National Geographic Weekend Photography Workshop to learn from one of the renowned National Geographic photographers from the United States.

Contestants in 2nd and 3rd place will receive a Canon EOS 6D (body) and a Canon EOS 70D (body) respectively.

Contest details can be found on www.exploretoinspire.com.

Also catch the 60-minute documentaries of the EOS Amazing Photo Hour that will broadcast on the National Geographic Channel – StarHub Channel 411 and SingTel mio TV Channel 201.

125TH Photos That Amaze Us will broadcast on 3 Nov (Sun, 8pm), 4 Nov (Mon, 6pm) and 9 Nov (Sat, 7.55am).

Killer Shot: Lost Eden with Tim Laman will broadcast on 10 Nov (Sun, 8pm), 11 Nov (Mon, 6pm), 16 Nov (Sat, 7.55am).

 

 This article is written by Charmaine Lim.