Taking Landscape Photos | National Geographic

Being confirmed as a finalist, nothing like this has ever happened to me before in my life. I still can't believe I made it to this point. I can only hope that my photographs give people a sense of who I am.

My name is Nina Ritchie, and I live in Chinle, Arizona, which is the center of the Navajo Nation. I am a medical doctor on the reservation. There's a lot of things that bring me joy in life. Number one is my family, the passion I have for my work as a doctor, getting out in nature, epic backpacking trips, my kids, being able to capture these moments that can be fleeting. That's really special to see them discovering things through their eyes.

[Music] Brings me immense joy. We live in a small town; we live down there. There are two traffic lights. We have a lot of wide open spaces and can see hundreds of miles. We take a lot of trips almost every weekend. We have a camper trailer; we can drive three hours to get to a national park. Boone dot cam in some really beautiful places. Holy cow, look at you guys!

That journey, that drive that we get to share together, that's inherently inspiring. That's usually where I find photographic opportunities. I do need a creative outlet, and I think that it comes from the heaviness of medicine. Dealing with life and death motivates me to get out there and do everything I can because tomorrow, tomorrow isn't promised.

I think that so far, my voice has probably been more landscape and wildlife photography—a sunset or a sunrise, vibrant colors. That's probably what a Nina photograph looks like. In this contest, I want to really challenge myself, try to take photos that I don't normally take, push the limits, push my limits, capture things that are outside my comfort zone.

I idolize the National Geographic photographer. It's so wonderful to go out there and seek the stories and document them and move other people. I think it would be wonderful to win because what that means is that someone saw the potential in me.

There are so many wonderful things that photography has brought to me. It's in my blood, and I'm gonna keep doing it.