THIS WEEK I’VE been pondering the different ways to maintain an online travel blog (or travel journal, whatever you like to call it). You basically have two options: joining a travel community website or building it under your own dedicated domain, and there are pros and cons for each.For starters, I’ll tackle the reasons to keep your travel blog with a community.
Lessons shared from HTMLGIANT editor Blake Butler on the submissions process.LAST WEEK, Blake Butler, author of 3 books and editor / co-founder of HTMLGIANT, posted his entire submission record (and what happened to each piece) from 2006-2008. The record shows dozens if not hundreds of pieces.As one commenter, Ben Mirov, said, the document is “strangely comforting.
Photo: vancouverfilmschoolWriters tend to fall easily into the coffee / computer / confined office trap. If this is you, have you considered a writers’ group?WRITERS LOOKING to ramp up their knowledge, receive feedback on work, as well as share information and insight may find a writing conference is the way to go.
Once your internet footprint reaches a certain size, chances are people will start scraping your content. Matador contributor Eileen Smith shares a few thoughts on what happened to her.I WAS pre-coffee tweeting one morning when I saw a tweet on winetasting in South America, a story I had submitted a few days earlier.
ISO remains somewhat of a mystery to a lot of photographers. Most don’t even know what it stands for, and many only have a menial understanding of what it actually does.ISO stands for International Standards Organization. That doesn’t help much. It was introduced a few decades ago to standardize film for cameras.
Matador Ambassador Ryan Libre offers advice from his experience with TEDx.I’ve been fortunate to be invited to speak at two TEDx events in the last 18 months. When people learn I gave a TEDx talk, they inevitably have two questions:“What did you speak about?”“How did you get invited to speak?”Get an original idea.
The place-based storytelling site mounts a campaign to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.STARTED IN 2012 by photographer Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York now has over 435,000 fans on Facebook and nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter. Stanton takes sweet photos and has a knack for including snippets of conversation with just the right telling details, but the success of his project is also a result of a very basic human impulse: We like to watch.
Meet Christoph Rehage, the walker with the most famous time-lapse beard on the internet.Sometimes, you just have to walk. With this idea mind, Christoph Rehage set out on November 9, 2007 with the goal of crossing 4646km through China. Almost every day, he snapped a photo to document the journey (and his beard growth).
Feature photo by Flickmor. Photo above by teresia.A one on one interview with Jewish author Benyamin Cohen about his book “My Jesus Year: A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith”Ask Benyamin Cohen, and you’ll find that there’s a 50/50 chance you’re putting on your shoes in the wrong way.
Dan White set out on the Pacific Crest Trail to find himself. Instead he lost his mind. But then he found himself.On the trail / Photo Dan WhiteDan White was 25 and working an unfulfilling newspaper job in small-town Connecticut when he dropped everything and headed west with his girlfriend Allison for what he envisioned as “an American safari.
The aurora borealis, or northern lights, is a phenomenon that occurs in the high northern latitudes as a result of charged particles that are ejected from the sun and collide with Earth’s atmosphere.All photos by authorFOR THE PAST FEW YEARS, aurora observers have often been disappointed; the sun hasn’t been very active.
Photo; Joshua JohnsonHow do you approach strangers and encourage honest, candid encounters?CAPTURING SPONTANEOUS moments with strangers on film makes for the richest moments in your travel videos.Beautiful landscapes and soaring architecture are all well and good but nothing is more captivating and telling of a culture than the people who have created it.
Colby Brown’s progression as a photographer, and his org The Giving Lens, exemplify how to leverage social media to build real community.THERE IS A CLASSIC FEEL to Colby Brown’s photography. He can stick with familiar, iconic landscapes — Thailand, Patagonia, the Tetons, the Himalaya — and still have his images tell original stories.
Passover is a special time for Jews, not just because the mandated eight-day retreat from carbs helps most of us lose all that bagel weight, but because of the Passover Seder, when we retell the story of how the Israelites were freed from slavery and taken out of Egypt by God and his trusty sidekick, Moses.
Visit MatadorU to learn more about Matador’s online travel journalism courses. Editor’s Note – When I first read Glenna’s post, So you want to buy a camera, I immediately reached out to her to have it republished here on Matador Goods. Glenna Gordon is a professional photojournalist whose publication credits include New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, BBC, Reuters, Guardian, UNICEF, USAID….
Join a growing community of thousands of travel journalists and develop your skills in travel writing, photography, and film with a course at MatadorU.EVER GLANCED in exasperation at travel photographs wondering why yours taken of the same landmarks or subjects never turn out as stunning?Great travel photographs share a few similarities even though their subjects may be as different as a sweeping landscape or a brooding portrait.
Learn how to be a travel journalist — check out the curricula at MatadorU today.AFTER NINE MONTHS of working with students at MatadorU, along with another 3+ years of working with contributors at Matador in general, I’ve started to recognize some of the same patterns, the same things writers are doing–or avoiding doing–over and over.
Matador reviews Lake Jaundice Resort, Pennsylvania’s best-kept secret.Visit MatadorU to learn more about Matador’s online travel journalism courses.Nestled in the majestic Pocono Mountains, Lake Jaundice Resort is a marvel. This off-the-beaten-path destination is paradise if you’re looking to get away from it all.
Visit MatadorU to learn more about Matador’s online travel journalism courses.In our continuing study of Ground Level as an ethic for travel writing, we look now at the importance of recognizing what’s “underground,” and how failing to find it can lead stories – even with all facts “correct” – to be untrue.
From freelancer David Hochman (who has written for New York Times, Esquire, Men’s Journal, Playboy, and has “too many assignments”), here’s a simple tip for getting assignments from markets you want to write for.The tips in this article complement the curriculum of the Travel Writing program at MatadorU.
