What’s the difference between a boring travel journal and a killer one? Usually, you can tell within the first few sentences.

Consider the following:

“So we arrived early in the morning in Cusco with about three days to acclimatize prior to our five day trek to Machu Picchu. The airport is pretty small with the typical assortment of travel agents, tour operators and taxi drivers all vying for your attention.

We got our bags (lucky for me, often mine seem to go MIA) and managed to find a taxi driver who didn’t look to intimidating and who actually spoke English somewhat and headed into Cusco, only about a 10-15 minute drive.”

Granted, it’s grammatically correct and flows at a even pace. You learn how the travelers arrived in the airport, how they got their bags and hailed a taxi, then headed on their way.

Does it provide the basic information about the writer’s experience? Yes. Does it reach out and grab you by the throat, pique your curiosity and compel you to read further? Hardly.

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What is it?
Fototagger: An image annotation tool that let’s you place tags directly on your photos.

Who makes it?
Cogitum

Why should you use it?
Being able to place information tags directly on your travel photos is pretty cool, since it really allows other people to understand a photo better and at a deeper level. (see example)

For instance, adding guidebook information to landscapes, architecture, statues, and people. The info tags can be toggled on and off easily for those who want to examine the pure image without the tags.

With Fototagger you can also search your photos by their tags, in case you need to find them specifically, or group them together. You can post them directly to a few blogging platforms like Blogger and Livejournal, and it allows you to export your tags into your Flickr photo albums.

Since Fototagger is deskstop based, you have to download and install the program. The interface is fairly straightforward, and I was able to annotate a photo quickly and export it as an external webpage. The help menu is readily available should I have hit any problems.

What could be better?
The interface could benefit from a few minor tweaks with the toolbars that would allow them to sit a little more intuitively next to the photos instead of accessing from the top menu.

As well, the customization options for the tags could be improved. In the current version, it appears you can only change the colors of the text and not the style of font.

Lastly, since it’s a desktop program you can’t really use it on the road. Tagging your photos would have to wait until you get back from your trip, unless of course you have a laptop.

How much does it cost?
Free (download it here)

Brave New Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Have you tried Fototagger? Let us know what you think in the comments.

“The Nature” by Tensing

As part of a new series, (actually everything here could be considered a new series), I’ve decided to highlight interesting travel films from around the web. The first is a short montage of Tibet, with its people, landscape, and culture captured beautifully.

The Good: Nice mix and composition of shots, including people, animals, and mountains. Editing is thoughtful, with slow fades guiding the viewer throughout the country.

The Slightly Annoying: The opera music adds an interesting tone to the film, but after a few minutes it begins to grate on the nerves a little. May have been better to try another track intead of using the same throughout, or supplement the music with more “on location” audio, which is used a little.

This week I’ve been pondering the different ways to maintain an online travel blog (or travel journal, whatever you like to call it). You basically have two options: joining a travel community website or building it under your own dedicated domain, and there are pros and cons for each.

For starters, I’ll tackle the reasons to keep your travel blog with a community. (Disclaimer: I am one of the creators of TravelBlogger so feel free to accuse me of bias – but truthfully I don’t mind which site you may join, as long as it’s right for you). So without further ado…

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Forbes recently published a story about a few various electronic devices that travelers are starting to pack with their luggage, from Blackberry’s and high-end stereo headphones, laptop’s and even LCD projectors. Why the rise in tech toys on the road? They give two reasons:

First, the seemingly inexhaustible ability of the electronics industry to cram lots of processing power into tiny products has created items that are small and actually useful – there are notebook computers as powerful as desktops and phones with much of the functionality of PCs.

Second, the swift expansion of high-speed wireless technology across the country and around the world has made it easy to remain connected on the road.

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As most backpackers and travelers know, airports can serve as temporary homes while waiting for delayed or cancelled flights. They can be the nicest buildings in a city, or they can look like they haven’t been renovated since the late sixties. Frequently, they are miles away from the rest of civilization which keeps you from generally leaving the area when waiting for these flights. Or sometimes, if you’re like me, you arrive much too early simply because you’re cautious.

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Some distressing news recently surfaced with the publication of a new report measuring the ecological footprint of the human species. It was decided that on October 9, 2006, we started using more than the Earth can regenerate in a year. To be honest, I thought we were beyond that stage already but it’s somehow more terrible to hear we just passed that mark.

The problem, using the US as an example, is this:

“According to Ecological Footprint calculations, the average U.S. citizen requires 24 acres (10 hectares) to produce enough food, shelter, energy, and other resources to sustain his or her lifestyle. Worldwide there are only 4.5 acres (1.8 hectares) of biologically productive land available for each person. Put another way, if everyone on Earth lived like U.S. citizens, the planet would need to be at least five times bigger…”

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I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and the purpose of this newly created blog. After all, with so many blogs being created every minute (vaguely I’ve read 80,000 new blogs a day) I figure it best to declare my intentions.

First, the title. “Brave New Traveler” is meant to invoke a number of things, Huxley being one of them. The other is the fact that traveling has now entered this bizarre time of hyper globalized societies that thrive on new technologies like the internet, and following suit, there is a new breed of travelers that benefit from using these new ways to experience the world.

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