The trip to Malta in June of 2005 is very special for me. It was a combined conference-followed-by-vacation trip, the first one of many that my wife and I took in the following years. The conference was the first one, which I attended for the first time as a professor, not a PhD student. The vacation that followed was the first one, where we specifically included travel stock photography on the agenda. We read travel guides, brainstormed shooting lists, and spend many fun hours tracking down the destinations. For the first time, we packed a DSLR (the original Canon Digital Rebel) and a professional-grade lens (Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
We learned a lot about travel photography from that trip, both in terms of technique and logistics. Looking to capture commercially-viable photos was a big departure from my earlier approach to photography, where my audience had been only our family and closest friends (and I don’t mean Facebook friends – this trip pre-dates social networking as we know it!) Looking back at the photos now, nine years later, I can see how different my style and subjects were from what they are today. The biggest difference is that I largely avoided including people in the photos, while nowadays, that are my main subjects. I believe this is a natural initial stage for many photographers – to focus initially on landscapes, architecture, nature, etc. before gradually progressing to portraits of people. “But I am not interested in shooting people!” was my honest statement at the time when I started doing photography seriously, which I often hear from other beginning photographers.
It takes substantial time to develop skill and personal style in photography. One popular statement is that “the photos you take in the first 10 years of shooting are your worst.” On the one hand, I agree with it. On the other hand, some of my favourite photos are from that trip to Malta. Paradoxically, they have a lot of personal meaning for me, despite being shot for face-less stock consumers.
