Category: London

Three Honors in the 29th Annual NATJA Awards for Excellence in Travel Journalism

Since joining the North American Travel Journalism Association in 2016, I have looked forward to the announcement of the winners in its annual awards competition for excellence in travel journalism. Each year, the competition honors the best in travel journalism, photography and destination marketing in the industry. I was thrilled to learn that I had received honors in three categories when the winners in the 29th annual competition were announced today.
I received an Honorable Mention in the category of “Photography – Landscape, Seascape, Nature” with my image, “Meads Bay Moonset,” from our 2020 trip to Anguilla:
I received a Bronze Award in the category of “Photography – Portrait, People” with my image, “London Gentleman,” from our 2019 trip to London:
And I’m so excited to announce that I was selected as a Gold Award winner in the category of “Photography – Cultural” with my image, “Everything is Relative” from our 2019 trip to London:
With a Gold Award comes a bonus destination prize! Last year, I was awarded a two-night stay at The Confidante, Miami Beach, which will be the start of our road trip from Miami Beach to Key West, coming soon to Film Road Trip and My Irie Time!
I am honored to have been recognized each year in the awards competition since joining NATJA in 2016:
2016:
SILVER – Photography: Overall Excellence – Online Publication: “Andros, Bahamas”
BRONZE – Photography: Photo Essay – Online Publication: “Understated Elegance at Kamalame Cay”
2017:
FINALIST – Best Independent Travel Blog: My Irie Time
2018:
HONORABLE MENTION – Photography: Nature – Online Publication: “Bourbon Trail Magnolias” – Film Road Trip
2019:
GOLD – Photography: Featured Photo, Illustration – Online Publication: “The Heart of Anguilla”
2020:
GOLD – Photography – Cultural: “Everything is Relative”
BRONZE – Photography – Portrait, People: “London Gentleman”
HONORABLE MENTION – Photography – Landscape, Seascape, Nature: “Meads Bay Moonset”
Many thanks to NATJA, and congratulations to all the winners!

March 4, 2021
London Zine

I finally got around to creating a zine from my London images, and this time I created it in Adobe InDesign, rather than the Lightroom Book Module as I had in the past. The Lightroom Book Module is really easy to use and you can export your completed book to .pdf, .jpg, or upload it directly to Blurb for printing. I wanted to print with Mixam this time, and given the differences in sizing, I opted to design it in InDesign to meet Mixam’s specifications. I taught myself how to use InDesign for a work project earlier this year, so it was time to give it a try to create a zine. Although I made a very simple design of one image per page, InDesign is incredibly powerful and there are so many things you can do which cannot be done using Lightroom.
I am printing a few copies of the zine using Mixam based upon the recommendation of members of the Negative Positives Podcast Facebook group. I selected the 8.25″ square, stapled (perfect bound was not available with 24 sides), 100# text paper, uncoated, with a 130# satin cover, matte laminated. I should receive those copies next week and I’ll report back on the quality compared to Blurb and MagCloud with whom I have printed in the past.
Here is the book for viewing online, created with Flip PDF Professional for Mac and easily uploaded here via the software’s ability to create a WordPress plugin quickly from the software’s exporting/publishing menu. You can easily add video and hyperlinks to your books, which is a really nice feature.
[flipbook id=”2″]
What software have you used for creating and publishing your zines?

July 26, 2020
London on Film

In August, we spent a week in London, England. It was our first trip, and we quickly discovered how much there is to see, and how little time there is in a week. We visited the State Rooms and the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Harry Potter / Warner Bros. Studio, and had time to walk the streets of London, enjoying its many shops, pubs, and restaurants. Join us, taking in the sights of London.

Along for the trip were my Canon 1v with the Canon 24mm f/1.4 II, Canon 50mm f/1.2, and Canon 135mm f/2. The 24mm lens was rented from Borrow Lenses, which I love when I’m taking a trip and anticipate needing something different than what I own. I have a Zeiss 21mm f/2.8, but it’s manual focus and I anticipated needing to fire off shots quickly as my family walks fast. I have the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, but it’s getting to be too heavy as a walk-around lens. I really loved the Canon 24mm f/1.4 II, but I am still not willing to invest in one of my own. I also brought the Mamiya 6 with Mamiya 50mm f/4, although I used it infrequently given the need to manually focus. Processing and scanning by Richard Photo Lab.
Flip through our London zine!
[flipbook id=”2″]

September 12, 2019