I have some big news! But before I get to it I want to announce the winner of our giveaway of the Vemayca Travel Bag!

Congratulations to Jessica Mason! You’ve won the bag – we hope you get a lot of use from it! Please be sure to contact us so we can send it off to you.

As for the big news – the traveling is beginning!

I can’t believe it! I’m nervous, I won’t lie. Even though we started our big trip last year, we’ve been back in the States since October. Initially, we had to come back to shoot some previously booked weddings, and we planned on moving to Southeast Asia in March after they were finished up. Life had other plans, though, and last spring my dad got extremely sick and fought a health battle that almost took his life. After 6 months he’s doing much better, walking bit by bit and slowly things are returning to normal.

But before Randy and I could even make our own travel plans, they got made for us. In a way, it’s weird and I know life is bitter sweet. This year has been one of the worst in my life, but it seems like now all of the bitter is leaving and all the sweet is taking it’s place. It feels good!

On Wednesday, I leave on a press trip to Mexico! I’m very excited and very nervous at the same time. Unfortunately only one of us could go on this trip and Randy was kind enough to let me do the honors. I’ll be headed to the Mexican Riviera with a group of really outstanding bloggers. So for a few days I’ll be hanging out with Roni Weiss, Nomadic Matt, Carol Cain, Ryan Van Duzer & Vera Sweeney drinking margaritas and partaking in some crazy adventures.

Photo taken in Oaxaca, Mexico.

We are going to hike the largest Mayan Pyramid in Mexico, make Mayan pottery with kids, eat dinner under a pavilion by the Pyramid while the sun sets, then we’ll take in a crazy Mayan play built into a cenote.

That’s just day one.

The next couple of days we’ll spend swimming in cenotes, learning about the Mayan culture, riding through the jungle while zip-lining and sky-cycling through the rainforest. Yes, I said sky-cycling – riding a bike (of sorts) attached to a wire (of sorts) through the treetops. Crazy! We’ll also be checking out Playa del Carmen for an evening out on the town. It’s going to be a jam packed few days and although I’m nervous – I can’t wait! I love Mexico and I’ve never been to this Riviera before!

After that I’m flying to California to spend a few days with family & friends and catch up on some things I need to take care of. Randy will be flying out to CA while I’m in Mexico to spend time with his family & his grandparents, who are flying to CA that same week! After what will be a crazy week of day trips with the Kalp family & singing drunken karaoke with friends, we’ll be flying back to the Boston area for a few days to catch the Salvon family reunion then jetting off to New York City to write a couple reviews. A day or two after that we’ll be flying out to Europe to start our WWOOFing in Serbia gig and another really exciting European project that we are going to announce shortly. Phew!

Exciting! I figure by the time we reach Europe we ought to be completely exhausted. We’re still working on the possibility of Okoberfest. In fact, we might fly into Amsterdam and then hop over to Munich for a few days – if it works out that will make for an interesting five day break before we start busting our humps in Serbia! Amsterdam to Oktoberfest – I’m sure many interesting photos will follow.

I have no idea what else is going to happen in this crazy adventure, but I can’t tell you how happy I am that life is turning around and at a rapidly crazy pace at that! I’m at that anxious, overwhelmed, yet excited place where you aren’t sure what the next day will bring. Although I am surprised that we are actually headed back to Europe – it feels like the right thing. I feel that we’re supposed to be going there and that something really amazing is going to come from it. I don’t know exactly what it is but I’m looking forward to finding it.

We’ll have some really great stuff coming up soon. It’s going to be a really exciting time for us and we can’t wait to take you all on the ride with us. Until we chat next – Viva Mexico!

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*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website, Nariko’ s Nest Weddings & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of the latest e-book written by Christine at AlmostFearless.

Not only do I respect Christine as a writer but I also definitely consider her an authority on travel. Throughout the years I have peppered her with all sorts of travel questions. She is approachable, down to earth and to top it off – she really knows what she’s talking about! An e-book written by her is guaranteed to be full of great information.

I also own two other e-books she has written:

• Twitter for Travelers
• 30 Ways in 30 Days to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World

Both of these books are fantastic and great online library additions for any travel junkie. Her writing is always witty, concise and full of great facts. This visa e-book is no exception. In fact, it’s a 253 page travel visa wonder.

Seriously this thing is amazing.

In accordance with my disdain for travel planning one part of traveling that I never look forward to is figuring out visas. Searching online to find out the latest facts and info about how much it’s going to cost, what I need to do ahead of time and what the time limit is for a visa is ANNOYING. A definite travel buzz kill.

So I’ll say it loud and proud here – this e-book is the BOMB! Go ahead – name a country, any country. Pick it off the list and quickly go to the countries page for all the visa requirements including cost and time limits.  To top it off, she also provides links to authoritative websites so you can quickly do your own research and re-verify information.

The country by country breakdown is so simple to use–it’s foolproof. It has already saved me endless amounts of research time. Another aspect (and quite possibly my favorite) is the simple and quick seven page country by country guide. In an instant you can scan and compare each country to find out which might be the easiest and cheapest to visit–brilliant!

Buying this ebook is an investment you shouldn’t miss out on. In fact I would go as far to say it is a must have for any traveler planning a multi-country trip. At $10, it’s a downright steal and worth every penny! It is undeniably a fantastic resource, I use it personally and it has already become of my permanent travel go-to items.

I’ve uploaded a couple of screenshots to give you an idea of how the book is laid out and what you can expect if you purchase it. If you’re interested in buying a copy or want to learn more about it, then you can Click here to view more details.

Instead of spending endless hours toiling in front of a computer researching visa requirements, you can instantaneously save yourself a ton of headaches and start looking up the fun things you want to do instead.

Quick Country Breakdown:

Full Page Country Visa Info:

To learn more about Christine and her other travel e-books be sure to stop by her utterly addictive site – AlmostFearless.com

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

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Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Political unrest is not usually covered under standard travel insurance.

For Egyptian travelers this news has come too late, and I’m sorry about that. Trust me, I understand how bad it sucks to be the example from which others learn. (I once broke my arm snow sledding testing out a jump.) I’ve recently discovered this lesser known insurance fact by doing a bit of research as Beth and I plan the next leg of our trip. So, in order to empower other travelers who use insurance, I decided to get the word out about travel insurance as it relates to civil and political upheavals.

While most policies do not include cancellation and/or interruption coverage for civil unrest, there are a few exceptions.  It is important to read your policy carefully, because some insurances cover expenses if you are delayed as a result of an uprising. Though, very few let you cancel your trip because of a country’s instability (terrorist attacks are generally an exclusion to this rule).

In a recent story for the Seattle Times, travel columnist Carol Pucci points out that travelers who want additional coverage have a couple of options, including “Cancel for Any Reason” insurance policies, which provide coverage for civil disorder at a higher price. For example, Pucci says standard travel insurance adds “4 to 8 percent to cost of the trip.” However, “Cancel for Any Reason” policies can tack on up to 50 percent or more, and only reimburse your prepaid travel costs up to 50 to 75 percent. This fact alone makes it a less than ideal solution for the budget traveler. Due to the costs it looks like we’ll be skipping the “Cancel for Any Reason” policy. Instead, we will most likely purchase a more backpacker friendly yearly travel insurance plan for our trip.

Have your travels ever been cut short or canceled due to a political uprising? If so, or if you have any tips for travel insurance or navigating civil disorders, we’d love to hear your tales in the comments below.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. It’s true that some of our posts are sponsored but we would never endorse anything we didn’t agree with. Thanks!

(Somewhere In Wyoming)

So today we decided to look at our reservation and discovered we are leaving a day earlier than we thought! Oops! Good thing we decided to look at our tickets but now we are WAY behind schedule.

We discovered while driving cross country that the one biggest down side was that we had to stop and get settled by about 7pm every night. Usually that’s not a problem but when you’re trying to cross 3500 miles in a week it starts to add up. As a result we were a couple days behind schedule and we had to stay in hotels the last two nights on the road to make up for the time. That way we could drive until 10pm or 11pm each night.

Anyway, long story short I feel like we have been way behind schedule for the past 3 – 4 weeks. It has truly been non stop. We sold the boat, moved all our remaining crap into storage, snagged the X-Games assignment, shot a wedding, packed up our car, drove cross country and arrived in MA just a few days ago. It has been non-stop action since we’ve arrived with seeing family & friends and trying to finish up remaining work. Now we are losing a day of time and I am starting to freak out! We pretty much have nothing done at all! I still need a fleece and a pair of shoes and Randy hasn’t even started his travel shots yet. We have absolutely nothing booked for Iceland or any idea what we are doing when we get there. I haven’t even looked at an Iceland guidebook yet!

However one thing we have done is book our flights out of Iceland. After a week in Iceland we will be flying to London then taking a train to Paris for a day, then another train through the Swiss Alps and on to Italy! I also got my WWOOF’ing card for Italy and I have the farm list. We have to pick out the locations and contact the hosts but it’s looking like we won’t be able to do that until we get to Iceland. Our plan is to spend about 3 weeks wwoofing in Italy, hopefully at a vineyard or an olive oil farm. That should allow us to free up a little bit of our budget and do some more traveling for the remaining 3 weeks in Italy. After Italy we have no idea where we are headed.

Wow. I can’t believe the trip is coming up so quickly! This blog has been in existence for about 2.5 years as this trip has been planned and it is just amazing that it is actually happening. I can tell you that it hasn’t really hit me yet. Not really. I mean I have literally changed my entire life for this trip and for the idea that I wanted to make traveling my lifestyle and my work. You would think I would be bouncing off the walls right about now. Instead I am just trying to get everything done before we leave. There just hasn’t been any time for it to settle in. I honestly don’t think it will until we are out of Iceland and on the train to Italy. The first few days will probably feel like a typical vacation and then maybe after that it will start to hit me that we’re not going back to a home or back to work. I’m thinking that’s going to be a really exciting day!

My main concern is still leaving Chachy. I just want him to be happy but he already knows things are changing and he is walking around my parents house, dragging our clothes everywhere around with him. It’s cute but so heartbreaking. He is not like any other dog and he was abandoned before and so he definitely has issues in that way. It’s going to be hard for him and for us. He sleeps with us every night and I love him so much it’s hard to imagine not being with him every day, even though he smells. hahaha… He’s part hound and so he does always have some faint dog odor to him but I like it and I’m going to miss it. Not even Iceland will be able to erase that fact.

Who knows – this just might end up being a “How We Traveled Around The World With Our Dog” website!

The picture above is from our drive cross country. It’s just one of many but I just haven’t been able to sit and edit many personal photos yet. I hope to get to them in the next 2 days but it just might not happen until we get to Iceland. I can’t wait to get somewhat “settled” on the road and catch up on so many photos and different posts that I have been working on, including some great guests posts for some pretty awesome fellow bloggers.

Is it wrong that I want to get on the road just so I can work??

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

If you want more information or want to inquire about having your wedding photographed by Nariko’s Nest please contact me at Beth@NarikosNest.com. BeersandBeans readers get 20% and all destination weddings book at 50% off regular rates!! To see more photos please visit NarikosNest.com.

I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the lovely Erica from OverYonderlust.com!

I was very flattered and excited that she liked my work enough to consider me for an interview and I loved her thought provoking interview questions. If you haven’t checked out her blog, head over to OverYonderlust.com and take a look. Her website is awesome and features fantastic photos that she’s taken herself. In fact, she is one of my favorite travel photographers!

While you’re there check out my interview as well!

Here’s a screen shot of the interview:

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Did you like this article? If so, consider retweeting or stumbling it. Better yet sign up for our RSS feed OR get the goodies delivered directly to your inbox! Consider yourself hugged.

*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

If you want more information or want to inquire about having your wedding photographed by Nariko’s Nest please contact me at Beth@NarikosNest.com. BeersandBeans readers get 20% and all destination weddings book at 50% off regular rates!! To see more photos please visit NarikosNest.com.

(Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image courtesy wanderingtheworld  – flickr)

Wow!  I am over the moon! I can’t believe it. We just booked our first flights for the RTW journey!

It’s been 3 years in the making and there were a couple really horrid set backs (read: cancer) but it’s happening! It’s finally happening. I’m actually tearing up as I write this because I am finally realizing a dream that I have had for so many years.

It’s just seems surreal.

First stop – Iceland!

We really wanted to head to Europe but the direct flights were insane. I’ve been searching airfares for days now and time and time again Iceland was coming out as the strong winner!  We got lucky and found a flight to Iceland for $255 on Iceland Air (inc. taxes) out of Boston. I did some more searching and it looks like for another $100 we can take a budget flight to Europe from Iceland. So for about $350 we’re headed to Europe for far less than what the flights were coming in at originally. Sure there were tons of “deals” to London, etc but everytime I tried to book one – it disappeared. Most flights to Europe were coming in at about $500 – $600 o/w. So I think we got a great deal and we get to check out Iceland as well – which is amazing! (Iceland Air also has a stop over route but that was still more expensive than booking separately.)

I’m super psyched! Iceland is somewhere I always wanted to go but it seemed so strange and exotic – I never thought it would be the start of the trip! I never even thought I would be going there at all on this trip. Yah!

After a few days in Iceland we’re going to catch a cheap flight (most likely on Iceland Express) to somewhere in Europe. Hopefully it will be Italy but we will pick the destination by the cost of the ticket. Eventually we’ll make our way to Prague, Vienna & Italy. We plan on wwoofing our way through Italy and to cut costs we’ll be camping for almost our entire journey (including in Iceland).

We are on a strict budget of $50/day for 2 people! Can we do it??

Transportation will eat up most of that budget, which is why we have to camp, wwoof and move slowly. Mainly we’ll be eating food that we buy at the markets and doing a lot of free things. That’s gonna be hard for me in Italy because I’m Italian and I love food! Hopefully we will also get to stay with some of my family members in that area. However I already know we’re headed to the Blue Lagoon for a day in Iceland and the tickets are about $35/person. Maybe we’ll have to try our hand at couchsurfing in Iceland to comp the cost! Or maybe we can pitch a story about it and get the entrance fee waived! We also have fun just walking around and looking at things, which is free.

It was a huge risk for us to throw Europe in the itinerary due to our budget constraints but time and time again we just kept gravitating towards it.

We found cheap flights to South America but our hearts were already set on Europe and we could never pull the trigger and book them. I know it’s going to be tough but we really want to go to this area and we are both so excited to start the trip off in Iceland/Europe. We are driving from CA back to Massachusetts (to drop Chachy off w/ my sister Bridgette and to visit family & friends) and we’re also looking forward to that journey as well. Randy has never driven cross country so I know we’ll have a blast camping & hiking along the way.

We will be sure to update you throughout both legs of the trips on our budget.

Stay tuned because we plan on writing a lot of posts about how  you can save a ton of money on your next trip abroad!

If anyone has any experience wwoofing in Italy (or anywhere in Europe) we would love to hear it. Please leave a comment below.

If you have any tips on free or cheap things to do in Iceland/Prague/Vienna/Italy please let me know – we will be forever grateful!

To Iceland or Bust!

- Beth & Randy

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Ok, so if you’re like me and the other millions of photographers there is one thing that drives you crazy when shooting outdoors.

Yup, you guessed it – attempting to review your photos on the LCD screen in broad daylight.

(If you look closely, you can see the picture in the LCD but the sun glare makes it really hard to see.)

Forget about it! You simply can’t really see if you got the exact exposure or not. This is not a big deal when you’re tooling around a new city just shooting for yourself but it becomes a big deal when you have a big paid shoot (like a wedding or travel assignment) or you are under deadline and don’t have time to screw around trying to find a shady spot to check your frames.

(The same photo but viewed indoors where you can see it clearly on the LCD screen.)

Now if you are shooting a lot, you technically shouldn’t have to worry about double checking your photos because you should be dialed in with your camera enough to know you got it. When we all shot film we didn’t have the option of double checking exposures but in today’s digital world this is a luxury that no one wants to do without. It is REALLY nice to be able to double check your photo instantaneously and know you got it right.

Because this is an issue, there are a couple things on the market that you can buy that can help you with this problem. This issue is that they either suck or cost a lot of money.

I tried to go the cheap route once and bought this pop up shade which promised that it would shade my screen and I could see my photo. I couldn’t. Don’t buy anything like this – it will be a waste of $15. This thing sucks and further more I hit myself in the eye with it more than once when it was open on the back of my camera. I hate this thing.

This week I have a big wedding coming up and I have been trying to decide over the past 2 weeks if I want to buy a Hoodman. The Hoodman is pretty sweet and it works like a charm (I got to test one out yesterday) but coming in at $80 it is expensive! I also want something I can travel with and the Hoodman isn’t exactly small. It would be a disaster to keep hanging around in a travel bag and I really don’t want to spend $80 for something I will only use occasionally and could break on the road.

Well I got lucky because yesterday I decided to buy one. I went into the camera shop and the sales guy erroneously told me that they were sold out. I was bummed but I went upon my merry way looking at photo bags (for the 15th hundred time). After I was done I saw someone else checking out a Hoodman. They actually had one left in the back. Well I also checked it out for a bit and in all honesty I was pretty sold on it. I decided that piece of mind on a wedding day was probably worth $80. It just so happened that guy decided the same thing and he bought it. They double checked in the back but this time they were out of them, for real.

So I got in my car and started wondering if I could make my own. I decided to swing by Michaels and buy some foam core board for my construction of a black box I could put over the screen. However on the way through the store they had a dollar bin with some foam can coolers in it. It’s about the same length as the Hoodman and it has a hole on the bottom for condensation drainage (or my eye!) – perfect!

I bought one and ran home to try it out. I took some practice shots on the deck of the boat in FULL sunlight and it works like a charm! It may not have the magnifying loupe feature or be as fancy as the Hoodman but I saved $79! Plus it has the added bonus of keeping the canned drink of my choice chilled! Sweet.

I did decide to make the bottom (eye) hole a little bigger but that was the only adjustment I made. I love this thing! It’s lightweight, portable and has dual functions. A perfect piece of travel gear! The best part is that I don’t have to worry about it. I can squash it into my bag, lose it – who cares? It cost a buck and I can buy another one if I need to. It may not be the most professional tool on the market but I only need it for a few seconds each time I use it so it’s not really a big deal.

I wanted to share this little tidbit with our readers because this is a great travel tool and if you shoot a lot outdoors you will really appreciate a budget way to view your photos in full sun.

Stay tuned because I have some more photo “hacks” coming your way as well including how to find a great camera bag!

Also please let me know in the comments if you try this out and if it works for you.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Whew, in about 8 weeks we are finally off to see the world. It’s crazy. It’s unbelievable. It’s really almost overwhelming. This trip has been planned for about 3 years now.

I almost can’t believe it’s happening.

The fact that it is becoming a reality is actually making me nervous. But why? This is my dream. This is the one thing I have had throughout all the ups & downs in the past few years. This trip has made me happier than pretty much anything else but it has also made me more emotional and more upset than anything as well.

Which, when I started planning my “bunnies & rainbows” idea of the trip, was not something I expected. I didn’t expect the almost daily reminder that this is the “right thing” to do, the constant self battle of wondering “I am screwing up my life in a horrible way?” “Is 34 too old to do something like this?”  “Will I ever be able to financially support myself, have a family and still live the life I dream about?”

Holy crap, I serious never expected any of that.  Several years ago one of my dearest, oldest (we’ve known each other since we were 12) and best friends in the world said something that resonated with me.

“You can’t just live life, you have to live YOUR life.”

I always remembered those words because they are simple, yet so true. It’s something most people ignore – the calling of your own life. I know, deep inside, this is what I am supposed to be doing and, come hell or high water, I am going to do it.

Breaking the mold sucks though. Especially at 34. Everyone expects you to travel in your 20′s, not your 30′s and for obvious, good reasons like kids & saving for retirement. Breaking away from that is hard. You have nothing to defend your choice except for the gut feeling that this is what you should be doing.

Defending your choice to others is easy, defending it to yourself is another thing entirely.

But I know there is something for me on the road. I don’t know what it is but I know it exists. Everything in my life has been pushing me in this direction. Random people have come into my life that have pushed me towards this. First there was Andrea who had just spent 4 months bouncing around Southeast Asia, then there was my coworker Rich who had just returned from a 10 month RTW with his wife. Last but not least was Ryan, who was a really great friend of mine that I met on Craigslist of all places and NO it was not on a personals ad. We met up one night in Mission Beach, we went out for drinks and became insta-friends. I mean how stupid is it for a girl to go around befriending someone on Craigslist  and then actually meet them and hang out with them? Stupid! But we had a great friendship that lasted for years. Ryan was probably my biggest push because he was pretty much a perma traveler, having moved to San Diego after 3 years traveling around the world. Now he lives in Indonesia. He was like a real life version of everything I had read about online. Before these friendships, I had never met anyone that had traveled long term before. But there they came marching into my life, one after the next, proving to me that it was possible and awesome to travel long term.

I use to work all the time, 10 – 12 hour days, in real estate which was extremely stressful. It’s a really horrible way to live. In my opinion, it isn’t even a life. It’s just a routine.

Then when I was 31 I was diagnosed with cancer. I learned early on that working all the time is really unhealthy. The diagnosis delayed the original trip leave date (which bummed me out to no end at the time) but it was a blessing in disguise because it gave me even more courage to get out and follow my dreams. I got the not so subtle tap on the ass that said “This is not the way you are supposed to be living.” Some people go their entire lives without realizing that.

But because my body was revolting in a very literal way, I figured out pretty quick that the way I was living wasn’t going to work for me and in hindsight, that was a bonus.  Also whenI got sick I did what ever sick person does but knows they shouldn’t do – I Googled it. I Googled everything and anything about thyroid cancer. Googling an illness is really a double edged sword because for the 1% of good information you find there is a ton of crap that will just scare the shit out of you. However, in my case the 1% was worth it because I made internet friends with a guy in England who was battling leukemia. Adrian Sudbury was a really amazing person who had a huge impact on my life in a very strange, almost spiritual way. Although he is no longer with us and we never actually met in person, through our brief emails and my bizarre dreams, he pushed me towards the trip in a strange round about way as well.

I do believe we are all connected by a single thread and that things happen for a reason. I know I’m supposed to be traveling but yet with all of the things that have happened and all of the people who have influenced me I still find it hard to take the leap.

Even though I can see right through it, walking away from the ideals created by our normal ways of life is still tough.

I didn’t expect that with everything else, I would be my own stumbling block to changing my own life.

I am pretty sure that I am going to be doing a good, fair share of tear shedding over the next few weeks as we get ready to depart. This morning I cried in the car over the idea of leaving my baby little Chachy behind. But he’ll be happy with my sister, she has a house with a yard and a lot of sunlight. Right now he’s sleeping in a hand bag while I type this at Borders because we don’t have a real apartment and the campground doesn’t have electricity. He’s such a great little dog, no one here even knows he’s in there. He’ll be happy when he has some stability. Hopefully I’ll be happy when I have none.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Julia cooking in her restaurant.

I got some sort of weird flu two days ago so I have been laying low, sleeping and not doing much. Today I decided to go through some of my photos to look for a few for an upcoming guest post on AlmostFearless. What I found was a mess! I have done a good job of keeping my wedding photos organized but I have known for a long time that the travel photos have been suffering.

Well things only got worse a month or so ago because I had to transfer computers and transfer all my files. I back all my files up anyway so that wasn’t an issue but the issue was that one day I would use computer A and then the other day I would use computer B to do my work on. This horrible idea started happening because occasionally Randy would have to take a computer with him to work and would need to take the Mac because it doesn’t need to be plugged in. The PC battery is dead and if the plug gets knocked out of the computer I lose everything. It’s not like I can just start back up and everything is there like it would be if the computer was sleeping – nope everything would be completely gone unless it had been saved. I usually work on several things at once and have several lists going and you can imagine the frustration of losing this info time and time again.

Pablo's Powdered Hands

This issue is what caused me to switch full time to the Mac and Randy now uses the Ipod when he needs to take a computer to work. So I technically have 3 copies of everything (actually 4 because I use two external hard drives) which is great, the only problem is I would edit photos on one computer, not update the external hard drive, then use the other computer on another day. It actually took a while for me to figure out what a mess I had made. Now I have all the same photos at various stages of editing on different computers and hard drives. It is still a mess and I honestly don’t know if I can fix it since there are thousands of photos to go through. I still have Utah photos to edit, Joshua Tree photos (I took over 15oo on my road trip), Vegas photos to edit and various other photos. There are just too many to sit down at both computers and compare which is updated and which isn’t. Plus I have been looking for certain photos to go with certain posts and having a hard time finding them. On top of that wedding season is about to be in full swing, which will leave me little to no time for editing my own work. Ugh. I am so mad at myself for creating all of this extra work.

Sand Paintings for Day of the Dead.

Beyond this mess my organization was not great by any means and my trip to Oaxaca for Dia de los Muertes is my most obvious mess to date. I took over 1500 photos in 5 days and a lot of them are awesome and yet have never even seen the light of day. We met some amazing people and interviewed 2 people while we were down there regarding Day of the Dead activities. The problem is that 1500 photos is overwhelming when they aren’t organized well. Even though I generally shoot double that amount in one day for a wedding, it is a little easier to organize because everything in a time line – pre ceremony, ceremony, family shots, bridal shots, reception. It’s pretty clear cut and that makes it much easier. It’s so much harder when I travel because I am shooting a lot of different things – people, buildings, street photos, emotions. Trying to catalogue all of that is a nightmare. I have amazing photos from the cemetaries and the people we met that have never been shown. I have fantastic photos of Pablo, his powdered hands and his stories regarding the sand paintings in the middle of town. In fact there is an entire interview with him that has never been released. Then there’s Julia, her amazing family and the awesome food she made for us in her new restaurant (and refused to let us pay for), there’s the dancing, the candles, the graves, the trip to magical Mt. Ablan. All these photos are in hiding and quite frankly there are some sad little photos lurking around on my computer because of this lack of organization. They want to be seen and they deserve to be seen. I need a new photo gallery and a new organization method so I can make them happy again.

The magical Mt. Ablan.

Well up until this time I had organized my photos like this  – “good” “better” “best”. Pathetic I know. I would start the editing process by wedding out the good shots, then I would go through those for the better ones, then I would edit those and put them in the “best” pile. There was no further organization. Day of the Dead was probably my largest travel photography undertaking and it suffered severely due to this organization method. Really I needed to sort it more like this – Cemeteries, Ceremonies, Markets, Food, Street Photos, Pretty Places, Mt. Ablan, emotions, Etc. Then I should’ve gone through and picked out the good, the bad and the best and edited them like that.

Oaxaca grave on Dia de Los Muertos with a woman holding rosary beads in the background.

I am definitely making a change after witnessing this mess that I have created. I am no longer going to use my old method of photo organization. I honestly never even edited all of the photos from Oaxaca because it was so overwhelming and other work projects kept getting in the way. If I break things down initially I know it’s going to be so much easier because instead of just sitting down to edit hundreds of photos on end I can just do one type of thing like Oaxaca Markets or Pablo and the Sand Paintings.

Oaxaca Grave Detail

I’m writing this post because editing is a HUGE part of any photographers job and honestly it’s more work than anything else. It is hard to keep on top of because it is a manual process and I never want to put out photos that I think are not as good as they could be. Just sorting through 1500 photos to determine which ones you are going to edit is tough enough. When you start actually editing it physically becomes draining. Lack of organization, as I have obviously learned, makes it SO much worse.

Wall of graves in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The other thing that bums me out is that my gallery page on this blog sucks. I have tried a million different galleries and I can’t get them to work. The current one is totally outdated with old stuff and because I could never get any other galleries to work on WordPress I had to make slide shows in Picasa and then embed them on the page. I don’t like doing that and I really hate the way it looks. If anyone has any tips or wants to help me make a real gallery please contact me. I have a couple that I have in mind that I like. I will be forever in your debt. I can’t be a travel photographer with a horrible gallery and bad photo organizational skills and right now I am both. Boo!

On a positive note, you can expect a lot of Oaxaca photos in the upcoming weeks. I am bound and determined that these will photos will have their day.

What do you do to organize your photos? Please feel free to leave a comment – I’m sure people out there have much better ideas about this than I do and I would LOVE to hear them.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!

Some of you may know Brooke of Brookevstheworld.com. Brooke is one bad ass traverler who has spent time in some hard parts of the world. Can you say 6 months in the Ukraine (during winter!) and an extended stay in Kyrgyzstan while learning Russian? Currently she’s trying out the ex-pat gig while staying holed up for a while in Sydney Australia.

Brooke and I have been pals for the past 3 years or so, trading traveling tips & the ups and downs of life. Now she has created a newsletter for women travelers with tons of her traveling tips in it!

If you are a traveling woman you will definitely want to check it out & sign up!
If you are a male – check it out & sign up but only if you dare!

Seriously it’s made for women specifically and deals with issues that women encounter on the road. Underwear and shaving the bits have been the focus of the two last newsletters. It has tons of tips to help get you on and through the road, feminine issues and all.

Did I mention it’s also hysterical??

I was lucky enough to contribute to it last month and you can check out my ridiculous story about de-hairing below deck on the last newsletter – When Hairy met Sally.

So go ahead, check it out and sign up for the newsletter. Feel free to contact Brooke too because she is always looking for new contributers – female or male!

If you are a travelin’  kinda gal you owe it to yourself to join the Underground! Why leave home without it?

Find Brooke and get in on the action:

Join the Underground!

Brookevstheworld.com

@Brookeshoenman

Did you like this article? If so, consider retweeting below or stumbling it. Better yet sign up for our RSS feed and get the goodies delivered directly to your inbox! Consider yourself hugged.

*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I love to share. Thanks!