Announcing the Launch of DigiTraveler – Your Source for Info on Travel Gadgets and Gear

I‘m excited to announce the launch of a new project I’ve been working on.  It’s called DigiTraveler and it’s the sister-site to Have Pack, Will Travel.

I’ve reviewed and featured products here before, but I’m looking to separate them and expose my inner geek over at DigiTraveler.  I hope this site site proves to be helpful for travelers with gadget-lust, digital nomads, and location independent professionals.

I encourage you to stop by, sign up for updates, and maybe even leave a comment somewhere if you are so inclined.

Thanks!

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Traveling Without a Guidebook

I‘m writing this post in Northern Thailand, the city of Pai to be exact.  I find myself quite inspired by this trip I’m taking along with resident guest poster Shane Brown.  See we showed up to Thailand with only one thing planned, to rent motorbikes and ride through the northern mountains from Chiang Mai to Pai, along the Mae Hong Son loop.  Other than that, we didn’t care much about what we did, where we stayed, what we ate, or how we would manage any of it.

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Travel Gadgets – How Many is too Many?

A funny thing happened to me the other day.  I was looking at all my lovely tech toys that could accompany me on my trips – and then I started hyperventilating. It was a sensory overload – a freakout over the simple task of surfing the net, but the conundrum of  what do it on? laptop? iPhone? PC? Sometimes there’s such a thing as too much choice. It got me to thinking about technology and travel. I love my electronic gadgets, they’re better than children – they don’t talk back (unless you change the settings to do so) but really when you think about it, most of them are completely unnecessary for the global nomad.

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Is the Panasonic DMC-ZS3 the Best Travel Digital Camera?

Panasonic was kind enough to send me a DMC-ZS3 to test out during my recent trip to Argentina.  At first I wasn’t too excited to try out a new camera.  I really like my Nikon S600 for its wide-angle lens and small compact body.  It’s easy to us and takes good photos.  I don’t like to mess with success.

I took a look at the DMC-ZS3 anyway and was quickly excited to try it out when I saw some of the specs: 25mm wide-angle lens, 12x zoom, and best of all, 720p HD video recording.  OK Nikon.  You’re sitting this one out.

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The End of the World – Ushuaia, Argentina

The four hour flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia gives passengers amazing views of Patagonia and the snow-capped Andes mountains that stretch all the way down through South America.  Flying in, it’s hard to imagine there is a modern city anywhere in the vicinity.

Ushuaia is considered the southern-most city in the world.  Battling with Puerto Williams, Chile (officially not a recognized city) for the title, Ushuaia is connected to the rest of Argentina by Route 30 and a small but modern airport.  Even five minutes from landing, there is absolutely nothing in sight other than most impressive mountain range in the entire world.

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Keeping in Touch While Traveling

With all the excitement and preparations of traveling it’s easy to (initially) forget the family and friends you’re leaving behind. But we’re interested, honest; and most of us (for the time being anyway) are living vicariously through you, so don’t forget about us. We want to know about the interesting guy you sat beside on the plane who invited you to dinner afterward. Or the hidden cave you explored while swimming in the Mediterranean. So please, fill us in.

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New and Innovative Cameras for Adventurous Travelers

If you’re anything like me you love gadgets, especially cameras.  I’ve done a lot with digital cameras and video cameras over the years and the innovations that are constantly being released never cease to amaze me.  If you’re an independent traveler, you better have a camera with you.  And, chances are, you find yourself in some interesting places and environments so let’s take a look at some of the coolest cameras for these various uses.

Note: How to Choose the Best Digital Camera for Traveling has been discussed here before.  The truth is, just about any camera will work for most jobs.  But if you’re picky, a gadget freak, or find yourself in some adventurous and unique shooting environments, you might want to consider these innovative cameras.

Olympus Stylus Waterproof Cameras

olympus-stylus-1050sw-rugged-cameraOlympus really is the leader in consumer waterproof digital cameras.  They come out with more models than anybody else and really, they’re all pretty good.  Definitely do your research and find the one that fits your needs the best, but I personally like the slightly outdated Olympus Stylus 1050SW since it is considerably cheaper than some of the newer models and still a very capable camera.  They’re pocketable and work just as well in standard weather as they do underwater

Olympus PEN E-P1

olympus10e-p1I have nothing against Olympus, but I never thought I would write about their cameras twice in the same post.  Then again, it wasn’t until earlier today that I learned about the Olympus PEN E-P1.  This camera looks SLICK.  Every camera aficionado loves classic rangefinders and the PEN is certainly stylish.

But it’s not impressive just because of its looks.  The small size packed body is equipped with a micro four-thirds sensor that offers both the quality and features of a standard DSLR.  It is nothing to ignore, especially for travelers.  I’ve found it too difficult to travel with a DSLR camera lately and usually opt to leave it home.  The Olympus PEN E-P1 just might be what photography enthusiasts need for traveling.

The PEN E-P1 starts at $749 and is available for pre-order.  It’s set to ship in July.

Nikon D5000

d5000view_01Sure, I just finished telling you how I don’t like to travel with a DSLR anymore but that’s just me.  Many still do and let’s face it, they are the ultimate in quality.  If you are serious about photography, you’re either currently using, or planning to start using, a Digital SLR camera.

There are higher end cameras available, but the Nikon D5000 is a great mid-range model.  Lots of features, great quality, and best of all, the first articulating LCD screen on a DSLR.  This can come in very handy in many awkward shooting angles.

The Nikon D5000 is available with an 18-55mm kit lens for $799 or less (sale prices have been common lately)

VholdR ContourHD Helmet Video Camera

contourhd-wearable-camcorderThe ContourHD helmetcam is part of the new wave of affordable helmet cameras available for extreme sports.  Of course these can be used for plenty activities like hiking or rock climbing.  I’m considering one for a motorcycle trip to Peru this fall.

What sets the ContourHD apart from the rest of the pack is, if you couldn’t tell by its name, the ability to shoot in HD.  It records about 8 hours of 720p H.264 encoded video to a microSD in a very compact unit.  The best part? They list for only $299.

The VholdR ContourHD is currently on sale for $279 at Amazon and if you purchase before June 27th, you’ll receive a $50 gift card, bringing the price down to only $229 with free shipping.  Hard to beat that!

Canon VIXIA High Definition Camcorders

VIXIA_HF200_1_LCanon keeps updating their VIXIA line of HD camcorders faster than I can memorize them.  They’re sold to consumers, but don’t let the sub-$600 prices and soccer mom followings fool you.  These are very capable devices!  If you’re pretty serious about producing travel video, these are a great start.

A standard camcorder will rarely make professional quality video right out of the box, but the VIXIA line of camcorders are darn close.  Add on a decent microphone and wide-angle lens, then learn how to shoot, and you can be making 1080p HD footage that rivals most Travel Channel shows.

Canon VIXIA camcorders come in several different models with built in hard drives, flash memory, or HDV tape recording and start at $599.

Flip MinoHD Pocket HD Camcorder

flip-minohdThe 3.3oz Flip MinoHD pocket camcorder is the ultimate in portability.  If you are shooting memories, you’d be hard pressed not to justify owning one of these to slip in your pocket or bag and be able to shoot decent quality HD video wherever you are.

They are extremely easy and convenient to use, but the video quality is nowhere near as good as the above mentioned Canon camcorders.  Nor should you expect it to be for less than $200.  But if you want to capture memories and share them online, you can’t beat it.

The Flip MinoHD costs less than $200 and also comes in various flashy colorings as well.

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Has Hawaii Become a Budget Traveler’s Dream?

Highway 30 - North/North West Maui
Highway 30 - North/North West Maui

I’ve been traveling as much as possible for nearly a decade and to be completely honest, Hawaii was never really on my mind as a place to visit.

I pictured big high-rise hotels and resorts, families, and overweight German tourists wearing speedos.  And let’s not even bring up how expensive it all must have been.

I can admit that my ignorance clouded my judgment, but one thing I’m sure I had right was about how expensive Hawaii was.   Then this little thing called an economic crisis came in to play.  A year ago I briefly flirted with the idea and a round trip ticket from Los Angeles was $700.  Today it is $235 round trip to Honolulu, or about $330 to Maui.

So we have our first requirement for a good budget destination; cheap airfare.

Next, we’ll need someplace to stay.  The $200+ hotels on the beach in Lahaina probably won’t be feasible.  Don’t worry too much though because Maui has three hostels that I was able to track down online.

There is Patey’s Place in Lahaina which had pretty poor reviews so I chose not to stay there.  In Wailuku there is the Northshore Hostel and Banana Bungalows.  Based off of Hostelworld’s reviews, I opted for Northshore but Banana Bungalows looked decent enough from the outside when I walked past.  I had just read too many horror stories online about them which is why I continued to skip it.  All three places cost about $25 per night which isn’t cheap, but affordable enough given that we are in Hawaii after all.

Wailuku is a sleepy little town with little to offer travelers other than good central point for exploring the island.  It’s easy to get to from the airport and both the Hana Highway (37) and the amazing scenic route 30 are easily accessible.

In fact, my favorite thing to do in Maui was to simply drive those roads.  Everybody has heard about the road to Hana, and it definitely lives up to the hype, but Highway 30 is an amazing drive along the north coast along a winding 1.5 lane road.

Both highways are literally littered with hikes.  So many that you will have a difficult time deciding which ones to do and which ones to skip.  You’ll want to consult your guidebook the night before so you don’t waste precious time that you could be using to be exploring this wonderful island.

Don’t forget the beaches.  Kihei and Lahaina have great beaches for snorkeling or just relaxing and catching some rays.  Both places have plenty of places to rent snorkel gear or surfboard and you’d be surprised how cheap it can be.  A complete snorkel package should run you less than $10 for a 24 hour rental.

So we have our second and third important items for a budget destination;  free or cheap things to do and beautiful nature.

Maui really surprised me by being so easily accessible for budget travel.  You’ll spend your time exploring rather than paying money for tours or other types of entertainment.  I heard horror stories about food and everything else being extremely overpriced but other than one overpriced breakfast wrap I had, everything was priced the same, or cheaper than back home in California.

I know what you are thinking: “there has to be a catch!” Right?

I suppose the only downside to visiting Hawaii is that you really need to have your own car.  I rented a car through Thrifty which cost $179 for 5 days.  I used DiscountHawaiiCarRental which saved me about 10% over using a larger travel search engine.  Add in about $50 in gas and you have a pretty major expense.  This is where it helps to have a friend traveling with you so you can split it.

Not counting food, I spent less than $30 on entertaining myself.  It cost $10 to drive into Haleakala National Park, $6 to enter the Waihe’e Valley Trail and $4 for snorkel gear.  One night I spent another $9.50 on going to see a movie.  Not bad for five full days of never being bored.

I try to keep a fair balance between staying frugal and enjoying myself but I never attempted to be cheap on this trip.  It just ended up that everything that I wanted to do was basically free.

I should thank my amazing guidebook, Maui Revealed.
I typically swear by Lonely Planet, but I picked up this book at the store and then read the reviews on Amazon.  It is packed full of information that other books don’t have and every time I visited one of the more secret places in it, I was either alone, or with only a couple of other readers of the book.  You can’t visit Maui without it.

There we have it.  I deem Hawaii, and Maui in particular, a great budget traveler’s destination.  Thanks to this economy for providing cheap airfare, you can now visit for less than half of what it would have cost last year.  Assuming you like the sun and outdoors, you’ll have a great time exploring the island.

If you would like to see more photos from Jeff’s trip to Maui please check out the photoset on Flickr.

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10 Travel Photography Tips to Help Take Great Photos

I’m an avid traveler and a semi-professional photographer (that means yes, I’ve been paid, but no, not very much) and obviously those two loves combine with travel photography.  I have photos from all over the world and they truly mean everything to me.  I’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way and I’ve picked up tips along the way.  Here are the 10 most important ones I know and share with others all the time.

Keep in mind that it really doesn’t matter what camera you have.  You are the one in control and your camera is just a tool.  Learn how to use it, and learn how to take great photos.

Now, onto the good stuff:

1) Make sure horizon lines are straight

Straight Horizon
Straight Horizon - Fez, Morocco
Crooked Horizon
Crooked Horizon - Slight, but noticeable - Budapest, Hungary

One of the most common mistakes people make, especially when shooting landscapes, is not paying attention to the horizon lines.  It’s easy to hold your camera slightly crooked, so be sure pay attention and try to look for an obvious line to use as a guide if the actual horizon isn’t visible.

2) Use your flash when there is back lighting

No flash, strong back lighting
No flash, strong back lighting. Faces are in a shadow - Costa Rica
Flash used, subjects are lit nicely
Flash used, subjects are lit nicely - Costa Rica

Another common mistake and this easy fix can be used in many different situations.  Flash can be used when the sun is behind the subjects.  In this case, you see that we’re in the shade.  The beautiful rain forest is a major part of the photo, but we still need to be lit well.  Flash to the rescue!

You can also use this technique when posing in front of sunsets, at night if posing in front of a lit building, etc.

3) Offer to take photos of other travelers

Thanks Stranger!
Thanks Stranger! - Rome, Italy

Traveling alone but want a photo of yourself? No, you don’t have to hold the camera out as far as you can and snap a goofy photo of half of your face.  Chances are there are other tourists nearby who are thinking the same thing as you.  You’ll often see couples taking pictures of each other individually. Be friendly and offer to take a photo of them together with their camera.  Then run away with their fancy camera! Wait, that’s not what I was going to say.  Oh yeah, then ask if they’ll mind snapping one of you.  That’s how I managed to get this photo of myself in front of the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

4) Look for unusual perspectives

Thinking outside the frame, er... box?
Thinking outside the frame, er... box? - Fez, Morocco

You can only pose so many times in front of random things or places before all your photos start to get redundant.  Browsing this artisan’s shop in Fez, Morocco we noticed our reflections in these beautiful crafted mirrors and decided to make a unique portrait.  It’s not an amazing picture by any means, but we had a good laugh about it and it’s better than us posing in front of the mirrors or a photo of the mirrors alone.  Those would have been pretty boring, right?

5) Find a way to stabilize your camera at night

Blury hand held photo at night
Blurry hand held photo at night - Budapest, Hungary
Stability means sharpness
Stability means sharpness - Budapest, Hungary

If it’s night time and you want to shoot something that your flash can’t light up, chances are your photo will come out blurry.  The solution? Set the timer on your camera and find somewhere you can set it down.  You probably aren’t walking around with a tripod, so look for a post, fire hydrant, bench, wall, etc.  Line up your shot, click the shutter and take your hands off! Don’t be alarmed if your camera takes a few seconds to get the exposure.  It’ll open the lens for as long as it needs to get a decent exposure.


6) Get high

Birds have the best views - Cinque Terre, Italy
Birds have the best views - Cinque Terre, Italy

No, I don’t mean use drugs to help your travel photography.  Use your feet and start walking up, and up, and up.  Some of the best views are from above such as this photograph from the hills above Cinque Terre.  It was quite a hike, but well worth the effort.

7) Don’t use your camera’s digital zoom

Digital Zoom - Venice, Italy
Digital Zoom Reenactment, don't try this at home - Venice, Italy
No Digital Zoom. Nice and crisp! - Venice, Italy
No Digital Zoom. Nice and sharp! - Venice, Italy

There are very few reasons why you should ever use the digital zoom function on your digital camera.  So few reasons that I can’t even think of one.  Even if it does help you reach somewhere you couldn’t have without it, the pictures are so pixelated and blurry that you will probably never use it.  It’s truly a worthless feature built into cameras simply so they can advertise a bloated zoom number on the box for uninformed buyers.

If you really need to get closer for a shot, use your feet.  If that’s not possible, try a different perspective.  Get creative and you’ll enjoy your photo much more than by zooming in to 100x.

8) Keep an eye out for candid moments

Beggar candid - Florence, Italy
Beggar candid - Florence, Italy
Kids fighting over a tire - Fez, Morocco
Kids fighting over a tire - Fez, Morocco

Candid moments are usually my favorite type of photographs.  Sometimes you can capture someone’s expression when it is entirely genuine.  These kids fighting over a tire really stood out to me and I was really glad I managed to capture it.

This is the time to be incognito – think James Bond!  Haven’t you always wanted to be a spy?

9) Keep an eye out for something unusual

Unusual paint job - Budapest, Hungary
Unusual paint job - Budapest, Hungary

So long as it is safe, you should always carry your camera with you.  Even if it’s pouring rain outside, bring it along since you never know when you might see a SmartCar with the Death Star painted on it.

10) Take a lot of photos and don’t delete them

Memory cards are cheap.  Buy the biggest one that your camera will work with or, better yet, buy several.  It might seem like over kill but it can be a good idea to change cards a couple times throughout your trip.  This way, if one fails or your camera gets stolen, you still have photos on another card and you didn’t lose everything. If you’re feeling nice you can always donate it to a traveler in need.  I met two during my last trip and unfortunately I could only help one of them out of their bind.

I hope these tips help!  If you have any travel photography questions or have a tip you’d like to share, please use the comments below.

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