Travel gems and hidden secrets from Concierge.com

by Jamie Rhein on

The winners of Concierge.com’s Million Mile Contest have been announced and their essays are posted on the website. Some essays offer a unique angle about a place where people might miss certain details if they didn’t know where or how to look.

The winner, Elizabeth Dwoskin of Brooklyn, New York wrote about Parque Lage, a jungle park in the middle of Rio De Janeiro. Within the reserve is my kind of place–Saint Teresa, a neighborhood of artists who live in 19th century mansions. Not one artist per mansion, but up to twenty. For her essay, Dwoskin won one million OnePass miles from Continental Airlines.

Here are the runners-up essays about particular places. They are quick, interesting reads that stimulate ones own memories about what made a particular travel spot at a particular time special. I’m thinking about the day I spent riding a motorbike around Skopelos, Greece.

Along with each essay are links that lead to more details about each location.

365 days of beer come to a close

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Two people just finished drinking a hell of a lot of beer. Married couple Chris Nelson and Merideth Canham-Nelson left home in Carmel Valley, CA to hit every major beer destination and festival in the world … in only one year. Ninety breweries and 15 destinations later, they closed out the excursion at the Belgian Kerstbierfestival in December. Along the way, they stopped in Oregon, England, German and (of course) San Diego.

I mean, who doesn’t see “San Diego” and think “beer”?

So, what do you do when a “Year in Beer” comes to a close? Duh, you try to write a book! Until it hits the shelves, if it ever does, you can learn more about these heroes at yearinbeer.com.

[Via USA Today]

Add a propeller to your car if gas prices start to rise

by Jamie Rhein on

Okay. First of all, I really don’t know if a propeller on your car will help with fuel economy–actually, it might make fuel economy worse, but you have to admit it’s a funky idea. My buddy, Greg Phelps, one of the art car gurus in Columbus, sent along this link to Dark Roasted Blend, a website devoted to “weird and wonderful things.” In December there was a post on cars with propellers.

As it turns out, the idea goes way back. In the 1900s, the military designed cars with propellers on them. One of them, the Sizaire-Berwick Wind Wagon was an armored vehicle. It looks like it would do some real damage to a chicken that happened to get in its way.

According to the post, propeller driven cars start out slow, but can get up to 170 mph. One of the drawbacks, besides the fact that the propellers look like an accident waiting to happen, a shredder on wheels, is that cars with propellers are a bit loud. Just what neighbors would like to hear early in the morning, I’m sure.

If you’re looking for a way to finance a trip, I wonder if some company would be interested in a bit of advertising. You could get one of those magnetic car signs, slap it on the side of the car and hit the road. Might be fun.

The Dark Roasted Blend post is filled with photographs and descriptions. I loved the vintage ones the best. With the snow still falling across much of the U.S., here’s a post I wrote last March about Greg’s art car. It fits the occassion. You’ll see what I mean.

Running Around The World

by Kraig Becker on

Back in February of 2000, Serge Roehteli, along with his wife Nicole, set out on an amazing journey to circle the globe, running the entire way. The plan was to cover more than 25,000 miles, on six continents, crossing 37 countries in the process.

Serge, an experienced ultra-runner, estimated that it would take him five years to complete the project that would see him running the equivalent of a marathon every other day, through all kinds of different conditions and across a myriad of terrains. Nicole would serve as his support crew, riding along side him on a motorcycle, carrying all of their gear and supplies. She also filmed their travels, capturing every aspect of the journey. Those video tapes are now the basis of a new film entitled Beyond the Epic Run.

You can learn more about Serge, Nicole, and the film at their website, where there are blog entries with more details on the run, and promises of updates on the release date and screenings of the movie. Other ultra-runners, such as Dean Karnazes, weigh in on the Epic Run as well, and there is plenty of video posted, such as the trailer for the film that you can watch below.

Plenty of people have traveled around the world, and for many it is the ultimate trip. But for Serge and Nicole it became something even bigger than that. It was a challenge of will and determination unlike any other. The film will allow us to go along with them, and experience their amazing journey.

Through the Gadling Lens: Great online resources for photographers

by Karen Walrond on

Before I really got into photography, I used to believe that really fabulous photographs only resulted from really expensive camera and processing equipment. While this might have been true twenty years ago, the truth is that great photography can pretty much come from any type of camera, with any sort of post-camera processing. And the beauty of owning a camera in this part of the twenty-first century means that there are all sorts of online resources to maximize what your camera can do. So this week, I thought I’d spend some time pointing out a few resources online that can help result in some of the best travel shots of your life.
1. Sign up for Photojojo. If you haven’t heard of Photojojo yet, run, do not walk, to their site here. This free e-newsletter service (or, if you’d prefer, you can add their feed to your reader) will send you some of the coolest photography tips to be had on the web. The advice can range from the funky (like how to make your own 3D camera for $15 or less), to the fun (how to make your own photographic perpetual calendar) to the positively practical (how to eliminate sensor dust from your camera). And did I mention it’s free?

2. Picnik. I have a real-life friend, Jenny, whose flickr stream I avidly follow. She is the Queen of the post-camera processing. The other day, she was at my house, and I mentioned to her that I couldn’t get over how amazing her processing was.

“Thanks,” she said, quietly.

“Seriously, Jenny, did you take a Photoshop class or something?” I pressed.

“No, I don’t use Photoshop, actually. I use Picnik.”

I almost choked on my mimosa.

“I’m sorry,” I said, once I’d regained my composure. “You’re telling me that you process those photos with free software?”

“Yup, I do it all online. It’s a lot of fun.”

I couldn’t believe it. Until that moment, I had been a complete Photoshop snob, because it never occurred to me that you could get really dazzling photos with anything but. But Jenny’s photos, like this one:

and this one:

and this one:

and, dear God, this one:

…made a true believer out of me.

3. Photo.net. Say you have a burning question about photography: like, you’re thinking of upgrading your camera, and you don’t know which brand to go with. Or, the shutter on your D100 is sticking, and you don’t know what’s causing it. Or you’re just dying to know the definition of “bokeh,” and you don’t know any shutterbugs within shouting distance. Well, look no further than Photo.net — this community website likely has every answer you could possibly want (and some you probably don’t). There’s a photo gallery to provide tons of inspiration, forums with every type of photography topic you could possibly imagine, and even a way to upload and exhibit your favourite photos to receive critiques from other avid photographers. And again, it’s free!

4. Digital Photography Review. Speaking of being in the market for cameras, once you’ve started to narrow down the brands you’re interested in looking at, do not buy your camera until you’ve stopped by Digital Photography Review. This great independent site does side-by-side comparisons of every camera you can think of, from point-and-shoots to digital SLRs. The site even shows images taken with various cameras so that you can compare quality. While I still maintain that you should never buy a camera (particularly a digital SLR) before actually going to a camera store and taking one for a spin, this is a great site to educate yourself with the kinds of questions you’re going to want to ask the salesperson while you’re there.

5. Blogs, blogs and more blogs. As you can probably imagine, there are tons of blogs out there that can provide inspiration, both in the form of concrete information and/or fantastic imagery. The following are some of my favourites — both for simple how-to’s and merely eye-candy. For those photoblogs which are primarily about imagery, don’t be afraid to e-mail the photoblogger directly for advice: most photobloggers are only too happy to oblige.

  • DIYPhotography.net: This blog is a great resource for do-it-yourself projects to help enhance your photography — and while much of it is about studio lighting, there’s a lot on helping create different effects for your camera, and a recent favourite: how to stablize your camera while taking a photograph in a driving car.
  • OnTakingPictures: This is the personal blog of portrait photographer Bill Wadman — full of beautiful portraits, but also his musings on the business photography, as well as some technical advice. A great read.
  • Moodaholic: This beautiful photoblog is strictly imagery, and the images taken of various landscapes are positively breathtaking. The shots are always crisp, but the post-camera processing is what lends to the amazing mood of all images. Click on the comments to see how each image was shot.
  • Mad Media Studios: Another great photoblog, primarily landscapes and portraits. This blog, however, is a great example of the kind of art that can be made with post-camera processing. While extreme photo processing isn’t my style, I can appreciate a photographer who can take it to an artistic level, and this photographer does just that. Beautiful.
  • Modern Day Gilligan: Joshua Yetman is a commercial photographer who lives in the island of Grenada, with the dream job of photographing amazing yachts, beautiful resorts, and breathtaking seriously. His outtakes often appear on his photoblog, and if these images don’t inspire you to hop the next flight to the tropics to test your photographic chops, nothing will.
  • One Day Files: a daily photoblog by Japanese photographer Hitoshi, it is a shining example of how to make the ordinary moment extraordinary. Capturing shots like these while traveling will do wonders for ensuring that the moments and moods that surrounded the time of the shot are remembered. True inspiration here.

And speaking of emailing photographers for advice: if you have any questions or comments, as always, please leave them below, or e-mail me directly at karen DOT walrond AT weblogsinc DOT com. I’ll be happy to address them in upcoming posts. And if you have any favourite online resources that weren’t mentioned in this post, please feel free to mention them in the comments section, below — I’m always looking for more great reads.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.
And for more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.