That artistic close-up of last night's dinner. Your favorite river, expertly framed by the mountains behind it. The perfect family portrait, everyone smiling and even the kids are looking at the camera. For once.
Right now, everybody has a great photo to share. We all like to think we've posted some impressive pictures online. Then National Geographic comes along, and the pros remind us how far we still have to go.
You can now take a look for yourself at the magazine's just-launched Tumblr, Found, which is exactly what its name suggests: a collection of newly discovered photos from their archives that have never been published. And they are astounding. Yes, National Geographic's reject pile is still better than the best vacation album you ever e-mailed to your cousins.
Because, among other examples, it has this picture of Alexander Graham Bell kissing his wife inside of a kite he invented.
Many of the photos are more than a half-century old, yet they appear timeless. This colorized photo of two women in a field was snapped in 1928. You get the feeling it could have been snapped either 50 years later, or earlier. Same with this "Moonrise Kingdom"-ish image of children camping and this one of a Scottish cow auction.
National Geographic created the photo blog to celebrate its 125th anniversary and spotlight "photographs that reveal cultures and moments of the past. Many of these photos have never been published and are rarely seen by the public."
Guessing that's all about to change.
Follow Jonathan Anker on Twitter @JonFromHLN
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