An Introductory Post

As a young girl, I grew up in a mid-sized suburban town and always looked forward to family vacations. Those times did not come around often, but just being in another place was exciting. So at an early age, my desire to travel was ignited. In some way or another, recording travel experiences was always a part of the fun. Looking back, it seems as though collecting postcards and jotting down memories was my own variation of travel journalism.

In high school, I went on a variety of trips with an outdoor adventure club and typed up stories to remember them by. Looking back, my only regret is that I had no camera on me to compliment those stories. I think that in those days, I didn’t really consider myself as being very good at taking pictures. The shaky-handed or slightly thumb-obstructed image was what came out in many instances. Yet I always wanted to take really good travel pictures because of that interest to see places and document them well.

Years went by with the occasional day trip and a couple of those one-time-use 35 mm cameras would always be handy. On a trip to Washington, D.C. for Memorial Day 2001, I took a picture of the Washington Monument from where I stood near its base. I had hoped to capture Old Glory waving in the picture as well, but wasn’t sure until the film was developed how it would turn out. I just hoped that the flag waving did not block out the top of the monument.

Ever since taking that picture, I have looked for more opportunities to go places with my camera in hand. It made me want to pay more attention to composition and get creative with photography wherever I go.

In 2004, I went on a family trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was the first time I had the chance to travel with my own decent film camera. It was a Minolta Maxxum 5, and there were many opportunities to practice keeping the hands steady along with working on the composition of pictures. I used both color and black and white film to capture images of a destination I enjoyed visiting.

These days, the camera I use is a Canon PowerShot S5IS and it also has video capabilities. For now, I stick mostly to still images and continue to work on composition. But photography is only a part of my venture into the digital world of blogging. I want to document travel in written word, complimenting that using my passion for photography and any new knowledge I gain regarding video.

In the fall of 2006, I took my first college journalism class and found out many doors that it could lead to. The natural choice for me was to take the door that linked journalism to travel and photography, as is joining the blogosphere to document my travels. Having gained some written journalism skills now, my goal with this blog is to put those skills to use with my photography to tell my travel stories.

As an adult college student in a career change, I continue to pursue an education in journalism. So the travels I write about and capture in pictures and video will be fairly local at first. Before the summer is over, there are a few excursions I plan to go on and share experiences of on here.

One final point in my introductory post is this. In recent years, I began to deal with some back problems from time to time, varying levels of stiffness or pain in the lower lumbar area. However, pursuing travel to document in a blog is in part a message of not letting something stand in the way of my goals. It shows that people can do many things, beating whatever obstacle they may face.