I intended to go to Hawaii first so i could get my travel bearings in a place I was familiar with. The last week has been very instructive in how to go about the day-to-day grind of traveling.
Things I’ve learned:
- If you can find a place with free wireless internet access, stay there as long as you can.
- Don’t move locations unless there is a good reason to do so. There is a cost associated with moving.
- Pick what you want to see and do before you get to where you’re going.
- You can only improvise and wing it up to a point. At a minimum you should know where your staying and when/how you’re leaving the next place you’ll be.
- Its much easier to shoot video than it is to do still photos
- I have a lot to learn about photography
- Have a mental checklist of stuff and check it constantly. Check your pockets and never walk away from anywhere without looking to see if you left something
- Even if you can walk comfortably in open toe sandals, it doesn’t mean you should
- If the sun is up, drink Gatorade over Diet Coke every time
- Drink water over Gatorade unless you pee is really dark. Buy whatever is the cheapest, big bottle of water they sell
- When in doubt, take video. Save the still shots for near sunset/sunrise
I’m sure I’ll be adding to this list as time goes on.
Tomorrow I’m off to Mona Kea, then Maui on Sunday. I plan on spending all of Sunday working on video editing. I’ve taken about an hour of raw footage so far on the Big Island and I expect to take a bunch tomorrow.
I don’t have an early start tomorrow, so expect some photos and and update on Volcanoes National Park and my dismal day of taking photos in Pololu Valley. I’m upload a ton of images to Flickr I as type this.