The beauty of Spain

by Justin Delaney on


Spain is a traveler’s paradise. Modern pilgrims traverse the Camino de Santiago by foot in the north. In the west, kite boarders and wind surfers harness gusts of the Atlantic off of golden beaches. The east is home to the cosmopolitan Mediterranean ports of Barcelona and Alicante. The South holds the Alhambra, one of the finest fortifications in Europe. In every direction, character and beauty lurks, either just beyond a rolling hill or in the storied hallways of a Moorish castle.

Central Spain also hosts a variety of splendor. This video touches on the regional delights with epic time-lapse shots of various castles, cities, and rolling landscapes. It will have you dreaming of Spain on this Sunday afternoon.

Spain from Ben on Vimeo.

Video of the Day – Shanghai via iPhone

by Stephen Greenwood on

Photographer Chase Jarvis has gained a notable amount of internet fame for coining the phrase “the best camera is the one that’s with you”. For anyone that travels extensively, this couldn’t be more true.

If you love shooting video, then there’s a good chance that you’ve already bought a professional DSLR or HDV camcorder. But what if you don’t want to lug your expensive investment to a new country? Then follow art director/designer Andrew Kimmell’s lead and reach for your phone.

With the help of some Photojojo lenses, Kimmell documented his trip to Shanghai entirely on an iPhone 4. I’ll venture a guess that some color correction with Magic Bullet Colorista II (in Final Cut Pro) also assisted in polishing it up. But I think it proves that with a little post-production love, anyone can shoot beautiful HD footage on the go.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your phone, capture your best travel moments and share it with us in the comment section below. It could be our next Photo / Video of the Day.

The Ugly Truth: Gadling’s revolutionary new video series to launch in May

by Alex Robertson Textor on

With the goal of improving its cross-platform social media presence, Gadling proudly announces the Ugly Truth, a new video series hell-bent on capturing the viler dimensions of the travel blogger lifestyle.

The Ugly Truth series will revolutionize the sanitized travel show media with depictions of a host of things designed to provoke intense, visceral reactions from viewers.

There’s some great hardcore gross-out material, of course, and there are also plenty of examples of a newly-diagnosed condition referred to by doctors as TBRC (Travel Blogger Rage Syndrome).

“We’re excited to bring the more disgusting side of travel to the attention of Gadling’s audience,” says Gadling Editor-in-chief Grant Martin. “And really, who cares about boring travel news or how-to posts dealing with travel logistics, flight upgrade strategies, or museum discounts when you’ve got video footage of Meg Nesterov consumed by TBRC, beating a defenseless Turkish cat? Or a video of Jeremy Kressmann having eating one too many Big Macs in Thailand, losing his lunch in a tuk-tuk?”

Which Gadling writer chewed so much khat in East Africa last summer that he puked for days? We’ll tell you–better yet, we’ll show you.

Which Gadling writer had a torrid affair with the head of a major European national tourist board? We’ll show you that as well, with crystal-clear HD footage that leaves nothing–not even some unfortunate back acne–to the imagination.

There is also a mine of simply baffling, unclassifiable material on tap, like the dreamy sequence documenting the Gadling contributor so in love with the room’s décor at São Paulo’s Fasano that she arose from a nap to lick the edge of her desk.

Martin, again: “We’d really like to become the first place people turn to for disgusting travel videos, and we’re really pushing our stable of writers to take the lead by getting themselves into some truly gross situations. I can’t wait to see the enormous traffic these gems are going to get!”

And as for rumors that Martin’s recent TBRC episode involving an inefficient airport employee at Kastrup will appear in a The Ugly Truth episode to be released on June 17? “No comment.”

Check out the first installment of The Ugly Truth in early May.

Happy April Fools’ Day!

[Image: Flickr | Mike Burns]

Video of the Day – Sunsets around the world

by Stephen Greenwood on

Seeing the sun set over a foreign land can lead to some of the most memorable moments on any given trip. Even though it’s an event we witness every day of our lives, watching it dip over a new horizon always feels like a completely new experience. Today’s Video of the Day is a collection of one backpacker’s best sunsets from a 365 day trip around the world.

Romain Corraze decided to travel around the world for one year after finishing his studies in 2009. Starting in France, he managed to venture through the USA, India, Cambodia, Colombia, China, Russia, Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Hong-Kong, Australia, Vietnam, Guatemala, Belgium & France – and captured some of these sunsets along the way.

If you like it, then be sure to check out Romain’s full length documentary – “Backpacker, the movie“. The video was shot with a Sony HDR-SR11 and edited in Final Cut Pro – which just goes to show that anyone can create an inspiring video with today’s simple tools. If you have an inspiring piece to share, drop a comment below and it could be our next Photo/Video of the Day!

The product of communicating with subway patrons

by Grant Martin on

Fun fact: almost half of my good friends in my new home town of Chicago were randomly made on the subway. How did I meet them? By randomly striking up a conversation. I’m one of the few people on the planet that doesn’t think that it’s strange to communicate with people on the train, whether this is with a smile, some polite conversation or a shared laugh — as it turns out, there are a lot of interesting people out there. Perhaps that’s why I travel so much.

There’s an interesting youtube video making its way around the interwebs right now that well-illustrates my line of thought. A guy named Luke Rudkowski spent some time meeting and interviewing random passengers on the New York subway, and in the process pulled some pretty interesting stories and opinions out of everyday passengers. With so many commuters stacked so close to one another each day, it’s amazing that these stories don’t more often intersect.