Equipment

While current cell phones often have tremendous photo quality, if you want even better images, then you’ll want to get a standalone camera.

I think it’s fair to say most professional photographers prefer the control a DSLR camera provides; however, mirrorless cameras are also becoming more popular. They add the versatility you want without the bulk and weight. There are pros and cons of each type of camera, and really it comes down to personal preference and what exactly you want from your camera.

If you can bring a tripod along, then you’ll definitely want to, especially if you’ll be in Iceland during the northern lights season. Trying to capture images of the aurora without a tripod is an exercise in futility. However, a tripod is handy for daytime shots as well.

Make sure to bring a wide-angle lens with you for those amazing landscape shots.

If you’re traveling to Iceland during the cooler seasons, make sure to bring a large Ziploc bag or something similar (more on that later).

Photography Tips for Beginners

If you’re somewhat new to digital photography, or if you just want to up your game, Iceland is the perfect place to really stretch your wings.

In addition to learning some of the tricks of the trade, you might want to consider doing a workshop that combines travel with photography education. Something like a photo tour would not only give you an amazing tour of parts of Iceland but provide you invaluable time with a professional photographer to help you really hone your skills.

It’s also helpful to learn some of the basic terminology and functions of your camera before you go.

• Aperture. This controls how much light enters the lens and strikes the sensor. It functions much like the pupil in your eye. A wider aperture setting lets in more light. When looking at photos, you may notice a reference to an F stop or see something like f/22. The potentially confusing part of this is that the smaller the F stop, the wider the aperture. So f/2.8 is going to be wider (more light) than f/16.
• Depth of field. Have you seen a photo where an object in the image is crisp while other parts of the image are more blurry (see flower example above)? This is decreased depth of field and the effect depends on the aperture setting. A wider aperture will provide this effect while a more narrow aperture will keep the whole scene in focus.
• Macro. This type of photography is probably easiest explained as an extreme close-up. For instance when you’re capturing an image of an insect or dew on moss. Most cameras have a macro setting (look for a flower icon), but you can also get special macro lens which will really increase your ability to get nice, crisp images. I would say this isn’t that common of a technique in Iceland.
• Shutter speed. This basically refers to how long the sensor will be exposed to light (how fast or slow the shutter closes after pressing the button). In low-light conditions, you will need a longer exposure time. If you want to freeze action, you want a much shorter exposure. This speed is usually indicated by fractions of a minute (i.e., 1/16th), although nighttime exposure can be much longer than a minute.
• Noise. You may hear a photographer refer to an image as having noise. This is when you have variations in light and dark on an image. It often looks like small white speckles on a dark photo (see the photo above). While it can be used artistically, generally you’ll want the least amount of noise as possible on your low-light images. You can accomplish this in different ways. Generally, though, you want to decrease your ISO and/or use a faster shutter speed.
• Rule of Thirds. This helps you get a better composition in your photo. Some cameras have a digital grid you can trigger when you’re composing your image. Basically, you visualize a 3 x 3 grid on your monitor/viewfinder. The main subject should end up where the lines intersect.

Waterfalls

When capturing images of moving water, you generally want a slower shutter speed. This is best done with a tripod so you don’t risk hand movement during your exposure. This gives the water a smooth, fluid appearance.

However, there are times when you want to “freeze” the water while in motion. To do that you’ll need good lighting and a faster shutter speed.

Northern Lights Photography Tips

This could really be a post all by itself. There are a lot of factors involved, so I’ll refer you to this very good tutorial for specifics. If you plan on going out and photographing the aurora and you decide to do it as part of a tour, I would not recommend the boat tour. Even with smooth waters, there is just too much motion to capture a really good image, and you may have to jostle around to even find space to set up your tripod.

If this on your bucket list, the best time to try to see the lights in Iceland is between September and mid April. We were there in late January/early February and saw them a few times.

Lighting

You may have heard of the golden and blue hour. The golden hour is when light appears softer and more golden (warmer) and occurs about an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. This also gives you longer shadows which can help an image appear more dramatic.

The blue hour is right before sunrise and right after sunset and mostly refers to the color of the sky.

The trick with photography in Iceland is that during the summer the sun doesn’t completely set until very early in the morning and is rising again shortly thereafter. Conversely, in winter the sun may not begin to make an appearance until around 11 AM and will go down a few hours later. So timing things can be a bit of a challenge, especially during winter.

Colors

You’ll get more contrast of colors in the late spring and summer when there is less snow on the ground, but winter shouldn’t be counted out. Colorful buildings and the rugged features of basalt columns and black sand beaches can provide some gorgeous views, too.

Winter Tips

Okay, this is where the Ziploc bag comes into play. Going from cold air into a warm car or building can cause condensation to form on your camera, lens, and the sensor. To avoid this, transfer your gear into a Ziploc bag while you’re still outside. Leave it inside the bag when you move indoors so that condensation doesn’t form on or in the camera.

Cold and batteries are not friends. It’s a good idea to keep an extra battery inside your jacket or pocket where it can stay warmer as batteries tend to lose their juice faster in the cold.

You may also want to invest in a pair of convertible gloves. These are gloves that have a hood that slides over the fingers so that they provide the warmth of a mitten but also allow you to free up your fingertips without having to remove your gloves.

Getting Creative

One of the joys of digital photography is that you can experiment with different angles, settings, and so on without it costing you a small fortune in film and prints. So make sure you look at your subject from different angles both horizontally and vertically. Sometimes even moving just a foot more in one direction can give a completely different appearance.

Fill the Frame

While sometimes you want to incorporate a subject’s surroundings or background, often buildings, monuments, etc., look better when they “fill the frame.” This means that when you’re looking through your viewfinder or at your camera’s monitor, you essentially want the subject to fill that space as much possible.

What other questions do you have that might be good photography tips?

Like most parents, I’m always looking for ways to teach my daughter, Sophie, how she can make a difference in the community. We can tell our kids not to waste food or clean up their trash until they’re blue in the face (and we often do!). But until kids actually see why those tasks are important, it often falls on deaf ears. So when the opportunity came up to learn about hunger in the United States while volunteering through the Feeding America network, I knew instantly this would be a great exercise for our family.

What is Feeing America?
Feeding America is a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries leading the fight against hunger by providing millions of families in need with fresh food and meals in communities nationwide. The Feeding America network serves 12 million kids each year through programs such as BackPack Program, Kids Cafe, the School Pantry Program and the Child Hunger Corps.

They also operate programs that promote self-sufficiency; educate the public about hunger; and advocate for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Through all of its efforts, the Feeding America network helps more than 46 million people each year.

How to Volunteer
Sophie and I headed to Feeding America San Diego where we spent two hours as volunteers. The process to become volunteers was super easy. You simply go to the website, fill out an information form and select the program and date for which you want to volunteer. While so many non-profit organizations can only allow teenage volunteers, many Feeding America network members encourage family participation and allows kids as young as 6-years-old to volunteer at certain locations.

When we arrived at the warehouse, we were greeted by friendly staff and signed in on the iPad check-in. We started our introduction in a lounge with water and snacks where a Feeding America San Diego volunteer coordinator explained the organization and gave us a walk-through of the facility before our shift began.

Volunteer Opportunities for Families
There are several ways to volunteer with the Feeding America network, but Sophie and I chose the BackPack program as our project. The BackPack program aims to provide kids with nutritional food they wouldn’t otherwise have over weekends and school holidays. Typically, each kiddo receives an easy-to-carry bag filled with nutritious staple items and two to three pounds of fresh produce when leaving school on Thursday or Friday afternoons. During Sophie and my shift, we stuffed bags with two oranges, granola bars, soup, nuts and a can of fruit.

Even within one shift, we had so many opportunities to learn about food and hunger. For example, aside from stuffing food in bags, Sophie learned how to glean oranges. She sifted through hundreds of pounds of oranges that will then go into the BackPacks for kids. Because these oranges vary in size, shape and color, they are not preferred for sale in local grocery stores. So instead of the produce going to waste, they are given to families in need.

Between Sophie, me and the other volunteers, we stuffed 550 BackPacks for local kids!

At Feeding America San Diego you can also elect to volunteer in the Farm2Kids program where you pack bags with three to five pounds of produce, which are later delivered to kids in need. There’s also Reclamation, where volunteers sort food that has been pulled from grocery store shelves to prevent it from reaching the landfill. Yet approximately 60 percent of it is still edible and nutritious. Volunteers check expiration dates against their extended best by date, and then sort and box each food by type.

Teaching Kids: Volunteer Lessons-Learned
One of the best parts about volunteering for Feeding America San Diego was learning about food and nutrition, and the feeling of doing something good for others. It’s also a great strategy for those of us parents with picky eater kids!

I personally learned how much produce doesn’t even make it to the grocery store and how that food can help others. Sophie told me she left Feeding America San Diego feeling really good because she was “helping the world” and making sure kids don’t have to worry about getting food. Sophie also learned a few things about produce she didn’t know before; specifically that onions can rot.

Sophie and I plan to continue volunteering with Feeding America, and hope to arrange a shift for her Girl Scout troop, too. We’re also saving canned good and pantry items to donate.

Learn about volunteering opportunities at feedingamerica.org

Have you volunteered with Feeding America? We’d love to hear about your experience!

— Leah R. Singer, Red Tricycle San Diego Editor

Photos courtesy of Red Tricycle and used with their permission.

Just how did we ‘give up everything’ to go on the road? It’s a question we are frequently asked.

Making the decision

That was the easy part! One day Juergen said, “I don’t think I want to build this house. I think I want to go travelling again.” We were in the final planning stages for the construction of our very own ‘McMansion’. This would mean going into debt and shelving any major travel for some years.

We had both just turned 50, and we had some words from older family members ringing in our ears:

Juergen’s aunt (in her 80s): “Don’t say you’ll do it someday because when someday comes you’ll be too old.”

My mother (around 70): “I always wanted to go to England but now I’m too old.”

Well, we had always wanted to go to South America. It’s a long way, and expensive, from Australia. We decided to get some sort of travelling vehicle, and keep travelling until we were done. It took us less than a week to reach this decision, and another 11 months to make it happen.

Telling our family and friends brought a variety of responses. One friend just said, “You’ll never do it,” while others were stunned, excited or just plain envious. My parents were somewhat dubious, but I just said, “We’ve always wanted to go to South America, and we want to do it before we get too old!”

Making it happen

Most of the next year was spent putting everything in place. We had both had previous, separate experiences of packing up our lives. I did it to go on an open-ended trip to the Indian subcontinent in the late 80s. Juergen left Germany to migrate to Australia in 1993.

We decided to sell the land we had been planning to build on and our house (but first we needed to finish the renovations we had been doing for the past 4 years). Then we would invest the money and travel on what it earned for us. That answered the second question we are frequently asked: How do you afford to travel? Although it turned out to be a temporary answer! We also asked a family member to take a Power of Attorney so they could make decisions for us, should the need arise.

Juergen made a lot of use of the internet searching for the right vehicle. We had worked out that if we bought a vehicle in North America, we could drive through North, Central and South America. With some help and support from American friends, we purchased our Ford F250 and Bigfoot camper before we left Australia.

One of the big questions for us was – what do we do with all our stuff? Sell it, give it away, and if there is anything we can’t part with, store it. Easy to say – takes time and effort to get it done! We had a lot of garage sales! We gave stuff to friends and family and various charities. Then we rented a storage unit and packed the rest in.

People asked us: When are you coming back?

Our answer: When we’ve seen all we want to see or we get tired of travelling.

On the road

So that’s the short version of how we packed up our life in Australia and began our American adventure. The decision was made in April 2005 and we landed in Los Angeles in March 2006.

We spent three and a half years on the road that trip, and ended it without seeing as much of South America as we wanted to. The motivation was 2-fold – we had lost some of our enthusiasm when our engine required a complete rebuild in Colombia in 2008, and the global financial crisis also hit us very hard. We sold our vehicle in Chile in 2009 and returned to Australia.

Settling back into our life there never really happened. After only a few months we were constantly focussed on leaving again. I studied for a qualification to teach English as a second language, and Juergen planned how we would build our next motor home ourselves. Of course we also needed to work alongside these activities. In 2012 we started the leaving process all over again, but this time we knew how it was done. It was still hard work, but probably not so stressful.

We spent most of 2013 in Germany, building our Berta, and arrived back in South America in 2014. Once again we have no fixed end date and travel on a day by day, week by week basis. This somehow seems to turn into a year by year basis because it is no longer something apart from our normal life – it is our normal life!

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Other frequently asked questions

How do you manage without your friends and family?

When things don’t seem to be going right I do ask myself what I’m doing here when all the people who love me are somewhere else. But, when it comes to the crunch, this is what I want to do. And when I don’t want to, I’ll do something else. At the moment, I feel like I could travel like this for the rest of my life.

How do you make sure you have everything you need?

You can’t! Although you try hard to plan for all contingencies, you will always find that something you need is something you didn’t bring. And don’t get me started on all the things we brought, that we thought we would need and haven’t used – yet!

What comforts do you think you really need?

Our house, which we carry with us, has all the comforts I need. I have a bed, a bathroom, and somewhere to prepare and eat food– all physical needs are met.

How do you afford to travel?

I can’t afford not to! Travelling is like oxygen – I can’t live without it. I may have Anglo-Saxon blood running in my veins, but I have Gypsy blood in my soul!

Aren’t you being selfish?

No! I have one life and it’s my responsibility to make the very best use of it that I can.

How do you live with each other in such a small space? or How come you haven’t killed each other?

If your relationship can survive this sort of close space, it can survive anything. When we left on our first trip we made a contingency plan for if we decided to split up. Now, we seem to be able to work through the rough times – and there will always be some – because we did it once for three and a half years and we’ve come back for more.

Do you ever get homesick?

I can’t really say that I do. Sometimes I miss particular parts of my life in Australia and the people who occupy them.

Aren’t you lucky?

Yes. I’m lucky that I have the courage to do this – not everyone does, even though they would like to. I’m also lucky to be married to a man who also has the courage and desire to live this life. But it takes more than luck to make it happen.

What question would you like to ask me about giving everything up and going on the road?

Yasha is from Australia and travels with her husband, Juergen, who is German-born, but now also Australian. They started their adventures through North and South America in 2006 with a pick-up truck and a slide-in camper. In 2009 they returned to their ‘normal’ life in Australia, but were soon planning their escape! Currently they are travelling in Berta, a house on wheels that they built together in 2013, picking up where they left off in South America. You can follow them on their blog, Dare2Go.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

What was your experience with depression before you began travel?

Before travelling, depression was my day-to-day life, and had been since I was a child, making weak attempts at suicide by trying to smother myself with a pillow. Depression grew up with me. It was the voice in my head, the one telling me I would always fail. It consumed me so much, I couldn’t draw a line between where it ended and my real self began. We were one and the same.

I either had trouble falling asleep, or getting out of bed, or both. I deprived myself of food; I liked the lightheaded, disconnected feeling it gave me. I wanted so badly to disconnect. Every morsel of sadness in the world, every tragic story seen on the news or overheard on the bus weighed so heavily on my heart. I felt responsible for all the sadness in the world, and worthless for being unable to stop it. I cut myself with a poorly stashed razor blade as a teenager, then moved to more subtle ways of hurting myself when that started to feel self-indulgent, when the redness criss-crossing on my arm disgusted me. I didn’t want anyone to have a glimpse at what was going on inside. I thought about death constantly, planned out elaborate suicides and felt like a failure when I didn’t follow through.

But in all this, the worst part was the hopelessness. I honestly didn’t believe that I could ever change. This was who I was, a failed, broken human incapable of happiness.

How has living with depression impacted your life?

I think the greatest impact has been my relationships with others. I was afraid of letting people see how much I was hurting, and that caused me to pull away or lash out. I truly admire anyone who stuck with me through the really rough periods… I must have been near impossible to live with.

I had one nervous breakdown that forced me to take a couple of weeks off work. That was definitely my lowest point. I had to return to my parents’ place, and I would sleep for 15 hours straight every night. I wasn’t eating. When I was awake, I couldn’t think straight. My only thoughts were this chaotic pleading in my mind, begging the universe to make this stop.

The craziest thing, though, is that most of the time my life appeared normal. It always baffled me that I could go to work, run errands, attend university, and have a social life. Even when I was feeling absolutely floored by depression, when I’d spent my day doing nothing but lying on the floor and feeling hopeless, I could slap on a smile and be a normal member of society. And that’s what scares me the most. The possibility that I could have just gone on like that. I could have gotten married, had a career, started a family, without even acknowledging that as a person, I still had a lot to work on. I could have powered through 80 years of life hating every second of it, not realizing that I could be celebrating instead of enduring. It would have been a slow and bitter destruction.

What types of medication or medication alternatives have you used to treat it?

I’ve never been on anti-depressants. Recently I’ve been very interested in how diet affects all aspect of our lives, and I’ve been trying to include more foods that increase dopamine or serotonin levels, such as apples, bananas, legumes and leafy greens. I also try to exercise every day and drink a lot of water. It sounds cliche, but a healthy diet can change so much, along with other practices such as meditation, and getting plenty of sunshine. If I don’t have access to healthy food for a few days, my mood plummets as well as my physical energy. Body and mind are connected.

Was it hard to consider travel during depressive episodes?

Absolutely.

It was easy to dream of travel. I had a series of fantasies, of meeting amazing and beautiful people, of going on long ventures on my own over epic mountains, of finding solace in the ocean waves crashing onto shore. But it all looked like a carefully curated dream, something that was being sold to me by someone else. I didn’t believe in it. I didn’t believe in myself enough to reach for it. Staying at home and stagnating made me miserable, but making myself miserable was what I did best.

Honestly, I’m still amazed that I snapped out of it long enough to ever purchase a plane ticket.

What have you noticed about how depression affects you during your travels?

I’m usually in a very good place when I travel. Whenever I do start to sink into a dark place, I can somehow turn it into something poetic. I know that in my memories, loneliness in the rainforest will be better than loneliness in my bed at home. Crying my eyes out on front of the ocean will be better than sitting in a chair and staring at a blank wall. Sadness becomes a story instead of a way of life.

If I do start feeling sad, I can talk about it freely, without worrying that anyone around me is anticipating a relapse. Bad days are okay. I accept that more easily when I travel, because a bad day doesn’t risk trapping me in a cycle of apathy. With new things happening all the time, it can’t.

If you have long time periods when you don’t travel, do you tend to experience a relapse?

Every time I come home to Canada, I can feel my depression lingering on the outskirts of my mind, and it’s exhausting to constantly be pushing it back. The winters are especially bad. Anyone who’s ever experienced seasonal depression knows just how real it can be. But I want to be okay with myself no matter where I am in the world, and being okay here is a huge part of that. With lots of positive self-talk, healthy habits, honesty and a forgiveness towards myself if I do start to slip. I’m proud of how well I’ve managed to keep footing.

Still though, my best remedy for dealing with bad days includes purchasing plane tickets and planning new adventures. I’m hoping to get to the point where that’s something I want, and not something I need.

Does living with depression change how frequently you travel?

That’s hard to say. The only periods in my life when I’m not travelling or living abroad are due mainly to financial factors. Travel is what snapped me out of the lethargy I’d been feeling for years, and maybe that’s compelled me to make it such an important part of my life. If I’d lived a life free of depression, maybe travel would be a secondary focus, and I’d be working towards something unrelated. Then again, maybe I wouldn’t. Non-depressed me is pretty travel-obsessed as well.

Have you found any non-travel-related activities that have the same effect on you?

Reading definitely helps take me out of myself—probably why I was such a bookworm as a child.

Anything involving nature (camping, hiking, swimming, picnics in the park) helps me achieve that feeling of wholeness, of being truly connected.

More and more, I feel like I am getting people in my life who know all sides of me, dark and light, and who love me anyways. Spending time with those people helps, because I can simply be myself, however I’m feeling at the time. That’s a sense of freedom I’ve never known before.

What advice do you have for other people who are dealing with depression?

You may not believe me. But it can stop. You just have to trigger that on your own.

Find a dream that lights you up. Don’t aim to be the best at something, just find something you want to do. And do it.

It may seem overwhelming, you may not have faith that you’ll follow through… But do it. Break it into little tasks. Each one of those should be simple. Something you can easily picture yourself doing.

And, piece by piece, work towards the big picture.

For all the positive thoughts in the world, nothing will lift you up like a feeling of accomplishment, of achieving a goal, or at least of trying. It’s the best way to feel alive. You owe it to yourself, the self that’s hiding under the depression. You have to let that person go.

Also, don’t be afraid to tell people you’re suffering! Start small, tell a couple of people who you know have or have had mental health issues. It’s amazing how much smaller it becomes when you share it with others, and how many people will accept you regardless. Of course, others may not… But they probably weren’t giving you much positive energy anyways.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Travelling has changed me. It’s made me a more complete person, bolder, more loving, more accepting of myself and others. It taught me to be happy.

But if you take anything from this interview, it shouldn’t be that travel will make you happy. It should just be that happiness is possible. And you are worthy of it. No matter who you are, no matter where you are, I believe this. I hope you can believe it, too.

Jeannie writes on her site

What was your experience with depression before you began travel?
Depression first hit in my teen years, but in Asian families depression is an unspoken secret that nobody addresses, so I suffered in silence much of the time. I recovered for several years throughout my 20s, but by my mid-30s depression came back with full force. That’s when I plunged into years of therapy. Luckily I was in a wonderful place mentally when I embarked on my RTW trip, which carried through until I had a relapse two years later.

How has living with depression impacted your life?
When I am suffering from a bout of depression, everything kind of stops in my head and it’s hard to think or function some days. I become more socially withdrawn and inward. I view people with depression as humans who see, feel, and think harder and deeper than others, so another impact is I am highly sensitive to what changes, either moods or situations, for example.

What types of medications or medication alternatives have you used to try to treat it?
I definitely considered medication at one time, but wanted to try other methods of coping. This sounds odd, but medication to me is yoga and meditation. The jolt of endorphins I receive from both is the equivalent to pharmaceuticals for me. Studies have been conducted to show how the brain waves alter during meditation; it’s quite astounding. It’s what feels most natural to me!

Was it hard to consider travel during depressive episodes?
I have this strange ability to separate what I must do (travel) with what inner turmoil I’m struggling with. But once I do land somewhere, I tend to isolate myself and have no desire to see sights.

What have you noticed about how depression has affected you during your travels?
There has been episodes when I can’t make decisions on where to go next or to bother with logistics. Depression really saps my energy and often I feel exhausted.

If you have long time periods when you don’t travel, do you tend to experience a relapse?
Travel helps to distract me to some degree, but I’ve found that not traveling versus traveling a lot doesn’t affect the thoughts in my head much. They are there whether I’m inert or not. However, when I am traveling, I have noticed how much easier it is to get out of my head and spring into a newer mindset. Traveling as long as I have is the great reality check, too. Yes, I suffer when depressed, but have seen many others in the world suffering with much more, like where their next meal will come from.

Does living with depression change how frequently you travel?
I want to stay put somewhere longer and just hide in my hotel room. It also changes how I travel, not just frequency. I have difficulty keeping up with social events, and staying with friends becomes hard for me as I feel guilty that I’m not capable of being my usual self. I’m best as a lone wolf while I ride out a bout of sadness.

Have you found any non-travel-related activities that have a similar impact for you?
Again, yoga and meditation always help lift me outta my head and into a happier, more peaceful zone. Being in a live yoga class does the same. It’s a place I can meet like-minded people and feel a sense of community – and less alone.

There’s also no one-size-fits-all way to cope, find what works best for you. Most of all, never be ashamed of who you are or your feelings.

What advice do you have for other people who are dealing with depression?
You will have sunny days, along with the dark ones. And to accept that this is part of who you are, which is seen as a deficiency to many, but acceptance and employing tools to cope is the difference between chaos and balance. Strive for balance as much as possible, slow down and work on rebalancing when you’re not, and try to harness your empathic, sensitive nature in positive ways by writing or expressing yourself (art, photography, poetry). There’s also no one-size-fits-all way to cope, find what works best for you. Most of all, never be ashamed of who you are or your feelings.

When I was a kid, I didn’t travel much. My dad, despite being a hippie backpacker in the 70s, didn’t often take my sister and me outside the East Coast. There were a few long road trips to Florida to visit my grandmother, a cruise the Caribbean, and one trip to Bermuda when I was about seven, but other than that, we rarely left our small suburb of Boston. To this day, my father still doesn’t go much of anywhere.

My friends didn’t travel much either and our schools never took field trips to different states, let alone different countries. To me, travel was something rich people did. It just wasn’t a part of my life.

It wasn’t until I was twenty-three, on my first trip to Costa Rica, that I really understand the power of travel. I caught the travel bug while I was on a group tour through the country — I loved the freedom travel gave you. Everyday had endless possibility. You could do whatever you wanted and go wherever your heart desired.

Suddenly, the world really did seem like my oyster.

While I was in Costa Rica, I saw a school group who was there for two weeks to learn about the environment and supplement their Spanish. Over ten years later, I can’t remember where they were from, but I do remember wistfully thinking “I wish I had done that when I was a kid.”

Over the past year, I’ve thought a lot about the power of travel and its ability to change lives. That trip to Costa Rica changed my life. The following year after a trip to Thailand, I quit my job and went on a round the world trip in 2006. I never stopped traveling and now work in the industry helping others travel more.

During that trip around the world, I met a family of travelers while abroad. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and the two kids still talk about how powerful their experiences on that trip were in teaching them about the world. It broadened their perspective. Now, college-aged, both of them regularly travel as well as study and volunteer abroad.

Travel is a powerful agent of change, but not everyone is going to be lucky enough to have parents who take them on round the world trips or the opportunity to study abroad. Not everyone is going to attend a school with the resources to send them overseas to give them context about what they are learning in school.

Think about that first trip you took, the one that got you hooked. Remember that feeling of freedom, possibility, and excitement. Think about how wonderful it felt.

I want to share that feeling with kids who might never get a chance.

That’s why I’ve started a new foundation called The Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education, or FLYTE.

FLYTE’s mission is to provide the resources and funds to help high schools in underserved communities in the United States send their students overseas. One day, if we get enough funding, I would love to provide grants for college kids so they can study abroad… but let’s take one step at a time.

I want to share the power of travel with those who might never otherwise have the chance.

And I need your help to do it.

Our goal is to raise $250,000 in the next few weeks to launch the foundation and organize five trips in our first year (a lofty goal, but you have to shoot for the moon, right?). I’ve assembled an executive director who used to work at a mentoring non-profit, a board of directors, and a high school in NYC that’s interested in participating. We’re going to provide logistical support, funding, and advice for teachers who are looking to provide cultural context to what they are teaching – the history teacher who wants to show his students the D-Day beaches or the Spanish teacher who wants her students to experience Spanish culture.

Today, I am asking you to help us change the lives of students all around the U.S. We are lucky enough to be able to travel. We know the power of exploring the world and how important can be in shaping people’s lives. After all, we’ve seen it in our own lives.

This is an exciting new endeavor and a great way for the travel community to give back and make a positive impact on the world. I know this is a big thing to ask and I’ll be honest – I’ve never run a charity before (luckily, my executive director has) but I’m asking you to trust me on this investment.

Experiencing travel at that impressionable age can change a child’s life. It will help show them the vast opportunity and possibility in the world. It will expose them to people, places, and ideas they won’t see at home. FLYTE’s goal is to broaden kids’ minds…and with your help, we can make that happen.

To learn more about the organization, and how you can get involved, donate, visit the FLYTE website.

—Matthew Kepnes is the founder of the budget website Nomadic Matt and author of the New York Times best-selling book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day. He started FLYTE to give students the chance to travel and explore the world. You can read more about his story here.

Kole did a project of Faces of Turkey, and he introduces you to some of that work in this post. He also has some exceptional landscape and architecture photography.

Check out this teenager’s work, and I think you’ll agree with me he’s going places.

My name is Kole Purdy and I am a 17-year-old photographer. My family of six is currently traveling the world for nine months. We are in month six right now. So far we have been to (in order) Hawaii, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. As you could imagine, being a photographer with this type of opportunity is absolutely amazing. After a 20-year career in sales, my dad was in a comfortable job but not happy.  My parents had saved money and wanted to ‘live now’. It was just a matter of figuring out how in the world (literally) do we do this? A few months later, we were gone. I couldn’t be any more thankful for this big adventure. It is like an enormous candyland of photographic opportunity, not to mention the life changing experiences and realizations that I have had so far.

While my family and I were in Turkey I decided to do a personal photo project. I wanted to attempt to capture the essence of the Turkish culture. It was fun learning how to approach complete strangers in a foreign country that did not speak my language and get-up close and intimate portraits. Every time I saw an interesting face in a good photographic setting, I would approach them and attempt to convey the fact that I wanted to take their photograph. I know very little Turkish so ‘conveying’ the fact that I wanted to photograph them was a task in and of itself. Generally, it involved me pointing at my camera, nodding, smiling incessantly, and gibbering a bit of Turkish. I imagine that I came across a little weird or maybe even creepy at times, but I’d say it was worth it. I even got rudely rejected four or five times.

One such experience took place at the famous Sultan Ahmet (more commonly know as The Blue Mosque) in Istanbul. I approached this elder Turkish man that was peacefully feeding birds directly in front of the mosque. I had high hopes for this guy. He was feeding birds so how unfriendly could he be? After I walked up to him, he was still not acknowledging my presence so I said, “Pardon, fotoğraf lütfen?” which means, “Excuse me, photograph please?” He replied with, “No. Go away. Why would I want my picture taken. Can you not see that I am alone. That is for a reason.” I did not expect this man to be able to speak perfect English nor did I expect his unfriendliness. So after he said that I just said, “Alright, enjoy your time sir, sorry to bother.” and smiled then walked away.

With the exception of that guy and a few others, everyone was friendly. This guy (above) was a street performer playing a flute on a wall. I saw him from the second floor of a restaurant that I was eating at for lunch. After lunch, I approached him. I smiled, pointed at my camera, and he nodded. I took a couple of photos, smiled, and tossed 3 Turkish Lira in his bucket and walked away.

This photo was taken four days after the previous one. I saw him and since the other flute player photo was to my satisfaction, why not try again? I always made sure to tip the performers that I’d photograph as a thank you.

After finishing a 1-hour search, with my dad, for the beloved çig köftë in Istanbul, I captured this photo. The dish -çig köftë- is a traditional Turkish one that is wheat bulgar with various spices, balled up, and served with lettuce and lemon. It is glorious. I highly suggest this dish if you visit Turkey. After I enjoyed my lunch I walked out of the restaurant and saw this man. I had been wanting a photo of someone smoking. I love the look of an old smoker and thought it’d make for a interesting photo. I approached this kind man as I had the others. He was very smiley and asked to see the photo after I was done. He gave me a nod and smile of approval.

This man was the owner of a doner kebap restaurant at the corner of the street we stayed in Istanbul. We saw him every night for our late night doner runs. I didn’t ask him if I could take this picture.. but I’m sure he would’ve been fine with it. He was very nice and gave us a bit of free food over the course of our stay there.

I didn’t get to ask this guy if I could take his photo. I was in a rush to catch a ferry across the Bosphorus that was leaving any minute. I saw the awesome iron fenced pattern in the background and then I saw him. I had to get this picture. With my family running towards the ferry screaming at me to come on and forget the picture, I managed to snap one. I’d say this was worth the ‘risk’.

While in Istanbul in the early morning when everyone else was slowly waking up and getting ready for the day, I was out taking pictures. This guy was in one of the back alleyways of Taxim Square. I saw his interesting face and asked him in Turkish if I could take his photo. He was pretty excited I could speak some of his language, he smiled and nodded. He asked to see the photo after I took it. It seemed to make him pretty happy, he said, “çok güzel!” Which means, “very beautiful!” in direct translation.

This picture was taken on the same morning that I photographed the man in the last photo. This man was a worker in the fish market just off of Taxim Square. It is actually quite a popular area in Istanbul. You can grab some exceptionally good Midye there too. Midye is the Turkish word for ‘stuffed clam.’ This clam is stuffed with rice, garlic, and some other spices. It is then topped off with some lemon juice, making it five times better. It was and still is my favorite food that I’ve had on this trip so far.

My family and I were riding back through Göreme after a long day of sight seeing. I glanced down an alleyway to see this man walking towards our car. I immediately asked our driver to stop. The man just had such an interesting face, I couldn’t resist. He did not speak English so our driver translated. He was somewhat hesitant to be photographed but I knew the old man’s initial resistance had quickly faded because he patted me on the back and smiled widely. After showing him the photos he enthusiastically said, “çok güzel!”

Once I returned to my hotel I sat down with the owner and shared the photos I had just captured. It turns out that he and the older gentlemen are friends. He placed the older man’s age between 95-100 years old! The owner also told me that in this man’s early teens he met the famous Ataturk. Ataturk is the most idolized figure in all of Turkey’s history. He brought the modernized European culture to Turkey among many other things.

The first day I arrived in Istanbul I was sitting in a cafe enjoying my first ever cup of Turkish coffee before I took this. Across the street there was a man peering through the bars of the fence so I walked over to see what had caught his attention. He was watching kids out at recess on the other side of the wall. I imagine that his child was one of the ones out at recess and that he came to watch him/her. I returned to my coffee but kept watching the man. He finally sat down for a smoke, with the tree perfectly framing him into the picture. I put the camera up to my face and waited for him to look left to give the empty space purpose. Once he did, I pressed the shutter and got this.

This was another one of the photos that I took while out in the morning during my stay in Istanbul. I was looking for a colorful setting that morning. I walked for ten minutes or so before seeing this. I saw hundreds of colorful bags framing this man that was reading behind the counter, it was perfect for what I wanted. I snapped this and was on my way.

This was the taken the same morning as the last. I was still looking for a colorful subject with contrast against a dark colored wall. I saw the red against the black and grays then approached this man. He was very compliant and didn’t mind me taking his photo at all.

While in Turkey, my family wanted to see the Seven Churches of Revelation. We rented a car and drove all over Turkey seeing these churches. We had just finished seeing one of the churches before this photo was taken and we were loading back into our car. Everyone was packed in to the car and I was looking for a photo outside of the car (as I always am). This man popped out of his home for a smoke. I politely asked if I could take his photo, he was happy to say yes. I took four or five photos and didn’t get anything good really. My mom yelled at me from the car saying, “Come on Kole!!!” This got a big ole’ smile out of him. I raised my camera to my face and captured the moment forever. This was such a happy way to end my project.

You can view more of Kole’s photography via his Instagram account and Facebook page.

How untouched? There are no banks or ATMs on the island.

Like typical Thai islands, it is a mix of beautiful beaches and luscious jungle. The group I was with stopped at a fishing village, and I found it to be very interesting. It gives you a great insight into the local culture and a way to see how a different group of Thai live. The experience added a level of diversity I found intriguing, and I wish that I both spoke Thai and had time to just sit and observe.

Sometimes I prefer the lazy American way of serving shrimp

Typical public transportation on the island

Battery Life

Obviously, I had concerns about a Bluetooth device which is always connected and what the battery life would look like, as well as what kind of drain it would put on my phone. However, a recent firmware upgrade gives the Up24 a battery life of about 14 days (the Up has about 9 days). In addition to the extra battery life for the device, I haven’t noticed a faster drain on my phone’s battery.

Bluetooth advantage of the Jawbone Up24

After using the Up, which has to be physically plugged into the phone to sync data, I quickly saw the attraction of the Up24’s constant connection.

• I can get push notifications during the day showing my progress. I have it set to notify me every 2000 steps. It helps me be a bit more motivated when I can tell I’m getting close to my goal, or knowing that I have a ways to go. With the Up, I didn’t know the status until I plugged the band into my phone.
• Instead of using the different button techniques to switch modes on the device (for example, press the button twice and then hold on the 3rd press for a power nap), I can use the app on my phone to put my device into the power nap, sleep, or workout mode. It’s especially nice for the power nap feature which requires more button pushing. Yeah, it isn’t that hard to use the device button to switch modes, but the app takes guess/memory work out of it.
• Any time you open the app it syncs the data so you’re getting a fresh update. I especially like being able to fairly instantly be able to tell how many steps I’ve taken and how far away from my goal I am. Without the Bluetooth connection, you have to remove the cap and hope you don’t misplace it, connect the device to your phone, and launch the app to get an update.
• In the morning, when I take my device out of sleep mode, I instantly get a push notification letting me know how much sleep I received.
• You can also set a reminder to go off at a specific time of day. When the alert triggers, the band vibrates, and you get a push notification on your phone. It’s pretty handy.

Final Verdict

I’ve had the Jawbone Up24 for over a month now, and I definitely feel like it’s worth the extra money. The biggest advantage is being able to quickly look at my activity without having to remove the band. It’s really helped to get me up and moving.

There is a new Jawbone device (Up3) that became available earlier this year. It offers morning heart rate monitoring currently, but because of its sensors and planned software updates in the future, it is supposed to be able to monitor your heart rate throughout the day as well as hydration levels and so on. The full functionality isn’t planned to be in force until 2016. I’m a bit dubious about the comfort of the device based on photos I’ve seen.

For now, I’d say get the Up24.

As a side note, I want to applaud Jawbone’s customer service. When the firmware update became available to double the device’s battery life per charge, I had problems getting my device to upgrade. I emailed their support address and received a response requesting my phone number. A rep phoned me the next day to try to troubleshoot. We did a couple of things, and they decided the band needed to be replaced. When it looked like the shipment date was cutting it too close to our departure overseas, the rep received approval for 48-hour shipping. They included a postage-paid mailer for me to use to return the original band. Major kudos!

Are you using a similar fitness tracker to monitor your activity and sleep? Do you feel like they help you?

Then I began traveling long term.

I take some medications chronically, so I’ve had to refill them as we’ve traveled. For the most part, it’s been extremely simple. I only had issues in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand with getting my medications without a prescription.

The costs of these medicines have been amazing. In the US, a 30-day supply of my antihypertensive (for high blood pressure) cost $170 before insurance. My insurance copay was $50. In most of the countries we’ve visited, this same pill has cost as low as $10 for a 2-month supply.

When looking at getting medications, a fellow traveler figured out she could fly to Mexico and back and get a year’s supply of her medications more cheaply than buying them in the US.

One of the times we were in Thailand, my body decided to get rid of a rather large fragment left over from blasting my kidney stone with a laser. I was able to walk into a pharmacy and walk out with the antibiotic I knew I needed, a medication to help increase urine flow, and a narcotic to reduce the pain. All without a prescription.

In addition to medications that can be quite expensive in the US, there are some treatments, such as medicinal CBD oil, that have shown amazing promise but are often not approved for legal use in a country or in most regions.

I’ve shared before how I spent the night in an emergency room in Australia, received medication, had blood draws, had a couple of minor procedures, was cared for primarily by the doctor, and also was treated by a specialist all for $220 USD.

Thailand has so many visitors to the country specially for medical tourism that they have a website and division dedicated to it.

Then there are the stories like the man who discovered his hip replacement surgery would cost about $78,000 in the US, but he could travel to Belgium, have the procedure, rehab, cover the flights, etc., for $13,000. That’s a huge difference.

What about quality of care? Well, you might be surprised to discover that many countries are rated much higher than the US for medical care. The son of one of our friends needed surgery in Hong Kong, and she found the conditions and quality to be even better than those in the UK.

I’ve heard from many people who have had procedures done overseas, and they all share similar positive stories.

So, if you needed another excuse to travel. . .

What has your experience been with health care in foreign countries?