Welcome to the Journeys forum!

If you've taken a trip recently & want to share it with the world,
here's the place!

Because this is more of a travelogue, we'll focus on telling the story and
not so much on the photography.

Some guidelines:

• Comments should be limited to the trip.
• Please, no critique or comments on post process, etc.
• Posts should include more than one photo & they must contain a travelogue.
• Single image posts or those without travelogue will be moved.

If you've got ideas for improvement, of course we'd like to hear them! Feel
free to PM the moderator.

How do I create a good journey thread?

Occassionally, I hear the question "What makes a good journey thread?".
The answer isn't simple nor is it terribly difficult.

From the reader's perspective, your photographs and words are like a newspaper
story. A good story should contain who, what, when, where and how. The five w's.
The idea is to tell a story and leave the reader without too many questions about
your journey.

For the photographs, if you're shooting someplace most of us would recognize,
include some of it in the background. Including a recognizable background
visually reminds us where you are.

Don't forget composition and exposure. A lot of us, myself included, just point
and shoot hoping to get a good picture when we sort the shots later. I'm more
guilty of this if my trip is not necessarily a photographic one.

Some tips to help with the process.

Start by researching the places you're going. Are there subjects you might otherwise have
missed? Like a hidden waterfall. Any colorful characters? What about the historical value?
Much of this background material will help you choose what to see and maybe where to shoot.
It also gives you ideas for what to include in your write-up.

Use a map to help determine where the path of the sun. A GPS works for this too.
When you get to where you are going, don't forget to check local sunset/sunrise times.

On a journey, you probably don't need a lot of kit. Maybe a body, a short and medium zoom,
flash, spare batteries and some addtional memory and a cleaning kit. A sturdy and light tripod
and a bag to carry your gear complete the kit. What you take depends on where you go. If
you're headed out to shoot Sandhill Cranes in Sacramento, a medium zoom is probably not
going to cut it. Adjust accordingly.

Carry a notepad and use it to record things like shooting locations, ideas for a shot you want
to get, camera settings, etc. You might also want to journal your trip with the places you
visited, etc.

Learn to use available light. But because that doesn't always work, carry a flash and learn
how to use it well. Knowing how to use a flash effectively will help with shots where you
don't have much control over the light.

If you're traveling with a group, especially if they're not as like minded as you, don't drag the
group down by digging your camera out every time you want to shoot. Have it ready and
keep your eye out for the shot, get it quickly and move on. Motorcyclists sometimes carry
a small camera on a lanyard for this purpose.

In Closing

Hopefully, these tips will help you chronicle your own great journey.

Above all, remember the purpose of your journey and don't get too wrapped up in the
photography part that you miss the real reason you chose to take a journey in the first
place.

See you on the road,
Ian