Photography and travel blogging go hand in hand these days. There are differences though.

I’ve read a lot about how pro’s handle their photography workflows in studio. Which is interesting. But I’ve never read about how people do it while on the road.

Here’s how I do it.

Brief overview of my photography workflow when traveling:

Some people include photo’s from 3^rd party sources like Flickr. Others mix & match. Some upload directly to their blogging platform, others spend time in processing them.

All the photography on The Longest Way Home is taken by me. I host my photographs on zenfolio, and on site. I also keep multiple backups in cloud storage, and on hardrives.

I’ve documented the benefits of hosting photographs off site here in a comprehensive review of photo hosts.

Now here’s a look at this process from beginning to end.

How I “photograph” workflow:

I shoot with a DSLR in both raw and jpeg simultaneously. This creates two exact images.

The raw version can be thought of as being the negative version from an old film camera. It’s unprocessed, and quite large in size.

The jpeg version is the same image, but it’s been processed by the camera and compressed to a smaller size.

The benefit of a RAW file is that it contains a lot of information that the jpg does not. And, much like developing a negative in a dark room, a raw file needs to be processed in a similar way using software before it can be viewed properly.

A jpg can be used for viewing immediately.

I shoot with 16GB cards. I could shoot with 32GB or more. But the frank reality of travel photography when on the road 24/7 is that accidents happen. The camera could get stolen, the card may fail etc. 16GB is about right for me to not go overboard and never remove the before backing it up.

I also don’t erase the photographs from those cards until all back up workflows are finished. So yes, I have a few storage cards.

Let the photography workflow begin:

Once back in a hotel / guesthouse room I immediately transfer all the photographs from the day to my laptop and external hard drive (now there are 3 copies, memory card, laptop, HD.)

Once there I open an application to sort through and proof the days photographs. Many people use Adobe Lightroom, personally I do not.

We simply don’t have the same way of thinking, and I am not a fan of its processing capabilities.

I use my cameras own software, or ACDSee. For those not interested in processing and only in photo management of jpegs (batch renaming, resizing etc,) I would suggest Faststone. It’s free. Limited for pro photo usage, but for the very basics it gets the job done.

But for processing photos, converting RAW images, EXIF data, categorizing, batch processing and photo asset management: I would recommend you check out both ACDSee and Lightroom or Aperture for mac users (links to all of these application be found at the bottom of the page).

Selecting the Best Photographs:

With everything open, I spend a lot of time deleting images that have not come out well. Maybe, they are out of focus, the subject is wrong, or they are just plain bad. They are deleted forever.

I use a full screen mode to view each image. Then, tag the good ones. Once I go through the first pass, I do a sort by tagged images. And, delete the rest.

I usually take a break there, a meal or something.

Then I make a final assault and repeat the first step over again.

Organizing Travel Photographs:

With the remaining photographs selected, I split them into different folders. The folders are named and dated by location.

Year – Location – Sub-location – sub-sub-location-(file name)

Each photograph is given some meta information now. This means I batch insert information such as copyright, keywords, categories and special notes into them.

I then batch rename my photographs so both the RAW and Jpeg counterparts both have the same name. it starts with alpha file name, and finishes with a number in order of date time. e.g. sofia-turkey-0021

Once there. I remove the raw files, and send them to another area on my external drive where they will remain untouched until they are backed up.

With the remaining jpgs, I begin to upload them straight from that main source folder.

Uploading photographs workflow

They get uploaded into one big folder on Zenfolio first. The reason I do this, is because internet capabilities get broken up when I travel. I might only be able to upload 300MB on a given night for example.

Yet, the shoot might mean I have 8+ folders of smaller batches to upload. It might seem better to upload everything in smaller batches in this case. But, think about it this way. It’s 10pm. I am tired and want to sleep, or relax. If I upload 50MB of food photos, it will take 2 hours.

Then at midnight I need to get up and upload the next batch from street photography of say 100MB. That should be finished at 3am or 4am …

See the problem? Whereas if I upload everything at once. I can go to bed at 10pm and hopefully everything is then uploaded by the morning and I can then separate them into different folders online, as well as offline. Which, is a lot faster.

Thankfully zenfolio allows one to have many, many sub categories (directories) which is very useful and fast to set up.

A note on cataloging photographs & an example:

Cataloging photographs, or inserting keywords in them is vital if you ever hope to locate a particular image in the future.

I was contacted by an advertiser who wanted an image on my site for a project. I simply could not find it. I knew what it was, where it should be, but could not find it. If I’d tagged it as “portraits” it would have been a lot easier to find.

It’s a simple thing to do, and it can save so much time in the future.

It doesn’t end here though it continues on in the second part of my Photography workflow while traveling.

Links mentioned above:

Zenfolio – photo hosting (use this code ” BDV-TGN-A7X ” for a $5 discount)

Lightroom ACDSee Faststone

In the next part of this workflow we will cover:

Avoid disaster –  Backing up photographs while traveling:

Final stages of the Travel blog photography workflow:

Additional processing workflows:

Meanwhile, what do you think? Do you do things differently, or can you suggest something to improve this workflow?

What’s a travel blog workflow?

A workflow is the process from beginning to end of a subject. In this case, how I write an article for my travel blog on The Longest Way Home

Why write about my travel blog workflow?

Several reasons –

– I don’t think many people realize just how much work, time and money goes into producing a single blog post.
– It’s something I would really like to read about myself, and learn from.
– My workflow may be very different to others, it may help their own process.

– Comments left by people may offer suggestions on how I can improve my work flow.
– In some circles there’s a veil of near secrecy on this subject, some people even try to make cash out it.
– It’s always nice to see how someone else does something you like.
– It will give you an indication on how I work, and maybe think.
– It will serve as a reminder to me, that in 2010 this is how I was doing things. It’s certainly very different from 2008 e.t.c.
– It’s all part of my learning, and documenting my progress on this journey.

My workflow can help you in putting together your own!

The vastness of a travel blog workflow:

I’m going to break this down into several articles. But the one thing I’d like you and I, to consider is that by the very nature of travel, things change on a whim.

Maybe it’s a rainy day, maybe I don’t have internet, and maybe I need to get something written quickly, or maybe …

And, so it goes on.

But for the main part, I will be documenting and covering an average and not so average travel blog post from beginning to end.

This is all sounding very professional?

Yes, it is.

2 years ago I was writing and photographing on a sub domain. No one knew about it. As in, zero. It was my personal account and record about this journey.

Then a few came across it by accident. Word spread.

Now, several thousand people read about my journey and life every week.  And, many more join everyday.

That’s not something I planned. But it is something I’ve had to address.

From hosting issues, to improving my own learning curve in web development and off site publishing. From working on improving my photography and writing skills. To moving ever closer in completing this quest; it’s all been amalgamating and amassing into what we have today.

And, it continues to develop.

New sets of skill have been learned, lessons have been learned and new goals set. The journey is ongoing no matter what people may conclude. It deals with aspects of moving and searching for a life and home that’s not been done anywhere else.

What I write is happening to me. How I go about it, I now wish to share.

Why write about it here?

The Longest Way Home is about my journey, and while some things may overlap. The workflow was meant to be only a single article, but then it moved to 3 then 5 and so on. I don’t think the majority of the readers on The Longest Way Home want to know this.

It will get a mention at some stage, but, for now it is here on FotoArk, a travel & photography magazine. Which makes more sense for this subject mattter!

The series is currently running at 8-9 articles.

Travel Blog Workflow 1: Why?

Travel Blog Workflow 2: Concepts

Travel Blog Workflow 3: Photography

Travel Blog Workflow 4: Photography 2

Travel Blog Workflow 5: Writing & Revisions

Travel Blog Workflow 6: Promotion

Travel Blog Workflow 7: Advertisers, comments, and emails.

Travel Blog Workflow 8: The Cost

Travel Blog Workflow 9: Income Generation

This is by no means an exact episode list! I might double up a few, or add something. But everything here will be mentioned at some stage.

But that’s what’s coming up right here, right now on FotoArk!

Want to get all of these workflows for free? No problem you can either have them delivered to your via email here. Or, just follow FotoArk on Twitter (I suggest you set up a list with just  fotoark on it)

Where does the idea for a travel post or article come from?

So where does a travel blog post idea come from? Well, in my case it’s very easy.

First and foremost, I write about my journey. Which can be broken down into things like:

People

Places

Feelings

Incidents

and, is this a good place to live?

I also write about particular places I’ve been or currently am in, from a visitor or tourist’s perspective. But, relate it to my own journey.

There’s more too it than that:

I also like to focus on certain aspects of a country in relation to my journey. Maybe how I relate to the society, or the food, or how what it’s like to work there.

Hence, articles like my Food from The Philippines, or Seeing the Unseen started. Or, how individual ones like dealing with religion are written.

Moreover, I might also want to cover an angle no one has yet touched on in a country before.

Last but not least, there’s the photography aspect of things. Maybe there’s a place, event or situation I’d like to photograph. Here, the camera takes the lead and the writing follows.

So, for me, these are a the things that bring about the concepts of my travel blog posts.

Which one I choose, determines my workflow.

Multiple concepts, 2 workflows, one travel blog:

For the purposes of this series I will touch on photography taking the lead, and articles about finding home.

Each one melds together at some point, but each one seems to have a different work flow. At least, for now.

Travel journal workflow:

Here I write about my journey to find home. In each place I go whether it be a country, city or area I write down my experiences and thoughts.

Both get written into two forms:

• Online travel blog
• Offline hand written journal

Online I will usually write about a situation, and relate it to my physical whereabouts. In other words, if I am visiting a place.

Rough and ready, a first draft can contain excerpts from my off line journal as well. It’s then expanded upon, and photographs added.

Offline, I write more about the personal events, personal feelings, rants, raves and everything else not suitable for general viewing. All this, has, culminated in many, many, journals. A batch of which have been edited into a manuscript.

Photography workflow:

This is when I am out and about. The camera rarely leaves me. I use it to document my journey, and the places I’ve been. But then, as in life, I’ll spot something special.

Maybe it’s a man on the road begging, or someone painting something. Here, the camera leads. And, I will document the event.

This is where I enjoy photography so very much. For it gives me an insight into the real country I am traveling in.

From there comes the workflow of the photograph telling the story, with the words following.

How easy is it to think of concept or photograph to write about?

From a conceptual, and creative stand point this is the most enjoyable. It’s creativity, story telling, and documenting at it’s most raw.

But like anything in it’s most basic of states, it needs refining to be presentable. And, now the really hard work begins.

Concept travel blog workflow summary:

There are two main areas here that lead to a post:

1. Written idea – life, the journey, the situation, the journal etc  – get put into hand form, and first draft online.

2. Photograph – an event, a photograph that tells a story, real life situation I find myself in, places I’ve been – first draft written around this

Coming up next: Part 3: my travel photography workflow – I’ve taken the photograph, but now I’ve got to manage it, process it, back it up, and publish it. All from the road, not an easy task.