The flights have been confirmed, the tourism authority is organising my logistics to travel the country widely and – all things being as equal as they can be – I’m off on a 10 day shoot to Timor-Leste next week. I’m quite excited about the prospect of shooting a new destination – one largely in its infancy in terms of tourism development. I’ll be the first professional photographer to give it a “tourism makeover’ since it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, after a 10 year struggle. I’ve followed the country’s fascinating recent history and I’m curious to see for myself the potential of this young country as it looks to diversity and grow its economy. Expect to see some pictures shortly.
And from there, its straight over to Tuvalu then onto Kiribati, The Marshall Islands, The Federated States of Micronesia and Palau by which time, one can only hope, I will have mastered my latest underwater camera. While I’ve been working with the tourism authorities to schedule these shoots for several weeks now (like trying to herd stray cats I’d have to say), it’ll be good to get out of the office and do some photography. The goal: To capture a defining image of each of the 15 destination I’ll be shooting and the delivery to my client of an outstanding regional image library.