Useful captions to enhance visuals
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: david miller, matador network, matadornetwork.com, photography, photography captions, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel photography Leave a comment »The text concludes with Resources for every travel journalist to consider taking advantage of. The matador Network’s David Miller drops another gem for the journalist. No doubt photographs have the ability to add value to a travel journalist’s work. Miller explains how to enhance these visuals with useful captions. Miller explains,
Instead of simply reducing / restating what’s already obvious in the photo, strong captions — what we at Matador call “narrative” captions — give the viewer context, backstory, information that the viewer CAN’T see for him or herself. This includes things like:
- Place names
- Subject names
- Backstory on the scene (example: at what point of the trip the shot occurred)
- Backstory or technical info on the shot itself
- Challenges or special circumstances not identifiable in the shot itself
- Information on future events the shot puts into perspective
Read…
Inner travel – working locally
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: backyard traveling, inner travel, local, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel advice, travel blog, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 discusses the importance of travel writing without the traveling. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the concept of “inner travel.” Menkedick describes the process of inner travel as
It is a full-on sensory experience that yanks all those dormant parts of oneself, the parts that go plodding through the day to day in familiar places without really seeing, to life. The best way to experience “inner travel,” the process of moving oneself out of a familiar mental space, is to take no detail for granted.
Real culture
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: local foreign culture, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 suggests several criteria to guide the travel journalist in bridging cultural divides. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the travel journalist to consider modern aspects of foreign culture as authentic. In her article Menkedick compares traditional Chinese culture symbolized by dumpling restaurants versus modern culture represented by adolescence pulling all nighters in the local McDonalds. In Menkedick’s view both equally represents the local culture. Here’s an excerpt:
This idea of authenticity often reinforces the same set of power relations travelers hope to undo: the control of dominant, technologically advanced, “modern” countries over more “primitive”, poor countries. Why is it that “modern” countries are free…
Facing the fiscal cliff
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 6 | Tags: frugal, frugal traveler, Julie Schwietert, matador network, matadornetwork.com, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 6 discusses the opportunities for the travel journalist. As tensions build with all the media attention surrounding America’s economic situation, travel journalists may find themselves gaining more opportunities during tough times. Julie Schwietert of the Matador Network helps the journalist find opportunities as unemployment lingers around the country. Here’s one tip,
1. One sector’s pain is another’s gain.
The somewhat diluted value of the dollar has had an effect on other countries’ currencies that benefits travelers.
Consider the Mexican peso, for instance. After enjoying a lengthy period of relative stability (with the exchange rate being about 10 pesos to every 1 US dollar), the peso’s…
Rules to help writing
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: guardian.co.uk, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel skills, travel writer, travel writing, zadie smith Leave a comment »Chapter 4 outlines the essential skills and knowledge for the travel journalist. The guardian.co.uk put together a list of rules by Zadie Smith that may make any writer better. Here are a few of her rules,
- When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
- When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
- Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
- Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
Continue cruising
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: cruise, cruise safety, tom stieghorst, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel safety, travel weekly, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 discusses the importance of cruising to travel readers. The cruise industry is in need of some good news after the tragic sinking of the Costa Concordia. 2013 may be the turn around the industry is looking for according to Travel Weekly. Tom Stieghorst of TW reports,
Deployments in 2013 will feature more cruise segments that can be combined into longer voyages. Celebrity Cruises, for example, will offer more short cruises in Europe that can be paired with a second short cruise with a different set of port calls.
2013 may give cruise readers more to read about.
Step by step to bliss
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: andrea ross, conde nast travler, fixers, perrin's people, translator, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel language, travel research, travel specialist, travel writer, travel writing, wendy perrin Leave a comment »Chapter 4’s “Finding ‘Fixers’ for Translation, Logistics” introduced Andrea Ross, a travel specialist who’s arranged translators and guides for me across Southeast Asia. Ross is one of Wendy Perrin’s “Perrin’s People,” some 150 travel specialists Perrin regards as the best in the business. Perrin has been supplying this list to Conde Nast Traveler for the last 13 years. Ross returned this year as one of two travel specialists focused on Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Ross also is the subject of a step-by-step guide to using travel specialists written by Janet Nezhad Band. Though intended for travelers, the advice is relevant to travel journalists.
Sleep capsules
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Resources | Tags: frugal, frugal traveler, japanese capsule rooms, pods, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel on a shoestring, travel technology Leave a comment »Resources gives the travel journalist advice on how to travel on a shoestring. Pod hotels are listed as a resource to consider in order to sleep comfortably for a considerably low rate. Taken a step further are the Japanese capsule rooms. The rooms are about 3 ¼ feet wide and 6 ½ feet long – just enough for a bed, a small lcd tv, an alarm clock built into the wall, and free wifi. These tiny rooms go for about $46 a night. Perfect for any backpacker.
Cruise story: Safety
Posted: November 19, 2012 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: beverly beyette, costa concordia, cruise, cruise safety, l.a. times, la times, latimes.com, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel safety, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 3 gives the travel journalist angles to pursue while writing a travel story about cruising. With the recent sinking of the cruise ship “Costa Concordia” another topic to consider is safety. Here’s a bit from Beverly Beyette’s article for the L.A. Times:
It’s a cruise vacation, promising lots of fine dining and drinking, new adventures and relaxation. What could go wrong?
As the 4,200 people aboard the cruise ship Costa Concordia found, just about everything. The Jan. 13 capsizing of the Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which at least 11 people died, caught the world — including the cruise ship industry and its passengers — off guard and is shining a spotlight on cruise ship safety concerns.
Is it possible for today’s megaships — some hold as many as 6,000 passengers —…
