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General Discussion / Re: Documenting my maiden TransAm voyage - Suggestions?
« on: February 02, 2024, 06:48:26 am »
Like touring, recording a tour is a very personal experience.
Personally, I'm strongly in the camp of keeping a record. For my first few bike adventures I didn't and after even a small amount of time the days, experiences and feelings start to merge together. A bit of discipline to record the special moments has a long term payoff. But like a lot of things one thing affects another.
I invested in a "good" camera and ended up giving it away! It was such a faff to stop, unpack it, take the photo, repack it that I found myself assessing every shot and often deciding it wasn't worth the effort. Probably heresy for a pro! :-) It also took up a lot of space.
I have found a practical point and shoot backed up with my cheapy, Android phone more than enough. I sometimes look enviously at other shots with professional standards taken on pro equipment - but I console myself that carrying such gear would have altered my trip.
(Google is great for adding a location to a photo. With a non gps enabled camera, taking one photo with my phone to supplement the camera means that locating that photo later is easier).
I'm not a fan of drone shots, although I can think of a handful of Youtubers that I do enjoy. However, I'm pretty convinced that the process of taking such footage (as well as the requirements to recharge and manage the footage) would significantly alter my trip. I'm on my bike to travel first, recording it is secondary. If the recording alters the travelling then I'm no longer doing what I set out to do.
I'm a huge fan of the written word (maybe because my pictures are so poor! :-) ) and I will frequently stop to scribble down some words on the notes app on my phone. (I'll write them up later). In particularly special places I might even make myself comfortable and write "properly". That way I'm maximising my time in that place and making a memorable record of it. A simple cheat is to utilise the voice memo feature on my phone. I used to have voice memos of special places that I encountered, or snapshots of the "environmental noise". Fabulous records to keep. I used to have a recording of me babbling excitedly in the pitch darkness on the Natchez Trace. The excitement and wonder in my voice was a joy.
I kept a daily Travelogue on a UK site for (what turned out to be) a three year trip entirely from my phone. It was a labour of love that I was determined to keep. Most of the time I enjoyed it, sometimes it was a chore and a few times the comments were a real filip when times were tough. I used Facebook as a "proof of life" kind of thing. It was quicker and easier to post something most days and it proved a great way of connecting with people that I met along the way. I'm not usually a Facebook user.
However, for security reasons, I was always careful never to reveal my exact location in real time and all my posts were referring to a day or two in the past. That may be overkill for your route.
Sometimes, internet was non-existent or too slow so postings happened for 2,3,4 days at a time - they were all ready to go on my phone.
I found the process to be wonderful. Every day, at the end of the day I got to relive the day, look at the photos, sometimes listen to the sounds. For good days it was a great feeling and for the less enjoyable days it was an opportunity to put things into perspective, go to sleep and start afresh the next morning. If I never posted a thing publicly, that process alone was worth all the effort.
The suggestion to go out for a day or two with the idea of doing what you intend to do on the "real tour" is excellent. As a solo traveller I often had plenty of time to write up my daily notes. At other times writing up the notes would mean sacrificing the experience so they got postponed. When typing wasn't possible a voice recording worked a treat. I'd imagine people travelling with another may have different priorities. I tested out my Travelogue process on a week long mini adventure to make sure it would work.
It all comes down to you and what you want to achieve. However, to publish or not, keeping a record of what matters to us is a really, really good thing to do.
P.S. I used to be highly critical of silly errors in journals - until I did one live! Dealing with different languages, sometimes cold, sometimes sweaty fingers, often tired, sometimes stressed all lead to little errors. To me, they're a descriptive part of the story.
Best of luck to you!
Personally, I'm strongly in the camp of keeping a record. For my first few bike adventures I didn't and after even a small amount of time the days, experiences and feelings start to merge together. A bit of discipline to record the special moments has a long term payoff. But like a lot of things one thing affects another.
I invested in a "good" camera and ended up giving it away! It was such a faff to stop, unpack it, take the photo, repack it that I found myself assessing every shot and often deciding it wasn't worth the effort. Probably heresy for a pro! :-) It also took up a lot of space.
I have found a practical point and shoot backed up with my cheapy, Android phone more than enough. I sometimes look enviously at other shots with professional standards taken on pro equipment - but I console myself that carrying such gear would have altered my trip.
(Google is great for adding a location to a photo. With a non gps enabled camera, taking one photo with my phone to supplement the camera means that locating that photo later is easier).
I'm not a fan of drone shots, although I can think of a handful of Youtubers that I do enjoy. However, I'm pretty convinced that the process of taking such footage (as well as the requirements to recharge and manage the footage) would significantly alter my trip. I'm on my bike to travel first, recording it is secondary. If the recording alters the travelling then I'm no longer doing what I set out to do.
I'm a huge fan of the written word (maybe because my pictures are so poor! :-) ) and I will frequently stop to scribble down some words on the notes app on my phone. (I'll write them up later). In particularly special places I might even make myself comfortable and write "properly". That way I'm maximising my time in that place and making a memorable record of it. A simple cheat is to utilise the voice memo feature on my phone. I used to have voice memos of special places that I encountered, or snapshots of the "environmental noise". Fabulous records to keep. I used to have a recording of me babbling excitedly in the pitch darkness on the Natchez Trace. The excitement and wonder in my voice was a joy.
I kept a daily Travelogue on a UK site for (what turned out to be) a three year trip entirely from my phone. It was a labour of love that I was determined to keep. Most of the time I enjoyed it, sometimes it was a chore and a few times the comments were a real filip when times were tough. I used Facebook as a "proof of life" kind of thing. It was quicker and easier to post something most days and it proved a great way of connecting with people that I met along the way. I'm not usually a Facebook user.
However, for security reasons, I was always careful never to reveal my exact location in real time and all my posts were referring to a day or two in the past. That may be overkill for your route.
Sometimes, internet was non-existent or too slow so postings happened for 2,3,4 days at a time - they were all ready to go on my phone.
I found the process to be wonderful. Every day, at the end of the day I got to relive the day, look at the photos, sometimes listen to the sounds. For good days it was a great feeling and for the less enjoyable days it was an opportunity to put things into perspective, go to sleep and start afresh the next morning. If I never posted a thing publicly, that process alone was worth all the effort.
The suggestion to go out for a day or two with the idea of doing what you intend to do on the "real tour" is excellent. As a solo traveller I often had plenty of time to write up my daily notes. At other times writing up the notes would mean sacrificing the experience so they got postponed. When typing wasn't possible a voice recording worked a treat. I'd imagine people travelling with another may have different priorities. I tested out my Travelogue process on a week long mini adventure to make sure it would work.
It all comes down to you and what you want to achieve. However, to publish or not, keeping a record of what matters to us is a really, really good thing to do.
P.S. I used to be highly critical of silly errors in journals - until I did one live! Dealing with different languages, sometimes cold, sometimes sweaty fingers, often tired, sometimes stressed all lead to little errors. To me, they're a descriptive part of the story.
Best of luck to you!
