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March 18, 2017 by Chase Vandros

Sites, Sunsets and S’mores: Top Camping Tips for Beginners

If you’re brand new to camping and wondering how you’ll ever learn to do it right, don’t worry. Everyone who camps has to start somewhere, right? Follow a few simple tips and tricks, and you will be camping like a pro before you know it.

Get the right gear and know exactly how to use it

Before you head for the hills, beach, forest or other campsite, be sure you have the right sort of camping gear. Buy it or rent it, but always take the proper kind of camping equipment and understand how and where to use it right. For your first camping excursion, you may wish to consider renting high-end gear before going to the expense of a full purchase. Rent a day or two in advance, and learn to set up your tent and camp stove in the backyard. This is a better alternative to learning how to set up gear on-site. If you rely on the setup instructions included with your gear, you may find it takes longer to put together than you anticipated, say the makers of Gore-Tex.

Know where to go and what to expect when you get there

Research destinations such as camping in Yreka, California before you go and learn everything you can prior to selecting a campsite. before you go and learn everything you can prior to selecting a campsite. Read traveler reviews and bone up on the regulations regarding the site. Do wild animals live where you intend to set up camp? This is always a good thing to know. Will there be poisonous plants or biting snakes nearby? Again, this is something you definitely want to understand before choosing a campsite. Obtain a map of hiking trails and don’t forget to find out about camper hookups, restrooms, and other campsite amenities. Program the campsite coordinates into your smartphone to ensure you don’t get lost on the way.

Food, frolicking and fun

Whether your dietary interests lean toward gourmet meals, or if you’re content to get along with simple camp style grub, you’ll want to take along nutritious foods that supply plentiful energy for hiking, fishing, and exploring. Do as much prep work as you can at home, and putting together camp dinners will be oh-so much easier. Wash and chop fresh veggies and store in zip bags. Bring along foil with which you can wrap fish and vegetables with a pat of butter and place on hot campfire coals for cooking. Scramble eggs with salt and pepper and bring in a tightly-covered reusable container. Don’t forget a cooler chest and lots of ice. If you’re camping in an area known for bears, raccoons and other curious fauna, lock the ice chest in your Jeep Renegade or other vehicle. No matter where you camp or when, never ever store your food in a tent. Doing so only increases the odds that you’ll be bothered by insects and animals in the night.

Temporarily setting up home in the great outdoors is a fine way to relieve stress and refresh your association with nature.

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March 18, 2017 by Chase Vandros

Road Trips with Your Little Ones: Survival Strategies for Savvy Parents

Taking a family road trip can sometimes be the most affordable way to travel with your children. But traveling with little ones can be a true test of one’s patience, so here are some little tips that will go a long way in helping you cope with the journey.

Make a Map

Before you set out on your trip, make a map of your journey. Mark places of interest and places you will stop, so your kids can follow their route and look out for different things along the way.

Get a Car Entertainment Bag

Fill it with small toys and activities like stickers, trinkets, craft supplies, action figures, cards games, and puzzle books. Wrap each item individually so kids have fun opening them at each stage of your journey.

Download Some Audio Books

Audio books are very useful for keeping kids quiet on a road trip, especially if you’re the only adult in the car. With a monthly subscription to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, you can borrow up to ten books at a time for no extra charge and they have a great collection of print and audio books.

Let Them Color

If you are traveling with young children, this coloring book app can go a long way to helping them pass the time. This app has over 100 images of people, places, animals, flowers, birds, and geometrical patterns to color. There are more than 25 pallets with plenty of colors to choose from. Kids can color with the touch of a finger. When the picture is complete they can add effects and share the images with friends and family.

Make a Felt Activity Board

These are plain boards covered with flannel. Because flannel is rough, soft materials such as felt will stick to them. Once you have your board, you can cut out all different shapes in colored felt so that your child can make different scenarios with them. You can even have several flannel boards depicting different background scenes to inspire your child’s creativity.

Make an I-Spy Mission

Kids love looking for things out of the window while traveling so print them an I-spy sheet such as this Restaurant I-spy game and let them search for places. Alternatively, you can make your own I-spy list with stickers so that they can cross off each thing when they see it.

Play The License Plate Game

For slightly older children you can print a map of the US and kids can have fun coloring in each state as they see a license plate from that state. You can keep it in the car for each time you travel so kids can see how long it takes to fill in every state.

If the trip is very long and you are going to be traveling through the night, give your kids, glow sticks, glow bracelets or glow necklaces and let you kids wear their own personal night light. Keep everyone safe and happy so that you’ll arrive at your destination ready for a great vacation.

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February 28, 2017 by Chase Vandros

Travel Photography Tips

Australia, with endless beautiful coastlines and harbours, is the perfect setting for landscape photography. With such a beautiful landscape, it is a photographer’s dream, with the setting sun over the Australian coastline offering up the opportunity to create some of the most beautiful photos ever taken.

How do you capture that experience in photography? Most individuals don’t. Instead, they show their pictures with an apology – “I wish you were there”. Some people though, always manage to come home with photos so good you can imagine them photo printed on canvas and hung in galleries or in pride of place in their home. So how do you make sure you come home with a killer shot?

The Magic Hour

Beautiful landscape photos are usually defined by the quality of light they were taken in. As a result, photographers tend to shoot very early in the morning or during late afternoons when the sun is lower, less contrasty and usually displays a subtle colour palette of moody hues. For this reason, the hours before dusk and after dawn are known as the “magic hours”. If rising at dawn doesn’t fit well with your idea of a relaxing trip, don’t worry, there are plenty of great landscape opportunities throughout the day.

Photo credit: AustralianExplorer – It’s hard to take a bad photo of an Australian sunset over the outback

Think Foregrounds

One component that can set apart your landscape photos is to think carefully about the foreground of your pictures and by placing points of interest in them. When you do this you give those viewing the photos a way into the image as well as creating s sense of depth in your photos.

Photo credit: TheCanvasFactory – The harbour and the ferry in the foreground of this shot give the whole frame a real depth. The Opera house in the background is just the icing on the cake.

Consider the Sky

The sky is also a vital element to consider in your photograph. Most landscapes will either have a dominant sky or foreground, unless you have one or the other your photos can end up being fairly boring.

In the event that you have a boring sky, do not let dominate your photos and place the horizon in the upper third of your photo (however you will need to make sure that your foreground is amazing). On the other hand, if the sky is filled with interesting cloud formations and colours, let it shine by placing the horizon lower.

Straight horizons are a must in landscape pictures, unless you want to create certain impressions. Straight horizon adds uniformity and tranquillity to the shots, while a tilted horizon puts viewers off balance. A canted horizon can be very troubling and this technique can be used for intentionally creating this effect.

Composition

Composition is vital to successful landscape shots, and if you don’t know where to start, use “rule of thirds” to get things going. Try to include some rocks, where water is flowing, a puddle reflecting the sunset sky, or even an old tree stump and its weathered texture. Use what is available and let it provide some balance to the background elements.

Photo credit: Queensland.com – The interesting composition of this shot from the Barrier Reef is what really makes the each individual piece stand out.

The Rule of Thirds

To use this rule, imagine 4 lines, 2 lying flat across the image and 2 vertical creating 9 even squares. Some pictures will look wonderful with the focal point in the centre square, but placing the subject off centre will create extra interest as it creates an attractive layout. When an image is taken using this rule the eyes will wander the frame. A photography composed by this rule is more interesting and attractive to the eye.

Polarising Filters

While polarising filters are most commonly used to cut through reflections on water or darken blue skies, they also add an exceptional richness of colours. The idea to using polarising is the understanding that they are flexible. Sometimes a photograph may need a lot of polarisation; other times a little will do, so think about its application.

Take People into Account

Landscape photography is not just about nature; people can also be a vital part of landscape photography. A gorgeous landscape images can also be perfected by a lovely girl or a cute baby jumping or running through the flowers. Place the individual in an off centre position to create interest. Select slower shutter speed if you wish to capture movement or a fast shutter speed if you want to freeze the action.

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February 24, 2017 by Chase Vandros

Top 3 Places For a Great British Holiday in 2017

Since the economic crisis of 2008 and the fall out following it, many of us were forced to start pinching the pennies and cut back on many areas of our lives as prices went up, pay failed to rise and many lost jobs. The result of this on the tourist side of things was that far fewer people went abroad and instead chose to holiday right here in the UK. This actually had a beneficial affect in many ways as it did not only give the economy a boos through the increase in tourism, it also helped a lot of people fall back in love with UK holidays.

If you want to visit some of Britain’s best landmarks and hottest tourist locations in the UK then we have hand-picked our top 3 places where you can enjoy a great British holiday this year and enjoy all the benefits that come with a domestic trip.

Cornwall

If Cornwall was 5 or 6 degrees hotter then it would be one of the World’s finest holiday destinations, unfortunately, it isn’t but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying one of the most beautiful locations in the United Kingdom. Long-stretching beaches, untouched land, quaint fishing villages like St.Ives and Port Isaac, the surfers paradise of Newquay and some of the friendliest people on Earth, Cornwall is full of possibilities for all different kinds of holiday and if you haven’t been then it is time to head across the Tamar Bridge and enjoy this glorious corner of the island, accommodation is plentiful and varied and companies like Blue Chip holidays offer some outstanding holiday cottages for you and the family.

Liverpool

As far as British cities go, London quite rightfully gets much of the headlines but Liverpool should not be discounted as a great holiday destination. The 2008 European city of culture has so much to enjoy and whilst it is a city which has been profoundly important to the UK for many years, Liverpool manages to avoid the hustle and bustle of city life but still offering the level of culture, art, museums, high-grade restaurants and excitement that a great city can. The Albert Docks is a place that shouldn’t be missed, lively bar and restaurants and the World-famous Beatles museum, Liverpool’s finest ever export.

Pembrokeshire, Wales

Wales doesn’t get nearly enough credit as a holiday location and the beaches around the coast of the country are truly beautiful. Pembrokeshire sits in the south of Wales and offers tourists a really traditional British break, The only coastal national park in Britain, Pembrokeshire gives you the best of the seaside combined with open spaces and forest wilderness settings where you can enjoy sports and backwoods living. Thanks to its popularity of the past, this area of Wales is fully geared up for tourists with them parks, hotels, beachside attractions and plenty of fish and chip shops and places to buy candy rock. If you want a truly British holiday this year then head to south Wales.

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February 24, 2017 by Chase Vandros

The ABCs of A Day In Milan

If you haven’t already, you should make 2017 a year of travels. Take yourself on a journey to see the world and discover new and old cultures, and what better place to do it than in Europe? If you are after a taste of social values of all ages, Italy is the place you need to see: Italy, the country that combines traditional cuisine, historic architecture to make you want to pinch yourself to see if you’re not dreaming, and art of the highest standard, is a place like no other. It may seem difficult to believe at first, but the Italian history is a part of everybody’s culture, since the modern thinking of the Renaissance. While you may not speak the language, or know the story of this country, you will recognize the marks left by generations of people who have helped to make the world a little more open and beautiful. And Milan, the financial hub of Italy that hosts centuries of art and culture is the ideal city to dive into the glorious Italian lifestyle.

A Like Architecture

Milan cultivates architectural landmarks like others plant geraniums in their garden: With a facility that makes the envy of many! Renowned for its trendsetting universe, Milan also has beautiful exemplars of classical architectures with il Duomo di Milano and the Santa Maria delle Grazie. Too old? Have a look at the Fondazione Prada that was finished in 2015. The best piece of advice that one could give you when it comes to seeing the Milanese architecture is to pick an accommodation in the town center. This might be difficult to reach with public transport from the airport, especially if you don’t speak Italian, so make sure to get a taxi from the airport – the booktaximilan company is specialized in Milan only transport. Most holidaymakers choose to stay around the Piazza Venezia or the Palestro, as these points are well located for visits.

B Like Buon Appetito

It’s impossible to stay in Milan without enjoying the food culture! So if you want to make the most of it, eat with the locals: They know where the best restaurants are! You will discover that the most authentic food is not in the most touristy restaurants. Traditional Milanese food is everything in town, even next to the big attractions, for those who know where to look. Al Mercante, one of the locals’ favorites, is just next to the Piazza del Duomo with the Cathedral, for example. If you want to see more of the town, try the restaurant tram, the ATMosfera that takes you on a classic ride through the city as you eat.

C Like Cenacolo

Il Cenacolo is the Italian name of the famous Da Vinci’s painting, the Last Supper. You might have seen countless reproductions of this iconic fresco on postcards and in books, but the original one is in the refectory of the monastery next to Santa Maria delle Grazie. Visits only last for 15 minutes, and you are advised to book in advance to see it, but this is worth all the wait in the world.