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YOUR EXTENDED TRAVEL MAGAZINE Issue 06 - June/July 2013 Haiti Into the unknown ‘The Spin-Off Project’ 12 months to a better you Deborah Sandidge Take More Creative Travel Photos Gary Arndt Travel with kids and stay sane?! EXCLUSIVE How To ‘Everything-Everywhere’ Blogger Tips African Safari in a minute... iPhoneography Have iPhone - Will Travel

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• Exclusive Articles & Interviews From The World's Leading Travel Bloggers, Explorers & Professional Photographers • Travel Planning Tips & Destination Guides • Gear Reviews & Event Highlights • High-Quality Photographic and HD Video Content • Consistently Rated 5 Stars By Our Readers ***** "Travel Longer is just a new magazine, but I think it will become a classic. Very well written, with good contributors from all over the world. The photography is stunning and the high-definition video is just beautiful. I can't wait to see the next issue." —Customer Review Subscribe to Travel Longer today and enjoy the exotic locations, world-class photography, video interviews and destination guides — all put together beneath the stunning retina display of the iPad, iPhone and iPod devices.

TRANSCRIPT

  • YOUR EXTENDED TRAVEL MAGAZINE

    Issue 06 - June/July 2013

    Haiti Into the unknown

    The Spin-Off Project12 months to a better you

    Deborah SandidgeTake More Creative Travel Photos

    Gary Arndt

    Travel with kids and stay sane?!

    EXCLUSIVE

    How To

    Everything-Everywhere Blogger Tips

    African Safariin a minute...

    iPhoneographyHave iPhone - Will Travel

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    Note: This is a sample magazine only.

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  • contents

    City of Oia, Santorini - Greeceby Deborah Sandidge

    ON THE COVER

    7 Editors Note

    8 Readers Travel Tips

    10 Featured PhotographerProfessional photographer Deborah Sandidge shows off some amazing camera skills to take your travel photos to the next level.

    Tap on title to go to the story

    9 Masters of Time-LapseA Burning Man For Ants Talented photographer and videographer James Cole documents the amazing Burning Man festival.

    29 Ask The Travel ExpertsTravel blogger extraordinaire Gary Arndt from Everything-Everywhere.com talks about some of the golden rules of writing a travel blog.

    24 The Spin-Off ProjectMirha Masala takes us through an incredible 12-month project to becoming a happier, more fulfilled you.

    Travel Longer focuses on the art of long-term travel, the discovery of yourself and that of the world around you.

    It is not about being a tourist, but rather, it shows how to integrate into foreign communities as a short-term expat and connect deeper with a place, its people, food and culture.

    It teaches how to cast off your fears, open your mind and learn practical steps to help make travel your lifestyle.

    June/July 2013

  • contents - June/July 13

    66 Tastes Of The WorldTravel food connoisseur Jodi Ettenberg explores the street food of Hanoi, Vietnam.

    Tap on title to go to the story

    67 Have iPhone, Will TraveliPhoneographer Brenda Johima shares some excellent iPhone photography tips and apps to look out for on your next big trip.

    76 Readers Photo Competition

    77 Escapades

    CONNECT WITH TRAVEL LONGERIn the spirit of full disclosure, we at Travel Longer magazine want you to be aware that certain (not all) links within this magazine may be affiliate links. That means, if you click on a link we may get a commission if you decide to purchase anything from X company. We do however, only recommend products & systems that we would use and love ourselves, so we know youll be in good hands. Thanks!

    57 Traveling With KidsMother of four children, Cheri Magarrell, gives a unique insight into the ups and downs of long-term travel with kids.

    49 Visit - HaitiRyan Brown shares his visit to the Citadelle Laferrire, a unique Haitian castle near the city of Cap-Hatien.

    48 African Safari In A MinuteCailin ONeil captures the raw beauty and wonder of an African Safari.

  • Ask The Travel Experts: Everything-Everywhere

    expert advice

    EDITOR IN CHIEF Raine [email protected]

    SENIOR EDITOR Billy Taylor @[email protected]+1 302.722.6002

    Gary Arndt has been traveling around the world since March 2007 and has visited over 130 countries and all 7 continents. He has also been to over 125 US National Park Service sites and over 250 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

    Gary's blog Everything-Everywhere.com placed in Time Magazine's 25 Best Blogs of 2010, won the NATJA Awards Best Travel Blog, Best Travel Podcast in 2011, and the SATW Lowell Thomas Award Photo Illustration of Travel in 2012. His blog has a monthly readership of over 100,000 and both his Twitter and Facebook pages have cracked the elusive 100k mark.

    www.everything-everywhere.com

    @EverywhereTrip

    Featured Photographer: Deborah Sandidge

    Deborah Sandidge is a professional photographer who enjoys sharing her insight and creative ideas through writing, workshops, teaching, and seminars around the world. She is the author of Digital Infrared Photography, published by Wiley.

    Deborahs style of creating dramatic story-telling imagery reflects in her travels, and interaction with the people she meets. She has had the opportunity to photograph interesting people, unique architecture, and experience fascinating cultures in many countries throughout out the world. Deborah loves to blend travel and teaching, offering her expertise and insight to others through photography tours and workshops.

    www.deborahsandidge.com

    gplus.to/debsandidge

  • Mirha Masala is a Bosnian blogger, trend-watcher and entrepreneur. In 2012 Masala started The Spin-Off Project: a lifestyle project designed to make you succeed in doing the things you love. In the summer of 2013 Masala will be launching The Girl With The Blueprint: a unique online city guide with handpicked suggestions.

    www.thespinoffproject.com

    facebook.com/thespinoffproject

    contributors

    James Cole worked as a photographer in the Snow Sports industry for 12 years before a life changing injury. After recovering from a broken back, James graduated Cum Laude from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara in 2007, majoring in Commercial Advertising and Celebrity Portraiture. James now lives on the north shore of Lake Tahoe shooting Architecture, Aerial Videography and Timelapse.

    www.cinematicdigitalmedia.com

    facebook.com/CinematicDigitalMedia

    Ryan Brown is a self-proclaimed corporate escape artist with a severe disdain for the mundane. A rabid fiend for travel, he will let nothing stand in his way to far off adventure. With videos, photos, and articles on Just Chuckin It, he hopes to inspire others to escape their corporate confines.

    www.justchuckinit.com

    facebook.com/justchuckinitCheri Magarrell is a photographer dedicated to showing the beauty of the people she meets and the places she visits as she travels. Her desire is to break down barriers and stereotypes with her images. She is also a busy wife & mom to four kids, who are often traveling with her!

    www.deepsoulphotography.com

    deepsoulphotography.wordpress.com

    Cailin ONeil has been the host of the travel web series 'Travel Yourself' since early 2009 and currently travels the world hosting, filming, editing and producing the whole series herself. When not on camera she is also a food, travel and video blogger on her own websites and works as a freelancer in the Film and TV Industry in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

    www.travelyourself.ca

    @cailinoneil

    Brenda Johima is a passionate speaker, artist and prolific iPhoneographer. With a deep love of travel, she has been making mobile photo-art with her iPhone almost on a daily basis since 2008, and after thousands of images, shes excited to share her expertise, tips, tricks and enthusiasm.

    brendajohima.com

    @brendajohima

    Love to Travel? Good at Writing? Handy with a Camera?

    Maybe you have what it takes to be a contributor for Travel Longer magazine.Send Article Submissions to - [email protected]

    Former lawyer Jodi Ettenberg travels the world in search of the stories behind our meals, writing about them on her site, Legal Nomads. She has also contributed to CNNTravel, The Daily Beast, The Hairpin, Lonely Planet and other publications, and is the author of The Food Travelers Handbook. She gets the shakes if she goes too long without sticky rice.

    www.legalnomads.com

    @legalnomads

  • editors note

    It has been a very exciting few months here at Travel Longer HQ. We have met some very interesting people, had a bit of a re-shuffle of our subscription model, and been working VERY hard to bring out a new version of the Travel Longer magazine app.

    Since we started Travel Longer magazine, just a few short months ago, our readership has grown in amazing leaps and bounds. We now have tens of thousands of regular readers, and subscribers to Travel Longer magazine in more than 70 different countries. All this in just 6 months, and just on the iPad device alone.

    Well, that is about to change... In the next few weeks, we will be releasing a new version of the Travel Longer app, that will make us available to all iPhone and iPod users as well. As you can imagine, this will open us up to a MUCH larger audience... Which is pretty cool! (We are also looking at the Android platform as well.)

    Along with the new version, we have also changed our subscription model a little. Travel Longer magazine will now be published as 8 standard issues per year, instead of the previous 12. This allows for special feature editions of Travel Longer, as well as some subscriber only issues of the magazine.

    We feel this change will give us a bit more diversity as a magazine, and open up some pretty neat opportunities... Can anyone say Travel Photography Competition?

    As always, we very much appreciate the feedback and ideas of our readers. You can connect with us on Facebook or Twitter, and if you really like what we are doing, we would love your quick review on the AppStore. This really helps our rankings.

    Thanks for your time, and please enjoy this issue of Travel Longer magazine.

    -Editor

  • A fast and effective way to ensure clean drinking water is to travel with a small container of household grade bleach (sodium hypochlorite).

    I keep some in an old eye dropper - make sure it's clearly labeled as bleach. Just 4 drops in a 2 liter bottle of water, let it sit for 30 minutes, and you're good to go! - Pete Hurst, 3 years and counting on the open road.

    Apart from the usual shots you may need from your local doctor before heading on vacation, make sure you fill up on probiotics and vitamin C a week or two before you leave.

    Picking up foreign bugs while traveling is almost impossible, as our bodies are exposed to bacteria not common in our home town. But by preparing your body before you set off on your journey, you can at least give yourself a fighting chance! - SP, New Zealand

    WIN a 12-month free subscription to Travel Longer Magazine

    Tell us your best travel tip using the form above, or email us at [email protected] and if you

    are our featured travelers tip - you win!

    readers travel tips

    1. Take a picture of your passport, ID, visa and itinerary and keep it on your phone or online where you can easily find it. I have a friend that lost her ID while traveling. Airport security let her take the flight when she showed her ID on her cell phone.

    2. Sign up for a no foreign transaction fee credit card when travel internationally. Most credit cards tack on a 3% charge on purchases made outside of the US. Additionally, using a no transaction fee credit card is usually cheaper than using the currency conversion services at retail stores, banks, and airports, which tend to charge high fees.

    3. Sign up for a no ATM fee charge card. ATM fees can really add up. Lets think about it. If youre traveling for a year, you will probably take out money from an ATM every week. Fees vary around the world but on average you end up paying $5 USD per withdrawal. That is $20 per month or $260 per year. I absolutely love my Charles Schwab check card that reimburses me for ATM fees up to 3 times a month anywhere in the world. I never have to worry w h i c h b a n k I a m u s i n g . - T a t y a n a Kondrateva, currently in St. Thomas, USVI

    Featured Travelers Tip

    Tatyana scores a free 12-MonthSubscription to Travel Longer magazine

    Add your own travel tips here

    - internet connection required

    Pack light, travel fast. A lot of 40-liter back packs will be allowed as carry-on luggage on airplanes. If you wear your heavier clothes/jackets, you can actually pack quite a lot in just one bag.

    You can also carry a laptop or camera bag with you, so you can keep heavier items in there. Airlines rarely weigh these items. And to be extra sneaky, I always travel with a pillow, and put a few extra clothes or sarongs in my pillow case.

    Being able to carry everything quickly means no more waiting for baggage, and makes for a quick get away through customs lines. - Lenore J, USA

  • We shot the entire movie in three 6-hour day sessions and a couple of short night sessions.

    The movie was all shot as timelapse so we used Quicktime Pro to assemble all of the shots into movie clips and then used Final Cut Pro 7 to edit everything together.Tips for Burning Man

    Remember, its a leave no trace event, don't expect anything from anyone, Smile, enjoy yourself, be open to things you may not agree with like Shirt-Cockers. Remember if you dont like something, turn around and something else will engage you. - JC

    A Burning Man For Ants

    Internet connection requiredquick, go get some...

    Masters of Time-LapseTimelapse-icus Maximus 2012 - A Burning Man for Ants

    - by James Cole

    Making Timelapse-icus Maximus 2012 A Burning Man for Ants was a great experience in team building with friends.

    We started 4 months prior, designing a shooting tower that we could pull around behind our mutant vehicle. We ended up with a 15' tall structure with crank down jacks to stabilize the giant tripod that we shot from the top of. We used all recycled materials to build the tower and welded it up ourselves with help from a friends shop. We made it fit on a snowmobile trailer and fabricated it to the max road height we could which was 14'6" tall.

    Once we got to the Playa we put plywood on the top and decorated it to look like a pagoda, and called it the "Dojo."

    Byron Mason my second shooter used the tower to get all of the rotary shots using a Mumford Rotary Table and GB Timelapse Software to control the exposure. Jason Phipps hiked Razorback mountain adjacent to Burning Man in 100 degree heat to shoot all of the far away playa shots for the movie and luck has it that he did not get bitten by a rattlesnake.

  • Interview by Billy TaylorImages courtesy of Deb Sandidge

    Deborah Sandidgefeatured Photographer

    Big Ben, as shot from the Westminster Bridge London

    Talking with this months Featured Photographer - Deborah Sandidge - was a highly frustrating and tense experience, that I fear will stick with me for some time to come! What? I hear you all crying... Let me explain.

    I have visited some amazing places around the globe, and many times faced a situation that has frustrated the pants o many a photographer or traveler, who is after that amazing shot of an iconic location only to have it spoiled by hundreds of wandering pedestrians, vehicles and other camera wielding tourists.

    Deb Sandidge from deborahsandidge.com

    Getting a location like the Tah Prohm Temple in Cambodia, all to yourself to capture that amazing location, is neigh on impossible... Or so I thought, until I met Deborah Sandidge and learned a sneaky little trick that essentially means I now need to go back and revisit my last 25 countries and take all my snapshots again (this is where my frustration comes in, and is in no way of course directed at the wonderful Deb herself).

    Deborah is know for several dierent highly creative methods of photography, one of w h i c h i s c a l l e d L o n g E x p o s u r e Photography. What that means is you essentially find your location, set up a tripod, or steady your camera by some other means, and then force your camera to keep the shutter open for seconds or even minutes at a time.

    T h i s m e t h o d c h a n g e s a s c e n e dramatically. To quote Deb herself, you can calm the crashing waves of an ocean, softly blur clouds across the sky, and create the impression of emptiness on busy walkways and streets.

  • Billy - So, for the Travel Longer Featured Photographer this month, we have the lovely Deborah Sandidge. Deb, thanks for joining us. Your back in Florida at the moment, is that correct?

    Deborah - That's correct. Thank you so much for having me on Travel Longer!

    No problem. it's great to have you. Youve been a very busy person, jumping around the world lately, so it's nice to be able to pin you down at home. So, just to give people a bit of a background about you, maybe those who havent heard of you or dont know too much about you Just give us a brief background of who Deb Sandidge is.

    Well, I like to work with different aspects of photography in a more creative way. I really started out having passion for infrared photography which is a very easy process digitally now. So I ended up writing a book on infrared photography and that led me to teaching, which I find fascinating.

    The London Eye, photographed using a 10 stop and 4 stop Neutral Density filter, and extended exposure.

    I love the connection between students and being able to share what I know and then they share what they know. So it's really a great exchange. It really kind of fell into the aspect of travel. I was very interested in travel and primarily what interests me now, is the aspect of travel and working with long exposure. So you come away with a little bit of different photos than you would with just a standard snapshot.

    I think anybody who jumps on to your website DeborahSandidge.com, will see some of those images. Theyve almost got a fairy tale, picturesque quality to them. Theyre really quite stunning with that long exposure. So Im looking forward to you talking a little bit about that. As far as photography goes, what is it that really got you into photography in the first place, and what styles of photography sort of drew you in?

    Well it's always been an interest art in one form or another and I kind of worked with a

  • Camel trader - Pushkar, India

    few ideas with compact cameras from a long time ago. The little SX70's, the Polaroids, and then I ended up started developing my own black and white prints which I found interesting. And then right at that time, it really shifted in to the digital dark room and that's where I really found a connection working with Photoshop. That was really where I found an extension of my creativity. I could really follow along doing what I did artistically if I could do it photographically. So it made a lot of sense for me to work in that direction. So the things like infrared or long exposure, working in twilight, I think what happens is I like different ways to have a visual narrative that tells a different story that's a little bit different from just a regular snapshot. To do something just a bit different.

    And that was one of the things that drew me to your photography. You know, everybody seems to stand in the same location and take the same shot of the Eiel Tower, or Tower Bridge or whatever it is. And you may be standing in a similar place, but the way that youve taken the image and the steps that you go through with the long exposure or the infrared or whatever, it really does make it look like a completely dierent location almost. It really is quite stunning.

    Deborah Sandidge from deborahsandidge.com

    Watch The Full-Length InterviewInternet connection required

    As far as travel, you said obviously you have an affinity with travel; you do an awful lot of traveling. As far as your photography, where has that taken you travel wise?

    Well, all across the United States, and into Canada. Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, which are just beautiful. Cuba, which is a fascinating place. Cuba, as an American, you know you have this special Visa and you can go legally. That has been an amazing place. Id say thats one of the top places that Ive been to. Ive been to Italy, and to London and Paris recently working on a client project. So just a lot of different places, I might be missing a few.

    I havent been to Cuba yet. It's one of the places I really want to go. I quite like a cigar and rum is quite good, but apparently the scuba diving is just amazing in Cuba. And obviously the photography, you know, the stu on your site from around Cuba is just really stunning.

    So out of all of those, do you have kind of some top picks that you like as far as travel goes? As far as taking photos?

  • Girl looking through cemetery wall in Srinagar - Kashmir, India

    Some places that really stand out to you as a favorite?

    I would say that I love Paris. I know it is very iconic, but you know, everybody goes there. But I love it. Its different every time I go. There is something about seeing those little sparkly lights on the Eiffel Tower that just takes my breath away. I love London! London is just so cosmopolitan and friendly and the architecture is absolutely amazing. Ive been a couple of times and Ive enjoyed it each time that Ive gone. So Id say those two places.

    And I do love going to Cuba. The people there are just so amazing and so friendly and they want to tell you a story about everything and their uncle who lives in Miami. It's so interesting. The architecture is fascinating, the people are fascinating so it's just a wonderful travel destination.

    Would you say then that architecture is a big draw card for you? Some people really love trees or really love the ocean, but it

    Deborah Sandidge from deborahsandidge.com

    Cuba Taxis Trinidad, Cuba

    seems to me, with you going to all these cities, that architecture would be a big thing for you, would that be right?

    Yes. Havana is beautiful and, of course, the traditional, colonial Cuban architecture, but it's very different from Havana to the other side of the island in Santiago. You have some churches form like the 1500's, they are just magnificent. It is very, very different. Of course with the old cars there you pretty much feel like youre stepping back in time. You have all these cars from the 50's and you feel literally that youve stepped back in that era. So it's very different from most places that Ive been to.

    From the photos that you see, it really does look like youve stepped back in time and I think thats part of the charm. Alright, so getting on to the style of photography that we really want to pick your brains about long exposure photography.

    For some people, who may not be huge camera buffs, they might be like what on

  • Enjoying his pipe - Trinidad de Cuba

  • Lake Monroe Marina Sanford, Florida

    You really have a totally different visual narrative than if you just froze the action. But a longer exposure, which blurs the clouds or the water in the scene, it just gives you an idea of time passing. So it gets a different sense.

    And it's easily worked through by using neutral density filters. Thats kind of the way that Im working now, with 10-stop neutral density filters. Or just photographing at the edge of night. Now photographing at the edge of night is basically something that anybody can do. Working with just low-light situations to create that longer exposure. And the light can be just magnificent around the end of the day. So when I travel thats one of the things I concentrate on. I want to be someplace epic at twilight so I have this wonderful light to be able to capture a photograph that I want to share.

    Okay, so for people who maybe aren't familiar with some of the photographic terms, neutral density filters I always think about them being like putting sunglasses on your camera. Because when you take a photo, in particular in the middle of the day, so much light comes in, you can't really slow things down, so I guess a ND F i l ter would be a way of put t ing

    So when I travel thats one of the things I concentrate on. I want to be someplace epic at twilight so I have this wonderful light to be a b l e t o c a p t u r e a photograph that I want to share.

    earth are they talking about? Without getting too carried away with technical stu, can you give us a quick rundown about why you like it? What it is and how it works?

    Absolutely. One of the most interesting things about long exposure photography is that you can create a sense of motion, or convey time passing. And when you can do that in a photograph, it makes it very exciting and very surreal.

  • The mesmerizing city of Oia Santorini, Greece

    Girl looking through cemetery wall in Srinagar - Kashmir, India Deborah Sandidge from deborahsandidge.com

    sunglasses on. Making the image really, really dark so that youre able to take a longer exposure shot. Would that be a fairly apt description do you think? Feel free to correct me, youre the photographer here!

    That's exactly on target, and thats the illustration that I use in my workshops! Using neutral density filters reduces the amount of light that can reach the cameras sensors therefore extending the exposure time. So you do have the ability to expose a shot for several minutes - maybe even five or six minutes. In the Badlands, I have had six minute exposures. Of course normally that would just blow out the picture [with too much light], but with a neutral density filter, what that does is allow the expanse of the clouds to be captured over several minutes so you really have an interesting story.

    They almost look like a water color. Everything is really soft, yet the image itself is just really crisp. It really is quite amazing.

    And I love the ones that Ive seen around London where youve got just blurs of people and vehicles walking through... it really does convey that sense of time. We will have some pictures in with this article so that people can see a before and after shot, so they can understand what sort of dierence it can make.

    As far as whats coming up for you, for Deb. What sort of things are you involved with currently or coming up that you want to share with our readers?

    Well coming up, I will be speaking in New England for The New England Camera Club Council. It will be a Long Exposure Creativity. I'll be heading up to Canada to do a one-day workshop in Toronto and then a caravan workshop. I'll also be going to Bosque del Apache [New Mexico], which is incredible in the fall, so I will be heading out there. I'll be teaching twilight, long exposure, infrared which is of course the book I wrote about infrared photography.

  • Big Ben - London

  • The iconic Tower Bridge in London, again shot using a 10 stop and a 4 stop Neutral Density filter.

    And that one you can find on Amazon. It's just called Digital Infrared Photography, if anyone is interested in that technique. So well be working with some of the ideas out there in Bosque too.

    If you go to the workshop page on my website, you can keep up with all the information. And I do try to keep the blog going, inspirational ideas, so you can keep up with new ideas there too.

    As far as the workshops go, how long do the workshops generally go for? Is it kind of location dependent?

    Typically a workshop would go, well the workshop I did in the Badlands that I just finished was a several day workshop. I was working with Dr. Jason Odell, fellow photographer and fabulous friend. We worked out in the Badlands, so we shot for several days. And we had 8 participants, so we were able to give them very individualized, focused attention, in the Badlands, which is like being on Mars. It's amazing.

    The workshops that Ill be doing out West will be shorter, just in duration. Just sort of target based. We're going to be working on twilight, so we'll be shooting during those twilight hours, for an hour or so, and it depends on what Im doing and what type of workshop it's structured for.

    Okay, cool. For people who maybe havent been on a photographic workshop before. Do you want to just give us a real quick, run down of how that sort of day structure works? Just to whet their appetite a little bit.

    So what we do, we shoot in the morning. We're going to shoot that beautiful morning light, which means getting out there at 4 o'clock in the morning and setting up and being ready for sunrise. And repeat that again at the end of the day when we're getting that beautiful afternoon light. We structured it so we went to ghost towns and old cars and anything that was in that location. Then when we werent shooting, we were doing image reviews and critiques.

  • BEFORE AFTERThis is a great example of what long-exposure photography can do to a busy scene. Notice how the people become ghostly blurs, almost unseen. The clouds soften and drag out across the sky, while the bridge and buildings themselves remain razor sharp.

  • Millennium Bridge London

  • Badlands South Dakota

    And just keep in touch... If anyone has any questions about infrared or long exposure, Im happy to help.

    Ive actually heard you being referred to as The Queen of Infrared. The long exposure stu was what grabbed my eye, so thats why Im talking about it for this interview, but the infrared is equally as stunning. Particularly some of your images from around Cuba... just incredible!

    I definitely encourage people to follow you on Facebook or Twitter, or jump on the blog...

    And Google +... Absolutely Google + too.And Google +. Theres so many dierent

    ways to connect! Okay Deb, thank you very much again for your time. It's great to have you on board and we'll catch up soon.

    All the best with your workshops coming up and we look forward to keeping in touch with you through the social networks.

    Thank you for having me!

    So we had the laptops out and people were able to ask questions like, how would you process this image it or how would you compose for this image? So thats kind of the way it rolls on our workshops. Its very intense, but its a lot of fun.

    Alright, well hopefully people will track you down and see what youre up to in the next few months and years.

    Thanks very much for your time Deb. It's great to have you on board as our featured photographer and Im looking forward to getting your images in the magazine and having people follow you. We'll have lots of links so that people can follow you.

    Just quickly, any final words? Things that youd like to direct our readers to before you go?

    If youre interested in long exposure photography, follow my blog. There's also a couple of links on the Nikon site on shooting long exposures that they can follow along and access right from their iPad.

  • Like What Youre Seeing?If you have enjoyed this magazine, please consider sharing a review.

    Your comments really help boost our rankings in iTunes.

    Review Usclick here to

    Best travel magazine I have read in ages! It has information applicable

    to real travelers. *

    * readers review of Travel Longer magazine

  • it is not about traveling.

    by Mirha Masala

    special feature self-improvement

    T he Spin-Off P roject

  • Today a friend asked me what I thought about him taking 3 months off from work to go travel. What I have learned from previous experience, is that no matter who this question is coming from, it is rarely a serious one.

    People who think about going and traveling, rarely actually go traveling. There are no exceptions, no what ifs, no time issues, no money problems: people who want to travel they go travel.

    Knowing this now, I can no longer make myself respond seriously to such a non-serious question. I just cannot do it anymore. I do not get it, what the big problem is! You are in your very late thirties. You have enough savings to actually stop working completely, and to retire in Southeast Asia for the rest of your life. Or, because you have worked for the same company for ten years you could happily take that mini sabbatical, meaning that after your big escape, you can safely go back to your office desk.

    So, what is holding you back? Just go! You are already late, man. Traveling, really, is so 2007-ish, so pre The 4-Hour Workweek.

    It is not about just traveling anymore. It is about traveling longer, about living. You do not need to save up money or to find time to go travel. What you need is to find a way to incorporate travel into your daily life.

    I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.

    -Coleman Cox

    Mirha Masala from thespinoffproject.com

    Traveling longer is about having the freedom to live where ever you want, working from where ever you like, while finding your true passions and doing the things you love. Just traveling, to me, in a way, is becoming secondary.

    More than a year ago, Mr.G (the boyfriend) and I quit our office jobs and started an internet marketing company of our own. Since then, we have been able to work from where ever we want as long as we have an internet connection. I have worked from Bali (3 months), Bosnia (3 months), Mexico (5 months), Cuba (1 month), and now I am in Brazil where I will be staying for another 5 months. You see what I mean with traveling being secondary to me? While I am working, I am already traveling.

    What is primary? That my work, with traveling at its core, evolves around doing the things that I love to do. This is where you go: You are so lucky!, and this is where I tell you that you are so wrong. When I think of luck, I think of a quote by Coleman Cox: I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.

    This life did not just happen to me. I had to decide to not spend my life doing things that I do not like to do. It has little to do with being lucky, almost nothing with having money, and it for sure is not easy.

    Actually, doing what I love, even one year later, still scares me. Every day I have to consciously choose to continue to do what I am most passionate about.

  • Mirha Masala from thespinoffproject.com

    Not a day goes by that I do not consider the other option: going back to doing what I do not like. That is ridiculous, why would you swap doing what you love with something you dislike?! Why are you choosing to do exactly that every day of your life? It is because of your irrational fear of failing, just like mine.

    So, what I do, every day if necessary, is to patiently go over these fears, looking through all possible reasonings, until I again arrive back at this ridiculous way out my wonderful new reality, that I most definitely do not want to let go of.

    Following my dreams confuses, paralyzes and terrifies me, but I am more than willing to fight hard for the only life that I consider worth living because the more I do what I love, the luckier I seem to get.

    When I had just started my new lifestyle, I was unable to tell what I was good at, or what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Better said, it is because I did not know, that I choose to have a different life. I wanted a way to find out what my passions were, and in order to do so, I designed a lifestyle project called: The Spin-Off Project.

    It is about choosing 12 things that you would like to learn or would love to do more and dedicating one year of your life to doing one each month.

    So far, I have ticked off the following spin-offs:

    1. Learning Spanish2. Being an Artist3. Kiteboarding4. Helping Someone5. Learning to Dance Salsa in Cuba

    The rest of my year looks like this:

    6. Launching The Girl With The Blueprint 7. Bucket List of Little Big Things8. Surfing9. Snowboarding10. Self Improvement11. Learning to Cook Thai Food12. Live in New York

    Working on this list has made me feel more alive and fulfilled than ever. But strangely enough, being half way through, I have realized that it has little to do with the individual things on the list.

    You see, I decided that I needed to live my life doing the things I love, and The Spin-Off Project was going to help me stay on track. I was not only going to be able to do more of what I loved, but I was also going to find out if something was missing from my life. However, what I think I am discovering, is that it has all very little to do with this previous set of wishes and goals. I think I have discovered that The Spin-Off Project as a whole is my passion.

    I love concentrating unconditionally for one month on only one thing, and I love that I get to experience so many different things in one year. Moreover, The Spin-Off Project has given me so much more.

    While in pursuit of doing what I love, I have learned a lot about life and about myself. I have become a better person, a blogger and an inspiration. The later two, I would have never ever thought of becoming. Now, I get messages from people saying that they enjoy my writing very much, and others tell me that my project has changed their lives. It is priceless and extremely humbling.

  • But you have to keep going, do not just stop doing what you love out of fear, or because you are not getting there quickly enough. Be patient, you do not know where there is, but be sure that you will get something out of your immense courage.

    I can tell you numerous ways on how to start a Spin-Off Project of your own. However, I am not going to. Not today. Now, I just want you to write down your spin-off list and next to it I want you to write down a list of your doubts. You can even write down the slight anger that you may feel after reading this article. Do realize however, that it is not pointed at me, but at yourself.

    Like I said, people who want to travel they go travel. If you want to change your life, you will. I do not need to tell you that to start a Spin-Off Project of your own, you do not even need to quit your office job nor your safe income of cash-flow. You can find this out for yourself.

    Think about it, what is the worst thing that can happen to you? That you will have to go back to doing things you do not like? That you will have to go back to doing things you like even less? Is there really any difference between the two? Then again, does it matter? You are already there. Are you at least going to try to move to something better? To something epic?

    Think big this is not just about traveling, although it is always a great start. It gets better, while doing what I love, I have found almost by accident, a way to monetize a passion of mine. -MM

    All my life I loved discovering great places, restaurant, bars, and hidden gems. I also enjoyed being on track when it came to fashion, trends, music, books, movies, and so on. I used to share my findings with my friends and they always appreciated my recommendations.

    This summer, I am launching The Girl With The Blueprint which is a unique online city guide with handpicked suggestions from yours truly. Out of dedication to doing what I love, The Spin-Off Project has evolved, and the development of The Girl With The Blueprint has become a reality. Not only have I learned loads by doing what I love, I have also found a way to make money by doing so.

    If I know anything by now, it is that this probably is not the end. Who knows what will come out of all this? I have even been suggested a career path as life coach. Amazing, is it not, how awesome life becomes once you take that leap? I really do not know how to explain it. It is as if by magic that your whole being conspires to making you succeed. You become so much more resourceful and creative when you pursue your own dreams.

    I believe this is what successful people mean when they tell you to just keep doing what you love. Just concentrate on doing what you love and something will come out of it. What they know, and I now know too, is that, that something is not necessarily going to be that thing that you had in mind when you started.

  • Please DO touch the animals.Experience the worlds most amazing animals in one app. WWF TOGETHER the new free app from World Wildlife Fund. Download it today.

    worldwildlife.org/together

  • Everything-Everywhereask the travel experts:

    Interview by Billy TaylorImages by Gary Arndt

    Magazines 25 Best Blogs of 2010. That wasnt just best Travel blogs... that was best blogs, period in all blogging categories! Crazy right?Gary has been writing stories and sharing his images from around the globe since before he even started traveling full-time in 2007. Since before it was even called Travel BloggingToday, Gary has over 100,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, and attracts around the same number of readers every month to his incredibly vast travel blog.I think its pretty safe to say that Gary Arndt is a true travel expert.

    Have you ever stumbled across something new, something that interested you, and then suddenly you saw that thing everywhere? You hear about it all over the place, and you realize that perhaps it is only new to you?

    For anyone who may be starting out in the travel blogging world, Gary Arndt and his blog Everything-Everywhere, will surely be one of those new things.

    Aside from being one of the most open-minded and genuine characters you are likely to meet on the open road, Gary is a highly accomplished photographer, and his blog has won numerous awards, including a spot in Time

    Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

    Kings Canyon - Northern Territory, Australia

  • The docks at Lunenburg Nova Scotia, Canada

    Billy Alright, so, Gary Arndt. We've got you here on Travel Longer magazine as this month 'travel expert'. Thanks very much for your time. How are you doing today?Gary Not bad. A little bit tired, had a long flight, but other than that, Im okay.You're on your way to Canada today with a brief stopover, is that right?Yeah. I just spent the last; let's see...three months in Europe and the Middle East. In New York here for a day and then Im off to Toronto.Busy times! For those who may not know you or your background, can you just give us a brief overview of who you are and where you come from?My name is Gary Arndt. I have a blog called Everything-Everywhere and I have been traveling around the world since March of 2007 and blogging since a little bit before that. And... that's what I do!That sums it all up really. The site you've got, Everything-Everywhere.com is just massive! Theres so much information in there. It says in your blog youve been to all seven continents, which is amazing. How many countries are you up to at the moment?

    It depends on how you define country. Ive been to a lot of places, like the Cook Islands Which, if someones been to the Cook Islands they wouldnt really could you really say youve been to New Zealand? Well, not really. You know they have their own currency, but theyre not in the United Nations. So what I use as a list, my primary list, is the Travelers Century Club. Which is a club devoted to people who travel to different places and theyve divided up the world and do 321 territories and countries. And on that list, Ive been to 126 now, I think.Wow. 126... thats amazing! Ive spoken to a few people recently who are on that Travelers Century Club and it sounds like one club I want to get in to. Now it also says on your blog that you have visited a lot of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Youve been to more than 180 or something like that, which is just phenomenal. Can you tell us about your interest in those sites?Actually I just visited number 250 two days ago. That was Hadrian's Villa outside of Rome. Basically, when I started traveling, I found this list. I didnt really know much about it. I started my trip in Hawaii. So basically I left the United States in 2007 and sort of went west.

  • And there are very few in the Pacific. Volcanoes National Park was the first one I went to. Went to Easter Island. Visited two of them in New Zealand. And so I just sort, just kept a very small list because there werent a whole lot that I had visited. And then I sort of went out of my way to visit some of the sites in the Philippines, which was my next stop, and then in Japan. Then over time, it sort of just became a thing that I became known for, because I began posting an image and a brief synopsis of the visit and some information about it for every single one. And it's kind of taken off and a lot of people who know me, know that's one of the things I do. And whats nice about it is, if you were to pick all of the wonders of the world, or the big things that most people want to see, most of them are World Heritage sites. The Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, things like that. And, but it also has a lot of lesser known things a lot of people might not be aware of. And so I discover a lot of really great things, just by visiting these places that I wouldnt have known of otherwise. For example, a few days ago I visited the Palace of Caserta outside of Naples, Italy. Now most people have heard of the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris, which is also a UNESCO site. Theyve heard of, maybe the Schnbrunn Palace outside of Vienna, which is also a World Heritage site.

    Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

    Most people probably havent heard of Caserta, which is outside of Naples. But it is just as big, and just as impressive as those other two places, but no one has heard about it. And if it wasnt for trying to visit these sites, I never would have visited there and I never would have known about it.So the UNESCO list that youre talking about, can you just tell us what that is again?The list on the UNESCO site has all 962 of the current ones. Now I just keep a list out on my site of the ones that I have visited.So that's one thing youre heavily into which is awesome. One of the things though, that I really wanted to speak to you about today was the blogging side of things. As you said you started blogging a little bit before you even got going in 2007, so youve been doing this for a really long time. Youve got a massive amount of people who follow your blogs, which is amazing. You have a lot of really great stuff in there. However, when you started blogging back in the day, I mean, it was barely even called 'travel blogging'. People didnt really know what it was or how to do it. And Im sure most people, yourself included, had no idea where it would lead to. Can you tell us a little bit about those early days of your travel blogging?When I first started actually, to go even before that, the first time I had ever really travelled, was in 1999.

    Watch The Full-Length InterviewInternet connection required

  • Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.comWoman in boat at sunset Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

  • Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

    Tetouan Morocco, Africa

    People dreamt about traveling. And it was really kind of like pornography.

    I had a software business that I sold and the company I sold it to was a global company and I kind of conned them to sending me to all of their various offices around the world to talk about internet application development. And so I took a three week trip where I went to Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels and London. And while doing this, I set up a small website and I would post updates for all of the people in the office. And so, unwittingly, that was my first travel blog. We didnt call it a 'blog' at that time. About nine months in, I realized this was either a waste of my time or I have to take this seriously and there were no professional travel bloggers at that time. There was nothing to base it on.

    So I had no background in travel and tourism. I had no background as a journalist. Which actually turns out was a good thing, because I wasnt trying to just replicate what everyone else was doing. And I was in Hong Kong when I made this decision, and I went to a book store and bought all of the travel magazines that were there. And I opened them, and I had a spreadsheet, and I just sort of did an analysis of what they wrote about.What percentage of the editorial were images as opposed to text. How many countries did they mention in an issue? What I found was basically, they mentioned, on average in editorial content, in some sort of mention, at least 35 countries in a given issue. Nobody visits 35 countries in a month, let alone a year. Most people wont do it in their life. So why are people buying these travel magazines? Half of what you have in terms of page layout, was photography. And I realized that I a lot of it had to do with fantasy. People dreamt about traveling. And it was really kind of like pornography. So, I made an emphasis on doing still photography on my website. I started posting a photo everyday which I have been doing for 5 years now.

  • Andorra

    Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

    Every single day, I post a new image on my website and Ive also noticed that the longer I travel, the easier of a sell it is for what I do. So when I began traveling I told people, I'm gonna travel around the world, and they were like, yeah, that's nice. Then I was 6 months in to it and I was like Ive been traveling for 6 months and people were now, oh wow! And then after a year and in every stage it became more and more impressive. Now when I tell people Ive been traveling for over 6 years, they are just dumbfounded. Before they see an image, before they even read anything Ive ever written, I have a new follower. Because they find the story very compelling. So yeah, that's the basic overview of how it kind of got started and how it happened.It really is remarkable how quickly the Internet has taken off and the travel blogging scene and everything So it's really cool to be able to speak to someone who's been there right from the get go. As far as your blog posts that you write now, youve obviously got a lot of experience at it. Are there any writing guidelines that you stick to that kind of keep your followers happy?

    I wish I could say there was some. I mean, the biggest problem I have always had and it's still a problem today, is balancing the travel and the blogging. Because most bloggers, if they are doing anything other than travel, whether it be politics or sports or technology, they can just sit in one spot and just talk about whatever happens to be in the news. It's very easy. They dont have to go anywhere and it's reactive, not proactive. Meaning they wait for something to happen in the world. They wait for Apple to announce a new product or some political scandal, and then they talk about it. That's not the way this works. Nothing new really happens in travel, right? Theyre not making many new countries and when they do, they dont tend to be very interesting places to go. Theyre not going to make a brand new Italy. And you cant sit at your computer while simultaneously exploring the world. You have to do one or the other. You know, you have to trade off, and so, in the last 3 months, I have actually written very little. And that's because Ive been traveling so much this year, that the blogging has really been hurting.

  • Kayaking in Paradise Bay Antarctica

    Curacao Caribbean

  • St. Stephen's Cathedral Vienna, Austria

  • Pamir Mountain Range Kyrgyzstan

  • St. Stephen's Cathedral Vienna, Austria

    You have to build an audience; you have to build a following. Unless you have that, you have nothing to make money off of.

    The biggest thing Ive found is that I'll have the biggest jumps in traffic and subscriber growth when Im not traveling. Like if I spend a month in one city and just work. And that's because Im spending more time on the site. It's the hardest part of what travel blogging is about and the hardest part of what I do. And trying to find that balance is not easy.I'm sure. Alright, so looking at info for some of the new travel bloggers people who are heading out on these extended travels and theyre wanting to start a travel blog and theres a lot of advice on how to do it. From somebody like yourself, that has been doing it for so long, are there any common mistakes that you see these new guys making? Anything tips you could pass on to our readers; things to keep in mind when theyre starting a travel blog?Yeah. I think people try to make money too quickly. I didnt make any money on my site for 5 years and that was a purposeful decision. In any field of human endeavor, there is a phase you go through which youre an amateur. Music, acting, sports, almost everything you do it first as an amateur and then you get better. And then maybe you can become a professional.

    Blogging people want to start making money right away. I've started my blog, now how do I make money? The truth is you dont. You have no audience when you start. You have to build an audience; you have to build a following. Unless you have that, you have nothing to make money off of. So what people do is they end up doing stuff like selling links, which you dont need an audience. No one needs to care what you have to say. Then youre just going to end up doing bottom feeder type of things because you are so desperate to make money that youre blogging becomes separate and everything starts to hurt.

  • Ta Som Angkor, Cambodia

  • The Eiffel Tower as seen from the Esplanade du Trocadro Paris, France

  • Pamir Mountain Range Kyrgyzstan

  • Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

    The other thing I see people do is that they try too hard to promote themselves. They are constantly just pushing, throwing links in peoples face. Not only does it not work, but it's counterproductive. In some ways it's easier, and in some ways it's harder to start a new blog today than when I did it. It's easier in that there is a community. There is an established way of doing things. And that makes it a lot easier. There are people you can talk to. I didnt have that. It's harder, in that I didnt have to compete with me, and people like me, with established websites. And lets face it, if youre going off on a gap year trip, that's not that interesting.There's millions of people off backpacking through Southeast Asia. Yet another backpacker in Thailand. You know, No one really cares. And to do really compelling and interesting things traveling, you really have to go out of your way to do that. And it takes time. It takes time to develop a travel resume that's going to be the kind of thing that people want to follow. And it's not something you can do immediately.That's some good advice. And yes, you do see it with a lot of the new travel bloggers.

    Everybody wants to make money. But it's a good comment you make about the amateur status, cause it does make a lot of sense. Hopefully people will pick up on that.Well let me put it this way. If you cant be a successful amateur, youll never be a successful professional. And too many people try to jump ahead and without having the foundations set.So let me talk quickly then about the social media side of things. It seems nowadays, every six months or so; youve got a new major social media platform. It used to be that maybe Facebook and Twitter or whatever was enough. And then Pinterest gets joined and then theres more and more and more. How do you balance that? I mean there are so many different social media platforms. How important do you think social media is to your site, or to travel bloggers sites, and then how many is too many?Well, it's extremely important. I think that's what sets blogging apart from other forms of travel writing, is that it's interactive and you can have discussions with people. Whereas traditional travel writing in a newspaper or magazine, it's a monologue.

    Curacao waterfront Caribbean

  • Uluru at Sunset Northern Territory, Australia

    So social media is extremely important and I probably spend more time on social media than I actually do on blogging."

    You put it out and then you never have any discussion with the people who read it. And with what I do is, almost every major city Ill visit in the world, I end up meeting my readers personally. I have dinner and drinks with them, and thats something that never, ever happens with traditional travel writing. You would never read a newspaper and contact the writer of an article and say, hey, let's meet up. But theres a sense of familiarity online, because you can ask questions and have them answered. So social media is extremely important and I probably spend more time on social media than I actually do on blogging. As far as websites, I use Twitter and Facebook, and those are the major ones. I do very little with Pinterest. I use Instagram, but I also use that partially, just to feed Twitter and Facebook. And then I do some stuff with Google+, but I dont take it as seriously as the other platforms.I think everybodys got their own views. Some people love Google+, some people love Pinterest, so I guess it's a matter of finding your own voice, but the points that you make are very valid. I wanted to touch on a bit of a new project for you. I dont know how long its been up exactly, but the new Everything-Everywhere Community Site that youve launched recently. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and why youve created it?

    Most of what I talk about is me talking about my experiences or thoughts or opinions to other people traveling. But the fact is, anywhere I go in the world, someones been there before me. Someone has visited more extensively that I will visit it. Someone lives there and they know more about it. And if people are going somewhere, theres more information to be had from the community than can come from me.

    Ive tried starting a forum in the past, and had a great deal of difficulty with spam, with moderating everything. I tried hosting it myself and it just didnt work well. So this time, doing it differently. I have a community manager. We're taking a very long term view.

  • Great Chedi Chaya Mongkol, Ayutthaya Thailand

  • Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

    Im going on a trip this summer. It will be approximately three months where I will be island hopping through the Caribbean. I'll be visiting all of the countries and territories in the Lesser Antilles. And after that, Im going to be doing a big change in my scheduling for how I travel. Up to now, it's sort of just been one trip, then the next trip, then the next trip. And as I mentioned before, it's a big problem in balancing work and travel. I think at this point, I have a pretty healthy travel resume, in terms of places Ive visited. Im going to do 6 two-week expeditions every year. Thats the goal. And then in between those, Im going to go to a different city in the world and basically just live. I'll get an apartment or something for two months, and that should give me far more time between trips to write, to edit my photos, and it will also give me the opportunity, during the trips, to do more in terms of maybe podcasting, maybe doing some video, maybe bringing some other people along with me to really do some interesting stuff. So Im going to try doing that.

    Developing communities like this are very difficult to get off the ground. You know, so we're giving it a full year. It's just a different approach and we're also using a hosted service, rather than trying to host it ourselves, which has also stopped, basically all the spam problems. So basically, it's a place where people can talk about travel and share things amongst themselves. We'll be spending the next several months trying to get it going.Ive joined up to it already and Im looking forward to seeing it grow. And I think the comment that you make about getting that local knowledge, in particular, is so vital. Every long term traveler that I speak to, one of the best tips they always give is talk to the locals. Eat where the locals eat, go where the locals go. The locals are always going to have much better 'on-the-ground' knowledge than what the press is gonna have, or even some of the major publications might have about a local area. I wish you all the best of luck that. Im sure it will do well. So as far as you, Gary Arndt, and the blog, whats happening with you in the next few months? Anything you want to tell our readers about?

    Glacier National Park Montana, USA

  • Well, you can check out my stuff at Everthing-Everywhere.com and go travel!Go travel! There you go, famous words from Gary Arndt himself. Look Gary, thanks again for your time. We fitted you in with your hectic schedule, and I appreciate the time that youve given us. I wish you all the best with the new community site that youve just launched and your UNESCO list, keep us updated on that. Thank you for your time and we'll talk to you again soon.Thanks for having me!

    Beautiful Prague Czech Republic

    And while Im not doing an expedition, Im still going to be living somewhere. So Im thinking maybe of going to South Africa this December. And Ill be there and do some things in that region, while Im living and working down there.That sounds great Gary. Actually part of the reason why we started Travel Longer magazine, was specifically for that style of travel. Rather than just hopping yourself across the globe and trying to hit 20 countries in a year, we found that basing ourselves in a country for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, depending on how long we could stay with a visa it gave us the ability to get some extra work done and that sort of thing. But I think also, when you spend more time in a location, you get to really appreciate the local culture and the local food. You tend to get a much more holistic view of that place and a much deeper appreciation. Alright, well it's just about time to wrap up the interview. Is there any sort of last words that you want to pass on before we say our farewells?

    Gary Arndt from everything-everywhere.com

  • African SafariIn A Minute

    Internet connection required

    Cailin ONeil from travelyourself.ca

    by Cailin ONeil

    African Safari

  • visit haiti

    CitadelleLaferrire

    Citadelle Henry Christophe Cap-Hatien, Haiti

    by Ryan Brown

  • Upon emerging from t h e d a r k , c o o l s t o n e staircase that led us up to the top of this massive s t r u c t u r e , I w a s immediately struck with a sense of awe.

    It seemed as though we had climbed up, and up, and up through those pitch dark hallways which snaked like a labyrinth. We followed the sound of our guides thick accented voice which reverberated along with our footsteps until exiting onto the top of the structure seemingly suspended in the clouds.

    Where once upon a time red tiles covered heads, now only a misty white-out sky made up the roof of this massive limestone structure.

    Cobblestone pathways leading to the citadel.

    Immediately I was drawn to the edge, just by the prospect of looking down at a world far below.

    Hell, I was so excited I even leaped across the gap which dropped 30 feet down into a room below, against the warning calls of our guide without realizing it could have been a pitfall to my death.

    B u t I w a s d r a w n t o i t b y u t t e r astonishment.

    After landing safely on the other side of the gap, I edged ever so slowly toward the rampart. Not because I was afraid of falling over the edge, or afraid of heights, but because my anticipation was insatiable and I needed to take it all in slowly.

    It seemed as though there was a white infinity past the edge of the rampart. No trace of land, sea, mountains, or cities in sight; just a fascinating nothingness beyond.

  • Edge of the ramparts, cannon balls at the ready

    Citadel as we emerged from inside.

  • I ran my hands across the rough, grey limestone wall, feeling the textures and crevices of history. The soul of the building. The age of the stone was apparent, with the rust-colored patches carpeted here and there by green moss which had grown over time.

    Finally, I took a deep breath and leaned over the edge to see just how high up we were. And then my stomach dropped with a wicked thud. Talk about vertigo!

    Ryan Brown from justchuckinit.com

    Interior of La Citadel

    This wasnt like anything I had imagined the country would be. No, this was Haiti.

    Land was completely absent below as the my eyes peered down 3,000ft into the mist-covered valley.

    We were truly in a fortress of the clouds; birds flew by far below on wind-streams circulating the high walls, and grey silhouettes of mountain tops seemed itty-bitty in comparison to our vantage point.

    My mouth and eyes were dried up from being agape. Within minutes, the clouds and mist which had hidden the world below in a vail of white began dissipating. I imagined it like a ghostly army retreating from a failed invasion, just like the kind the fortress was built to repel.

    And as the ghost army retreated through the valley, the lush country was presented to me like a gift to a King. At that moment I knew I was looking at the naked beauty of the country, something the world doesnt often get to see.

    This wasnt like anything I had imagined the country would be. No, this was Haiti.

    In all honesty, I felt quite ashamed of my initial expectations when we originally planned to visit.

  • Staircase near the Tomb of Henry Christophe's Brother

  • The only way to reach the front door was up a narrow cobblestone path 3,000ft to the summit, its no wonder why the French didnt decide to march an army up for a cup of tea.

    Ryan Brown from justchuckinit.com

    Actually, when I had heard from my Haitian friend about a castle in Haiti, I scoffed at the prospect of such a structure. I didnt mean to mock the possibility, but when I envision a castle, I think of Europes landscape which is dotted with the elaborate ancient structures. I pictured myself in Haiti walking up a high hill to the empty foundation of a small old defensive outpost at most.

    It turns out I was utterly, ignorantly, and happily wrong.

    The structure in the sky that I stood upon is one of an important era in Haitian history. The Citadel; known by Haitians as Citadelle Laferrire or, Citadelle Henry Christophe whom commissioned its construction, is a mountain-top fortress dominating the countryside atop the 3,000ft (910m) high Bonnet a LEveque mountain.

    My fascinated trance was soon disrupted by the distant calls of our local guide.

    No time, we hurry on!

    The sun was growing ever more lazy in the sky and beginning to touch the horizon. As much as I wanted wanted to continue playing King of the Castle, daylight was dying and there was more to see.

    Our guide, simply named Mike, led us along the ramparts while giving us bits and pieces of the history of The Citadel in broken English as we hurried along. He informed us that directly after Haiti declared it s independence from France, 20,000 workers began building the fortress under orders from that chap Henry Cristophe whom at the time was a major player in the rebellion and General of Haitis armies at the time.

    Legend has it, as told by Mike, the 108,000 square foot (10,000m2) 130 foot tall (40m) structure was built in 7 days and made with the blood and bones of fallen workers which made the fortress immensely stronger. On the less romantic fact site Wikipedia, it states that construction happened between 1805-1820 and the mortar was of cows blood and quicklime.

    Either way, La Citadel le was an impressive feat.

    Lining the exterior hallways, ramparts, and ground are 365 cannons which were collected or donated from various countries to arm the defenses against a possible French invasion. All of the were never fired, leaving stockpiles of cannonballs scattered about.

    With the extremely angular design of the fortress, partnered with the fact that the only way to reach the front door was up a narrow cobblestone path 3,000ft to the summit, its no wonder why the French didnt decide to march an army up for a cup of tea.

    Later in history Russia would even implement the cannonball deflective design of the fortress with their tanks in WWII. Sounds like Henry Cristophe knew a thing or two.

    Night was fast approaching and a thick fog crawled back across the mountain and consumed The Citadel, causing us to cut our tour short.

    As we followed the winding staircases back toward the exit of the fortress, I asked Mike for one last history lesson.

    Is The Citadel haunted by any spirits or ghosts? I asked with eagerness.

    Oh yes! Many! Many spirits here, Mike replied in a quieter voice than before, as if he was afraid of stirring the spirits.

  • Cannons at the ready

    We were truly in a fortress of the clouds"

    The Citadel high above Bonnet a LEveque mountain

  • Henry Christophe statue at the base near Palace de Sans-Souci

    With one last glance back I saw Citadelle Laferrire disappear into the mist as if it was a ghost itself. Now it was time to focus on keeping my groin intact after my guide whipped my horse into a gallop and I bounced furiously on the wood and carpet saddle. -RBHow to: We arrived late in the day at the base of the trail leading 5 miles up a cobblestone road to the fortress which left us with only enough time for a rushed tour. Give yourself an entire day to explore.

    The Citadel lies 17 miles South of the city of Cap-Hatien. Local guides near the base of the trail charge a small fee for a tour as well as horseback rides up to the fortress. Our guide was super passionate about the history and spoke English, French and even a little German and a Spanish.

    To reach the base youll need a 4WD car as the roads outside of the small town of Milot are extremely rough.

    On the way out we passed by the tomb of Henry Cristophes brother who had been killed in an explosion which happened in the armory, and he is a prominent spirit whom wanders those hallowed halls along with the workers who died building them.

    Remember kids, dont play with fire. Or gun-powder...

    Also, Mike spoke more of Henry Christophe, who in 1811 had declared himself King while battling for power against another prominent Haitian in the South. Another beautifully tragic legend has the King committing suicide by shooting himself with a silver bullet in 1820 after a mutiny.

    Anything involving spirits instantly captures my imagination, and The Citadel definitely invokes a feeling that something still wanders the dormant fortress.

    Soon we were clack-clacking our way back down the cobblestone path on the rickety horses which had carried us up the mountain.

  • Traveling with Kids The Impossible Dream??

    by Cheri Magarrell

    I have always loved to travel. I come by it honestly my mom was always (and still is!) planning a trip to a new location, and my childhood was filled with summer road trips throughout Canada and the United States, and even venturing (by plane!) to Mexico when my sister and I got to be teenagers.

    This kind of trip was pretty common when I was younger, the family road trip I mean, and still is for most families. It seems to be the norm that once you have kids, your exotic traveling life is over, and you are now doomed to perpetual road trips for the next 10-20 years till the kids get older and you can a. either travel with them, or b. travel without them!

    So is international travel possible? If so, how?

    I remember before my husband and I had kids, we were planning a trip overseas to Europe, and people would say to us, Oh, its good youre doing it now, cause you wont be able to once you have kids! I remember thinking, Why not?! I do understand that the cost of traveling with a family can make it prohibitive for many, but I also know that we all make choices, and often our financial inability to travel with a family is directly linked to the choices we have made.

    I know a family with three children who last year spent six weeks in Africa. They are not wealthy, but choose to live simply so that

    Hanging out in Bangkok Thailand

  • Cheri Magarrell from deepsoulphotography.com

    often our financial inability to travel with

    a family is directly linked to the choices

    we have made.

    they can travel and do the things that are important to them. Often, you cant have a big, fancy house, nice cars AND travel too. But travel is NOT just for the rich and famous. Its all about choices.

    Back to my husband and I... We head out on our six month stint in Europe, returned home, did a trip a few years later to South America and then began the adventure of having kids. I have to admit, that while our kids were small, we didnt do much traveling. But as I said before, part of that was due to the choices we made.

    We had bought a small farm with cattle, and my husband was also working a full-time job off the farm, so life was BUSY! Those cows didnt just sit around waiting patiently for weeks to be fedno, they wanted to be fed daily, even multiple times a day! So for about 10 years, our life was very domestic and home-bound.

    Can your kids handle international travel?

    After three children and living a stable, normal life for many years, we decided to change our life drastically. We decided to adopt a baby. We had three children, but had always wanted four. For many reasons, (and its a long, complicated story!) we decided to do an international adoption from China.

    After two years of paperwork, waiting, more paperwork and more waiting, we finally arrived at the moment we had been anxiously waiting for. It was time to go pick up our new daughter! Then began the deliberations. We had three other children. Should we take them with us? All of them? Some of them? None of them? If some, which ones? Would that harm the ones left behind? Would they feel left out, neglected, abandoned?? We thought through our childrens personalities, ages, strengths and weaknesses. Posing for Mom (again!) Turkey

    Finding a snail beside the pool was very exciting!

  • My son, dipping his foot into the Mediterranean

  • Joy filled faces as my children run along the beach. We had the entire beach to ourselves! Turkey

    In our case, our oldest son was fascinated with China, and we didnt know if we would ever have the chance to take him again. It just seemed logical to take him with us.

    What kind of eaters are they? Our oldest son was fairly adventuresome and willing to try new foods. Our second son didnt eat much beyond bread and milk! Not such a great combination for traveling to exotic destinations where there may not be many familiar foods found to eat!

    Although, having said this, I have also seen how you can often adapt local food to childrens taste buds by asking, for example, for noodles or rice to be served without a sauce, or you can find little snacks and fruits at small shops or street stalls that can supplement their diet until you get home to familiarity, or they adapt to the new cuisine. Im also a big believer in making kids try new things and modeling adventuresome eating yourself. They will follow your lead (in eating as in the rest of life!)

    Cheri Magarrell from deepsoulphotography.com

    Some of the criteria that we used that may help you as you consider traveling with your children are:

    How do they do with lack of sleep? If you are going to be traveling across the world, and dealing with long flights, long layovers, jet lag and unpredictable schedules, can your children handle it? We had one child we knew would do fine, and one we knew would be a screaming banshee the entire time because he thrived on a rigid sleep schedule (and this trip would definitely not allow for that!).

    Do they have an interest in the place you are going? Obviously not every child is going to know much about your intended destination, and this shouldnt necessarily deter you from taking them, but if they DO have a particular interest in a place, as our oldest son did in China, it may just make sense to take them, because it may allow them the opportunity of a lifetime.

  • Standing in front of Kyrgyz yurts in the Karakorum Mountains Central Asia

    Financial vs. age. What do I mean by this? Well, lets face it. We all have financial constraints. Very few of us have an endless, bottomless budget. We ourselves did not have an unlimited budget, so we thought through the ages of our kids and tried to think which ones would actually remember this trip of a lifetime! We figured there was no sense spending our hard earned money on a trip that our youngest daughter would never remember. Therefore we decided to leave her at home with Grandma and Grandpa. Other people may have made a different decision, but for us, this made the most sense.

    These are just a few of the things we thought through as we went through the decision making process. In the end, we took our oldest son, who was seven at the time, and he had a great time. It was a great bonding time with his new sister, he loved China, got to see some amazing places and do some amazing things, and did amazing with the unpredictable schedule and the often long days.

    He didnt particularly like the food, even though we had thought he would. Funnily enough, when we got home and people asked what his favorite thing was about the trip (expecting him to say his trip to the Great Wall, or meeting his new sister, or some other such lofty thing, his answer was Watching Tom and Jerry in the hotel restaurant. Almost broke this traveling mamas heart!! But it just shows you that despite your well laid plans and careful planning, you cant accurately predict everything what they will or will not likethey are kids after all and slightly unpredictable!

    Life learning and the joys of travel

    Since then, we have moved our entire family overseas, and our kids have travelled to a number of different countries. We have met other families who are also traveling the world with their children. It is totally do-able It is such a thrill to stand in the Haggia Sophia, Istanbul with your children and look around at thousands of years of history together.

  • Deep in thought on a stormy day in Thailand

    Exploring an ancient amphitheater in Turkey real hands on learning!

  • My daughter stands in awe in the Haggia Sophia Istanbul, Turkey

  • But now, the sky is the limit for them. They are not limited to one country or culture. They can thrive wherever they are. T h e y h a v e l e a r n e d t h a t d e s p i t e t h e differences they see in people and places around the world, there are also things that are the same.

    They are adaptable, flexible, well rounded kids. They are receiving a life changing education. Yes there are challenges. Yes, your kids will have meltdowns. Yes, they will get sick (weve had scrapes and cuts, pink eye, fevers, wipeouts thankfully nothing more serious than that! But we have seen the medical centers in a number of countries! Just part of the adventure of life and travel) There will be times when you wonder why you ever decided to travel with your kids. But dont let these things stop you. My husbands motto is Lets make a memory! and I cant think of a better way to do that than to travel the world with my kids! -CM

    Cheri Magarrell from deepsoulphotography.com

    It is so fun to boat down the canals of Bangkok, seeing ancient temples, modern skyscrapers and ramshackle huts all co-existing. I love having discussions with my kids about the different lifestyles they are seeing they have learned so much about world cultures and religions... seeing people make daily sacrifices at Buddhist shrines, monks worshiping in temples, and hearing the Muslim call to prayer blare across the city over loudspeakers. These all lead to great conversations as we discuss the many di f ferent th ings they are see ing and experiencing. It is such a gift and blessing to be able to teach our kids, using these experiences and helping them become more understanding, compassionate people as a result.

    What next?

    I love that it is now routine for my kids to say I want to live in Cairo when I grow up or Im going to live in Thailand. Had we stayed on the farm in Canada, I dont think I ever would have heard those words come out of my kids mouths.

    A fishing boat Koh Chang, Thailand

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  • What: Nem Cua Be (crab-filled spring rolls - variation)Where: Nem Vuong -37 o Duy T, Hanoi - VietnamPart of what makes street food compelling is the incredible openness of creation that comes along with your meal. In this photo, a vendor is frying nem cua be, crab rolls filled with not just crab meat, but wood ear mushrooms, pork and bean sprouts, with some vendors including egg and rice vermicellinoodles. Wrapped into a beautiful square package with rice paper, these presents are then fried in oil and served cut into four, wrapped up in a blanket of lettuce and herbs. Incredibly satisfying alone, but even more so when you are able to watch your snack unfold before you. -JE

    Jodi Ettenberg from www.legalnomads.com

    tastes of the world Hanoi, Vietnam

    "After years of travel, I am very excited to share my big project: a book about food. Specifically, about how to find cheap, safe and delicious food anywhere in the world."

    -Jodi Ettenberg

  • I love to travel, whether local or global.

    In past, Ive traveled with a heavy bag, filled with a DSLR, lenses and accessories, a point and shoot, an underwater camera and a cell phone camera.

    An hour later, my neck, back and shoulder were calling for respite.

    I remember well, when I went to Italy in the summer of 2012. After arriving at Frankfurt Airport, I had to run at GodSpeed for half an hour, to my connecting flight, which had been booked at the wrong gate. I ran for 30 minutes in bare feet and sandals, with carry on bags, purse and camera gear, from one end of the airport to the other, swearing and sweating the entire way along. If only I had just an iPhone in my pocket, what a relief it would have been!

    Brenda Johima from www.brendajohima.com

    Have iPhone,Will Travel

    Article and Images by Brenda Johima

    As an artist and photographer, having an iPhone as a camera, wherever I go, is crucial to my creative process, and for documenting my journey along the way.

    Photographer Chase Jarvis coined the term, The best camera is the one thats with you.

    I agree, and so I always have my iPhone camera with me wherever I go.

    Why iPhone for Travel? Although these may seem obvious, lets make a case for a mobile phone as your major camera for travel;

    1. Its small and light. Who wants to carry heavy camera gear, especially in the heat?

    2.Its discreet.3. It fits in your pocket and in your purse.4 . W i t h a d d - o n c a s e s y o u c a n b e

    Venice

  • Brenda Johima from www.brendajohima.com

    underwater, in, on, around and near water or rain.

    5. You can shoot with one hand. And shoot from the hip.

    6. You can go places that tripods cannot.

    7. Attachments, accessories and add-on lenses are also small and lightweight.

    8. Something psychological happens when photographing people with a mobile phone vs. a DSLR. They dont seem to mind as much.

    9. You have instant (almost real time) sharing to social networks, and/or to family, friends or colleagues via email, text and blogs.

    10. Its FUN. Creating art on the fly is a good time, and can give you something creative to do while waiting in airports and train stations.

    Carry an external hard drive, laptop or iPad to back up your images on the go, or save your images to the cloud.

    Most photo apps have an option within the app, to share to social networks. Before you leave, set up your access to social networks in app, with your logins and passwords so you are ready to travel and be social.

    iPhoneography Travel Reminders: Leave for your journey with

    a fully charged iPhone, your charger, cables and adapters for whatever country you are in, and an empty photo library. Youll want as much space as possible on your trip(s) so make sure you delete all photos on your iPhone before you go.

    If your budget allows, travel with a backup 2nd iPhone as well.

    Italian backstreets

  • Street performer - Vancouver

  • Brenda Johima from www.brendajohima.com

    Heres some basic iPhone photography tips to help you along.

    Look for the light - or chase the light as

    photographers say. Light is your friend. Get up early in the morning. Thats sometimes not appealing when you are on vacation and youd rather enjoy the snooze in and sleep in. However, some of the best images are made during dawn and dusk, the magic hours.

    Alleyways and back streets sometimes have shade. Use that shade as your friend. Mid-day sun sometimes casts harsh shadows and/or overexposes iPhone images.

    Fill the frame. Get as close as possible to your subject (unless its a tiger) and in doing so, you are removing any distractions in the background, and placing the focus where it belongs, on your target subject.

    Rule of Thirds is a rule, and you know what they say about rules. Learn it, so you can break it.

    Apps are good. I used to teach people to only use the native (built-in) camera. That has changed recently with several excellent camera replacement apps that mimic DSLR capabilities. Now I teach that its a personal choice, and there are many options. Choose the one that you will use most frequently and effortlessly.

    Tell a story. For example, think of National Geographic photographers They are masters at having their images tell a story.

    U s e h u m o r w h e n e v e r y o u c a n , tastefully.

    Feel. What are you feeling? Feel something. Feel anything. Emotion Sells. Emotion Connects Us. I believe that the depth to which you feel feelings, shows in your images. (Those who find beauty in a landscape do so because it touches a place of beauty already within themselves. Courtney Milne)

    Vancouver Island

  • Italian alleyway

  • Starfish - Comox beach, Vancouver Island

  • Brenda Johima from www.brendajohima.com

    What to shoot

    1. People, friends, family, locals. What to consider when photographing people:

    I come from a background in the helping professions so confidentiality, privacy and respect is grilled into me. That, however, is often thrown out the window with social media and thousands of photographers fighting to get the shot that nobody else can get. My personal style for photographing people is to always ask permission. Have a legal model release with you, in both paper and digital format in case you find an amazing human being that youd like to photograph. Ask permission, with a focus on kindness and respect. My approach is to always make people feel and look as good as possible. Images live online permanently . Showcase the best of humanity. Your photos are a reflection of you as a photographer. Show the very best in the human being (subject) and you showcase your best work also.

    2. Simple, every day objects

    3. Reflections are everywhere. They are in the water, in glasses, in mirrors, windows and doors and even floors.

    4. There are endless photographs yet to be taken in this world. Choose the unusual , use your imaginat ion and creativity to the max. Photography is a gift to be given and shared. Ill be expanding on this list in my upcoming eBook on iPhone Photography.

    P