I somehow came across your work through morningdisc, a group of ultimate frisbee players in Brooklyn Prospect Park… not sure exactly how, but I really like your work… I hope to do something similar, blogging, sharing images, travel, etc.
I would like to ask you a bunch of technical questions, like do you use wordpress or how do you update while abroad… or what few words of advice you can give to someone who has never done this… anyway… your photography is great. Thanks!
Platform
I do use WordPress as the CMS for my blogging. It’s a great piece of software that does everything I want (though it takes a considerable number of plug-ins), easily customizable, with an amazing community to boot.
However, I never use the built-in media system because I don’t like the way WordPress handles media. Instead, I upload pictures manually to my FTP server with Transmit 4, and videos to Vimeo (and paying for a pro account is worth it). I prefer Vimeo over YouTube, because the community and features are a lot better, and there are no ad overlays/previews on a video.
Photography + Video
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mk II, and I’d recommend a decent digital SLR for traveling and blogging. There’s something to be said about capturing the colours of a scene that you can’t express any other way. You don’t need a bunch of lenses; just one decent walk-around lens will be fine for almost all situations, because the best lens is the one you have with you.
Traveling
When I’m on the road, I take an old Macbook Pro with me. It’s far from being a powerful computer nowadays, but it still lets me post-process my photos and videos. This usually translates to hundreds of gigs of data, so I also carry a 1TB WD Elements Portable drive to store everything. One advantage of having an external drive is that I can carry my entire music collection with me, which is nice if you meet new people and want to share music with them.
However, if you’re doing some more serious traveling, I’d recommend a LaCie Rugged Hard Disk. It’s bus powered, so you don’t need an extra adapter or voltage converter if you’re in a country with different outlets. This is what I should have bought.
I also carry a Moleskine ruled pocket notebook with me, because it doesn’t need power, it doesn’t make sound, and it’s very discrete. You can also do some writing when you’re taking off on a plane and not allowed to have any electronic devices on. Also, in one pocket of every coat and bag I own, I have a black Uni-ball Onyx. Careful with smudges when writing; it takes a few moments for the ink to dry on a Moleskine page.
Advice
- Go through your photos and edit them as soon as possible. You’ll pick up details in the photography because the scene is fresh in your mind, and it’ll help you improve for your next trip. Otherwise, they stay on your drive and by the time you’re off on vacation again, you’ll have twice as many photos to sort through, and in my experience, I never look at them again.
- Unless something is super significant or important, don’t post more than one photo of it. People don’t need to see five pictures of the same lake at three different zooms. It’ll make your photos a lot more palatable and interesting.
- Get a digital camera that does both photo and video, because there are times where one is better at capturing or expressing something than the other.
- When staying with friends, leave a backup of all the media you’ve taken on an old drive of theirs; most people have an extra old drive kicking around. If they don’t have a spare drive, see if you can copy it to their main computer, and tell them they can delete it when you get home safely with all your data.
- If you’re rushed and you don’t have time to write down a street name, or a bunch of menu items of things you’re eating, just take a picture of the street sign or the menu. Just be careful about the latter, as some places (usually Chinese) may think you’re stealing their prices to open your own restaurant.
- Use Photoshop actions to automate your post-processing. This is especially important when you’re on a trip and you’re going to be taking a lot of photos. The easier you make your workflow, the easier it’ll be to stay on top of your photos.
This is extremely helpful!!! Thank you!!!