To record travel impressions or memories, my first reaction is to find a pen and paper. Hey, I’m 48 so that’s how I roll (plus pen/paper always boot up.)

Once I began blogging, of course, a trusty laptop or Internet cafe connection became a favored tool.

Within the last few years, however, I’ve started doing more photography and video.  On a visit to Bali, I was struck by how the locals all seemed to view themselves as artistic, rather than in so much of Western culture where only “arty types” think of themselves as artistic.  I decided to push myself more in mediums other than text, including crafting photos (which felt like play) and in shooting video (which felt like I was way overreaching my capabilities.)

Still, a point and shoot disposable pocket video camera from the CVS drugstore chain convinced me that I could point the device at something, press a button to record, and narrate what I was seeing (my first effort was on Duke of Gloucester Street in Colonial Williamsburg, where reenactors made my task easy.)

Since that day in Virginia, I’ve tried to train my brain to look for opportunities to tell visual stories, not just text ones.  Here’s what I’ve learned.

1)  Get an idiot-proof camera, like the Flip.  Turn it on, point it to what’s interesting, press the red “Record” button and there you go.  Simply narrate what you’re seeing, or let the action speak for itself like this Native American dance in Albuquerque.

2)  Don’t jiggle. Pan slowly. Anchor your hands, arms and body when you’re shooting. No one wants to look at your seemingly drunken, weaving coverage of the Zócalo festivities.  When you pan across a scene, go more slowly than you think is necessary. Sure, you can move the camera quickly, but all of your viewers will want to throw up from motion sickness.  Consider investing in a portable tripod for best stability, especially in low light.

4)  Stay basic at first when editing.  Use the iMovie software on your Mac or Windows Movie Maker on your PC.  Don’t be like a Power Point newbie (they use every slide transition and cutesy audio feature, like a kid who does poster letters using every color in the paint box.)  Do not throw every cool feature into your movie just because you can.  Have a few little clips to string together?  Fade—->Clip—->Fade—->Clip  will do you fine.

5)  Audio and lighting are important. Pocket camera built-in audio devices are OK, but primitive.  If you’re interviewing someone, have them speak up and/or back them up against a wall so the sound bounces more effectively to your camera’s receiver.  My Flip Ultra is pretty forgiving in poor lighting (I’ve shot a nighttime New Year’s street musician video that turned out alright) but I’ve run into problems with harsh sunlight. Avoid shooting when the light is behind your subject (backlit) – position yourself so the available light falls onto their face.

6)  Think carefully before going with HD (High Definition) video cameras.  I think the Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera is a great product because it is under $200, shoots HD and has an external microphone jack if you want to use a handheld or lavalier microphone for vastly improved audio.  HD files, however, are computer memory hogs and require high-powered editing software plus lots of computer processing speed and RAM.  Learn from my recent mistakes in this area in “Look before you leap into HD video.”

Did I miss any of the basics?  Video folks, please let me know in the comments below….

It’s not quite the Oscars but for travel writers winning a NATJA (North American Travel Journalist Association) award is big. Focusing on travel writing, photography and travel promotion submitted by travel journalists, travel magazines, public relations agencies and destination marketing organizations from the around, obviously, the North American countries of Canada, Mexico and the United States, the NATJA Awards honors the “best of the best”.

This year we were thrilled to learn that our own Tim Leffel, editor of Perceptive Travel magazine and guiding light for the Perceptive Travel blog, won a First Prize Award in the category of Travel Writing on the Internet.

His winning entry – Unbalanced in the Sinking City – a story published in the April ’09 edition of Perceptive Travel magazine. Check it out and see for yourself why it is awarding winning travel writing.

This isn’t the first time Tim has picked up NATJA for his travel writing and I’m sure it won’t be his last.

Tim, by the way, is in the process of writing a book on travel writing, hopefully sharing many of his tips on how not only how to create great travel writing but also how to get it published. I, for one, can’t wait to get a copy to read.

And while Tim is busy winning awards, fellow Perceptive Travel blogger Alison Stein Wellner has been busy polishing up an excerpt of her The Heat Seeker story (originally published on World Hum) for Traveler’s Tales Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010 anthology due out this month.

Congrats Tim and Allison.

Can you hear me clapping and cheering all the way from New Zealand?

Generally speaking, I don’t care much for enforced gaiety. Public ceremony, the type of thing that forces or demands or at the least expects a certain type of emotional response from the participants, are all in the category of things I try to avoid. Included: larger parties of any kind, especially weddings and related festivities, cruise ships, large concerts. Basically, I want to have my own reaction to things, and whether it’s the appropriate reaction or an inappropriate reaction I would prefer for it not be a matter of note. So I try to avoid any occasion in which there is an expectation that I may at any moment wave my hands wildly in the air and emit “woohoohooo!”

On the other hand, I actually enjoy public spectacles, like parades, for instance, or sporting events. I’ve really been enjoying watching the Olympics, I know I would also enjoy it if I were watching the games in person — although I’d probably skip the medal ceremonies.

At first this struck me as a bit of a hypocrisy (of which I’m fully capable) but I’ve resolved it. I’ve realized that what I enjoy is theater. That’s it, I don’t mind watching any kind of human revelry, if it clear that I am merely there as a spectator. Even if it’s presumably okay to choose to demur or hang back from participating in an event, I don’t want even the faintest expectation that I might participate.

Spring Break, the Ultimate Wooohooohooo

So needless to say, I was never a big fan of the institution called Spring Break. It all just sounds awful to me. On the other hand, I condone the notion of taking a Break in the Spring, especially if you are living in a cold climate crave colors beyond what can be rendered with black pen and ink. Pictured above is Blue Beach in Vieques, off of Puerto Rico. (Also known as Bahia de Chiva, or Goat Beach.) It’s is a wide stretch of wild beach, not unknown so you will not be entirely alone, yet  still crowd unencumbered. I recommend it.

But while you Break from Spring, I also recommend that you spare a thought to the wider context, for instance on Vieques there are very high cancer rates among the residents, most likely due to the fact that US Navy used it as a bombing range for decades. I don’t mean to single out Vieques though, you can go to French Polynesia and contemplate how the French used it for atom bomb testing, or Hawaii and think about how it was that it became annexed as a state, or go anywhere tropical and read  A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid. Every place has its difficulties, there’s plenty of trouble to go around.

Lest You Think Me a Spoilsport

I don’t think widening your lens should interfere with your good time – you’re on vacation, and it’s not up to any one person to solve all of the world’s problems anyway.  Which, come to think of it, is the real reason why I dislike public ceremony: it restricts the lens on a narrow band of emotions, when there’s a much wider territory to legitimately wander.

As travellers, we all have wish lists of places we want to see and things we want to do.

But very few of us have a travel wish list quite like that of Seattle-based travel writer Charyn Pfueffer, who after more than a decade of writing about food and travel, has decided it is time to give something back.

Her wish list, otherwise known as the Global Citizen Project, involves volunteering in 12 community based projects in 12 different countries over a period of 12 months.

In other words, she wants to become, at least for a short time, a citizen of the world.

But this, like any form of travel, takes money. So Charyn signed up with Kickstarter, an innovative website where journalists, adventurers, filmmakers, designers, artists, etc post plans with the hope of pulling in funding from individuals around the world. There’s one catch, though, to Kickstarter – it’s all or nothing funding. Each project posts a fundraising goal to be met within a specific timeframe and if it’s met, then the funds will be released. If, on the other hand the funding goal is not met, then no money changes hands (ie donor’s credit cards will not be charged).

And this is where you and I can help. Time is running out for the Global Citizen Project funding. With less than 24 hours to go (18 hours as I write this and having just donated $40), just over $1000 is needed to met the funding goal.

So what do you say?

Want to give a helping hand and send Charyn on this very community based adventure?

Even a single dollar would do. And for $10 or more, you can receive a ‘reward’ ranging from a home cooked meal to books and postcards.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is one project that will get off the ground, not only because it is about giving back to the community but also because it will allow the travel community to be involved in something bigger than just hopping on a plane.

Follow

We announced recently that we’re looking for a new blogger to replace Antonia Malchik and that those who applied would get a spot to do a guest post. First up is Brian Spencer, who has been an editor at About.com, IgoUgo, and sports site Empty the Bench. But that’s not the real story…

Ask 50 travelers to define their dream vacation, and you’ll probably get 50 different answers: a wildlife safari through Botswana’s Okavango Delta, riding the rails across the European countryside, relaxing in a thatched-roof hut on a remote island in French Polynesia. I’d never put much thought to it myself… until recently, when my travel outlook for 2010 suddenly, improbably, brightened.

Everybody enters sweepstakes now and again; nobody expects to win. Some question whether anybody wins at all. Well, people do win, at least in the case of Lonely Planet’s recent “Subscribe and Win” competition, which promised US$10,000 worth of travel money to an email subscriber who, in 20 words or less, best described a feature they’d like to see in future LP newsletters. There were “thousands of great entries,” but in the end the lucky winner was… yours truly.

No joke.

I was naturally skeptical when I opened the email (subject: “Lonely Planet Subscribe and Win Competition – Winner Annoucement”). I carefully read it at least five times, Googled the sender’s name, and finally thought to check LP’s website for verification. And there, unbelievably, was my name and my winning entry listed as the first-prize winner. My head buzzed with the realization that no corner of the world, no matter the location nor the cost, would be off limits. Wow.

Where do you go when you can go anywhere?

Since that fateful January morning, my girlfriend and I have been in somewhat of a dream (vacation)-like state, endlessly fantasizing about how to best take advantage of my insane luck. Japan by bullet train! South African wine country and safari! The beaches of Fiji! It still seems too good to be true, and it’ll probably feel that way until we board our plane bound for… we’re undecided.

It’s coming down to a process of elimination. Southeast Asia, as much as we love it, is probably out since we’ve vacationed there twice and recently spent 8 months living in Bangkok, which afforded opportunities to visit parts of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan we hadn’t previously seen. Plus, we know we’ll be back sooner rather than later.

Europe, particularly during the summer months, would be lovely, but for some reason doesn’t especially scream “dream trip.” Australia and New Zealand, in a weird way, seem too close to home despite being nearly 10,000 miles away from New York. North America as a whole isn’t anywhere on our list. That’s hardly enough to narrow it down, but it’s a start, and yes, I realize this is a good problem to have.

Travel writer Alexia Nestora recently completed a study entitled “The Trip of a Lifetime Travel Report 2010,” which sought to determine the “motivations and preferences behind vacations that are considered ‘a trip of a lifetime.’” Her findings aren’t far off from our thinking:

Seeing the World Wonders, safaris and rain forest expeditions are the top experiences travelers are most interested in for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Seventy percent of respondents said they are most interested in visiting natural and man-made wonders on a once-in-a-lifetime trip such as Machu Picchu, the Pyramids or Victoria Falls. Beyond that, 53% said they were very interested in going on safari and 42% were very interested in a rainforest expedition.

(Download the full report for free here.)

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to think about it, I guess this is how I’d define my dream trip: exotic, far away, well outside the normal budget, extended travel time, touches of luxury (but not exclusively high-end), a mix of city scenery and natural landscapes, and having my favorite travel partner there with me.

I’ll let you know once we’ve made our final decision. For now, I’d love to hear where you’d go and what you’d do if you could travel anywhere in the world.

- Brian Spencer