What to pack for an African safari (cargo pants for the win!)
- Aperture: f/2.2
- ISO: 32
- Shutter Speed: 1/15 s
- Focal Length: 4.15mm
- Camera: iPhone 6s Plus
- Location: 37° 18′ 41.42″ N 122° 1′ 24.84″ W
I’ve wanted to explore Africa since May 13, 2013, the last day of Him and I’s Big Trip, a six-month, round-the-world adventure. Three years later, on May 27, we flew to Cairo. Africa – particularly the pyramids and safari lands – had prominently featured on our Big Trip itinerary, but our dwindling travel fund and…
An afternoon with the “wee beasties” of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve
- Aperture: f/32
- ISO: 1250
- Shutter Speed: 1/100 s
- Focal Length: 135mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 50D
While scuba diving and snorkeling are unparalleled methods for getting up close and personal with sea life, there’s something magical about towering over a tidal pool and observing an aquatic microcosm from above. This vantage point is also considerably more accommodating to nature photography, as I learned during a recent outing to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve…
Los Angeles: In the land of excess
- Aperture: f/13
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/320 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
We were cruising past Edendale, just a few miles from our exit, when I reclined my seat, unfastened my seat belt and slid into the back of the Prius. “What are you doing?!” Him asked, hands gripping the steering wheel as Los Angeles’ infamous Interstate 5 traffic whizzed past our windows. “I need a costume…
10 tips for RTW travel (learn from our mistakes)
- Aperture: f/2.4
- ISO: 50
- Shutter Speed: 1/824 s
- Focal Length: 4.28mm
- Camera: iPhone 4S
Ten tips for saving time, money and your sanity during round-the-world adventures… [portfolio_slideshow]
Reunited
- Aperture: f/1.4
- ISO: 500
- Shutter Speed: 1/160 s
- Focal Length: 50mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Eli. We were going home to Eli. I don’t want to offend our other cats or the family members and friends we hadn’t seen in six months, but reuniting with our 8-year-old tabby was first and foremost on Him and I’s minds during that long return flight from Istanbul to Miami. I know this admission…
Istanbul (not Constantinople — or Lygos, Byzantium, Augusta Antonina…)
- Aperture: f/4
- ISO: 1250
- Shutter Speed: 1/40 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Istanbul is one of those world cities members of the English-speaking population typically can’t visit without breaking into song. And I don’t mean just any song, but one possessing such a solid foothold in pop culture that it’s inextricably intertwined with that city. Examples that come to mind include Ella Fitzgerald’s “I love Paris,” Frank…
In the land of the gods
- Aperture: f/22
- ISO: 250
- Shutter Speed: 1/60 s
- Focal Length: 15mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
En route to Meteora from Thessaloniki, I managed to navigate Him and I an hour in the opposite direction – east toward Turkey instead of west toward Kalambaka. But our excursion to Istanbul, the last stop on our World Trip, wouldn’t come for a week yet, so we made a U-turn around Lake Koroneia and…
A protest party in Greece
- Aperture: f/11
- ISO: 250
- Shutter Speed: 1/320 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Back home, I’d usually start my hour-long, Florida Turnpike commute by tuning into National Public Radio. Chances were, Sylvia Poggioli or Jacob Goldstein was reporting on the European debt crisis, and what a freeloader Greece is to the Eurozone. “The country is up to its unibrows in debt and the unemployment rate is nearing the…
A Traveler’s Prayer from Tel Aviv
- Aperture: f/16
- ISO: 640
- Shutter Speed: 1/400 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
My first impression of Tel Aviv was that it looked an awful lot like Miami: long stretches of sandy white beach, high-rise condominiums and sunny weather conducive to flip-flop wearing. Yes, a lot like Miami, but with considerably less people congregating near the water. I had often heard the city described as a hedonist’s paradise,…
Make Hummus Not Walls
- Aperture: f/10
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/250 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
On the morning we set out to cross the Israeli-Palestinian border for a day-trip to Bethlehem, we heard what sounded like a baby crying in the open foyer of an apartment building on Jaffa Street. Investigating, we discovered a tiny kitten huddled in a corner on the cold, marble floor. Her, champion of hungry and…
