Great interview:
10 Questions: Photographer Jimmy Chin
7. Approximately how many photos did you submit to the National Geographic editors, and how many ended up in print?
Unlike any other magazine I have ever worked with, National Geographic looks at everything you shoot. I mean everything. I was really self conscious at first because I had always had the opportunity to edit before an editor saw my photos. I got over it eventually, and I worked with an amazing photo editor, Sadie Quarrier. She was really helpful and we got through a solid 25,000 images — they are very thorough over there and don’t want to miss anything! I definitely would have missed one of the shots that ended up in the magazine. In fact, I did miss it. Sadie found it and I never would have caught it.
I’ve read the Nat Geo article mentioned in this interview, and there’s probably less than 25 images in it… that leaves you with around 1/10,000…