Eisa was traditionally performed to welcome the spirits of ancestors during the three day Obon holiday. Today, it may be seen year-round at any festival, sporting event, school assembly or even at a Christmas party.

The word “Eisa” comes from a chant used by Buddhist priests during prayers for deceased. It is now shouted by the leader of an Eisa group to get the dancing started and throughout the performance. The rest of the members respond “Hai ii ya”, “Ei sa sa” or “Sui sa sa”.

Brightly colored uniforms and turbans decorate the drum-beating, high-stepping men. Young girls dressed in summer kimonos and scarves play smaller drums or dance waving their hands gracefully in the air.

In every group a few odd characters stand out from the crowd. Dressed in banana fiber cloth or something outrageously different from their peers, they wander among the other dancers at their own pace. They are called “Chondara” or “Gajan gani” and their antics could make a stone-faced Buddha smile!

At indoors Eisa events music is usually played over the building’s PA system. Outdoors, pickup trucks covered with straw roofs may contain a live, stringed band as well as an amplifier blasting folk music.

There’s one more thing the performance includes: whistling. Words can’t describe the distinct, shrill “Okinawan Whistle.” A flock of whippoorwills on steroids might come close, but can never match the sound of whistling Eisa dancers.

1.Eisa at night, on the streets during Obon.

2.A drummer chants “Hai ii ya”.

3.A young woman wears a traditional summer kimono while dancing.

4.A close-up shot of a character.

5.Here, Eisa is being performed on a school soccer field.

6.Children dance at a school event.

7.Students and teachers dance at a Golden Week ceremony.

8.High-stepping drummers dancing at a festival.

9.These drummers leap in the air as they dance.

10.Eisa being performed the night before a championship bullfight.

11.A Chondara wearing striped banana fiber clothing wanders through the scene.

12.A banner displaying the village district accompanies the Eisa group.

13.A Gajan gani, wearing a flowered robe and straw hat does his thing.

14.Words can’t describe the “Okinawan Whistle”.

Further information about Okinawa Eisa.

Community Connection

Check out another festival in Baranquilla, Colombia. And don’t miss Mike’s Shinugu Matsuri: The Festival That Could Change the World.

Photo: Source

The picture above is a popular photo that made its way around the internet this week. It was titled, Against All Prejudices.

Cute and happy photo, for sure. But what does the title imply, exactly? That those with mohawks are usually racist? That small children are usually homophobic?

Enjoying the photo for their winning smiles, excitement, and human connection is one thing. But giving it a title that seems to say, “Look, we can all get along if the punk and the black kid can!” is another.

The stereotypical generalizations based on appearance here are endless, and most of the people on the “fringe” and kids I’ve known in my life tend to fall on the low-end of bigotry. Give me a photo of Joe Wilson excitedly handing the Nobel Peace Prize over to Obama with that title instead.

But, as usual, there is a sparked debate about the picture over at Reddit. One person notes:

I believe he was making the point that this flies in the face of OTHER people’s prejudices, not necessarily the characters in the picture.

Maybe that is the point. Or maybe both views can be true.

What do you think about the photo’s title? Share your thoughts below.

1.MOUNT OLYMPUS, GREECE. The legendary home of the Greek Gods and throne of Zeus is the highest mountain in Greece at 9,577 feet. The 2-3 day hike to the summit features a close-up look at the roughly 1,700 different species of flora that grow on the mountain. Photo: Jaime Perez

2.MOUNT FUJI, JAPAN. This snowcapped mountain west of Tokyo is sacred in both Buddhism and Shintoism. During the July and August climbing season more than 200,000 people hike to the top of this 12,388 ft. peak. Also an active volcano, Mount Fuji has been venerated as the home of a fire god, a Shinto goddess and Dainichi Nyorai, the Great Sun Buddha. Photo: magnusvk

3.MOUNT AGUNG, BALI. The Balinese consider the volcanic Mount Agung to be the center of the universe. It rises 10,308 feet high in eastern Bali. The Mother Temple of Besakih, the largest and holiest temple in Bali, sits roughly 3,000 feet up its slopes. Photo: jessewagstaff

4.MOUNT OF THE HOLY CROSS, COLORADO. Legends of a giant cross hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains proved true when photographer William Henry Jackson returned from an expedition in 1873 with a picture of this mythical peak, the northernmost 14,000 ft mountain in the Sawatch Range. Mount of the Holy Cross is named for the distinctive cross-shaped snowfield that adorns its northeastern face, and is a popular Christian pilgrimage site. Photo: august allen

5.MOUNT EVEREST, NEPAL/CHINA BORDER. Tibetans call Mount Everest the Goddess Mother of the Universe, the Nepalese call it Goddess of the Sky. At 29,029 feet, it’s the highest mountain on the planet. Everest is part of the Himalayan mountain range and it’s a day’s hike from the Rongbuk Monastery in Tibet to Base Camp. Photo: rupert taylor-price

6.MOUNT NEBO, JORDAN. According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where the Hebrew prophet Moses beheld the promised land that God would give to the Jewish people. On a clear day you can see the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the River Jordan, Jericho and the Mount of Olives. The remains of a 4th century monastery were discovered on this windy peak in western Jordan in 1933, and the church features an impressive collection of ancient mosaics. Photo: charles fred

7.MOUNT KAILASH, CHINA/TIBET. Thousands of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Bonpo pilgrims journey to the remote Himalayan town of Darchen each year to make koras, ritual circuits, around the base of Mount Kailash. Setting foot on the mountain is considered to be a sacrilege, but one 32-mile kora around the base is believed to erase a lifetime of sins. Photo: reurinkjan

8.MOUNT CROAGH PATRICK, IRELAND. As many as one million pilgrims trek this peak annually to pray at the stations of the cross, participate in Mass, or just enjoy the spectacular view over Ireland’s western coast. Pre-Christian Celts believed the deity Crom Dubh lived on the mountain and later St. Patrick—who introduced Christianity to Ireland—is believed to have spent 40 days and nights fasting and praying atop the mountain. Photo: padraic woods

9.THE SAN FRANCISCO PEAKS, ARIZONA. More than a dozen Native American tribes consider this volcanic chain in the Coconino National Forest to be sacred, including the Hopi, who believe the peaks are the mythological home of the Kachina People. In order to protect the area as much as possible, there are no paved roads to the summit. The 9-mile Humphreys Peak Trail is a strenuous round-trip journey that leads to the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet. Photo: AI Hikes AZ

10.POPOCATEPEL, MEXICO. This volcanic peak located roughly 45 miles southeast of Mexico City figures largely in both Aztec and Nahua legends and among local Nahua today “El Popo,” as it’s called for short, is a living, breathing entity. Spanish missionaries built 14 monasteries on El Popo’s slopes during the 16th century, and they’ve been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photo: jplatting

Community Connection

Need some more spirit? Check out The World’s Largest Religious Statues. And for more mountainy-goodness, read Exploring the World’s Most Sacred Mountains.

Photo origin

Thing is, no matter where you go in the world, this is what most people at help desks are thinking.

So beware about those questionable questions now.

Know a link for another funny travel sign? Share it below.

Community Connection

Revisit the signs that signaled America (supposedly) wanted change with Artists For Obama: Signs of Change From Across America, and don’t forget about the The #1 Road Sign You Do Not Want To See.

Feature photo: aturkus

For many, being a travel writer is the proverbial “dream job.” After all, it sounds so romantic: getting paid to travel the world and write about it.

The reality, as revealed by the show Word Travels (now in its third season), is far different. Travel writing is hard work. You dig for stories. You deal with flights, buses, trains, and traffic. You pitch editors, more often denied than accepted. But luckily, this actuality is what makes travel writing so entertaining.

I joined the crew of Word Travels to see for myself how a show about travel writing is put together. The goal? Visit three countries: Georgia, Italy, and Portugal.

Here are my favourite shots from the shoot, offering a glimpse seldom seen by others, and a peek behind the curtain.

1.Tbilisi, Georgia. Robin learns the basics of medieval Georgian swordplay. Sean Cable (director of photography) crouches below, always committed to capturing the best angle.

2.Tibilisi, Georgia. Julia and Paul Vance (sound recordist) take a break from shooting and join a sing-a-long with Georgian metal heads.

3.Countryside, Georgia. Never one to miss an opportunity to fist pump in a massive green field, BNT editor Ian MacKenzie is snapped by Robin. (Photo: Peter Steel)

4.Tibilisi, Georgia. Robin is always ready to use any elements in the scene to tell the story to camera. (Photo: Peter Steel)

5. Lambourghini Plant, Italy. Julia reflects from the floor of the Lambourghini assembly plant, where staggeringly powerful (and expensive) cars are produced.

6. Modena, Italy. Robin and Julia eagerly await their taste of traditional balsamic vinegar, fermented up to 25 years.

7. Modena, Italy. Shooting a travel show isn’t always easy, as this shot reveals. Robin suggests another scene to director Peter Steel, while Julia looks on.

8.Modena, Italy. When ordering a plate of food, be careful what you wish for. Robin shows his astonishment at the amount of meat (which he’ll never eat anyway, as he doesn’t eat pork).

9. Rome, Italy. Julia takes a stab at gladiator training with her instructor Alex.

10. Terceira, Portugal. Paul Vance (sound recordist) scours the crowd and matadors at a bullfight for the perfect shot.

11. Terceira, Portugal. Robin and Ian try not to look afraid before watching the locals in a traditional bull run in the streets. (Photo: Deb Wainwright)

12. Terceira, Portugal. Unfortunately, Paul’s sound equipment became tangled in the feet of a charging bull. A tug of war ensued, with the boom mic (and not Paul) taking the brunt of the attack.

13. Terceira, Portugal. The weather doesn’t always cooperate with a shoot. Robin eyes the rain and wonders when the sun will return.

14. Lisbon, Portugal. Sean Cable is always eager to experiment, including hopping a Segway to enhance a tracking shot.

15. Lisbon, Portugal. Robin describes his experience while on a “blind tour” with Lisbon Walker. The tour aims to use other senses to explore the city.

16. Lisbon, Portugal.High above the city, Robin sits in a window while Sean Cable experiments shooting during “golden hour” – the time just before afternoon becomes dusk. (Photo: Peter Steel)

17. Terceira, Portugal. Robin and Julia share a smile, in the ruins of an old fort. Clearly, they realize they have the best job in the world.

Want more Word Travels? Check their website to see when it’s on in your area. And visit Robin Esrock and Julia Dimon for more from the shows’ venerable hosts.

There are all kinds of reasons why travelers seek out temples, mosques, synagogues and churches on the road.

These holy buildings literally house tradition and history, offer insight into local cultures, and do so while putting irreplaceable works of art and architecture on display — often for free. And of course, they’re also popular destinations for spiritually-minded visitors, too.

Whether you’re seeking buildings with powerful religious or historical significance, or simply an overwhelming visual experience, here are 12 memorable houses of worship from around the globe:

1. St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. St. Peter’s is a triple threat — it’s the centuries-old seat of Catholicism, home to one of the finest art collections in the world, and a visual feast in its own right. Found it overhyped and overcrowded when you visited? Here’s a hint: show up early. At 8am, you’ll have the place to yourself./ Photo: edbrambley

2. Golden Temple, Amritsar, India. Amritsar’s Harmandir Sahib, or “Golden Temple,” is the holiest site in Sikhdom. It’s located in the Punjab, in north western India. / Photo: estetika

3. Kek Lok Si Temple, Penang, Malaysia. Kek Lok Si’s giant Kwan Yin statue dominates the road to Georgetown, the main city on Malaysia’s Pulau Penang, and the various segments of the temple proper seem to spill down the mountainside. I’m sure there are plenty of more famous Buddhist temples in the world, but this one has stayed with me for years. / Photo: shanemcg

4. Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Mecca is the historic and spiritual heart of Islam. Millions of devotees flock to the vast mosque complex each year for the hajj, the world’s largest pilgrimage. At present, Mecca is open only to hajjis — so for now, unless you’re a practicing Muslim, file this one under “daydreams.” / Photo: Wiki Commons

5. Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain. Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece (under construction for 127 years and counting) is a mixed-up fantasy of shapes and colors, light and space. The scaffolding and other signs of construction only add to the awesome confusion of a holy sensory overload. / Photo: jurvetson

6. Aya Sofya, Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul’s Aya Sofya (also called the Hagia Sophia) began life nearly 1500 years ago, as a church. 1000 years later, after the Muslim conquest of Turkey, it was re-invented as a mosque: its mosaics were plastered over, and replaced by Islamic calligraphy. Today it’s a de-consecrated museum — the mosaics are being slowly uncovered, and displayed alongside their later replacements, showing the literal layers of religious history at the junction of Europe and Asia. / Photo: vshioshvili

7.Jain and Hindu Temples, Khajuraho, India. If you’ve walked the tourist trail in India, chances are you already know Khajuraho — the erotic sculptures that cover the walls of the village’s temple complex are a big hit with visitors. / Photo: sankaracs

8.Il Duomo, Florence, Italy. Officially known as the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence’s “Duomo” (Italian for cathedral) has two ways to awe you: First, there’s the massive dome, the largest ever to be constructed in brick, and one of the first major domes to be constructed since Roman times. And second, there’s the facade, an intricate marble pattern in pink, green and white. Honestly, I don’t think I’d ever get tired of looking at this building. / Photo: chrisbuckridge

9.Great Synagogue, Budapest, Hungary. Also known as the Dohany Street Synagogue, Budapest’s Jewish temple is the second largest in the world. Theodore Herzl grew up next door. / Photo: harshilshah

10.Great Mosque, Xi’an, China. Xi’an’s Great Mosque was built more than 1300 years ago, and still serves local Chinese Muslims today. If you’re expecting domes and minarets, though, don’t hold your breath — the complex is built entirely in the traditional Chinese style, and — visually — has more in common with the Forbidden City than with Mecca. / Photo: andreweland

11.Rock-Cut Churches, Lalibela, Ethiopia. Lalibela is a hub for the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian community, and the area is home to a cluster of rock-cut churches — that is, holy buildings carved downward into the ground, instead of built upward from ground level. Ethiopia’s Christians have a history all their own, and (as you see below) an architecture to match. / Photo: herr_hartmann

12. Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.This modern-day cathedral may not be entirely to my taste, but there’s no denying the power of a church built 250 feet high, with floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows climbing 210 feet. / Photo: soldan

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

These are a few of the buildings that have fascinated me in recent years, whether in person or in photos — but I know there are many more remarkable houses of worship out there. What are some of your favorites? Even better, got a photo link to share?

And before you go see these places for yourself, why not brush up on how to respectfully visit holy places around the world?

During a recent bout of doing entirely too much work, I was dreaming of being on the beach.

Ah, thoughts of sand between my toes, slight breeze running through my hair, the sun beating down on my face. A trashy novel sitting by my side, which I’d glance at in between sips of my daiquiri/bloody mary/pina colada.

I might even paint my toes for the occasion, who knows?

And then, all of a sudden, a cloud begins to block my sun. Not to worry, I’m sure the cloud is just moving lazily through the sky the same way I’m moving through my martini.

The sun will be back in full swing in just a second.

Well, now it seems to be getting even darker out here, as if the sun is totally blocked. And a loud noise and swishing sound is beginning to hurt my ears. Am I going to have to take off my sunglasses, and the cucumbers on my eyes underneath them, to see what is going on?

Photo: W8EB / Feature photo: Richard Moross

Damn you, KLM!!

Got a too-close-for-comfort plane, train, or automobile story? Share your thoughts below.

It hasn’t been an easy week, what with more hidden photos of torture, the arrest of a former Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and learning that all of us recyclers/composters/bikers/tree-huggers are really just taking down the planet by sending out our emails to save the Arctic.

Plus, I locked myself out of my apartment. But I digress.

Even with all the bad news out there, every once in a while, I come across something that makes me ponder the beauty of even man-made creations.

Lanscapes From Above

The Boston Globe recently ran a series of pictures from photographer Jason Hawkes called Human Landscapes From Above. Here is the first pic:

Photo: Jason Hawkes/Boston Globe

Some people may see a sea of red and metal, and think this picture is just an example of our over-consumerism.

While on the one-hand, this is true, I also see the many hands went into creating these cars, possibly being the life’s work of some. The intricacy with which the cars are placed speaks to our ability to create usable patterns that the eye is still able to get lost in.

And every once in a while, stepping back to contemplate that just over a century ago, a very simple version of these machines were just a dream in the minds of a few people, is pretty staggering.

So how are we able to bridge the two – over-production of something that is causing harm to the planet versus the art of creating machines beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors – and handle these realities without jumping to either extreme?

Call me an optimist (and most people I knew growing up never would have), but I believe that every “problem” has a solution. You shine a light in a dark corner and guess what happens? It’s not dark anymore.

And I have a sneaking suspicion travelers understand this best of all.

Natural landscapes

Another one of Hawkes’ photographs is of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park:

Photo: Jason Hawkes/Boston Globe

The colors and landscape are a simple reminder that nature outperforms us every time. But that’s ok – we have the ability to work with (not against) nature’s beauty and bounty, enjoying all its free entertainment, if we keep trying to figure out how we can work with (not against) the Earth.

I remember a story a friend once told me about a Native-American tribe who volunteered to hold some nuclear waste on their land. Why would they do such a thing, I asked?

My friend explained: the tribe knew it was better for them, who have always had a give-and-take relationship with the Earth, to figure out what to do with the waste than it was for the US government.

Good point, and a starting place from which to ask questions.

Will human creations be as beautiful – and not harmful – as nature’s? Share your thoughts below!

Feature photo: Garry

You playful yogi, you / Photo: Satyakki Bhattacharjee / Feature photo: Sanjay B

Even if you love the work you do, are traveling around the world in search of adventure, or are working your little heart out toward spiritual enlightenment, sometimes the daily grind just takes over.

We forget about one of life’s most important qualities: play.

From the photographer who shot the above scene:

In Rishikesh (upper India) which is a spiritual abode of yogis from across the world, I saw a bunch of yogis in a rare playful mood. So much so, I caught one taking a playful shortcut. It was very nice to see that. I realised he may have given up everything in life but there is still a bit of child left in him, which sometimes makes him be on air.

Since it is Friday, stop whatever you are doing for 10 minutes and go do something that you consider to be fun as hell (as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else). Swing on a swing, jump on a trampoline, play hopscotch. Or go have a scotch (probably best to do at the end of the day).

Just be sure to do it with gusto, and most importantly, awareness.

Bet these yogis are highly aware of their feet hitting the water.

What are you going to do with your 10 minutes of play? Share your fun moments below!

Photo: hmvh

The sign is from South Africa, where apparently hijacking is still a serious issue.

To get yourself out of other sticky situations, check out How To Cross Dangerous Border Crossings.

Other than fellow foreign backpackers, my early photo albums rarely have shots of actual people.

It’s as if the local populations were non-existent, or at least hiding in their homes whenever I happened to wander into town. This had led to some odd conversations with family and friends after arriving back home. “So…where is everyone?” they’d ask.

The truth of course, was I lacked the confidence to actually snap a person’s photo.

There’s no denying it’s a common invasion of privacy, especially when a number of tourists treat them no different than capturing a photo of the scenery.

As Darren Rowse writes, “I realized that my approach was totally arrogant, disrespectful and very rude. People are not ‘Ëœtourist sites’ – they’re people and they deserve to be treated as such.”

“A much better approach is to take photos in a relational way. This doesn’t mean you need to have talked to them for hours, swapped numbers and told you deepest secrets before photographing them – but it does mean that taking their photograph can actually become a friendly interaction between people from different cultures.”

That’s not to say some people don’t love having their picture taken.

Encounter In Fiji

When hiking into the town of Lovoni on the island of Ovalau, Fiji, I happened upon a group of gardeners at the end of their day.

With little formality, they lined up, hoes slung over their shoulders, and invited me to preserve the memory on my $15 point-and-shoot camera.

I snapped two while they stood with proud smiles on their faces, then promised I would send them copies (which I did).

A few years later I was exploring the ruins of a hilltop temple in Cambodia. While wandering the doorways with my wife, we couldn’t help but notice the presence of two children flitting in our footsteps (though they tried playfully to remain hidden).

We waved hello. The giggled and waved back before disappearing around a rust-coloured corner of the temple wall. I continued to take photographs of the ruins.

Delight In Cambodia

The Cambodian brothers posing.

Eventually they gathered the courage to tug on my shorts and point towards the digital viewer (this time I was armed with a Canon Powershot S80).

Much to their delight, I showed them some photographs. They were clearly enthralled.

While it’s generally understood to always ask permission before taking a child’s photograph, I could see no parents in the vicinity. I took the opportunity to mime my way into asking if they wanted to see themselves in the camera.

They nodded and stood against the temple wall, the older boy with his arm around the younger’s shoulder, a smile on both their lips.

I took a few shots then waved them over. They looked and nodded approvingly, before dashing away into the late afternoon sunshine.

I wanted to send them a few copies but I doubt these children had an email address. Instead we called out goodbye and made our way off the hilltop, down hundreds of steps with ancient serpent statues lining our descent.

Moment In Time

I felt a little guilty for taking their picture without parental permission, even if the parent’s were nowhere to be seen.

Yet if I had attracted negative karma I doubt my wife and I would have been stopped by the three earnest monks we encountered on the way down. Instead, one of them promptly demanding we have our photo taken with them.

Afterwards, one of the monks gave us some gum. Go figure.

For more info, check out Darren Rowse’s excellent advice on “Asking Permission to Photograph People.”

Anyone else have some useful tips or hilarious/embarrassing experiences asking for someone’s photo? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Photo by Mark Brecke

A photographer is a witness. Witnessing war is one of the ultimate human tragedies.

But what if you held a camera and not a gun? What would you see? What would you choose to shoot?

But perhaps, more importantly, what would happen to you after you took the shot? How would the experience change your view of humanity? How would it change your view of yourself?

War photographers are accused of being adrenaline junkies. Continually on the hunt for the next war, the next picture, they shove their lenses into the faces of their traumatized victims.

They are portrayed as voyeurs of suffering, and scavengers of the worst that humanity has to offer – mere human robots snapping pictures in the theater of war.

But there is a price to be paid for viewing all of this suffering.

Haunting Memories

According to a study published in the Columbia Journalism Review, war journalists had significantly more post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and psychological distress than their domestic counterparts.

The war group also experienced a rate of PTSD over the course of their lives that far exceeded that of firefighters and police officers. In fact, war journalists approximated the PTSD rate recorded in combat veterans.

The photographers in the study all spoke of filming scenes of such grotesqueness that they knew the photos would never be published. Yet, even in the light of public squeamishness or editorial sensitivities, they felt compelled to record a visual testament.

Although the images never went further then the vaults of their mind, the collective weight of their memory would often intrude on their waking consciousness and nightly dreams.

With all the invasion of privacy, with all the peril, there is still this sense of mission.

Bearing Witness

World famous war photographer James Nachtwey has traveled everywhere wars and atrocities have been committed in the last decades: Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia, and many other countries.

Nachtwey believes his photography serves a purpose beyond visual remembrance.

He knows the gripping effect his photographs will have on people, and he has never stopped hoping that this effect will serve to stop the war, the hunger, and the poverty that is portrayed in his work:

“It’s more difficult to get publications to focus on issues that are more critical, that do not provide people with an escape from reality but attempt to get them deeper into reality. To be concerned about something much greater than themselves. And I think people are concerned. I think quite often, publishers don’t give their audience enough credit for that.

In fact, at the end of the day, I believe people do want to know when there’s some major tragedy going on; when there’s some unacceptable situation happening in this world. And they want something done about it. That’s what I believe. We must look at it. We’re required to look at it. We’re requited to do what we can about it. If we don’t, who will?”

There must be a reconciliation of the opposites of viewing the ugliest of humanity versus the beautiful good that humanity can create.

Shifting Morality

Photo by Christian Frei Film Productions

After 20 years of being a war photographer, Don McCullin wondered, “…these moral questions, later on, they came to haunt me.”

He speaks of a time when he was in the Congo, where the government soldiers had rounded up some young rebels fighting for Patrice Lumumba, and they were stripped, and the soldiers were goading them with rifles.

The young rebels looked at Mr. McCullin, pleading with him, with their eyes – to save them. There was nothing he could do. The government soldiers would have shot him.

As a witness, he took the picture, recognizing that he could be castigated for doing so. The photo, and the moment, will not be forgotten.

“I don’t approach these people as places as current events,” says Mark Brecke, a war photographer who travels light, and alone. “That’s not why I do this.”

Finding The Spirit

Brecke speaks of the people he has encountered, of stripping it all to the bare bones. He says, “It’s as if, in the face of it, stripped of everything else, they find the center, something spiritual – that thing that is most human.”

Even so, there is only so much humanity a human can take. “The day after a Congo grenade attack, I paid a guide to take me into the mountains to photograph the silverback gorillas,” says Brecke. “I’d had enough of people for a while.”

Perhaps this is why Don McCullin retired to Somerset, land of Arthurian legend, where he now gardens and advocates for the preservation of the English countryside.

Mixed within the fruits and berries of his garden pictures are Indian Gods and Goddesses. “I think I’m allowed to use this as a kind of herbal medicine for my mind,” McCullin says. “To love the environment where I live.”

Community Connection

Check out The Face Of War in A Child, a profile of Mark Brecke published last year in Traverse magazine.

What do you think of war photographers? Crucial service or crass opportunism? Share your thoughts in the comments!

This gives me a chance to sell a few photos and chit-chat with the general public. I rarely sell much, but I have a lot of fun. Invariably, some of the passers-by will inquire as to what type of camera I use.

My usual reply is that I have a middle-of-the-line point and shoot. That satisfies about half of the inquirers. The rest, of course, need to know brand, make and model and all the other technical ins and outs of my digital shadow catcher.

Sometimes, I wonder if maybe I should have taken up painting instead, so that I wouldn’t have to entertain all those silly questions!

The Fantastic Funsaver

In my bag of tricks at these sidewalk art shows, I usually have a few small 5 X 7 photographs that I made with one of those Kodak FunSaver cameras. That usually gets the subject away from the technical end of the spectrum, and back to the nitty-gritty of photography as a creative process.

For someone who is not familiar with the Kodak Funsaver, it is a one-time-use camera. One camera costs less than ten dollars, and is nothing more than a bright yellow cardboard box with a plastic lens, a very simple film-advance mechanism and 24-exposures of Kodak negative film.

After you expose the film, you take the camera to a photo lab. They process the film, make some prints for you and send the box camera back to Kodak, where it gets reused.

Thanks to the sensitive nature of Kodak color-negative film the camera gives you decent pictures under most daylight conditions.

Back To Basics

Nothing could be better suited in helping someone understand the fundamentals of composing a good picture than shooting with a Funsaver.

By using this primitive camera, everything is stripped down to bare basics, and you are forced to work from the ground up in building your picture.

After a few outings with this camera, you will learn to search more for a picture. No close-up view, no telephoto – now you must gaze at every possible image in a different way.

Maybe you need to move farther to the right or maybe closer to the subject. Perhaps there are interesting clouds in the sky and you will concentrate on that area, just leaving a thin skyline of trees or buildings at the bottom.

Or you could go in the other direction and leave the sky out completely. Since the lens is equivalent to a slight wide-angle, chances are you will be moving closer to your subject.

The possibilities are endless. You will learn a great deal about searching for a good photo. A teacher could not give you better advice.

Basic Options

You don’t have to use a returnable camera to get back to the basics.

You might want to try a Polaroid Camera or a pinhole, or even a Diana camera, which is so popular with the fine art people. The results will probably be along the same line. Try one for a few days, a few weeks or even a few months and record the change of seasons.

Another lesson, learned from these cameras, is to shoot less. That way each picture is more valuable and you will spend more time planning the composition, the angle and lighting.

Digital has taught us that we can shoot huge amounts of high quality pictures, delete what we do not like and then go back and shoot a whole bunch more. Some of the more advanced modern cameras even have a system where you can knock off ten or more shots back to back like a machine gun.

Now put that aside and go back to a system where you might have only a dozen or fewer pictures that you can make in one day.

That limitation changes everything. It forces you to look at the visual world longer and with a more discerning eye – which is just what you should be doing anyway.

Shooting people with a basic camera is easier too. Who’s going to turn down a Funsaver portrait?

The subject might drop his guard a little once he know his face won’t be appearing on the front page of the National Enquirer or the Village Voice. Besides, the color print film is made to render good skin tones, so you cannot go wrong in that regard.

So if your travels take you to the French Riviera or the streets of London and you come across someone wandering around with a bright yellow box in his hand, smile!

Do you have any tips for using basic cameras? Share in the comments!

Henri Bauholz studied color photography at Syracuse University and has had numerous gallery shows in Louisiana and Texas. Now living in Maine, he writers part-time and blogs at ZenLoonatic.

Sometimes, I get so involved in taking abstract photographs that I forget that there are other people out there.

Moving figures and images of pedestrians going about their everyday business can add a lot of dimension to your travel pictures; and getting a good picture, while on the road, may not be as difficult as it sounds.

This is not the same as portraiture, but instead, this type of photography derives from the advent of the lightweight rangefinder and SLR cameras that were developed after the second World War and the subsequent arrival of spontaneous street photography, by such luminaries as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander.

The first step compelling street photography is to go to a notable and newsworthy event. This could be anything from a rock concert at Glastonbury to a soccer match or a street parade.

Take a close look at the surroundings and see if you can come up with photos of people doing actions like twirling a baton or waving to the crowd. Take some time to conceive the picture so that the person in the photograph has space to move about within the frame of the image.

Cultivate the Zen

When you go out onto the street, you need to take this relaxed attitude with you. Try walking by yourself and just wander – paying attention to the buildings and the landscapes. Shoot some pictures of these places first and then if you see some human activity that interests you, snap them too.

A relaxed, cheerful and honest attitude will help you blend in with the locals. You might see two people talking with an interesting tree or building in the background. That tree is important, too. You are not trying to do portraiture; that requires a different tact. You are just interested in the everyday rhythm of people going about their business in the context of the local landscape.

Also, it seems that the more intensely you are into the creative process, the less intrusive you will be. This attitude could be easily paraphrased as the Zen of photography.

As your mental concentration and awareness of surroundings increase, you might have the slight air of someone who is meditating. Most extraneous sensual information will be blocked out by your mind, so you can concentrate on the immediate task at hand.

The alignment of the subjects for your picture should be the most important thing in your mind. Take and idea and go with it. You might like where it takes you.

Shoot Solo

Another important thing is to avoid taking pictures while participating in a group tour. If you are going to get any unique pictures, you need to be by yourself, or traveling with just one or two other people.

Tour groups are great for learning about the history of a place, but they will hinder your attempts at candid, non-invasive photography.

Also of importance is the type of camera that you use. With the advent of digital cameras, there are many light and compact point-and-shoot cameras available that still deliver a high resolution image that can be blown up to an 11 X 14 size or larger.

With one of these small cameras in hand, it’s much easier to blend into the crowd. A big expensive camera with an equally impressive gear bag may be great for chasing J-Lo around the night-clubs in an attempt to get that one shot for the pulp mags, but it’s an unwelcome attention-getter on the street.

Don’t get so lost in the Zen of photography that you forget to interact with people. It’s sometimes easy to get lost in space behind the viewfinder, but the more you interact with the general populace, the more you will be accepted for what you are: a photographer.

Keep shooting, and good luck.

Henri Bauholz studied color photography at Syracuse University and has had numerous gallery shows in Louisiana and Texas. Now living in Maine, he writers part-time and blogs at ZenLoonatic.

What do you do with the 200-plus frames you’ve taken at the end of day? Without editing and choosing your best photos, you will never evaluate what worked and what didn’t, and that makes it much harder to improve your photography.

The good news is that Mac OS X’s bundled iPhoto program makes this process easier and faster, but most people don’t know how to use the program effectively. Once you take a few preliminary steps, you’ll be more ready to show and broadcast your best work to the world.

1) iPhoto Library Manager: a must-have tool for iPhoto

The newer and more affordable digital SLR cameras have created a new photographic explosion-quality photography has never before been in the reach of so many people.

The flip side is that the file sizes of the resulting photographs can clog up your Mac’s resources worse than a Dhaka traffic jam. Furthermore, when iPhoto crashes, libraries have a tendency to corrupt as well, resulting in lost or damaged pictures.

That’s why you should break up your libraries according to location or event by using the iPhoto Library Manager, a free tool that allows you to create multiple photo libraries and keep track of their size and back them up more easily.

2) Ratings: a process for getting to your best photos

During the shoot, cull as many photos as possible, keeping your post-shoot workflow more efficient. Remember that all those extra frames require a lot of extra processor requirements, so if you can delete on the fly you’ll save yourself time afterwards.

After importing, view the photos as a slideshow to evaluate their quality and turn off the Ken Burns effect because it is distracting. Instead, turn on the ratings so you can evaluate the frames as you go. Rate the best frames with four or five stars. Delete as many frames as possible in the first pass.

The key here is to look through the frames quickly and see which ones stand out and which don’t-bear in mind that any extra photos will continue to soak up computer resources and bloat your libraries.

3) Keywords: catalogue by topic or place

As you import photos, you should also put keywords on them: namely the location of the shoot or its theme.

Create keywords in the preference menu first. Then, as you import the photos, tag them with your chosen keywords. You can then view smaller sets of photos in your library by simply viewing by keyword.

Keywords help you retrieve a set of pictures in your library more quickly-and are much more powerful than simple albums. Keywords help you show select photographs to a friend or an editor more quickly and help you keep that ever-increasing collection of photographs organized.

4) Smart Albums: getting to the best pictures in your collections

Now here’s the best part. Once you’ve added keywords and rated your photos, you can start using iPhoto’s Smart Albums feature to retrieve the best of the best. When you create a Smart Album, it pulls photos from your library based on factors you define: namely the ratings and keywords you decided on earlier.

Let’s use an example to make this whole process clear.

In my collection, I have thousands of photographs from several destinations around Bangladesh. After I’ve tagged each photo with keywords-namely the cities I shot the photos in-I make sure each of those photos is also rated from none to five stars.

Then I create a Smart Album that pulls all photos that have a rating of four or more stars. Immediately, I can see the best of my work in the entire library. If I want to look at just the best photos from Dhaka, I can create another Smart Album that pulls all photos with four or more stars and the keyword “Dhaka” out from the library.

5) How to share it: plugins for Flickr

What good is all this editing work if you don’t even share your pictures with others? Another reason I use iPhoto is because I know many other people do and thus plug-ins for the program are not hard to find.

When it comes to sharing on Flickr, the keywords I added earlier now function like tags. Used in conjunction with Connected Flow’s Flickr iPhoto plugin, your keywords will be automatically uploaded as tags, which makes them searchable by other people and saves you from having to add tags later.

The plug-in can also resizes the photographs, which saves you uploading time especially if you have crappy internet connections on the road like I do in Bangladesh.

Armed with some of these tips, you should be able to start seeing more quickly what works in your photography and what doesn’t.

Do you have your own iPhoto tips? Please share them below!

Mikey Leung is an Asia-based adventure travel journalist, specializing in feature photography and travel writing. He is just starting work on a new travel guidebook to Bangladesh with Bradt Travel Guides. News regarding the guidebook project is at www.joybangla.info.

The nice thing about selling photography is that anyone can do it – you are not dependent upon physical ability, age, or background. It’s all about attitude, effort, and outlook.

Presenting Your Portfolio

Step 1. Organize Your Photos

The easiest way to store and share your photos is with an online photo album site. There are many to choose from, and your choice of site would depend upon your application. Here are two examples: Flickr and Smugmug.

There are photo communities, photo blog repositories, file storage services, printers that will store your photos, photo album sites supported by advertising, and paid-subscription sites that allow you to license your images.

Many sites are free. Some have restrictions. The sites may have limits for image file size, storage space, and duration of storage (e.g. your photos may get deleted after 90 days of non-usage).

For a monthly subscription, you can often upgrade to a “premium” service, which may increase the size of files you can store and reduce the amount of advertising you endure.

Some sites permit printing and licensing, so you can make money off your photos, similar to stock photography.

Step 2. Make Your Own Web Site

Creating your own website has become almost mandatory if you want to sell your photographs professionally. If you are motivated you can learn web design yourself. Or else, hire a professional to create a website for you.

First find a web host. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may offer this, or you can sign up for a paid account with a hosting company.

Web hosting rates are going down and can vary between $10-25 per year. You can get your own domain name for a few additional dollars.

Include text to describe the pictures so your site will get found on search engines such as Google. Include an email address and/or phone number so you can be reached.

You can include copyright info if you like (e.g. Copyright Trent Burkholder Photography 2007). Don’t get too nervous about people stealing your images.

Magazines and other companies respect copyright rules. Besides, an image on the Internet is usually too poor quality to be printed well.

Remember- it’s better to display your images on the web risking theft, rather than hiding them in the closet, where no one can see them except spiders.

Where To Sell Your Travel Photography

Now that you’ve uploaded and organized your best work, here are 11 places you can market and sell your photographs:

1. Magazines

Magazines are a good way to see your picture in print. There are many magazines covering a wide variety of subjects, and they need pictures for each edition.

The Photographer’s Market is an excellent directory that lists hundreds of magazine listings where photographers can submit their images.

The book also provides valuable insight into what types of pictures each market desires. The brief description in Photographer’s Market will help you to make intelligent decisions about which pictures and articles to send to the various editors.

2. Web Photography

The Web is the easiest place to get your photos published.

Websites are constantly in need of photos to showcase on their web sites. Different types of web sites require certain genres of photography.

Web sites use low-resolution images, which means you don’t need an expensive, high-megapixel camera, and you don’t have to worry about unauthorized usage in other media since printed media requires higher-resolution images than typically found on the Web.

For example, an office site will require images of people in office settings, equipment, or images conveying a work environment, whereas a website offered by a travel agency will depict images of exotic cultures and open-air market settings of different countries.

Real estate agents, tourist/convention-and-visitor bureaus, and companies in the tourism industry are also often looking for good travel photos.

3. Commercial Advertising

Commercial advertising is where the money is. If you can sell a picture for an ad, you could be cashing thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.

Advertisers require exceptionally high quality. The picture must be sharp, very high resolution, correctly exposed, and with accurate lighting across the picture.

Simply a “good” photo of your baby is not good enough for a baby-product advertiser. Professionals have a team of helpers, lighting gear, and big high-res cameras for commercial photography.

In some cases, you may have to compromise your integrity as a photographer to sell a specific image. You decide if you are willing to do that, in order to earn an income.

4. Postcards

Postcards are the lowest-cost printed products. You can make your own quite cheaply, which means low-risk and easy market entry for self-publishers.

There are many online printers for postcards. You could make samples on your own inkjet printer, take them to local stores, and ask for feedback.

5. Stock Agencies

Most publishers already have a photo solution and don’t want to work with “small-timers” and “amateurs.” So, why not let someone else promote your work?

Consider using a stock agency. They represent your work and depending on the images sold, the photographer gets a commission.

With the Internet and digital photography, there is a proliferation of web-based agencies. Find an agency that fits your quality of work.

Select one that lies between the big three professional stock agencies of Getty, Corbis and JupiterMedia, and more amateur and hobbyist-focused “microstock” agencies such as iStockPhoto, ShutterStock, and Everystockphoto.

You can even split your work over several agencies, particularly ones that accept “non-exclusive” submissions, which means that they don’t prohibit you from submitting the same photo to another agency.

6. Combining Your Writing and Photography

Magazines are always looking for stories, so try packaging your photos with a pre-written article.

Think of some interesting and unique angle about your trip or the subject of your photos. Write in the style of the targeted magazine, with a similar word count. If you keep the rights, you can re-package the same article for different magazines.

This does not mean you have to write like Hemingway. With photographers, editors expect to do a certain amount of reworking on the writing. Photographic magazines in particular look for photo/article packages.

Magazines often have fixed pay rates. There is no negotiation. Articles are commissioned and paid by word count.

Photography rates depend upon the size printed. A full page, for example, pays more than a half page, and the cover shot pays the most.

7. Greeting Cards

Travel photos create beautiful images for greeting cards. Images of nature, wildlife, and temples make wonderful greeting card images.

Consult books that have sayings for greeting cards for special events like birthdays, Hanukkah, and Christmas to insert in your card.

Various software devices like Publisher now make it possible for you to make your own professional greeting cards without having to spend a penny. It only costs you energy and time.

8. Photography for Functional Products

Any product that can display a photo is a potential revenue source for photographers.

Magnets, T-shirts, mugs, plates, stickers, cards, mouse pads, bags, the market is unlimited. You can license your photo for others to use on products, or make and sell your own products.

Publishing Your Own Travel Photography Book

The two basic ways of publishing a book on travel photography are 1) Finding a publisher and 2) Self publishing.

Finding a Publisher – Read the publisher’s guidelines. Once you get some magazine articles published approach book publications with your photographic samples.

First submit a book query. Then, if the publisher is interested, he/she will ask for a complete book proposal.

Self Publishing – Another way to get your book published is to do it yourself. If you are not concerned about making a vast amount of money, then you may consider self-publishing.

You can print your book at a regular printing press, pay a publishing company to do it for you online. However, the distribution and marketing will be your sole responsibility.

For an example, see Timen’s book of Southeast Asia photography.

Getting your travel photography book published is useful in several ways:

• You are having a gallery opening and would like to give attendees a printed book that discusses and displays your photography
• You want to send a copy of your book along with your portfolio to curators, philanthropists, and jurors
• You want to have a few copies of your book at your studio, for visitors to browse through
• To earn an income

However you decide to publish and sell your work, remember, persistence is key. Best of luck!

Preethi Burkholder is a professional grant writer and author of ten books. Learn more about at Gifted Hands Writing.

These are some basic pointers to help those without professional training to take professional looking photos.

I’m not going to get very technical here, other than to strongly recommend using a digital camera — preferably one without a delay between when you hit the button and when the picture is actually taken. And set it to as large a file size as is possible given the storage space available.

Know the basics

Get comfortable with the technical functions of the camera you’re using – but don’t get too caught up in the gadgetry of it. Mess around with the camera to find a setting that works for you, and stick with that. Most of the special functions on your camera are much more trouble then they’re worth.

Make a plan

As you go into reporting a story , think about the kind of shots that you want to get and what purpose they will serve in the final package. As you go along, keep re-evaluating this plan in light of what seems realistic, what good shots you’ve already taken, and how many different photos you need for your story.

Get Action or Characters

Always try to photograph some sort of action or event that relates to your story if at all possible. Press your sources for some sort of happening relating to the story that will make for good visuals. If it just isn’t happening, fall back taking great photos that humanize the characters in the story.

Be ready

Have your camera out of its case, turned on and ready to shoot as quickly and as often as possible.

Take tons of shots

Erase the bad ones later. You’re more likely to get something good, and as your subjects get used to you constantly taking their picture, they’ll act more natural and forget you’re there.

Don’t be shy

The confidence you exude when taking photos plays a surprisingly large role in the reception you get from your subjects. Act like you know what you’re doing and have every right to be doing it and the people around you will most likely pick up on your confidence and assume the same. On the off chance that someone gets really mad, you can always delete the picture (or just pretend to).

Beg forgiveness, don’t ask permission

Its polite to ask if you can photograph someone, but sometimes it’s a bad idea (unless you’re pretty sure they’ll say yes). If you just do it and they protest…well at least you got a couple of shots in first. Also, once you point out to them that you’re taking their picture by asking if its okay, they’re likely to stop acting natural and start posing.

Humanize!

Pictures without people are almost always boring. Your story is probably about people, so show us what they look like.

Get close

Extreme close ups of people’s faces tend to humanize them more in the eyes of the viewer. Action up close draws the viewer’s attention. Don’t try to get too many elements in one frame – pick one and make it awesome. The closer you are to the subject the less you need to rely on zoom, telephoto etc. You will have more interesting angles and higher resolution.

Maximize depth

Put as many layers as possible in your photo. If you want to show a landscape, put something in the extreme foreground to make the picture more interesting. If you’re close up on someone’s face, think about what’s happening in the background in the rest of the frame. If you’re showing a crowd of people, make sure there’s at least one person relatively close up for the viewer to immediately engage with.

Rule of thirds

A general rule for visually appealing photos, put your subject or the focal point of your shot off center, dividing the frame into thirds from side to side and/or top to bottom.

Get up early

Everything looks a hundred times better just after sunrise and just before sunset, so if you have a choice, try to shoot in early morning or late afternoon. (Also, if you’re inside, a light source coming from the side is better than one directly overhead).

Do it now!

If you see a photo you want to take, TAKE IT! Even if it means stopping a car, running after someone etc. Don’t put it off, thinking you’ll get another chance to take that photo later. Chances are you won’t.

Don’t be afraid to stage

In the end, it’s all about the great shots you get, not your personal scruples.

Obviously, faking entire events is a big no-no, but if you have a willing subject, there’s nothing wrong with asking them to sit or stand in a certain place, hold something significant to the story, or even do some simple thing while you photograph them if makes the photos more interesting or relevant to the story

For example, if you’re story is about a farmer, put him in front of the barn, or shoot him plowing his field. Also, if you shoot them while they’re being interviewed, you’ll get more animation and emotion out of them.

Sarah Stuteville writes for The Common Language Project – dedicated to developing and implementing innovative approaches to international journalism by focusing on positive, inclusive and humane reporting of stories ignored by the mainstream media.

With image stabilization technology built into digital cameras, it’s easier than ever to capture crisp and clear images. However, unsteady hands, low light, and other factors can still hamper your photography efforts.

With the following quick tips in mind, accurately shooting a moving object isn’t as hard as you think.

1. Position

First, you need to position yourself to find the best angle. If you know what you’re shooting before-hand, like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, a street parade, etc, you can anticipate the movement of your subject. If you’re snapping photos in the moment, you must be able to quickly follow your subject and reposition yourself constantly.

2. Lighting

Be aware of where the light comes from. Shooting into the light results in overexposed images like this one. The colors in the background and the foreground are completely washed out.

3. Flash

Avoid using flash. Photos taken under nature lighting look the best, preserving the true color of the image.

4. Focus

Focus on your moving object by pressing the shutter button halfway. This causes the camera to process all the variables such as distance, metering, and lighting.

As soon as all the values are confirmed and the moving object is locked, you’ll see a green light in the viewfinder and/or hear a beep. At that point, press the shutter button all the way down to take the shot.

5. Re-focus

Now, what if the object moved out of the focus before you could shoot it? You’ll need to re-focus and re-compose your photo. Repositioning yourself helps sometimes, but you can also reposition by using the zoom.

If you have a digital camera with 10x or higher optical zoom, it’ll allow you to shoot more versatile photos. You can afford to shoot from far away and still capture crisp and clear action shots.

Best of all, you’ll be able to capture objects in their most natural state unaware of any intruding lenses. Here are two shots in comparison. The one zoomed in shows clear facial expression of the surfer in action.

6. Sequential Shooting

Many people aren’t aware their digital camera offers sequential shooting mode, which takes multiple frames per second at high resolution. Why not use it?

Just keep your finger on the shutter button, and leave the rest to the camera. It’s that easy. You’ll be surprised at some of the photos taken in this mode.

If you’re still unsure of your abilities before your trip, practice shooting action photos on anything that moves constantly: your dog or cat, your nieces and nephews, even birds in your local park.

You’ll find a new photographer’s skill in you that was there all along.

Jasmine Huang is a photographer at Through the Lenses. She posts about personal travel encounters, hotel and resort reviews, travel guides, and photography tips for your next journey.

Have a Flickr account and interested in joining us? You’ll get to promote your photos and share with the community!

Head over to the group’s main page to sign up. Or add me as a contact and I’ll invite you to the group.

Boring travel slideshows.

You know what I’m talking about. You gather at your friend’s place, who’s just returned from their travels. They fire up the computer, open up their photo gallery, and splash their journey onto the screen.

Usually, the first few photos are compelling. A crammed street. A stunning vista. (Or more likely, an airport lounge as they’re waiting for the plane).

Twenty minutes later, the glossly excitement has worn off. You wonder just how many photographs of buildings/trees/desert your friend could have taken. And they’re only on the first week of their two month trip.

You don’t have to sit through this nightmare anymore (or inflict it upon others). This comprehensive guide will show you how to craft memorable travel slideshows that will have your friends raging with envy and bubbling with compliments.

But first, a disclaimer. This guide is NOT for professional and/or accomplished travel filmmakers. I’m sure those people have their own way of doing things.

Instead, this guide is for the vast majority of amateur photographers that are capable with a camera, possess basic video editing software, and lack the storytelling skills to bring it all together in a killer presentation.

So if that sounds like you — read on, dear friend, and heed these words.

Consider your audience

Who are you making your travel slideshow for? Yourself? Your friends and family? The world? It’s always best to start with your audience in mind when you make these first crucial decisions.

Your audience will dictate everything from the photos, the soundtrack, and the overall impression of the travel slideshow.

For instance, your friends and family may enjoy slow pleasant shots of mountains and temples, while your friends are hungry for a taste of the nightlife, glorious beaches, and midnight fire-twirlers.

In some cases, these slideshows can be one and the same. In others, you may want to create multiple versions for each audience.

Tell a story

Random slideshows are boring. These are slideshows filled with a mix of photographs that are arranged in no coherent order, or predictably chronological.

These are boring because they don’t offer any compelling narrative to guide the viewer through your journey.

Think about it – when was the last time you watched a film that was a random assortment of movie clips? Unless you only rent art house flicks, chances are, you watch films that offer a story.

Your job, as editor, is to convey the “emotion” of the trip, rather than a comprehensive play-by-play. Nobody wants to see endless photographs of absolutely everything you saw/ate/did.

They want to experience a taste of what it feels like to venture into a world they’ve yet to experience. Do them a favour and tell them your story.

Use Appropriate Transitions & Movement

Once you’ve selected and arranged your photographs in some semblance of order, you can then decide on transitions and movement.

Keep in mind, certain types of transitions invoke certain feelings in your audience. For example, slow fades are calm and relaxing. Hard cuts are jarring and frantic. You should attempt to match the transition with visual emotion you’re trying to convey.

But sometimes even interesting photos can become monotonous if they’re always sized exactly to the screen. An effective trick is to add movement to the photos, zooming in on interesting aspects much like you would a video clip.

A word of caution: this technique can be easily abused, with too much movement confusing your audience. In this case, less is more.

Insert movie clips

These days pretty much every new electronic device, from mobile phones to digital cameras, has a video recorder built in.

True, the quality hasn’t been all that great, but it’s getting better all the time. The last camera I bought was able to shoot video that looked excellent when blown up on TV, which is more than good enough for YouTube.

You’d be surprised at how effective a clip of you jumping off a waterfall or a 360 pan of Times Square looks when mixed in with the rest of your photographs. It breaks up the monotony and visually brings your trip to life.

If you blend the video clips in well enough, you’ll even leave your audience with the impression of movement throughout the entire film (what I call ‘motion transference’).

Pick A Good Soundtrack

This sounds easy – just grab a couple of your favourite songs and throw them in the background right? Wrong. That’s a recipe for an utterly forgettable travel slideshow.

After all, when you consider your soundtrack ultimately sets the tone of your entire presentation, you realize the music is the most important decision.

Here’s what I do: split my film into multiple sections, than decide on the “mood” you’d like to invoke, and how that fits into the overall structure of your slideshow.

For example, my Thailand trip starts off conveying the feeling of arriving in Bangkok with a heavy rock song. From there, it’s on to Koh Phangan, party central, and the music continues that mood.

Next, I shift gears for a peaceful reflection in the jungle wonderland of Khao Sok National Park, and I picked some ambient, dream-like electronica. In all cases, I matched the music with the mood I wanted to convey about the location.

Avoid Photo Repetition

The invention of digital photography allows us to take thousands of shots at a time. This does not mean you should include more than a fraction of these in your travel slideshow.

There’s no better way to kill a memorable photograph in an audience’s mind than to have 8 other versions right after it.

Instead, limit yourself to the few shots that let you tell the story. You have to weigh the visual and emotional impact of each sequence to determine the impression you want to create.

If this means cutting out some of your favourite shots, so be it.

Mix Scenery With People

A rule of thumb for scenic photographs – they’re always more interesting when you’re actually there.

The colors, the majesty, the smells. None of that is conveyed through a TV or computer screen. That means try not to use too many scenic photos in your travel slideshow.

Scenic photos are helpful in setting a stage for the destination, but don’t rely on them to keep your audience’s interest for long.

A good strategy is too mix the scenery photographs with shots of people, as faces are generally more compelling than sunsets.

Keep it short (leave them wanting more)

We’ve all watched travel slideshows that start out well, but after an hour of mountain sunsets and drunken party photos, you’re fighting to stay awake. Don’t let this happen to you.

Carefully weigh every photograph and every video clip you’ve used. Does it further the momentum of the slideshow? Is it visually compelling? Do I get tired after watching it more than twice?

When in doubt, cut it out. It’s always better to leave your audience wanting more, rather than buried under an avalanche of mediocrity.

Don’t narrate it

Finally, the big day arrives! You gather your audience around your TV or projector screen, the air buzzing with anticipation.

You dim the lights, voices hush. You click play and wait for your travel slideshow masterpiece to blow them away.

The best thing you can do from this point on, is keep quiet. I know, the temptation to deliver informative and fascinating tidbits behind every photograph will be great.

You’ll be thinking: what if they don’t know how old that building is? Or what the name of my guide was? Or how incredibly drunk I was when I took that?

Trust me. You will ruin your slideshow if you try and narrate it. A better idea is to view the show once in its entirety, THEN go back and reveal the factoids behind your journey.

The important thing is to allow your audience to experience the slideshow on their own terms, without your voice in the background.

When the lights come back on, they will applaud your genious, and wonder when you’re going on your next trip.

Ian MacKenzie is editor of Brave New Traveler, and co-founder of the blogging community TravelBlogger. Aside from writing, he spends his time exploring the fundamental nature of existence and wishing he did more backpacking.

I’m sure you have your own strategies for the perfect travel slideshow. Share in the comments!

The portoflio features an array of polaroid photographs, minimalistic and provocatively complex at the same time, providing a window on America’s backroads. Intrigued, I spoke with the photographer Scott Hammond about his unique style and motivation for capturing these moments in time.

BNT: What kind of camera do you use for your shots?

Scott Hammond: I shoot with an Instant Polaroid Sun 660. It has a simple Auto Focus feature that I enjoy.

What do you like about the camera and its effect on your photos?

Well, I like that the images aren’t perfect. They’re very grainy, and the colors are overly saturated. That makes the photo seem more real to me. Although you can very easily manipulate it, I think there is a common assumption that when you see a Polaroid, it is what it is.

The polaroid print is singular. It’s its own print and negative. There’s only one. It’s like a small artifact of a time and place that you can take with you. It fits perfectly in your backpocket. I collect polaroids just like one would baseball cards. I have shoe boxes full of them. Plus it just seems that Polaroids and my subject matter go hand and hand.

What do you aim to shoot in your photos, whether it’s a person, place, or thing?

I approach shooting something in a very clinical way. I guess my intention is to photograph a subject as it is, really how everyone sees it.

But also in a way where I’m not being judgmental. I don’t really want to convey that I think something is beautiful or disgusting, but to just show the subject as it stands there. I let the viewer decide what they think aboutmy subject matter. The only thing I do is say I think that this moment or place is worth preserving. I lot of times I don’t know why either.

If you look at a lot of my images together, you’ll see that a majority of them are shot exactly the same way; head on and in the middle. It’s just my method of collecting. Not one subject matter is more important than the other. It’s the entire collection that matters and makes a statement.

Name a few of your favourite photographers and why?

Of course every documentary photographer has to say Walker Evans. A collection of his work, “Simple Secrets” was my very first photo book that I bought. I don’t know how many times I’ve flipped through that. It’s amazing how effortlessly he makes photography seem. i think that’s why a lot of mainstream people don’t understand the beauty of his work.

I also really admire Stephen Shore, Dorethea Lange, Jeff Brouws, and William Eggleston. All photograph very similar things, maybe even the same exact things. But each have a very distinct style.

Shore’s “American Surfaces” has been with me on several road trips across the country.

Why do you like taking pictures?

Photography is very therapudic to me.
I like the serenity of driving aimlessly until I happen upon this amazingly banal nothing that feels like if I don’t take a photograph of it the second that I see it, it will blow away in the wind and there will never be a record of it ever existing.

I guess there’s also a sense of urgency in that respect too. I have to make these photographs, because if I don’t, I can’t be sure someone else will.

I also have a compulsion to collect. I’ve always been that way. Ever since I was little, I collected comic books, toys, brochures, placemats, postcards. Especially postcards. I like the ones where it’s just a photo of a motel or a stretch of highway. I think my photos are highly influenced by postcards.

For more of Scott’s photography, check out his website “The Lovely Road.“

Technorati Tags: photography, polaroid, interview, travel

So you’ve just returned from your trip with a billion digital photos.

You hook your USB cable up to your computer and download them all, watching as your experiences flash up on your screen. The places you visited, the people you met, are now reduced to some nicely categorized folders.

Now what?

If you’re a professional digital travel photographer, chances are, you’ve got the latest version of Adobe Photoshop (aff) booted up. You’ve poured the coffee, cracked your knuckles, and are about to attack your travel photos with passionate zest.

For the rest of us that aren’t interested in paying hundreds of dollars for professional photo editing software, there are a number of excellent alternatives. And best of all, you can download this photo editing software for free.

Picasa

(For Basic Users) | Download Picasa (aff)

Another Google product, Picasa is more than just a photo editor. It’s also a surprisingly easy way of sorting, tagging, and categorizing your photos.

Their built in photo features allow you to make fairly simple modifications to the contrast, brightness, and cropping of the photo, as well as red-eye removal. A number of filters also let you add some interesting colour and blur effects.

Other powerful features include sharing your photos via email, publishing to the web, and creating slideshow movies with ease. True to form, the interface will be familiar to anyone using other Google software.

So if you’re new to photo manipulation and you just want to make simple, basic edits, Picasa is the free photo editing software for you.

PhotoPlus 6.0

(For Intermediate Users) | Download PhotoPlus

This software is actually an older version of the Photoplus family (they’re now up to version 10). But the free version is surprisingly good.

It has many of the more sophisticated features you’d find in Adobe Photoshop, though with a slightly older style interface. You can create, edit, manipulate and enhance your travel photos with ease.

In exchange, they do harass you a bit for personal information, in order to send you further “discounts” from their partners and presumably for their own products.

I was able to download the software and remove myself from their lists, so it’s not mandatory to sacrifice your information if you don’t want. All in all, it’s well worth the price.

Gimp

(For Intermediate to Advanced Users) | Download Gimp

Gimp is basically an open source alternative to Photoshop. It has many of the same features as Photoshop, including sophisticated filters, layer support, cropping, resizing, etc.

If you’ve used Photoshop in the past, you’ll pick up Gimp very quickly. And if you’ve never used Photoshop, the learning curve may take a bit longer, but once you follow a couple tutorials, a whole new photo editing world will gloriously unfold before your eyes.

The only slight problem with Gimp is the installation. If you’re not a tech geek, you may have some trouble downloading and installing the various files, but they’ve got some thorough documentation to help you out.

Technorati Tags: travel+photography, travel+tools, travel

There’s plenty of other free photo editing software programs out there. Any useful ones that I missed?

We all know the drill - you spend hours researching flight prices, destinations, accommodations, tourist hotspots, things to see and what to do.

For many people, time spent traveling comes and goes much too quickly, but great pictures can last a lifetime. If you want to relive the spectacular moments you scrimp and save for, leave prepared to capture the priceless memories you encounter on your journey.

Success comes with knowledge and practice. Snapping travel pictures that will do your trip justice is a learned skill – so do your homework before you leave. Take a peek through your camera manual and learn how to operate all of the functions. Understand its strengths and limitations before you head out to shoot.

Imagine beforehand the things you’ll do and photographs you’ll take before you arrive at your destination. Then again, don’t rule out the adventure of feeling out a location for the perfect photo.

Below are five tips that will guide you in your way to take better photos for lasting memories.

1. Use Flash Outdoors

Most people consider flash to be an indoor thing – to be used only under low light conditions. Using flash outdoors, however, can bring a new dimension to your photography. Depending on how high and how strong the sun is, the light can create harsh shadows in everything from people to statues to cool architectural buildings you wish to capture.

Eliminate the shadows by using your flash to fill in the dark spots of your subject while still keeping the rest of your photo intact.

When taking pictures of people on sunny days, turn your flash on, especially if the sun is behind them. This will prevent the person from being completely in silhouette while the rest of the image is bright. On cloudy days, experiment between using flash and no-flash. The flash will brighten up people’s faces and make them stand out.

On the other hand, try taking a picture without flash, because overcast days act like a huge softbox, diffusing rays and casting a soft glow on subjects.

2. Move in Close

When photographing a person or something roughly the same size as a person, take a step or two closer before taking the picture and zoom in on your subject. Your goal is to fill the picture area with the subject you are photographing.

Up close you can reveal telling details, like the textures on a brick wall or freckles on a person’s face. Don’t get too close, however, or your pictures will be blurry. Most cameras have a focal length of about three feet, or approximately one step away from your camera.

If you get closer than the closest focusing distance of your camera (see your manual to be sure), your pictures will be blurry.

3. The Rule of Thirds

The middle is a great place for an entertainer to be. However, the middle of your picture is not always the best place for your subject. Bring some added dimension to your photo by simply moving your subject away from the middle of your picture.

Imagine a three by three grid in your viewfinder and position your subject within one of the intersections of these lines. This technique is also referred to as ‘;The Golden Mean.’ You’ll need to lock the focus if you have an auto-focus camera because most of them focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder.

4. Vertically Challenged

Are you or your camera vertically challenged? If you have never turned your camera sideways to take a picture, you’re missing out! All sorts of things look better in vertical. From a lighthouse on the edge of a cliff to the Eiffel Tower blazing with lights to your dog splashing around in a puddle.

Next time out, make a conscious effort to turn your camera sideways and take some vertical pictures. It also helps to use the same Rule of Thirds (see above) and place the horizon either in the top or the bottom third of the frame. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with what you see.

5. From Dawn til Dusk

Aside from the subject, the most important part of every good photo is the amount (or lack of in some cases) of light. Good lighting affects everything about the appearance of a shot.

In a photograph of your best friend standing in front of the Louvre, bright sunlight from the side can enhance wrinkles and any imperfections. Soft light on a cloudy day however, can subdue those same imperfections and allow for a softer, more flattering photo.

What happens if you don’t like the light on your subject? Simply move yourself or your subject. For immobile things like landscapes, statues, and buildings, try to take your your pictures early or late in the day when the light is long, deep orange and splays itself across the enviroment.

Naomi Liu is a graphic artist and freelance photographer gaining inspiration from her surroundings, traveling in her free time and being a sponge to the environment. Visit her personal website www.naomiliu.com

Have any more basic travel photography tips? Please share them in the comments!

A couple of days ago I created a 360 scrollable & zoomable panorama of the property I bought in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. The actual process of creating this panorama was surprisingly easy. The harder part was researching the tools I needed to do it.

So to save you some time, I’ll let you know how I did it.

Step 1 – Shoot Your Photos

First, take a series of photos with a 360º view of your subject. A tripod is the best way to do this. Just rotate the camera around. You need to make sure there is some overlap between the images so that they can be stitched together with no missing pieces.

Afterwards, download the photos from your camera to one folder on your computer.

Step 2 – Pick Your 360 Photo Software

You’ll need a program to stitch the images together into one wide panorama shot. There are, of course, many tools out there for creating a 360 panorama (you may have even gotten some with your camera software).

Programs like Photoshop will let stitch photos together, but the process is time-consuming and imperfect. Instead I looked for a program that was both easy to use and free to download, which is why I settled on AutoStitch.

The panorama I’ll show you how to create is a cylindrical shot (what you’d see if you pasted a series of pictures inside a tube). You can also create a spherical panorama so you can scroll in any direction. I haven’t tried one of these yet.

Step 3 – Stitch The Photos Together

Autostitch does everything for you. I used almost all the default options for my Puerto Viejo property panorama.

Click Edit, Options to see the options. I changed the scale to 50% to create a larger higher quality result than the 10% defaulted. That is with my 3 megapixel camera. You may need a different setting depending on the result you want and how big an image your camera creates.

To stitch the images all you need to do is select File –> Open and multiselect the images you want to stitch. Everything else happens automatically!

The program does some processing to find the edges between the pictures and produces a file named “pano.jpg” in the same directory as your images (make sure to rename this file when you’re done as it will overwrite it if you try to make a second panorama in the same folder later).

Step 4 – Transform It Into A Scrollable Video

Lastly, you’ll need a program to turn that single wide image into a scrollable and zoomable video. Here I use Pano2QVTR – you can download a free and pro version.

When it opens click start a new project. Again, there are many settings you can change here along with features such as “adding hotspots” and sound to your image. But again used the defaults for my panorama. The only thing I changed was to make a larger 800Ã-600 Quicktime image rather than the default 400Ã-300. This will increase the processing time, but it’s worth it to have a larger, more interesting panorama.

That’s it, you’re done!

The only problem I ran into was with another picture set. Autostitch seemed to stop halfway around the circle and gave me more like 180 º instead of 360º. It’s likely I screwed up somewhere taking the photos and it couldn’t find the link between one photo and the next. Try to avoid this problem by taking a few variations on your photos so you have a variety to choose from if one of the views isn’t working.

Happy panorama-ing! Check out the World Wide Panorama Map for some other mind-blowing examples of 360 degree panoramas.

Doug Dosdall is an avid wanderer, travel writer, and creator of TravelBlogs.com. Visit his personal blog here.