Traverslogue

I'm an explorer, someone who loves the challenge of world-wide travel and gathers stories of exploration and adventure. For me, travel photography is an essential part of the travel experience. With a camera in my hand, my journey is always enhanced and my senses always heightened, as my eyes and mind are alert for the artistic capture, the beauty of light and color and the special moment that perfectly reflects my experience and emotions.

Equal to the joy of capturing travel photography is the joy of sharing it. In the end, for me, travel photography is about story-telling, capturing the narrative of the journey in a way that moves, provokes and entertains. Photography and words combine to create a narrative of thoughts, observations, emotions, conversation, encounters and interaction to paint the beauty, complexity, humor and wonder of the world, its people and places. It is not only a story of travel, but also a chronicle of love and adventure with my husband John and son David. Behind every beautiful photograph is a "family snapshot" of our activities and experiences, sometimes in words and sometimes with pictures that are not "gallery worthy" but which complete the story-telling narrative.

The purpose of Traverslogue is to share the moments of world travel through travel photography, story-enhancing snapshots and tone-setting narrative. I hope you enjoy!

I've always loved photography, but as a "technologist" at heart, I was willing to foresake picture quality to be one of the first to jump to the digital camera format. As a consequence, my older photographs don't have the resolution that we've all become accustomed to seeing. For these areas of Traverslogue, I rely more on the "family snap" to tell the story of our travels.

I love being in a crowd and not understanding the conversations of anyone around me; I find serenity in my isolation. I love being lost, if only to realize that you can never really be lost. After all, no matter where you go, there you are. Sometimes I don't know where I am and then I realize that I'm right at the spot where I was yesterday, and that's not really lost at all. I love turning left at a corner for three days and the next day turning right, only to discover that something amazing was right around the corner all along.

I love the moments when everything is suddenly new and my eyes and ears work overtime to take it all in. I love strangeness and newness, and wondering how people can be so different and also so exactly the same. I love to explore the character of people through knowledge of their nation's histories, conflicts, opportunities and obstacles.

I love that language is only a small part of human communication and that expression, gesture, demeanor, context and familiarity are as powerful as words. I love that linguistics is a code that can be slowly deciphered with effort.

I love maps, and that they tell you how to get somewhere but nothing of what you'll find. I love to discover the vastness and beauty of the planet and I love it when the beauty leaves me breathless.

I love travel.

And when it's time to go home.... well, I love that too.

How did we manage all this travel? Needless to say, our income could support it, but always on a more-or-less "budget" basis. No 5-star hotels (or 4-star, for that matter), no tours, travelling on air miles whenever possible, and always travelling with the notion that it is the place, not the "package" that is the destination. More than anything, we had to decide that travelling was a life priority, more important than a fancy car or other items that would take our travel money. Prioritizing travel meant planning, generally six month to a year in advance. Anyone who travels a lot will tell you that the "prep work" can be a significant part of the fun!

Travelling with a child can be a challenge but it need not be an obstacle. Our son started travelling soon after birth. By the time he was five, he was a seasoned traveler. When he was in elementary school, we travelled mostly to Central and South America because we didn't have to deal with big time-zone adjustments. An important part of travel with kids is to consider the substitute "down-time" activities for your kids.

More recently, we've begun doing home exchanges and have already had 15 or more exchanges. We are fortunate to live in a place that is attractive to others from around the world. Home exchange allows us to stay in one place for a long period, eat our meals " at home ", and maintain many day-to-day habits which makes it easier to travel for long periods. We've had excellent experiences with it so far!