Well... it is july the 29th 2008, I finally started with my blog, it is a way of starting with all this which probably will lead me during a couple of years to thousands of places and unexpected situations. What will be all that which is waiting for me?
But... Where does all this come from?
The beginning
It happened that in the middle of May my girlfriend found a job (well, I should say the job found her). Its "office" is what we would call "the planet". It means that she will be travelling to different countries staying there for three, four or five months and coming back to Spain in between them for periods between two and four weeks. That implies that we will see each other for two or three months a year, and a relationship like this, from our point of view, doesn't make any sense. Zuzana is Czech, I don't know if you have ever thought about it, but a relationship between two people from different countries has an immediate implication: at least one of them won't be able to live in his/her country. In my opinion you cannot think it will always be the other one who will give up his/her country.
We both had an interview with the company and we explained to them our situation, it is a very interesting job but there is no job worth finishing our relationship over. So we wanted to know if there was going to be any problem with me living in the flat (house, whatever) that they rent in every country for the team (of three people) working there. We could say that they liked us and that they are very positive about Zuzana doing the job, so... they told us that even if it is not what they thought, it was ok for them if I was coming with her.
The die was cast. When we left from their office in a suburb close to Madrid, we took the car and there was a small traffic jam to get onto the highway. I had a feeling that I will never forget. I looked around and I saw the whole thing: traffic jams, working hours from 9 to 2 and from 4 to 7, planning weekends, shopping at the supermarket... what we use to call normal life. It was going to finish, I was going to leave all that. I had in front of me two or three years which would mean the biggest change of direction in my life. The first direction we were going to take was to Malaysia.
I am a Civil Engineer and I like my job. But I am also a keen photographer and sometimes I do occasional jobs. Well, let's say that this was until now... from now on I will be a photographer who used to work as a Civil Engineer.
And in this way, the dream I had in my mind, that sentence I have told my friends so many times: "what I would like is to travel, to take pictures and to live on them", went from being a "dream" to being a "project".
The project
If you are going to do something like this you have to take it seriously. You can not think "ok, I take my camera and we will see what I get". I think that if you do so you will probably get something, but not as good as it should be (unless you are really talented). Of course that is not my idea, just in case I am not so talented.
The first thing I thought is that I had to change my camera. So far I was one of those weird guys still shooting on film because I had many problems with colors (especially with skin tones), the noise (I use Nikon) and the lack of a full frame digital camera (yes, I use Nikon). I didn't want to spend a huge amount of money because my 19-35mm is not such a wide angle anymore.
But in a trip like this I can not use film. I am definitely moving to digital and the chosen one is the Nikon D700. Now all I do is search for prices and availability. I imagine that I will buy it in Malaysia as soon as I arrive (if it is already available, which I hope) where prices are considerably lower than here in Spain. The first matter I had to resolve is done, for the moment.
The next thing I did was to go to the Malaysian Embassy to ask if it is necessary to get any kind of permission in order to take pictures in any place in the country. I was told to write an email to the consul and so the process began. It seems that I do need permission to take photographs in some areas (especially in Borneo). I think that if you are a tourist you don't need it, but if you are planning to publish them, it is better to do things properly and avoid surprises in the future. At the moment I am in contact with the Malaysian Tourist Office in Paris (there is no Malaysian Tourist Office in Madrid) in order to request the permission and, if possible, any kind of sponsorship.
This, which could seem easy at first glance, is not that easy, I don't have a curriculum as a photographer apart from small jobs, and when there is a field to be filled such as "company", "project description", "publisher" or "target"... it is not so easy.
I also started to search around this new field of professional photography. One of the teachers of a photography course I attended told me to tell him when I am back and we could set up an exhibition. He is a photographer and having somebody who is willing to give a helping hand, is something I really appreciate.
I have also managed to get an interview with the Graphic Editor of the department of corporative magazines of Hachette Filipacchi, which publishes among others "Paisajes desde el tren" (the magazine you would find in spanish trains), Audi magazine or the magazine for Starwood Hotels (owning, for example, the Westin Palace Hotel in Madrid). Here I was quite lucky because when I called them for the first time I was told that the Malaysian embassy had contacted them a couple of weeks before asking if they would be interested in publishing an article about the country. So I was lucky to be in the right place at the right moment, but don't get too excited, this doesn't mean that I have a job.
As a bonus, a friend from my job told me that she could make a website for me. If it is not possible, or if there is not enough time, I will always have this blog. I will let you know the website details when it is ready so you can take a look at it. I am also preparing a business card, I registered in a Malaysian photography forum (PhotoMalaysia)... all those little things...
What is the purpose of all this?
That is the most complicated point in all this. Apart from enjoying what I really like, not having a publisher and being freelance, means that I have no clients yet. In the company where Zuzana is working, they told me that they will try to promote me in, for example, if any of their clients needs a photographer. As for me, I will be handing out my business cards... I will try to get in contact with some other Editors before leaving and once I am there I will see how the photography market is. Right now I do not have any commercial aims fixed.
However, my main idea is shooting a graphic report of the whole of Malaysia: Nature, cities, temples, people, traditions... for example how weddings are, or schools... really getting in touch with the people to be able to grasp the essence of the country and photograph it the best way that I can.
Once I have the work done and I have the pictures, I hope it will be easier to sell them.
But on the top of that, my greatest dream would be being able to publish photography books. After these two or three years ahead (if nothing bad happens, touch wood) of travelling around different countries with stays between three and five months, time enough to know a country, I would like to be able to publish a series of books of the countries I will visit. But this... this is another story, let's go step by step and we will see afterwards what I can do.
A small dose of reality
I imagine that some of you are seeing this as the dream of your life. But I would like you to see the whole of it. What I have been telling you until now is the exciting side of the "adventure". But taking a decision like this also has its inconveniences that I would like to, at least, tell you so you have a better and more real view of all this.
First of all I am leaving my job, which means that my income is reduced to 0. Besides, I will buy a new camera, some lenses, a decent monitor (I hope I can negotiate my laptop with my company)... To all this, add the plane ticket to Malaysia (around 1000€), health insurance, and the expenses of three or four months in Malaysia. I will spend several days in Kuala Lumpur (where Zuzana is), but most of the time I will be travelling around the country. I am not going to keep thinking about it, because I am sure if I try, I will find even more expenses.
Apart from that we are renting a flat in Madrid that we are keeping, because we are not leaving for two years in a row, we will be coming back to Spain from time to time, and I probably for longer periods than one month while I try to sell my pictures. You can't move house every 4 months.
Zuzana is going to earn money, we both know that it will be her salary which will provide us our livelihood, I cannot think that she will be paying for all that I have mentioned. Fortunately I have some money saved which was waiting for a round the world trip, so part of this money will be the "investment" which this project requires.
And if it doesn't work out?
On the one hand I am going to ask for unpaid leave of absence in my company, which allows me to be back in between four months and five years. This is at least a safety net. I am lucky to work in a field in which nowadays there is no unemployment, hopefully it will stay like this throughout the crisis.
But I won't lose sleep over it, I won't die of hunger, as there will always be something I can do.
All this is not the most important, I always try to see the glass as half full, even if there is only a little bit left. Travelling is one of my biggest passions. After all this finishes, even if I don't gain anything as a photographer, I will have lived so many experiences, I will have seen so many places, I will have met so many people... that right now I can't even imagine... And that is something that I will always take with me and whatever happens I will keep from all this. So, even in that case, I have the feeling that this can not go wrong. One of the aims of this "project" is to live it, that will be the greatest experience.
So here we are, ready for the great adventure...
Come with me!
It happened that in the middle of May my girlfriend found a job (well, I should say the job found her). Its "office" is what we would call "the planet". It means that she will be travelling to different countries staying there for three, four or five months and coming back to Spain in between them for periods between two and four weeks. That implies that we will see each other for two or three months a year, and a relationship like this, from our point of view, doesn't make any sense. Zuzana is Czech, I don't know if you have ever thought about it, but a relationship between two people from different countries has an immediate implication: at least one of them won't be able to live in his/her country. In my opinion you cannot think it will always be the other one who will give up his/her country.
We both had an interview with the company and we explained to them our situation, it is a very interesting job but there is no job worth finishing our relationship over. So we wanted to know if there was going to be any problem with me living in the flat (house, whatever) that they rent in every country for the team (of three people) working there. We could say that they liked us and that they are very positive about Zuzana doing the job, so... they told us that even if it is not what they thought, it was ok for them if I was coming with her.
The die was cast. When we left from their office in a suburb close to Madrid, we took the car and there was a small traffic jam to get onto the highway. I had a feeling that I will never forget. I looked around and I saw the whole thing: traffic jams, working hours from 9 to 2 and from 4 to 7, planning weekends, shopping at the supermarket... what we use to call normal life. It was going to finish, I was going to leave all that. I had in front of me two or three years which would mean the biggest change of direction in my life. The first direction we were going to take was to Malaysia.
I am a Civil Engineer and I like my job. But I am also a keen photographer and sometimes I do occasional jobs. Well, let's say that this was until now... from now on I will be a photographer who used to work as a Civil Engineer.
And in this way, the dream I had in my mind, that sentence I have told my friends so many times: "what I would like is to travel, to take pictures and to live on them", went from being a "dream" to being a "project".
The project
If you are going to do something like this you have to take it seriously. You can not think "ok, I take my camera and we will see what I get". I think that if you do so you will probably get something, but not as good as it should be (unless you are really talented). Of course that is not my idea, just in case I am not so talented.
The first thing I thought is that I had to change my camera. So far I was one of those weird guys still shooting on film because I had many problems with colors (especially with skin tones), the noise (I use Nikon) and the lack of a full frame digital camera (yes, I use Nikon). I didn't want to spend a huge amount of money because my 19-35mm is not such a wide angle anymore.
But in a trip like this I can not use film. I am definitely moving to digital and the chosen one is the Nikon D700. Now all I do is search for prices and availability. I imagine that I will buy it in Malaysia as soon as I arrive (if it is already available, which I hope) where prices are considerably lower than here in Spain. The first matter I had to resolve is done, for the moment.
The next thing I did was to go to the Malaysian Embassy to ask if it is necessary to get any kind of permission in order to take pictures in any place in the country. I was told to write an email to the consul and so the process began. It seems that I do need permission to take photographs in some areas (especially in Borneo). I think that if you are a tourist you don't need it, but if you are planning to publish them, it is better to do things properly and avoid surprises in the future. At the moment I am in contact with the Malaysian Tourist Office in Paris (there is no Malaysian Tourist Office in Madrid) in order to request the permission and, if possible, any kind of sponsorship.
This, which could seem easy at first glance, is not that easy, I don't have a curriculum as a photographer apart from small jobs, and when there is a field to be filled such as "company", "project description", "publisher" or "target"... it is not so easy.
I also started to search around this new field of professional photography. One of the teachers of a photography course I attended told me to tell him when I am back and we could set up an exhibition. He is a photographer and having somebody who is willing to give a helping hand, is something I really appreciate.
I have also managed to get an interview with the Graphic Editor of the department of corporative magazines of Hachette Filipacchi, which publishes among others "Paisajes desde el tren" (the magazine you would find in spanish trains), Audi magazine or the magazine for Starwood Hotels (owning, for example, the Westin Palace Hotel in Madrid). Here I was quite lucky because when I called them for the first time I was told that the Malaysian embassy had contacted them a couple of weeks before asking if they would be interested in publishing an article about the country. So I was lucky to be in the right place at the right moment, but don't get too excited, this doesn't mean that I have a job.
As a bonus, a friend from my job told me that she could make a website for me. If it is not possible, or if there is not enough time, I will always have this blog. I will let you know the website details when it is ready so you can take a look at it. I am also preparing a business card, I registered in a Malaysian photography forum (PhotoMalaysia)... all those little things...
What is the purpose of all this?
That is the most complicated point in all this. Apart from enjoying what I really like, not having a publisher and being freelance, means that I have no clients yet. In the company where Zuzana is working, they told me that they will try to promote me in, for example, if any of their clients needs a photographer. As for me, I will be handing out my business cards... I will try to get in contact with some other Editors before leaving and once I am there I will see how the photography market is. Right now I do not have any commercial aims fixed.
However, my main idea is shooting a graphic report of the whole of Malaysia: Nature, cities, temples, people, traditions... for example how weddings are, or schools... really getting in touch with the people to be able to grasp the essence of the country and photograph it the best way that I can.
Once I have the work done and I have the pictures, I hope it will be easier to sell them.
But on the top of that, my greatest dream would be being able to publish photography books. After these two or three years ahead (if nothing bad happens, touch wood) of travelling around different countries with stays between three and five months, time enough to know a country, I would like to be able to publish a series of books of the countries I will visit. But this... this is another story, let's go step by step and we will see afterwards what I can do.
A small dose of reality
I imagine that some of you are seeing this as the dream of your life. But I would like you to see the whole of it. What I have been telling you until now is the exciting side of the "adventure". But taking a decision like this also has its inconveniences that I would like to, at least, tell you so you have a better and more real view of all this.
First of all I am leaving my job, which means that my income is reduced to 0. Besides, I will buy a new camera, some lenses, a decent monitor (I hope I can negotiate my laptop with my company)... To all this, add the plane ticket to Malaysia (around 1000€), health insurance, and the expenses of three or four months in Malaysia. I will spend several days in Kuala Lumpur (where Zuzana is), but most of the time I will be travelling around the country. I am not going to keep thinking about it, because I am sure if I try, I will find even more expenses.
Apart from that we are renting a flat in Madrid that we are keeping, because we are not leaving for two years in a row, we will be coming back to Spain from time to time, and I probably for longer periods than one month while I try to sell my pictures. You can't move house every 4 months.
Zuzana is going to earn money, we both know that it will be her salary which will provide us our livelihood, I cannot think that she will be paying for all that I have mentioned. Fortunately I have some money saved which was waiting for a round the world trip, so part of this money will be the "investment" which this project requires.
And if it doesn't work out?
On the one hand I am going to ask for unpaid leave of absence in my company, which allows me to be back in between four months and five years. This is at least a safety net. I am lucky to work in a field in which nowadays there is no unemployment, hopefully it will stay like this throughout the crisis.
But I won't lose sleep over it, I won't die of hunger, as there will always be something I can do.
All this is not the most important, I always try to see the glass as half full, even if there is only a little bit left. Travelling is one of my biggest passions. After all this finishes, even if I don't gain anything as a photographer, I will have lived so many experiences, I will have seen so many places, I will have met so many people... that right now I can't even imagine... And that is something that I will always take with me and whatever happens I will keep from all this. So, even in that case, I have the feeling that this can not go wrong. One of the aims of this "project" is to live it, that will be the greatest experience.
So here we are, ready for the great adventure...
Come with me!
