Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

Kreativ Blogger Award

I was recently honored that fellow writer and blogger Wendy Morrell chose me in her “top 7″ for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks, Wendy — I’d put your blog on my list too, if you hadn’t already won! So, here I am to pass on the honor to seven blogs I often read. But first, the RULES for those winners who choose to pass on the award:

1. Copy and paste the picture to your own blog.
2. Thank the person who gave you the award and post a link to their blog.
3. Write 7 things about yourself we do not know.
4. Choose 7 other bloggers to award.
5. Link to those 7 other bloggers.
6. Notify your 7 bloggers.

As this is a travel & photo blog, I’ll show seven things about myself pictorially…

I skydive, though it’s been a while since my last jump. This balloon jump at the World Freefall Convention was a memorable one.

Snowboarding is high in my winter priorities. Soelden, Austria rocks.

I’ve eaten ants in Suzhou, China. Yes, on purpose. In fact it was my suggestion…

I have a brother. Here we are in Joshua Tree, CA.

Sometimes I play bass guitar, and I’ve been known to sing. Skydive Orange, VA. Dedicated to my late friend Chris Santiago, the guitar player with the ‘fro on the right.

Once I was confused for Jose Cuervo, on Oct. 31st in Richmond, VA.

Weilheim, a town in Bavaria, hosts my favorite disc golf course in the world.

Now, for my recommendations, in roughly alphabetical order.  Just a short sentence about each:

• Christina at An American Expat in Deutschland has great photos and weekly German recipes… mmm!
• The infamous Headbang8 at Deutschland Über Elvis makes me laugh with every post, though there is a strict no-meme policy, as I recently read…
• Ian and Wendy are globe-trotters whose travels I one day hope to equal
• Jul at This non-American Life peppers in a lot of variety and humor into her expat blog
• Melissa’s Bookshelf hosts a variety of great book reviews and giveaways, and gives equal treatment to Print-On-Demand authors (which I really appreciate!)
• Only The Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy is an excellent book review blog that’s rife with German sayings as of late
• Regensblog with Cliff and Sarah has excellent travel articles, links to cheap travel deals, and tasty recipes

Sunset at Joshua Tree

In 2007 I visited Joshua Tree National Park in California with my brother to do some hiking.  Here’s one of my favorite photos from that trip, taken with a Casio Exilim pocket camera:

I hope this helps to put to rest the myth that one needs a fancy, expensive camera to take nice photos.  I have an even better sunset snap somewhere in the archives, taken with a 1.3MP Sony camera that I won in a contest in 2000.  Let’s see if I can dig it up… Yep, here you go,

Expensive D-SLR cameras are good for low light, for sports, and for cases where you need more zoom or more wide angle than a pocket camera provides.  D-SLR’s usually have a better flash, or the option of an accessory flash.  But in many cases a pocket camera is just as good, or even better (e.g. taking videos).  If you don’t have a camera with you because your D-SLR is too big, you will not get any photo at all… unless you count your (probably) fixed-focus cell phone camera.  Which I wouldn’t.