In his third installment for Adorama TV about his assignment series on Malta, travel photographer and journalist Doug McKinlay gives some great advice on how to cover all your bases and make the most out of your commissioned trip.
Travel photography is the dream job of many up and coming professionals. And why not? You get to visit new and interesting places while doing what you love. However, when it's your job, you have to have the right attitude. You are not on a holiday, so when things start to go pear-shaped, you need to stay laser-focused, and, as McKinley explains in this video, not only is planning of the upmost importance, being adaptable in your plans is what will see you through an assignment with the least amount of misses or mistakes possible. I say "the least amount possible" because things will go wrong. The weather won't be ideal, you'll get caught in bad light with the wrong settings, cards will fail, etc., so having a contingency plan can really save your bacon.
Being both a seasoned journalist and a photographer, McKinlay is always on the ball. As he mentions in the video, he is ever vigilant about what he is photographing, taking detailed notes in the field, and making sure to get the correct spellings for the subjects in his images. And this video proves just how important it was for him to take notes in Malta, even though initially, the assignment was pictorial only — at least, for him, anyway.
As this is the third installment on this series, it's well worth giving the other videos a view, as his knowledge and advice about navigating an assignment is useful for any professional — especially any aspiring travel photographers.
