Flickr Favorites: Today is a good day

Fjord in Norway

These photos come from Today is a good day's Norway set on Flickr.

Flickr Favorites: neilalderney123

St. John's Chapel - The Tower of London

St. James Park Going Yellow

These beautiful photos come from neilalderney123's London set on Flickr.

Flickr Favorites: spiicytuna

I love these photos by spiicytuna on flickr. You can see these and other hot air balloon pictures in his Balloon Classics set.

Flickr Favorites: ms4jah

These photos are from ms4jah's Best Balloon photos set on Flickr.

Flickr Favorites: angela7dreams

Photos from angela7dreams' Kenya 2006 set on Flickr.

After reading Peter Allison's book about his experience as a safari guide, I've been thinking more about travel in Africa. These pictures just add to the desire to see it for myself.

Wikimedia Commons: Picture of the Year 2007

Photo by Newton2 at Wikimedia Commons

Knowing of my interest in travel and photography, my brother Scott directed me to Wikimedia Common's Picture of the Year 2007 where I found this amazing photo of Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds of England.

Wikimedia Commons is a treasure chest of photographs that are shared under open content licenses like Creative Commons. If you are interested in reading more about free, or open source, software and culture, you can check out Scott's blog at MovingtoFreedom.org.

Flickr Favorites: Ole Begemann

Photos from Ole Begemann's Iceland 2007 set on Flickr.

From other Travel Blogs...

Market in Dubrovnik, Croatia

TRAVEL DESTINATIONS:
Planning a visit to Japan? Viator has ideas of what to do in Kyoto and Tokyo, a Tale of Two Cities.

Jack at Eyeflare has put together a great list of places to go ice skating in London.

The New York Times makes suggestions for adventure travel in Mexico.

TRAVEL TIPS:
Vagabondish shows you how to stay for free while traveling with 8 Tools to Help You Travel Forever and Live Rent Free.

On the traveler's notebook, Julie Schwietert gives tips on How to Live Like A Local, great advice for travelers and expats alike.

You can also hire a true local to show you around. Intelligent Travel writes about Locals for Hire in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Madrid, and Stockholm.

TRAVEL WRITING:
Vagabonding shares 5 tips for writing better travel journals.

In an earlier post, I mentioned How to Write a Travel Journal That's Worth Reading from Vagabondish.

Another good article is Create a More Vivid Travel Journal by Dave Fox.

Put these tips to good use and write your own travel story and submit it to the new Traveling Stories Magazine Writing Competition. You might just win the $150 prize! From Michael at TSM, "The contest is in an effort to motivate travelers to share their traveling stories instead of just letting them go untold. Everyone always has at least a couple really interesting traveling stories."

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY:
There are some good tips about asking permission to photograph people on Digital Photography School.

For more travel articles, check out the section marked From other Blogs in my sidebar.

Flickr Favorites: Kalandrakas

These pictures of floating markets come from Kalandrakas' Amazing Thailand set on Flickr.

Flickr Favorites: Shapeshift

These photographs of Hanoi come from Shapeshift's Vietnam set on Flickr.

From other Travel Blogs...

Red Rocks Park near Morrison, Colorado

TRAVEL NARRATIVES:
Dave from GoBackpacking started his round the world trip today. His first stop is Tahiti, but I'm not at all jealous. I like the below freezing temps we are experiencing in Minnesota, really. Ha! In a recent post, Dave shared his packing list and a photo of everything he is bringing on his trip. Could you pack like that for a year on the road?


TRAVEL DESTINATIONS:
Learn about the history of Central Park on Eyeflare.

National Parks Traveler has two articles that caught my eye: Paddling Into Yellowstone National Park and How the National Seashores Came to Be.

Read about the Big Sur Coast in California on Real Travel.


TRAVEL TIPS:
Nath at Ubertramp is at it again. He is sharing even more travel tips with Hidden Money Belts and How to Hide Money on your Person.

Not just for women, Beth at Wanderlust and Lipstick shares 5 tips for solo women travelers.

TRAVEL WRITING:
Check out Vagabondish for some great tips on How to Write a Travel Journal That's Worth Reading. I especially like the suggestions to use different color pens to mark different days, and to create an index of your entries. I even have one of those pens with 4 different colors to choose from.


TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY:
The holidays are here, and it seems like cameras are on sale at all the stores. If you are thinking of buying a new camera for yourself or someone else, here are some good resources to help you choose a digital camera.

Digital Photography School has several tutorials on how to buy digital cameras.

Should you buy a DSLR camera? Check out the traveler's notebook useful article and quiz to help you decide.


For more travel articles, check out the section marked From other Blogs in my sidebar.

Organizing Digital Photographs

Fall Colors in Northern Minnesota

I am in the process of re-organizing my digital pictures. I've been using Irfanview as my photo viewing program, and sorting my pictures into folders in my Windows file system. It works great, I can go to the My Pictures directory where there is a folder for each year and subfolders for different activities (specific trips, sports, school, friends, home). In addition to the annual folders, there is a folder titled "working" for storing new pictures that haven't been labeled and filed yet.

I've had this system for 5 years, ever since I purchased my first digital camera. When something works, I tend to leave it be, even if there is a better way to do it. Why am I changing my system now? I had thought to write a post on How to Organize Digital Photographs, a simple guide to decluttering the digital pictures on your computer's hard drive.

It was going to start with something like this:

Whenever I ask someone for a copy of their digital picture, I cringe if it involves long searches through picture files that are unlabeled and not dated. Just like a cluttered closet filled with shoe boxes of printed photographs, a hard drive cluttered with unorganized picture files will cause you to waste time and energy when you need to find something.

As I wrote about my system, and researched other systems, I realized a lot has changed since I discounted the free photo management program that came with that first camera, and all the ones that followed. So, while my system still works, I want some of the advantages of the better programs.

So this post has gone from How You Can Organize Your Digital Photos to How Can I Organize My Digital Photos, and I'm asking for your help. Please leave your tips and suggestions in the comments below or send me an email. How do you organize your photos? What programs do you use and why?

Thank you for your help!

Five Favorite Tips and Tricks

The final list of entries for Daily Blog Tips "Tips and Tricks" group writing project is in. Out of 120 articles, here are 5 of my favorites:

1. Long Haul Flights- 5 Tips for Comfort on Go Visit Hawaii

2. 101 Tips for Better Photos on Life & Stuff

3. Tips and Tricks to Get More out of Your Laptop Battery on Shivaranjan.com

4. One simple trick to master any language on MisEntropy

5. 7 Tips to Overcoming Writers Block on Mystical Worlds of Susan Flemming

For more great articles, check out the final list on Daily Blog Tips. (My entry was about Saving Money on a Colorado Ski Vacation.)

*Thank you to J Larson for sharing the above photo of her dog, Dakota, under a creative commons license on flickr

Travel Photography: Tips From Other Blogs

Learn how to Shoot Your Trip Like a Photojournalist at Brave New Traveler. One tip I really like:
"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."
I do this a lot because the times I did wait, I missed some great shots. It's a good reminder, though, not to let the moment pass you by.

Digital Photography School has an interesting article on Surf Photography for Beginners. While you are there, check out 10 Beach Photography Tips.

The New York Times has an article on photography safaris, "Combining guided tours to exotic locales with hands-on instruction, photo safaris seek to turn the everyday Ofoto user into a budding Ansel Adams." They also have an article of the best places to take pictures in New York City titled Where the Pros Go to Shoot.

*the picture above is from Kusadasi, Turkey

Travel Photography: Tips From Other Blogs

I've decided to separate photography tips and blogs from my regular "From Other Blogs" feature. Here is my first installment...

I've got a new blog on my reader. Backpack Planet has just a few posts so far, but they are really good. On Monday, he wrote about Travel photos: storing your shots when on the road. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Digital Photography School also shares some great tips in an article about improving your landscape photography.

In an effort to get all the photography articles in one place, here is a list of posts that I previously shared in From Other Blogs:

Jas from Through the Lens did a post for Brave New Traveler this week, sharing 6 Quick Tips for Shooting Better Action Photos.

Ian at Brave New Traveler started a Flickr Photography Pool and invites you to share your travel pictures.

Travel Photography- Getting More Variety in Your Shots by Darren Rowse at Digital Photography School.

The Ultimate Guide To Memorable Travel Slideshows by Brave New Traveler

In My All Stars is offering a free download of "A First Experience" , an incredible photo essay of Timen's travels in Southeast Asia.

Digital Photography School has some great tips for taking travel pictures with your digital camera.

Thank you to Scott Carpenter for the pictures from Northern Minnesota. If you are interested in free, or open source software, you can check out his blog at MovingtoFreedom.org.

HDR Photography at Stuck in Customs

Playing on the internet (Um... I mean, researching), I came across Trey Ratcliff's blog, Stuck in Customs. Trey was nominated for Best Photography in both the 2007 Bloggies and 2007 Blogger's Choice Awards.

That's right, photography. The above picture is a photograph, not a painting. Trey uses an HDR, or "high dynamic range", technique to get that effect. It involves combining several exposures from different apertures or shutter speeds into one shot, allowing the photographer to manipulate the lighting and color to enhance the image.

The first picture was taken on a longboat in Thailand, and the one below is from a floating market. You can see even more of his images on flickr.

Another neat thing about Trey is he operates under a creative commons license.

From other Travel Blogs...

Photo of Cahir Castle by Connor Cashman

It's time to share more travel articles from other blogs. Since last Thursday, these are some of my favorites:

1. 5 Reasons Not to Trust Your Guidebook by Paul at TravMonkey
2. Two Bits by Conor Grennan at How Conor is Spending All His Money
3. At the Great Wall(s) of China by Mark at Around the World in 80 days
4. Better than Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall is England's Top Ancient Monument by Josh Roberts on Smarter Travel
5. Have You Found That Perfect Beach Yet? by Chris at Nomad4Ever
6. Enhance your adventures in Ireland with a guide by Erica Silverstein on Smarter Travel
7. Travel Photography- Getting More Variety in Your Shots by Darren Rowse at Digital Photography School
8. How to Protect your Travel Funds by Kevin Allgood at Brave New Traveler

There are more articles in the section labeled "From other blogs..." in my sidebar.

Gadling's Photo of the Day

I'm doing a happy dance because one of my photos from Venice was selected for Gadling's Photo of the Day yesterday. I almost didn't submit my amateur attempts to the Gadling pool on Flickr because the other photographers are really good, so I was surprised when one of my pictures was chosen. Thank you, Erik!

5 Photography Tips for Washington D.C.

While living in Maryland, we often visited Washington DC. Family who came to visit us also toured the nation's capital and between all of us, we took hundreds of photographs. It was great to see the pictures everyone took, and compare the different compositions. Here is a list of tips for taking interesting pictures of the monuments and memorials.

1. Use the reflections from the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials to take pictures of people.

2. Most people take pictures from the front and center, but my favorites were taken from different angles.

3. For scrapbooking or slideshows, take pictures of signs and quotes. Don't forget the Pennsylvania Ave sign to go with pictures of the White House.

4. Take pictures of your friends, family reading the quotes.

5. Take pictures of people walking around the Memorials.

If you have other suggestions, please add them in the comments.

Thank you to Don Cashman for the picture of the Jefferson Memorial and to Beth Cashman for the picture of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier sign.