I was recently approached by Gill over at the website Journal Craft Inspiration for an interview on my travel journals. It was fun to share some of my tips and stories with her and her readers. I recommend exploring around on her site - she’s got a lot to look at. If you’re visiting from journalcraft.co.uk, then hello and welcome! If you would like to read more about my journals, please check out the following:
Do you complete your journal entry ‘on-site’ or do you continue working on it when you get home?
I tend to define my journal as one moment in time, capturing thoughts, plans, and important information for a journey from the late planning stages to the return home. On some trips, I can’t find time to write during the day, so I’ll spend an hour or so in the evening, preferably at a cafe, furiously writing down everything I can recall that happened since the last time I wrote. When I’m home, the journal becomes a time capsule, its contents “sealed”. Nothing will be added or taken away from it.
In order to have a photograph published in National Geographic Magazine, chances are it will end up on David Griffin’s desk at one point. Griffin is the magazines photography director and in February, gave a talk at TED. You can watch the whole 15-minute talk on TED.com, but here’s a gem I’d like to share:
The quality of these amamatuer photographs can at times be amazing. And seeing this reinforces for me that everyone of us has at least one or two great photographs in them. But to be a great photojournalist you have to have more than just one or two great photographs in you. You’ve got to be able to make them all the time. But even more importantly, you need to know how to create a visual narrative. You need to know how to tell a story.
Being a proud Oregonian, I was excited to have the opportunity to visit the Motherland for an extended weekend. My youngest cousin was getting married and I looked forward to being present for the ceremony. (I’ll most likely keep those photos for family only.) After the Saturday wedding, I began my road trip home, 1,000-miles from Newport, Oregon to Arcadia, California. It was a fantastic three-day journey through the redwoods of Northern California, the rolling golden hills of Central California, and the fertile valley from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Here’s a map and some photos. Click on the photos to see them on Flickr. Scroll to the bottom for a link to a slideshow.
Friends and I took a day trip to Channel Islands National Park yesterday for a little bit of kayaking. Although I have a sunburn you would not believe, the trip was a blast! The wildlife viewing started on the 20-mile ferry crossing to Santa Cruz Island, where we saw dolphins, sea lions, and a glimpse of two or three blue whales.
We docked at Scorpion Anchorage and met up with our kayaking outfitters, Aquasports. They introduced us to our sea kayaks and went over some general instructions. I couldn’t have been more impatient to get into the water, but I knew that this was important. Of my friends, Nelson and Javier, I had the most experience kayaking, which isn’t saying much.
We were on the water at about 10:30am and headed up the island, hugging the coast. The water was a beautiful blue-green, like in the Caribbean, and was as flat as a lake. Visibility underwater was about 40-50 feet! I brought some snorkeling gear for later in the day but struggled not to jump into the water from my kayak. I also purchased a Canon PowerShot SD 1100 IS and an underwater housing for it and looked forward to taking some underwater photos and video.
We kayaked for 4-5 hours and explored a few caves, some as big as an auditorium and as narrow as a doorway. It was exhilarating! Sea lions visited us throughout the day. we saw lots of fish, including the beautiful Garibaldi, its bright orange scales making it easy to spot from the surface. We also glimpsed some manta rays.
We got back into Scorpion Anchorage around 3pm, giving us about an hour on the beach before our ferry home arrived. I immediately grabbed my snorkeling gear and camera, but unfortunately the sea was a bit choppy and visibility had dropped down to 6 feet. I had fun nonetheless in a kelp forest, where I saw another ray, some Garibaldi, starfish, sea urchins, and a sea slug.
Javier, Nelson and I were exhausted by the time we got back to Ventura. I passed out in the car on the way home. Weekend warriors, indeed.
It’s official. My next international trip will be to Nicaragua! I’ll be going back to the Central American country on November 26th and spending 18 days backpacking.
I spent two weeks in Nicaragua in December of 2006 exploring the lakes, cities, and volcanos. It wasn’t more than a few days into that trip that I realized I’d have to come back. There’s just so much to see and do!
So now the planning begins. I’ll share some of the aspects of it here on my blog. My only regret on my last trip was spending too much time in Internet cafes, so I’m reluctant to say I’ll be updating frequently while in the country.
If you care to read more about my first trip in 2006, here’s a few links:
I’ve had more time to sort through the treasures of National Geographic ephemera recently returned to me after years in my family’s storage. A good way to spend a Sunday.
I had been a collector of comics around the same time I was a collector of National Geographic Magazines and maps, so it seemed like common sense to store the maps in comic book boxes (and comic sleeves and boards). The maps in these boxes go back to 1913.
I knew I had once owned a lot of issues of National Geographic Magazine, but until I found this list, I had no idea of the extent of it. At one time, I owned all but 16 issues from 1913 to sometime around 1997. I ended up keeping only the oldest of the collection and donated the rest to the local library.
Growing up, I loved reading National Geographic Magazines. When I would get a new issue, I’d always turn to the Geographica section which reported on the newest geographic news around the world. Before having to donate my large collection of issues to the local library, I had carefully compiled all of the Geographica sections into a homemade book. The book included every Geographica from October, 1988 (the first) to September, 1996.
In 1995, not too long before realizing I’d have to donate most of my collection of National Geographic Magazines to the local library, I thought of creating a homemade index of all the issues released after the National Geographic 100 Year Index (1888-1988) was published. I had cut out the index of 12 issues of 1991 before giving up on the project, figuring NGS would probably release updates of their own in the future (they did).
Maps, maps, and more maps!
From left to right, Index to the National Geographic Society’s New Map of South America (1942), Index to the National Geographic Society’s New Map of Canada (1936), National Geographic Society Index to Map of Japan (1944), and Index to the National Geographic Society’s New Map of the United States (1940).
I finally had enough shelf space to take my old National Geographic Magazines out of storage. This issue discusses Hiram Bingham’s Yale/NatGeo Peruvian Expedition of 1912, his second of three expeditions to Machu Picchu and the surrounding ruins.
Looks like a good read!
In 1964, National Geographic reprinted 1,000 copies of some of their earliest issues. This is the February, 1896 edition sitting in front of some of my earliest issues (1913-1918).
A treasure of maps was recently “dug up” in my parent’s storage space and returned to me. Around 1994, when I moved away from home to attend college, I was forced to get rid of most of my National Geographic Magazines - a nearly-complete collection of every issue back to 1929. However, I was able to keep all of the supplements/inserts since they didn’t take up much room. I’ve been looking through the three boxes and have found more than just maps, folded posters, and old panoramic photos. I’ve also found one of the reasons why I love travel. I think most people would start to feel a desire to explore the world after looking at a few maps. The beautiful and distinct fonts, the colors, the clarity. A National Geographic map is good enough to hang up on the wall and call it “art.” In fact, President Roosevelt used National Geographic maps in the White House Map Room during World War II. Today, a case of world maps presented by the National Geographic Society still resides in the Map Room.
Below you will find a small selection of the hundreds of maps from my collection showing “snap shots” of the quality work National Geographic has produced in their world-famous cartographic department. If it takes a while to load or you’d like to view them in a flickr slideshow (800 x 800p res) by clicking here.
Have the urge to share a story about your National Geographic magazines or maps? Share it in the comments!
I was perusing one of my favorite blogs and came upon a photo that looked strikingly like a photo I took in 2003. Before discovering the photo, I had spent the morning reading a handful of posts about copyright laws and photographer’s rights, and so I immediately thought that my photo was stolen. It turns out that my photo hadn’t been uploaded anywhere (until now) and started to feel a bit embarrassed of my reaction to the photo: Dozens of people probably have photographed from the same vantage point since the Red Line station opened in 2000.
Still, the similarities of the two photos are a bit creepy. Abby’s photo (above left) was taken in October, 2006. My photo (above right) was taken in December, 2003. Great shot, Abby. I think your angle is spot on. The curves of the metal frame the image much better than in mine.
I was recently approached by Gill over at the website Journal Craft Inspiration for an interview on my travel journals. It was fun to share some of my tips and stories with her and her readers. I recommend exploring around on her site - she’s got a lot to look at. If you’re visiting from journalcraft.co.uk, then hello and welcome! If you would like to read more about my journals, please check out the following:
