“The Power of a Smile”

One of the more intriguing photographic features on the National Geographic website is something called “Your Shot,” described thusly by the NG folks:

Our mission is to tell stories collaboratively through big, bold photography and expert curation. …Contribute your best photos and captions to an assignment, and our editors will handpick their favorites. The result? A published story created from your pictures and our editor commentary.

I could sift through the Your Shot blog and archives for ages, I’m pretty sure. But let’s get specific here; let’s talk about the “assignment” that grabbed my attention in the first place: “The Power of a Smile.” Sponsored (fittingly) by SmileTrain, it’s curated by Assistant Photo Editor Marie McGrory who says:

It’s Contagious — With this in mind, for this assignment I want to feel the smile. Avoid the polite, posed, studio smile. I want to feel the laughter, I want to see the incredible things and people that make you smile each day, or the fleeting moments that make the sides of your mouth curl upwards ever so slightly.

The simple act of smiling can lead to feelings of happiness. Smiling is contagious- so go spread it around and let’s see what happens.

The assignment doesn’t end until later this month, on May 26th. But it’s already brought in nearly 11,000 photos to date. And they’re fantastic. And absolutely contagious. Try going HERE and not smiling. I dare you.

Still not smiling? Try HERE. Or HERE.  Or HERE.

Still nothing? HERE. And HERE. (If those last two don’t do the trick, I suggest you seek medical attention immediately.)

The NG peoples are pretty careful about photographic copyrights, so I’m not including actual images in this post. But click through, please. You won’t be sorry. I promise.

The Editor’s Favorites are the cream-of-the-crop, so click on over and start smiling up a storm. (I went with the “Slideshow” option, myself. It was almost lethally powerful.)