The Paradox of Travel Blogging

You may have noticed a significant amount of inactivity from myself on Twitter and on the website during the last week. Since I left Florence I’ve been extremely occupied taking photos, running around seeing things, experiencing Italy and generally doing things that travelers do. The problems with a travel blog is if you are traveling …

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Comment Guidelines

I don’t enjoy having to write this post, but I’m getting sick of having to weed through spam comments. If you have left a comment on this site and it didn’t appear, it is most likely because me or my spam filter declared you as being spam. This is the official set of rules for …

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Gear

So far, I haven’t purchased anything for the trip. This has been by design. Because I don’t know the exact day when I’m going to start, I’ve been holding off so I can wait for newest models of the stuff I want to come out. So far, this strategy has paid off in spades. New …

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Boy, Are My Arms Tired

I got FIVE shots today. Yellow Fever Tetanus Typhoid Fever Hepatitis A & B Meningococcal Meningitis I passed on rabies and polio, so there is a chance I will spend the rest of my life in an iron lung or foam at the mouth. Oh well. Everyone at the travel clinic was sort of aghast …

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2014: A Year In Photography

2014 was another landmark year for me in terms of travel and photography. In February, I was named the Travel Photographer of the Year by the North American Travel Journalists Association. In April, I was named the Travel Photographer of the Year by the Central States Chapter of the Society of American Travel Writers. In …

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You Do Not Need A Guidebook To Travel

If you have been reading the news the last few days, you have probably come across the “scandal” about the Lonely Planet writer who wrote parts of the Colombia guide book without ever traveling to Colombia. Actually, it is a non-story. He was never supposed to go to Colombia. He was just supposed to write …

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Last Thoughts on French Polynesia

Before I get too far away from it, I should add that I did not hate my brief time in Tahiti. While it was expensive and it did seem to overwhelm much of the experience, there were a few things I did enjoy. Poisson Cru. Before I left the island, I made sure I was …

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The Mouse That Roared

I know you are all probably following along at home, but in case you didn’t know, the 2007 Pacific Games have started in Apia, Samoa. This has actually been a big deal everywhere I’ve been this summer. In Samoa, all the streets in Apia had banners for the games and every day in the paper …

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Kakadu National Park

In the United States, there are three parks which are considered to be the crown jewels in the National Parks system: Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. If you had to make a similar list for Australia, I don’t know what two of the parks would be, one one of them would have to be …

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