Time

Living a life full of travel may sound glorious to some, but the reality is that it is not a glamorous job. Sleeping for only 3 hours at a time or sleeping aboard vehicles while enroute to destinations should be part of your system.

There are the occasional times however that you will be sleeping on the ground with an earth pad or just be cozy on a hammock. Part of being a travel photographer is to be able to adapt and just be comfortable in any environment.

Clients vary and so does each assignment, there will be times when we are forced to do projects that aren’t in our comfort zone. Let’s just be honest here, we need to survive, pay the bills, and support ourselves (family included).

Some may say that this article might sound rude or just about the money, but its true for both the client and the photographer that this is a business and not a happy go lucky form of time wasting. The moment you start accepting jobs, you are pressured with different tasks.

But most often than not, we get to face clients that have a minimum budget for a grandiose work load. And so the question is that, will you as a photographer (newbie or experienced) take on such a job knowing that most of these tasks require skills and editing that are beyond you? Will you need to outsource the task to other freelancers? Or take on the whole task yourself for the sake of pride or money? Such questions always arise when we get into such predicaments.

It has come into a point in my life where I can truly say that anything that costs me my peace is too expensive. As you grow with the seasons, you learn more from each shoot. The good and the bad lessons are always there to either make you or break you.

There will be people who will be genuinely supportive of you through hell or high water and those that sadly just ride on your successes. Choosing the right people is a lucrative step towards a long term profession in photography. It is often said that you are the sum total of the 5 people you hang around with. It goes without saying that we should surround ourselves with people that make us grow into better individuals or professionals.

Time is both a great ally and adversary, we grow better with age and at the same time learn who truly is there for us. We have to understand that photography can be done alone, but the journey involves a lot of people.

Personally, I don’t have a lot of people I can call friends. But those that matter are friends whom I can count on no matter what storms pass by in my life, and I turn will do the same as well for them. From adapting to change in weather, places to stay, food and assignments, let us be prepared that our friendships will change. As our work takes us from one place to another, only a few will stay. What matters is we keep on shooting.