Category Archives: PersonalStoriesandExperiences
Travel and Photography Inspiration - How I Became A Travel Photographer
Nothing says amazing like capturing an amazing view while suspended way above air looking down on a beautiful canyon. Amazing is capturing a beautiful woman standing in front of a romantic scene of a giant waterfall. Amazing is clicking away at a beautiful secluded beach scene that you will only see a few times in your life. Amazing is capturing a culture that you have never experienced and sharing it with everyone else through photography.
The Travel Photographer
Photography is amazing. Travel photography is even more amazing. The job of a travel photographer is to tell a story about people and places to entice others to visit. And although I am no expert at it, I try my best to entice others to travel. Why? Because it is hard to pass up the experiences and views that I have come across. It is amazing when others can also experience what I have seen and done. That is why I created this website to begin with. I want other to explore the grandiose waterfalls of Iguazu. I want people to know how it is to experience the extreme passion when dancing Salsa in Colombia. I want and enjoy the friendly nature of the people of the Philippines.
The Beginning
How did I start off? Well I never thought I would have gotten into photography. I thought I was not artistic enough or even could learn to use a camera. Aperture? Shutter speed? ISO? It seemed so sophisticated and complicated to me. What are all those dials for? Why are there so many buttons? I am certain I was not alone. I know you are saying some of the same things or said some of those same things at one point.
I started off with simple point and shoot digital camera at the age of 19. Nearly every year I would upgrade to a slightly better one. I have always been a fan of Olympus and always went with them. That then is when it happened. My girlfriend at the time invited me to visit her in India. I seized the opportunity and said HECK YA. Travel way across the world to be with a girl I loved and experience a new culture? It was a no brainer. But I figured my point and shoot camera would not due for this trip. I wanted to document it and with a higher quality photos than the snapshots I was taking with my point and click cameras. So that is when I purchased my first DSLR. It was a Canon Rebel t2i. I had ditched my Olympus (and recently returned back to Olympus) for a Canon DSLR. I wandered India grasping shots of the experiences I was having through out the land. I was documenting the faces and people I was meeting and framing to the views around. I tried to get the artistic shots of beautiful places like the Taj Mahal, but I would have to admit, the photographs were mediocre at best.
Persistence
Most of my time was spent trying to learn my new camera and at that time I had no concept of photography techniques. After my trip I found that my photography was lacking. I was studying Graphic Design at the Academy of Art University at the time and was learning a lot about space and shapes and how people perceive communication. At this time I was also noticing how my photography was lacking. At this time I found that it was time to learn more about camera techniques. I taught myself my camera through Youtube videos and posted my photography on travel photography websites and asked for feedback to help me improve.
Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong and India again, I started pushing my technique more and more. I forced myself to travel on my own, with friends and meeting people who invited me to their country. I took photos, not just a few but A LOT. Same shot, different angles, experimented with the lighting, settings and tried some new dials on the camera. I was gaining new insights and different skills. All of this was self taught with no schooling in photography at all.
The Break
I was visiting my ex-girlfriend in India, the girl who was my girlfriend the first time I was in India. We were to visit the town of Ladakh. To make a long story short, she had to leave and I was on my own to travel to Kashmir. Her family set me up with a guide. Kashmir is rarely visited by most Americans, due to the bad press it gets. But there I was in Srinagar, in one of the most beautiful places in the world. There I documented story of an amazing area that many have no experienced outside of India or Pakistan. When I returned I entered the photos into a contest. I did not win, but I did get noticed. At that time man contacted me from a publishing company asking to purchase the rights to some of my photos. This was a break into the industry I was looking for. They bought my photography and it was published in a new magazine. From there other started contacting me do some work for them. I was now starting to get paid to travel and to photograph.
The jist of this story? I am not a trained photographer. I never knew I was going to be a photographer. Heck my schooling is in Architectural Engineering and Graphic Design. What made what I do happen was devotion and persistence. I then started this website. I wanted others to accomplish their dream. To be a photojournalist, journalist, traveler, photographer… what ever it is. This is why I am starting to make a new commitment to this site. I will start to be offering more articles of photography. To help those learn the skills, become persistent and accomplish their dream. Look towards the beginning of next year for classes on photography and tools for photographers.
Why?
Why did write this article? I want to let you know the following:
- I started off not knowing what I was doing as the most of us do.
- Persistence with a passion to improve is a great way to accomplish a goal.
- I love traveling, I love photography and I want others to love them too.
- I want to let you know I am here to help you accomplish your goal to travel and photograph.
So what is a dream you want to follow? What goal have you added persistence to? Did you ever get a lucky break? I want to know. I want to share you story. Leave a message below, send me a tweet on twitter, or post on my facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let me know, we want to share it with others.
Colombia Travel Tips - Things Learned In Colombia
As I walk down a familiar street and turn down a familiar road, there are still observations I make. New observations, the kind of observations that make me have new insights. The kind of insights that make me go “Oooh”. You know what I am talking about. You have experienced it in your own home town before. Although I have traveled to Colombia four different times, there were still things I learned on my last trip. Through familiar cities and familiar cultures an familiar streets observations and “Ooohs” kept coming. Here are a handful of them:
- Traveling with a loved one is one of the best ways to travel. When you travel with a loved one it enhances everything you do much more.
- Traveling is a great way to test any relationship. I can tell you we had some rocky times on this trip and we learned a lot about each other on the road. It really makes you learn more about someone… and even more so, yourself.
- Work or Play? - As a travel writer and photographer, it was ESPECIALLY hard to keep the two balanced. I was having so much of a good time, I forgot about work. And when I was working, I forgot to have a good time.
- Colombians are all about family. I was invited to eat with the family, check out housing with the family and I was expected to be interacting as if I was part of the family. It is main staple to Colombian life. It made it seemed like I was married already… that can be scary to some.
- Keep it simple. Especially at the border areas of Sapzurro, it was key to make sure to keep it simple. There are no roads there and not a lot of amenities. My iPhone was saw as thing that was not needed as well as my high tech camera. Good thing my laptop was tucked away most of the time.
- Practice your Spanish… at all times. My girlfriend spoke most of the time which made it hard for me to speak for myself. It made it seem like I was not friendly. I have travelled Colombia alone before and was very open to talking, but even when some is talking for you, talk for yourself in the language. Otherwise, you become the dumb foreigner.
- Semana Santos is a rough week to travel. It is the day that everyone else in the country goes to visit their family. Expect high volume of other travelers. Even the news was covering the travel week. The only shame is that I did not get to be on TV.
- I am glad I took the airfare to Medellín because it is a gorgeous, organized and amazing city. It can be considered the London of South America. It is one of the best travel places. It is no wonder why there are so many expats that live in Medellin. That and the women wear less clothing due to the nice weather.
- I am still in love with the travel to BBC, aka Bogota Beer Company. It is my favorite reason to go to Bogotá and have a great craft beers.
- Estereo Picnic Festival in Bogotá was awesome and Crystal Castles puts on an Amazing show.
- Crystal Castles at Estereo Picnic Bogota - iPhone
Again after 4 times visiting, I still have a lot to learn about Colombia, even though I learned a lot last time. And that is yet another excuse to return. What do you think of these tips? Do you have any tips to leave about Colombia? Leave a message below, send us a tweet on twitter, or post on our facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let us know, we want to share it with others.
Capurgana or Sapzurro? - My Guide
“So… where is a good place to go in Colombia? Have any suggestions? I am looking for a place that does not have a lot of tourists.” My friend Angelica took her time to think about an answer. When it came to her, she showed me an amazing photo of a gorgeous beach and said one word, Capurgana. As I did a google search, I stared at the blueish green water amongst the white sands and said, “Oh yes! This is the next place to go” My good friend Angelica, was going to be an excellent guide. Not only was she pretty, but resourceful and very great and making things happen. At the same time, she loves relaxing, which means I trust her judgement.
Capurgana wasn’t actually our final destination. You see my friend was key to make sure we were not around tourists. Capurgana used to be the place that only Colombian tourists would go and stay. It was best known secret to Colombians. But the small town eventually built itself around tourism and now it is filled with backpackers galore and cheesy restaurants geared towards tourists. With a bit more research my guide and my friend found a small town named Sapzurro.
“Why Sapzurro?” I asked Angelica. “It is quiet and has beautiful beaches,” was her response with a big grin on her face, and she was not lying. Just a 15 minute boat ride from Capurgana, Sapzurro is a smaller and quieter town. Capurgana is great for backpackers, as you know my philosophy is to try to stay with the locals.
“So how do we get there?” was the next logical question for her. She responded, “We can fly into Medellin. To save some money we can take a bus ride for 9 hours to Turbo.” That is what we did, kind of. Two days after landing in Bogota, we took a flight to Medellin and took the bus ride to Turbo. This is how an amazing trip to a relaxing beach town began. The other option is to take an expensive flight ($250 USD per a person 1 way).
Getting to Sapzurro, the place we later dubbed as “Paradise” was not quiet easy. The first part of it was rough. Especially for my poor friend. You see Angelica and I were lucky. We were very lucky not to have eaten breakfast the morning we arrive in Turbo. If we had eaten breakfast, it probably would have ended up on the bottom of the boat to Sapzurro. We were definitely looking green after the first boat ride. It was a good thing our stomachs were empty.
Even worse is the amazing Angelica has a fear of vast bodies water. It did not help that the whole boat ride we sat in the front of the boat was extremely bumpy. The even more horrible part is that my friend sat on the outer side of the boat, which meant that she didnt quite enjoy being soaked by waves of water hitting her nearly every bump. It just made her fear more enhanced. When finally arriving to Capurgana, the rainfall make it cold and we were wet to our bones. Angelica was shaking, looking at me with her big brown eyes for some sort of warmth.
When we finally landed in the small village of Sapzurro, Angelica raced out of the boat and out of the rain into a small place to eat. We relaxed, and ate fish soup to start. The main dish was picuda, a fish from the region, with rice and plantain. A dog found a friend in me as he kept trying to sit in my lap. The very pet friendly Angelica found two friends in cats who she felt compelled to want to call cuties.
The next step, a place to stay. You see Capurgana and Sapzurro do not quite have web presence for looking up places to stay before hand. You see Sapzurro is on the border of the Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is a vast jungle area where the Pan American freeway ends on both the South and North American side. The jungle has claimed many lives here. This is the reason that the only way to get to Capurgana and Sapzurro is by bus. There are no roads to get there. You can’t book rooms easily before getting there. You kind of have to know the phone numbers before hand to pre book a room. Most people just arrive and find a place.
My friend decided to ask where the best place to stay is. She found a wonderful spot, a place with two different cabanas name Tacarcuna. The place had a beautiful garden and a nice open single room with 3 beds. We only needed one, and the place was on the path to La Miel. La La Miel is a small village on the Panama side with a beach known as Playa Blanca, a white beach with gorgeous waters. It is smart to bring your passport as they request it when walking over the border. The walk takes 20-30 minutes.
Martha, the host of Tacarcuna, is very nice and talkative. So talkative that Angelica and Martha became very good friends during the trip. Martha is very helpful and always brought us tea in the morning. The room had a fan and was very clean. And it had running water. The shower is cold water only. The place is one of the more expensive places in Sapzurro, but still cheap for most people outside of Colombia. (20 per a person per a night.)
Martha recommend a Pizzeria owns by a Swedish expat where we enjoyed some drinks and some pizza. The next morning it was a trek to find a great place to catch the sunrise. At this point I found the real reason I love Sapzurro. We came upon a great swimming spot and amazingly abandoned yet gorgeous beaches just to sit and watch the ocean. On our last few days we ate at a frenchman’s place where he served the three of us, Martha, Angelica and I of us beers. He is also made us custom meals for the two of us who are very health food conscious.
One of the drawbacks about Sapzurro, is that there is are not ATMs. The only ATM is in Capurgana, the cobble stoned small village. You can get to Capurgana by walking the path near the waterfall or you can take a 15 minute boat ride. The trek is a great exercise, but beware if it has rained recently. The only drawback is that the ATM is only for Bancolombia. If you do not have a card from there, then you can not withdraw. I would recommend pulling out money in Turbo, enough for the trip before leaving.
Over he next few days it was just pure relaxation. This place had become heaven. A great trip away from the rest of the world, and I had my friend to thank for it all. My friend and my guide, Angelica. If it was not for her we would have never come across this place. I thank her.
Have you ever been suggested a great place to stay? Tell us a great experience due to a recommendation. We want to hear your stories. Have a great friend like Angelica? Tell us how amazing your friend is. Leave a message below, send us a tweet
// on twitter, or post on our facebook. Heck even send us a message. Let us know, we want to share it with others.
Help From Friends
It just feels good to help some one out. That sense and feeling you have just makes you feel like you are on top of the world. When some one goes out of their way to help you, it just touching as well. I remember a time when I was on the receiving end of getting help. I also remember a time when I was the person giving help to another. When traveling, situations like this seem to occur a lot. The idea of giving is what helped create this website and inspired part of it’s manifesto. They are all interesting stories.
The second time going to India started by flying into New Delhi to explore the city as a solo traveler. New Delhi can be a pit for anyone who has not explored it before. Eventually the road was going to lead to Jammu City, a large city in Jammu & Kashmir area of India. After purchasing a bus ticket online the day before, a tired and weary traveler headed to the bus area after a long day of seeing Delhi. The final destination on Metro rail was the Rama Krishna Ashram Marg station, where the buses were around the corner, loading and unloading foreign and domestic travelers heading to other cities.
After some long waiting at the instructed place on the ticket and some poor communication, 3 hours had passed and a lone traveler was left standing in the dark all alone with no bus around. A man told asked where the final destination was, as he informed a weary traveler that all the buses have already left day. At this point a queasiness had entered the stomach and worry, anger and disappoint settled in all at the same time as well. Fear and irrationality started to form after the brain went a mile a minute thinking of what to do next.
The same man who had delivered the bad news tried to calm worried look on the travelers face. He mentioned previously being in the tourism business. A nice couple, who ran the vendor stall nearby and were very talkative, convinced the former tourist agent to help out. With out hesitation, he was on his cell phone and in 10 minutes passing said aloud “Hurry, we got you on another bus, but we have to catch it.” A rush to a cab had ensued, as if it were a scene from Shantaram, an intense and fast paced situation where Prabakar was leading and Lin was following in trust. The cab driver stopped at Red Fort, a place visited earlier that day, and sense of relief and smile came to the face that was once filled with worry as the spared traveler entered the bus. Eventually the bus stopped in Jammu City thanks to a man and his help. The words said by the man just before the cab drove away was inspiring. “We have to help each other out, tourist or not, we need to show that we are people, good people.”
Good people indeed, which had inspired me to be good to others. A friend of mine, that was meet through a travel chat had expressed her dream to become a journalist. She wanted to travel the world and write and photograph it’s wonders. This girl lives in one of the poorer situation out of anyone in my circle of friends. Her house is a small shack, with no electricity or running water in a small town on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. She had never gone any further than the towns north and south of her. Her father was a fisherman and her mother worked on a farm which did not make for easy opportunity for someone of her background to accomplish the dream to be a journalist.
One day she sent an invitation to visit Leyte, and the offer was seized. There was one stipulation on the visit, she had to travel and serve as a guide on the culture of Philippines. With no hesitation she agreed and started a new adventure, one not easily a lotted to others. A dream was set in motion that day as the young girl got to see Leyte, Bohol and Metro Manilla. Who knows what future dreams can occur next after a beginning of an accomplished dream has been started. It is exhilarating to know that you were the one to set that in motion.
Upon the return the Philippines, a thought had entered my brain. How can this dream keep going? That is where the birth of Pathless Travels came about. The idea of the site originally was to try to be a platform to promote myself as a travel photographer, but why could it not also be a platform to help a young girl accomplish a dream? Great seemed to be inspired by wanting to help others. Kahn Academy is a great example of this. The creator started Kahn as videos to help a niece understand math easier, and eventually spread to a whole new concept behind how schools run, and all for free.
Inspired to help some one, Pathless Travels went from concept, to actually happening. The goal, help a friend get into travel journalism. The manifesto for the site, inspired by a friend in need and the want to be good to others. It does feel good to help others.
My question to you is this: What has inspired you on your travels? What kind of experiences have inspired you to good to others? What kind of greatness has come of it? If not, at least help inspire my friend to become a travel journalist to help us accomplish our goal. Perhaps we can help you as well. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and leave us some feedback.