Working with Change
The guard at the 2nd place I am staying. I changed location after just two days.
One of the things any photographer has to come to grips with is change. If you cannot work with change, if you cannot cope with uncertainty, then you are dead in the water. Flexibility is especially important for the humanitarian photographer.
Power goes off for hours, sometimes for days. Flights change without notice. People get called to other meetings.
As I write this, our schedule here in Iraq has changed several times: always for a good reason but we have had to adjust things on the fly. The weather has been good here but was lousy in Istanbul. Now, I have relapsed into some sort of flu bug. I have a fever and a really painful cough. My chest hurts so much, it feels like I broke a rib from coughing (I didn’t). It is so bad that I had to cancel my class for today. I had plans to shoot with each participant today to give them one of one time and instruction. But not today. Today, I am headed to an Iraqi hospital to visit a Kurdish doctor to see if I have pneumonia or just the flu and maybe get some meds.
This is life.
Are you emotionally ready for change, for the unexpected on your next assignment? Have you planned ahead?
- Do you have a backup camera body? (I wish I had another body myself right now!)
- How many batteries do you have?
- Cables and adapters?
- Do you have extra CF cards?
- Are you keeping your CF cards spread around? In least in two different carriers? On one the Lumen Dei trips, David duChemin lost close to 80GB of cards because they were all in the one card case and that case turned up missing.
- Is there clean water where you are going to or do you need a portable hand filter?I am sure there is a ton of other items that can help you prepare for the unexpected.
But sometimes, like this time, you can do nothing but roll with it. Accept the fact that things are the way they are and make adjustments.
Now I am off to the doctor.
thanks Matt a good post made me think a bit about backup kit!
Change can hit you under the best of conditions. I know on a couple of trips to China for business I've had to change schedules and modify plans. Can't imagine what you run in to with the conditions you are working under. I either event, flexibility must reign. Go with the flow.
Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “backup body. Take it easy, Mr. B. and hope you're soon fit and well.
Best of luck at the doctor Matt – being fun when traveling is never fun, but hopefully will be a great story when it's over!
Thanks all. Yeah hasn't been real fun. But the doctor gave me some strong med.s and I think they may be working. I am resting this morning but will be leading a Lightroom class this afternoon. Hopefully I'll be up for it.
Hi Matt hope you get well soon
I was thinking exactly the same thing the other day and Im so glad I've been lugging around the extra batteries I've got, long power cuts here at the kumbh mela dont allow for much time for recharging but Im able to rotate and recarge, so alls good.
Hey Matt,
Sorry to hear about your bout of the flu. I'm praying for healing and success on your trip.
Blessings
Sorry to hear about the flu.
Planning ahead is essential. I'm just back from KL where I shot Thaipusam and went to a workshop, and got hit by equipment failure on the trip. All the USB ports on my laptop died and I was unable to transfer any files on to it, or to the new external drive I'd bought. Fortunately, the day before I left Taiwan I bought a couple of extra CF cards, so was able to get through the trip ok, but having to trust in only that single copy of the images was a bit nerve wracking. Everything worked out ok in the end though.
I like your point about spreading your CF cards around. Probably even if you are backing them up to an external reader…. Poor David. I'm sure he's caught heck for that. 80Gigs… My first two computers added together didn't have that much hard drive space.
Yep Good advice, I am buy extra cf cards as we speak. Only the other day did my Nkion start saying that it wouldnt recognise 2 of my cf cards. Luckly I had 2 spare ones but I want at least 10.