Meet Brendan McLoughlin

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brendan McLoughlin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brendan , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I get my resilience from my daily practice of Stoicism. Each day I read a passage from the Daily Stoic and journal.
Every day, we are faced with difficult situations in our lives and interactions with people. The trials we face should show our strengths and weaknesses. Look beyond each incident and seek the habit of putting it to good use. Should an unfortunate event happen, look inside yourself and ask ‘what resources do I have in dealing with this?’

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am an Image technician (Military photographer) in the Royal Canadian Navy. I can be employed on ships, or military bases across Canada, and am currently deployed in the Pacific region.
What got me into this profession is my passion for photography. I picked up my first used Nikon camera in 2019 before my first Navy deployment and I have been taking photos of every country and city I have visited since.
What started as photographing landscapes and skylines, I now take photos of our service members from helicopters, on ship’s and on land.
I have found I enjoy capturing people being themselves.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Put in more than the minimum. You will get farther than most if you show up and put passion into your work.
On a ship that I was working on at the time, before I was a military photographer, I was taking photos of training exercises that I wasn’t required to. I just enjoyed it. My work was noticed by the Commanding Officer and he complimented me on my work. When the CO comes to find you to tell you how great your work is, I thought “I must be onto something”

Don’t hide your light. Everyone has a talent that the world needs. The Japanese have a term, “ikigai” meaning “to live” and “reason”.
I was printing some of my photos at the base photo unit, where the Sergeant noticed my eye for detail and passion for what I was doing. He made me an offer to work at the unit for three months. My previous unit, and Commanding Officer were onboard. Six months later, I submitted my application for the occupation transfer and I was accepted six months later.

It’s ‘Who’ you know. Yes, knowledge of your field is essential, but if no one can get along with you, you won’t go far. By working at the photo unit, I get to deploy to countries that people visit on vacation, but if it wasn’t for the people that I mentioned above, I wouldn’t be where I am. I arrived here by showing up to a job I didn’t enjoy, gave a little extra, put in the work, the right people noticed me and opportunities were presented.
Show up, and give extra. Be passionate about something. Find the right people.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Companies that I would like to collaborate with, definitely Nikon. I still use my old Nikon D800 for my personal projects. At work, the Canadian Armed Forces has a government deal with Nikon, so I quite enjoy using Nikon Z series camera’s for work.

I also teach photography, to both new and skilled, so I am trying to branch out to instructing, as I love getting people interested in picking up a camera or learning some new skills.

If there is anyone interested, send me an email, or connect with any of my social media accounts. brendans.photography1@gmail.com

Contact Info:

Image Credits

First 3 photos: Credit Brendan McLoughlin Photography. 4th Image credit: Lookout newspaper, Image credit: Sailor First Class Brendan McLoughlin, MARPAC Imaging.

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