How much can one travel
Since I was seriously inactive the past days due to bad weather and needing to work, because work is what keeps us living the way we do and that's mostly where the travel money come from, I started wondering what keeps other people on the road, how much do they travel at once and for how long.
As I'm writing this, I'm also doing some research for the post at hand, but it shall start with my own example.
What keeps me on the road?
Besides the obvious, like pleasure, passion, hobby, the most important thing I find is the money for gas and lodging. If you can't get where you want to go you clearly have a problem; and than if you can't find a place or afford a place to sleep, a tent is not always viable, so that is also a big problem. In a few words, money keep me on the road.
But there is also a second, weather. Weather is very important for travel, if the weather is bad the roads can get impracticable, if you are driving on bad weather the tired get even more tired, you need more time to get to your destination and when you are there, you either can't properly visit it, you may not be able to visit at all some of the interest points you desire to see and your photographs will not turn out quite as perfect as you'd want them to turn out.
How long am I on the road?
So far this year, a lot, but it was very strongly segmented. We were on the road in Spring, for about two weeks, to Romania, it was ok but busy and did not get to do so much as we wanted to. Than we started going here and there on weekends. How much did we cover ? A lot. On weekends we managed to visit Paris, Versailles, Verdun and Metz in France. Nürnberg, Fürth, Blaubeuren, Triberg and various other places in Germany, from which the most impressive was Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the south of Germany, with the highest german village with its own church, called Wamberg. Also from Garmisch we took the mountain train and the cable cabin to reach Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany, at 2962m.
I guess answering the question is not easy, but as long as weather is nice and the days are free and the money is there to cover the costs, we're on the road.
Photographers on the web-Andreas Smetana
How come I decided to make this type of post is easy to figure out, if you look at photography related sites you will find that a huge lot of photographers have a web presence, some a very good presence and some an extraordinary web presence.
From all of these some are very well known by having a constant presence in the social web sphere, like Twitter, Facebook and the Blogosphere.. that's Chase Jarvis, Mark Wallace, Joe McNally, etc.
My focus for this post is none of the above, I want to write a bit about Andreas Smetana. Austrian photographer living in Australia, Andreas Smetana made a name for himself through high quality photography and not just in Australia, but also international. If you click on his name above, where the link is, you will end up on his website and be able to see some amazing photography. His photographs are connected to high names and various industries, like Alfa Romeo, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Volvo, Pepsi, Canon and the list goes on and on.
One of my favorites, probably because I am also a marketing and publicity hobbyist, is this one for Connex:
Agency: Leo Burnett, Melbourne, Australia
Creative Director: Jason Williams
Copywriter: Andrew Woodhead
Art Director: Richard Walker
Photographer: Andreas Smetana
About the web presence, the most important factor that made me post, I want to say that the website under Smetana.net is just amazing. It is a very well made, eye pleasing, easy to use website that shows exactly what it is supposed to show and right from the start.
I will post some screenshots below, but for a really nice experience you should visit the site.
Smetana Photography
Looks nice does it not? Before you get to see this bit, there is a message on the page asking you to move your mouse scroll button. Just scroll away. It's a simple way to make the new visitor aware of the environment he is in. So what happens when you scroll ?
Smetana Photography Page Scroll
Notice anything in the screen capture above ? The images have just changed, right under your eyes, you can see them moving, going away and new ones coming in and if you keep on scrolling there is more and more photos moving around, until you find that image that just simply gets stuck in your eye, that does not want to let go and which you want to see in more detail. So you stop scrolling and click on it..
..and you get the see the image, but not just that, you get to navigate left - right through the actual campaign and see all the related photographs.
I don't want to say (write) anything more, just visit the website and enjoy. You are bound to have a pleasant experience.
New York Times – The Fallen
I was reading Resolve again and checking the latest photo products gone live on zazzle and I ended up watching this amazing peace of work called "The Fallen" from New York Times.
The Fallen is about Robert F. Kennedy, about the train that transported his soulless body from New York City to Washington, about the people that came along the tracks to pay their respects to the deceased, all through the eyes, the camera and the words of Paul Fusco; June 8th, 1968.
If you don't know much about Paul Fusco the best is to head over to this website: http://www.paulfuscophoto.com/ and have a look at the Bio page. You'll find out that Paul Fusco has walked a long road while carrying his camera and that the photographs of this man are quite special.
Now please click this link and watch this slide: The Fallen.