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?
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.
I shoot for mostly NGOs and nonprofits. I photograph images of the unknown, the forgotten and the helpless. These are often the stories that most people overlook. 
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