How to Travel Switzerland on a Budget

Switzerland conjures up many images. On one side, there are majestic mountains, delicious fondue and chocolate, big banks sheltering people’s money, precision watches, and an orderly society. On the other, heart attack–inducing prices: $8 USD coffee or beer?! $50 steaks?! A $15 menu at McDonald’s?! $35-40 hostel beds?! WTH!

Switzerland is rated the most expensive country in the world to visit, with Geneva and Zurich being two of the ten most expensive cities to live in.

And because it is so expensive, it’s easy to see why so many people skip over the country and wait until they are older and (hopefully) wealthier. When I mentioned I was visiting Switzerland on a budget, many people shook their head and wished me good luck with a “poor soul to think he can do that” expression.

I’ll admit I was worried. While I’ve found that not all “expensive” destinations need to be tough on the wallet (though some are unavoidably expensive), Switzerland seemed daunting, having a strong currency and high taxes, and being a mecca for rich banks, international organizations, wealthy residents, and tax shelterers.

Switzerland will never be a “dirt cheap” country to visit, where travelers can visit on just a few dollars a day, but I found to my surprise that it’s possible to travel the country on relatively light budget. It’s hard but doable!

How much I spent
Here’s how much my eight-day trip through Switzerland (Zurich, Bern, Geneva, and Interlaken) cost (in Swiss francs (CHF), which are worth $1.03 USD):

Food: 105.75
Accommodation: 171.36
Transportation: 222.30
Metro: 17.40
Alcohol: 66.90
Attractions: 30
Total: 613.71 (or 76.71 CHF per day)

Overall, I did a good job of keeping my costs around $79 USD per day. Granted, it was a lot of work. I relied heavily on the sharing economy (see below) and cooking my own food. Being able to hike and visit free attractions also helped, though in wintertime when you have to pay to ski, this might not be the case. Having spent a few days in Zurich in the past, I didn’t feel the need to eat out a lot (and I don’t drink coffee) so I was happy to eat my own food versus ordering expensive restaurant food. Alcohol cost a fair bit (11% of my budget) but there was no way I was going to Interlaken and not partying in the famous Balmers (also the only hostel I stayed in the entire time).

My biggest mistake was not paying attention to the fact I was flying in and out of Zurich. Since I went from Zurich to Geneva to Zurich, that meant I doubled back, costing me an extra 100 CHFin train tickets! This was such as stupid mistake, and I still kick myself for it. I mean, how could I miss such a simple thing?! If I had gone one way, I would have saved a substantial amount of money and significantly lowered my average spending. Always pay attention to your direction to save money on transportation. It’s hard and fast rule of mine and I completely messed up.

How YOU can travel Switzerland on a budget

I kept a lot of my costs down because I don’t participate in many adventure activities and visited the country when I could hike (a free activity). While I could have trimmed some expenses (gone in one direction, drank nothing, avoided that Starbucks in Geneva), I don’t believe that you should not do certain things simply for the sake of being cheap (Live a little, right?). Even if I had done ridesharing or Couchsurfing during my visit, I would have put extra savings into other activities. Be frugal, not cheap is my travel philosophy. So I think my budget was just right for the country.

Here are a few high-impact ways to save big money, still have fun, and avoid being wasteful:

Use Couchsurfing — With dorm rooms starting at $30-40 per night, you need to lower your accommodation costs. Couchsurfing is the way to do it. It’s a service that lets travelers stay with locals for free (more on it here). It was a lifesaver that allowed me to keep my costs down the most. Since a lot of travelers use this service, make your requests for hosts early. I put in 25 hosting requests in Geneva before I found someone to stay with!

Use BlaBlaCar — Transportation is very expensive, even more so than accommodation. Most intercity trains are around 50 CHF. That adds up too quickly! Instead, use the ride-sharing website BlaBlaCar to avoid the trains and meet locals. This website lets you rideshare with people, and though I only used it once, it saved me $50 and I met some cool French father and son team on their way to Germany (I got to practice my poor French):

A word of caution: be advised that many rides cancel. I had three rides cancel on me at the last minute (and one guy who just failed to even show up), so the service requires some flexibility. But when it works, it’s awesome. And it’s definitely something I want to use a lot more in Europe.

Use hotel points — Hotel reward points are a lifesaver in expensive destinations, where even hostels are expensive and the chance of getting a Couchsurfing host is small. Rack up a few hotel points by travel hacking before your trip and burn them while you stay in the country. Most hotel sign-up bonuses are around 60,000 points, which is worth about five nights at the chain hotels like Hilton, Marriott, or Starwood (just make sure you stay at their cheaper properties. Sorry, no W for you!).

Alternatively, Airbnb is also a good deal if you’re traveling with someone, as most private rooms are around $50 per night. Split two ways, that’s only $25 a person, much cheaper than a hostel dorm! (You can get $25 off your first Airbnb booking by using this link!)

Don’t drink — Drinking is not cheap here. Most beers are around 8 CHF. (Plus, who wants to hike while hung over?) Most wines are around 25 CHF a bottle. If you must drink, stick to hostel bars where you can enjoy 2-for-1 happy hours and cheap drinks for around 5 CHF.

Cook — With sit-down restaurants costing around 40 CHF per meal per person, eating out in Switzerland can be very costly, so buy your groceries. A week’s worth of food (bread, pasta, rice, eggs, vegetables, cheese, deli meats for sandwiches, and some assorted fruit) will cost you 75-100 CHF. The major supermarkets are Migros, COOP, and Spar. COOP is the most expensive.

Go Veggie — Meat is expensive in Switzerland. Every Swiss resident or expat I talked to told me about how they limit their meat consumption because it costs so much. Stick to veggies and avoid buying meat for your meals (especially beef). While I was trolling supermarkets and butchers for grocery prices (travel writing is glamorous, huh?!), I found a pound of meat was 12-14 CHF. At that price, stick to deli meats for protein!

Use lunch specials — If you are going to eat out, do so during lunch, when most lunch specials cost around 10-19 CHF. Moreover, stick to the ethnic restaurants like Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian, or Thai for the best deals and biggest portions (and closer to that 10 CHF price). Lunch specials are a great way to get a lot of bang for your buck and a way to enjoy the dinner menu but at a cheaper set menu price — this is the only way I eat when visiting countries as expensive as Switzerland. Cook breakfast, eat out lunch, cook dinner — you can’t go wrong!

Switzerland is an expensive country — there’s no doubt about it. I think the floor for what a backpacker/budget traveler should travel Switzerland on is around $75 USD. At the price point, you’d have enough money to do the basics, stay in some hostels, go out, and enjoy some adventure and outdoor activities. Anything cheaper would limit your ability to really enjoy what Switzerland has to offer.

But no matter your travel style or what you plan to do, following the tips above will allow you to travel Switzerland on a budget by cutting wasteful spending and focusing your hard-earned travel money on what you want — whether that’s museums, beer, adventure activities, or a pound of meat.

P.S. – I’m hosting an opening party at my new hostel in Austin, Texas! If you’re around, come join us for BBQ, music, travel, and drinks! Here’s the event information.

P.P.S – Two weeks ago, we launched a new fundraising campaign for the website’s educational foundation, FLYTE. If you are teacher, or know someone who is, and are interested in taking your students overseas on a fully funded trip, here’s how you can apply for our program! We’re accepting applications until October 15th. It doesn’t matter where in the country you are; we are open to schools in any location!

Editor’s Note: Visit Switzerland paid for my one-way flight from Zurich to NYC as well as reimbursed me for expenses. They provided no logistical support or had any input on how or where I went. I traveled the same way I would anywhere else.

The post How to Travel Switzerland on a Budget appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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How to Travel Switzerland on a Budget

Switzerland conjures up many images. On one side, there are majestic mountains, delicious fondue and chocolate, big banks sheltering people's money, precision watches, and an orderly society. On the other, heart attack–inducing prices: $8 USD coffee or beer?! $50 steaks?! A $15 menu at McDonald's?! $35-40 hostel beds?! WTH!

Switzerland is rated the most expensive country in the world to visit, with Geneva and Zurich being two of the ten most expensive cities to live in.

And because it is so expensive, it's easy to see why so many people skip over the country and wait until they are older and (hopefully) wealthier. When I mentioned I was visiting Switzerland on a budget, many people shook their head and wished me good luck with a "poor soul to think he can do that" expression.

I'll admit I was worried. While I've found that not all "expensive" destinations need to be tough on the wallet (though some are unavoidably expensive), Switzerland seemed daunting, having a strong currency and high taxes, and being a mecca for rich banks, international organizations, wealthy residents, and tax shelterers.

Switzerland will never be a "dirt cheap" country to visit, where travelers can visit on just a few dollars a day, but I found to my surprise that it's possible to travel the country on relatively light budget. It's hard but doable!

How much I spent
Here's how much my eight-day trip through Switzerland (Zurich, Bern, Geneva, and Interlaken) cost (in Swiss francs (CHF), which are worth $1.03 USD):

Food: 105.75
Accommodation: 171.36
Transportation: 222.30
Metro: 17.40
Alcohol: 66.90
Attractions: 30
Total: 613.71 (or 76.71 CHF per day)

Overall, I did a good job of keeping my costs around $79 USD per day. Granted, it was a lot of work. I relied heavily on the sharing economy (see below) and cooking my own food. Being able to hike and visit free attractions also helped, though in wintertime when you have to pay to ski, this might not be the case. Having spent a few days in Zurich in the past, I didn't feel the need to eat out a lot (and I don't drink coffee) so I was happy to eat my own food versus ordering expensive restaurant food. Alcohol cost a fair bit (11% of my budget) but there was no way I was going to Interlaken and not partying in the famous Balmers (also the only hostel I stayed in the entire time).

My biggest mistake was not paying attention to the fact I was flying in and out of Zurich. Since I went from Zurich to Geneva to Zurich, that meant I doubled back, costing me an extra 100 CHFin train tickets! This was such as stupid mistake, and I still kick myself for it. I mean, how could I miss such a simple thing?! If I had gone one way, I would have saved a substantial amount of money and significantly lowered my average spending. Always pay attention to your direction to save money on transportation. It's hard and fast rule of mine and I completely messed up.

How YOU can travel Switzerland on a budget

I kept a lot of my costs down because I don't participate in many adventure activities and visited the country when I could hike (a free activity). While I could have trimmed some expenses (gone in one direction, drank nothing, avoided that Starbucks in Geneva), I don't believe that you should not do certain things simply for the sake of being cheap (Live a little, right?). Even if I had done ridesharing or Couchsurfing during my visit, I would have put extra savings into other activities. Be frugal, not cheap is my travel philosophy. So I think my budget was just right for the country.

Here are a few high-impact ways to save big money, still have fun, and avoid being wasteful:

Use Couchsurfing — With dorm rooms starting at $30-40 per night, you need to lower your accommodation costs. Couchsurfing is the way to do it. It's a service that lets travelers stay with locals for free (more on it here). It was a lifesaver that allowed me to keep my costs down the most. Since a lot of travelers use this service, make your requests for hosts early. I put in 25 hosting requests in Geneva before I found someone to stay with!

Use BlaBlaCar — Transportation is very expensive, even more so than accommodation. Most intercity trains are around 50 CHF. That adds up too quickly! Instead, use the ride-sharing website BlaBlaCar to avoid the trains and meet locals. This website lets you rideshare with people, and though I only used it once, it saved me $50 and I met some cool French father and son team on their way to Germany (I got to practice my poor French):

A word of caution: be advised that many rides cancel. I had three rides cancel on me at the last minute (and one guy who just failed to even show up), so the service requires some flexibility. But when it works, it's awesome. And it's definitely something I want to use a lot more in Europe.

Use hotel points — Hotel reward points are a lifesaver in expensive destinations, where even hostels are expensive and the chance of getting a Couchsurfing host is small. Rack up a few hotel points by travel hacking before your trip and burn them while you stay in the country. Most hotel sign-up bonuses are around 60,000 points, which is worth about five nights at the chain hotels like Hilton, Marriott, or Starwood (just make sure you stay at their cheaper properties. Sorry, no W for you!).

Alternatively, Airbnb is also a good deal if you're traveling with someone, as most private rooms are around $50 per night. Split two ways, that's only $25 a person, much cheaper than a hostel dorm! (You can get $25 off your first Airbnb booking by using this link!)

Don't drink — Drinking is not cheap here. Most beers are around 8 CHF. (Plus, who wants to hike while hung over?) Most wines are around 25 CHF a bottle. If you must drink, stick to hostel bars where you can enjoy 2-for-1 happy hours and cheap drinks for around 5 CHF.

Cook — With sit-down restaurants costing around 40 CHF per meal per person, eating out in Switzerland can be very costly, so buy your groceries. A week's worth of food (bread, pasta, rice, eggs, vegetables, cheese, deli meats for sandwiches, and some assorted fruit) will cost you 75-100 CHF. The major supermarkets are Migros, COOP, and Spar. COOP is the most expensive.

Go Veggie — Meat is expensive in Switzerland. Every Swiss resident or expat I talked to told me about how they limit their meat consumption because it costs so much. Stick to veggies and avoid buying meat for your meals (especially beef). While I was trolling supermarkets and butchers for grocery prices (travel writing is glamorous, huh?!), I found a pound of meat was 12-14 CHF. At that price, stick to deli meats for protein!

Use lunch specials — If you are going to eat out, do so during lunch, when most lunch specials cost around 10-19 CHF. Moreover, stick to the ethnic restaurants like Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian, or Thai for the best deals and biggest portions (and closer to that 10 CHF price). Lunch specials are a great way to get a lot of bang for your buck and a way to enjoy the dinner menu but at a cheaper set menu price — this is the only way I eat when visiting countries as expensive as Switzerland. Cook breakfast, eat out lunch, cook dinner — you can't go wrong!

Switzerland is an expensive country — there's no doubt about it. I think the floor for what a backpacker/budget traveler should travel Switzerland on is around $75 USD. At the price point, you'd have enough money to do the basics, stay in some hostels, go out, and enjoy some adventure and outdoor activities. Anything cheaper would limit your ability to really enjoy what Switzerland has to offer.

But no matter your travel style or what you plan to do, following the tips above will allow you to travel Switzerland on a budget by cutting wasteful spending and focusing your hard-earned travel money on what you want — whether that's museums, beer, adventure activities, or a pound of meat.

P.S. – I'm hosting an opening party at my new hostel in Austin, Texas! If you're around, come join us for BBQ, music, travel, and drinks! Here's the event information.

P.P.S – Two weeks ago, we launched a new fundraising campaign for the website's educational foundation, FLYTE. If you are teacher, or know someone who is, and are interested in taking your students overseas on a fully funded trip, here's how you can apply for our program! We're accepting applications until October 15th. It doesn't matter where in the country you are; we are open to schools in any location!

Editor's Note: Visit Switzerland paid for my one-way flight from Zurich to NYC as well as reimbursed me for expenses. They provided no logistical support or had any input on how or where I went. I traveled the same way I would anywhere else.

The post How to Travel Switzerland on a Budget appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Nomadic Matt's Travel Site http://ift.tt/1LsZULH

3 Common Home Security Tips

Worrying about the safety of your home? Read on to learn about 3 common home security tips you can do to make your home a safer haven.

Securing Doors

• To help burglar-proof your home, install 1-inch throw deadbolt locks on all exterior doors.
• A door with too much space between the door and the frame is an invitation for the burglar to use a jimmy. Reinforce the door with a panel of 3/4-inch plywood or a piece of sheet metal.
• If there are door hinges on the outside of your house, take down the door and reset the hinges inside. Otherwise all a thief has to do to gain entry to your home is knock out the hinge pin.
• You can burglar-proof your glass patio doors by setting a pipe or metal bar in the middle bottom track of the door slide. The pipe should be the same length as the track. Source: com

Securing Windows

• Secure all accessible windows with secondary blocking devices
• Block accessible windows open no more than 6 inches for ventilation
• Make sure someone cannot reach through an open window and unlock the door
• Make sure someone cannot reach inside the window and remove the blocking device
• Use anti-lift devices to prevent window from being lifted out
• Use crime prevention or alarm decals on ground accessible windows  Source: CrimeDoctor.com

Appear like You're Home

Use lights on timers, or at least leave a few turned on. Consider leaving on a radio. If you are on vacation or away from home at night, there's a clever fake TV deterrent which will create an effective illusion that someone is home. Source: ModernSurvivalBlog.com

If you want to learn about different home security options, please give us a call or contact us here.

Contact:

Mr. Locksmith Calgary
555 Maidstone Drive NE
Calgary, Alberta T2A 4B6
Canada
Phone: (403) 800-9185

The post 3 Common Home Security Tips appeared first on Mr Locksmith Calgary.

from Mr Locksmith Calgary http://ift.tt/1M5XCB2

3 Common Home Security Tips

Worrying about the safety of your home? Read on to learn about 3 common home security tips you can do to make your home a safer haven.

Securing Doors

• To help burglar-proof your home, install 1-inch throw deadbolt locks on all exterior doors.
• A door with too much space between the door and the frame is an invitation for the burglar to use a jimmy. Reinforce the door with a panel of 3/4-inch plywood or a piece of sheet metal.
• If there are door hinges on the outside of your house, take down the door and reset the hinges inside. Otherwise all a thief has to do to gain entry to your home is knock out the hinge pin.
• You can burglar-proof your glass patio doors by setting a pipe or metal bar in the middle bottom track of the door slide. The pipe should be the same length as the track. Source: com

Securing Windows

• Secure all accessible windows with secondary blocking devices
• Block accessible windows open no more than 6 inches for ventilation
• Make sure someone cannot reach through an open window and unlock the door
• Make sure someone cannot reach inside the window and remove the blocking device
• Use anti-lift devices to prevent window from being lifted out
• Use crime prevention or alarm decals on ground accessible windows  Source: CrimeDoctor.com

Appear like You’re Home

Use lights on timers, or at least leave a few turned on. Consider leaving on a radio. If you are on vacation or away from home at night, there’s a clever fake TV deterrent which will create an effective illusion that someone is home. Source: ModernSurvivalBlog.com

If you want to learn about different home security options, please give us a call or contact us here.

Contact:

Mr. Locksmith Calgary
555 Maidstone Drive NE
Calgary, Alberta T2A 4B6
Canada
Phone: (403) 800-9185

The post 3 Common Home Security Tips appeared first on Mr Locksmith Calgary.

from Mr Locksmith Calgary http://ift.tt/1M5XCB2

How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe, continues his five part series on taking better travel photos. Photographs are an important part of the travel experience and with so many of you being budding photographers, Laurence’s series is here to help you improve your photography skills. We’ve gone a lot of the basics in this series so, in part four, Laurence is taking it up a notch to give some advanced photography techniques such as long exposure shots, HDR, star shooting, and more!

One of the challenges we face as travelers is that so many of the places we visit have already been photographed extensively. In today’s post, I want to share with you some techniques that will help you get more creative with your photography. These more advanced concepts build upon the ideas in the first three posts in this series.

(If this is your first time reading this series, do check out the other posts before diving in here. In the first, I focused on the basics of photography, including composition. The second post was on getting the best out of specific travel scenes. And the third post went into some detail on picking the right gear for your travels.)

I’m going to cover four topics today that will open up new creative possibilities for when you’re out and about.

Long-exposure photography

Have you ever seen a photo of a waterfall where the water looks white and fluffy? Or a shot of a street at night where the cars have been replaced by streaks of light? Here’s an example of a waterfall to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

This was shot in Glencoe, a stunning part of the Scottish highlands. As you can see, the water’s surface has a silky, flat look, and the waterfall itself looks more like cotton than water. Additionally, the clouds in the sky have a sense of motion.

Here’s another shot, of the Dubai Marina at night, where you can see the cars have been replaced by streaks of light:

Both of these shots were achieved using the same technique, long-exposure photography.

I talked a little about using shutter speed in post two of this series, and how too low a shutter speed can result in blurry images due your hand movement. Long-exposure photography is all about taking advantage of that blurry effect, but as a result of the objects in the scene instead.

You are going to need a tripod to make this work, as otherwise your images will be blurry everywhere rather than just where you want them to be.

The secret to long-exposure photography is to put your camera in either shutter-priority or manual mode, which will allow you to set how long the camera’s shutter is open for. This will be marked as “S,” “Tv,” or “T” mode on the mode dial if your camera has one. If you’re shooting using a smartphone, many recent models, such as the LG G4, also let you manually set the shutter speed via the camera app.

For waterfall shots, you’re looking at any shutter speed slower than 1/15 of a second. For traffic, it will depend on the speed of the traffic, but you’ll need to shoot at speeds slower than one second. Both of the long exposure shots I’ve shared above were shot with a 30-second exposure.

If you are shooting in daytime, you might need a neutral density filter in order to compensate for the amount of light available (see the photography gear post, the third in the series, for more information). If you’re shooting in manual mode, you’ll have to set the aperture to get the correct exposure. Try to avoid apertures higher than f/16 though, as they often result in lower-quality images.

Long-exposure photography will have you looking at the world and motion in new ways, and it opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Have fun with it!

Shooting the stars

When I travel, one of my favorite things is getting far away, to the middle of nowhere, and just looking up at the night sky. Away from the city lights, it’s is one of the most spectacular views available to us, and gazing up at it always helps me gain a sense of perspective.

Of course, once I’m done looking at it, I want to try and capture it as a photo. This isn’t as hard as you might think and, apart from a tripod, doesn’t need a great deal of expensive equipment to achieve. But shooting star trails does require more thinking than just pointing your camera at the sky and hitting the “expose” button.

There are two main types of star photography. First, you can do a long-exposure shot and turn the stars into streaks of light, like this:

This was a two-hour exposure I shot while camping in the Western Australian outback. Yes, two hours! (You need a lot of patience and a decent battery for long-exposure star photography.)

You can also do multiple long exposures lasting from 30 seconds to a minute, and then stack the resulting photos together using specialist software like this. This reduces the “noise” that super-long exposures are known for, as well as the risk of your battery going flat mid-shoot, but it does require more work afterward.

However, most cameras won’t let you shoot for longer than 30 seconds in manual mode. You have to switch to “BULB” mode, whereby the shutter button will stay open for as long as you hold the shutter down. Some cameras have this in manual mode rather than a dedicated BULB setting — check your camera manual to find out how your model of camera works.

You are unlikely to want to stand with your finger on the shutter button for two hours, but don’t worry, you have some options. The easiest is to invest in a remote release cable, which will let you “lock” the shutter button down for as long as you want. Alternatively, if you have a more modern camera with Wi-Fi built in, you might find that there is an app that lets you control the length of the exposure beyond 30 seconds.

Next, don’t forget composition. Just because you have moving stars in your shot doesn’t automatically make it a great shot! Think about using your foreground to give your viewers a sense of scale, either by including a person or an object in your photo.

Finally, consider the movement of the stars. The earth rotates from west to east, so if you want circular star trails, you’ll need to point your camera north or south. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, composing around the North Star (which remains stationary) is a good place to start.

The other type of star photo is where you capture the night sky without motion. This will likely still require a long exposure, but one that is not so long as to result in the stars blurring from motion. Around a 30-second exposure is the maximum before the motion of the stars from the earth’s rotation becomes apparent. Here’s a 30-second exposure of Venus setting in the Galápagos as an example:

The setup is very similar to star trail photography, in that you will need a tripod and will have to consider your composition. However, with only a 30-second exposure, you are going to need to increase the ISO on your camera to get as much light in as possible.

Modern cameras are capable of shooting at ISOs of 3200 and 6400 without introducing too much noise into the image. In addition, you’ll want to open your aperture as wide as possible — depth of field isn’t really a consideration when shooting the infinite! Open it as wide as it’ll go, preferably in manual mode.

In some ways these shots are easier because you’ll be able to see the results a lot more quickly. Here’s a shot of the stars over France:

The Milky Way is an excellent subject for static star photography — it’s a natural leading line, as you can see in the shot above. This was a 30-second exposure at ISO 6400 and f/4, shot on a Canon 6D in manual mode.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of basic star photography, you can start to be a little creative. At these exposures, even a little light can make a big difference, so you can try “painting” objects with light, by using a flashlight and shining it on objects near you.

Alternatively, find sources of illumination like a fire and compose around those, such as this shot taken at – 35 degrees in Finland, during a fruitless hunt for the northern lights. The possibilities are unlimited!

High dynamic range (HDR) photography

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your camera fails spectacularly to capture an image as your eyes see it? For example, the sky is too bright, or the shadows areas are too dark?

This is because our eyes have a much greater “dynamic range” than a camera has. Dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and lightest part of a scene that can be observed, and our eyes are able to resolve a much wider range in darkness and brightness than a camera can.

This is why you might end up with a shot that looks like this:

Or like this:

…when in reality — to your eyes — the scene looked more like this:

The problem is that cameras struggle to capture the full range of the exposure, from the dark shadows through to the bright highlights. Either the sky will be a white washout, or the landscape will be dark and unrecognizable.

The solution is a technique known as high dynamic range photography, or HDR. This simply requires you to take multiple photographs of the same scene at different exposures, and then put them together. This is also known as exposure blending.

If you have a relatively modern smartphone or camera, then it will probably have an HDR mode built in. The iPhone in particular has an excellent HDR mode. You can access this from the settings menu in your camera or smartphone menu. On a Canon camera for example, the menu is as follows:

Using your device in HDR mode is very simple, and it will do everything for you. Your device will take the necessary number of photos, align them if necessary, and then blend them together to give you a photo that looks more representative of the scene you saw.

The disadvantage of this is that you are leaving the camera to make all the decisions, and you won’t usually have the source images — you’ll just be presented with the final HDR image, and your camera will discard the interim files.

If you want more control over the final image, then you’ll need to set your camera to “bracket” the exposures for you. This will allow you to take a sequence of photos of different exposures just by holding the shutter down. To find this mode in your camera, look in the menu for auto exposure bracketing, or AEB.

Then you’ll have to use computer software to merge the images together into a single photo. There are a variety of software tools available to merge your images. I use Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix Pro, but there are many others out there.

Shooting multiple photos at once does mean you need either a very steady hand or — you guessed it— a tripod. If your hand moves between the shots, then the images will likely need to be aligned, which doesn’t always work perfectly. In addition, be aware of moving objects, as these can create odd ghost effects as the software tries to combine images.

HDR works best in largely static, high-contrast scenes, particularly landscapes where there isn’t much movement and the difference in brightness between the darkest and lightest parts of the scene is pronounced.

High-contrast scenes

Speaking of high-contrast scenes, don’t forget that you can use these to your advantage. You don’t have to use HDR; instead, you can use all that light to create wonderful silhouettes of your subjects.

This is a great way to get a different take on a subject, and used creatively can give you some standout images.

The shot above is a silhouette of a boat against two islands in the Seychelles. Shooting directly into the sun like this means that you are going to have to decide which area of the shot you want to correctly expose. If I had set up the shot so the boat was correctly exposed, the sky would have been a giant white mess as a result of the light from the sun.

I could, of course, have shot an HDR image, but in this case, a silhouette of the boat and two islands was a more attractive composition.

Other great subjects for silhouetting are people, trees…really, any object with a distinctive outline.

This sort of shooting will require a little practice, as the camera won’t know what sort of exposure you want. The joy of digital is that you can review a shot and try it again — particularly in a scene like this, where you have a bit of time to get the shot right before the sun sets. Be aware that your exposure meter might be indicating that you are over- or underexposing the scene.

The easiest way to get good results is to shoot in manual mode and set everything yourself. Keep the ISO rating as low as possible, and adjust your shutter speed and aperture according to the composition you want to achieve, considering depth of field and any long-exposure effects you might be trying to achieve.

I use all the above techniques on a regular basis when I’m out and about in the world, looking to put a fresh perspective on a familiar scene. Admittedly, these are individually complex subjects to tackle, and it will take time to master each of them, but the rewards are very much worth it.

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr.

The post How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques

Today, professional photographer Laurence Norah of Finding the Universe, continues his five part series on taking better travel photos. Photographs are an important part of the travel experience and with so many of you being budding photographers, Laurence's series is here to help you improve your photography skills. We've gone a lot of the basics in this series so, in part four, Laurence is taking it up a notch to give some advanced photography techniques such as long exposure shots, HDR, star shooting, and more!

One of the challenges we face as travelers is that so many of the places we visit have already been photographed extensively. In today's post, I want to share with you some techniques that will help you get more creative with your photography. These more advanced concepts build upon the ideas in the first three posts in this series.

(If this is your first time reading this series, do check out the other posts before diving in here. In the first, I focused on the basics of photography, including composition. The second post was on getting the best out of specific travel scenes. And the third post went into some detail on picking the right gear for your travels.)

I'm going to cover four topics today that will open up new creative possibilities for when you're out and about.

Long-exposure photography

Have you ever seen a photo of a waterfall where the water looks white and fluffy? Or a shot of a street at night where the cars have been replaced by streaks of light? Here's an example of a waterfall to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

This was shot in Glencoe, a stunning part of the Scottish highlands. As you can see, the water's surface has a silky, flat look, and the waterfall itself looks more like cotton than water. Additionally, the clouds in the sky have a sense of motion.

Here's another shot, of the Dubai Marina at night, where you can see the cars have been replaced by streaks of light:

Both of these shots were achieved using the same technique, long-exposure photography.

I talked a little about using shutter speed in post two of this series, and how too low a shutter speed can result in blurry images due your hand movement. Long-exposure photography is all about taking advantage of that blurry effect, but as a result of the objects in the scene instead.

You are going to need a tripod to make this work, as otherwise your images will be blurry everywhere rather than just where you want them to be.

The secret to long-exposure photography is to put your camera in either shutter-priority or manual mode, which will allow you to set how long the camera's shutter is open for. This will be marked as "S," "Tv," or "T" mode on the mode dial if your camera has one. If you're shooting using a smartphone, many recent models, such as the LG G4, also let you manually set the shutter speed via the camera app.

For waterfall shots, you're looking at any shutter speed slower than 1/15 of a second. For traffic, it will depend on the speed of the traffic, but you'll need to shoot at speeds slower than one second. Both of the long exposure shots I've shared above were shot with a 30-second exposure.

If you are shooting in daytime, you might need a neutral density filter in order to compensate for the amount of light available (see the photography gear post, the third in the series, for more information). If you're shooting in manual mode, you'll have to set the aperture to get the correct exposure. Try to avoid apertures higher than f/16 though, as they often result in lower-quality images.

Long-exposure photography will have you looking at the world and motion in new ways, and it opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Have fun with it!

Shooting the stars

When I travel, one of my favorite things is getting far away, to the middle of nowhere, and just looking up at the night sky. Away from the city lights, it's is one of the most spectacular views available to us, and gazing up at it always helps me gain a sense of perspective.

Of course, once I'm done looking at it, I want to try and capture it as a photo. This isn't as hard as you might think and, apart from a tripod, doesn't need a great deal of expensive equipment to achieve. But shooting star trails does require more thinking than just pointing your camera at the sky and hitting the "expose" button.

There are two main types of star photography. First, you can do a long-exposure shot and turn the stars into streaks of light, like this:

This was a two-hour exposure I shot while camping in the Western Australian outback. Yes, two hours! (You need a lot of patience and a decent battery for long-exposure star photography.)

You can also do multiple long exposures lasting from 30 seconds to a minute, and then stack the resulting photos together using specialist software like this. This reduces the "noise" that super-long exposures are known for, as well as the risk of your battery going flat mid-shoot, but it does require more work afterward.

However, most cameras won't let you shoot for longer than 30 seconds in manual mode. You have to switch to "BULB" mode, whereby the shutter button will stay open for as long as you hold the shutter down. Some cameras have this in manual mode rather than a dedicated BULB setting — check your camera manual to find out how your model of camera works.

You are unlikely to want to stand with your finger on the shutter button for two hours, but don't worry, you have some options. The easiest is to invest in a remote release cable, which will let you "lock" the shutter button down for as long as you want. Alternatively, if you have a more modern camera with Wi-Fi built in, you might find that there is an app that lets you control the length of the exposure beyond 30 seconds.

Next, don't forget composition. Just because you have moving stars in your shot doesn't automatically make it a great shot! Think about using your foreground to give your viewers a sense of scale, either by including a person or an object in your photo.

Finally, consider the movement of the stars. The earth rotates from west to east, so if you want circular star trails, you'll need to point your camera north or south. If you're in the northern hemisphere, composing around the North Star (which remains stationary) is a good place to start.

The other type of star photo is where you capture the night sky without motion. This will likely still require a long exposure, but one that is not so long as to result in the stars blurring from motion. Around a 30-second exposure is the maximum before the motion of the stars from the earth's rotation becomes apparent. Here's a 30-second exposure of Venus setting in the Galápagos as an example:

The setup is very similar to star trail photography, in that you will need a tripod and will have to consider your composition. However, with only a 30-second exposure, you are going to need to increase the ISO on your camera to get as much light in as possible.

Modern cameras are capable of shooting at ISOs of 3200 and 6400 without introducing too much noise into the image. In addition, you'll want to open your aperture as wide as possible — depth of field isn't really a consideration when shooting the infinite! Open it as wide as it'll go, preferably in manual mode.

In some ways these shots are easier because you'll be able to see the results a lot more quickly. Here's a shot of the stars over France:

The Milky Way is an excellent subject for static star photography — it's a natural leading line, as you can see in the shot above. This was a 30-second exposure at ISO 6400 and f/4, shot on a Canon 6D in manual mode.

Once you've gotten the hang of basic star photography, you can start to be a little creative. At these exposures, even a little light can make a big difference, so you can try "painting" objects with light, by using a flashlight and shining it on objects near you.

Alternatively, find sources of illumination like a fire and compose around those, such as this shot taken at – 35 degrees in Finland, during a fruitless hunt for the northern lights. The possibilities are unlimited!

High dynamic range (HDR) photography

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your camera fails spectacularly to capture an image as your eyes see it? For example, the sky is too bright, or the shadows areas are too dark?

This is because our eyes have a much greater "dynamic range" than a camera has. Dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and lightest part of a scene that can be observed, and our eyes are able to resolve a much wider range in darkness and brightness than a camera can.

This is why you might end up with a shot that looks like this:

Or like this:

…when in reality — to your eyes — the scene looked more like this:

The problem is that cameras struggle to capture the full range of the exposure, from the dark shadows through to the bright highlights. Either the sky will be a white washout, or the landscape will be dark and unrecognizable.

The solution is a technique known as high dynamic range photography, or HDR. This simply requires you to take multiple photographs of the same scene at different exposures, and then put them together. This is also known as exposure blending.

If you have a relatively modern smartphone or camera, then it will probably have an HDR mode built in. The iPhone in particular has an excellent HDR mode. You can access this from the settings menu in your camera or smartphone menu. On a Canon camera for example, the menu is as follows:

Using your device in HDR mode is very simple, and it will do everything for you. Your device will take the necessary number of photos, align them if necessary, and then blend them together to give you a photo that looks more representative of the scene you saw.

The disadvantage of this is that you are leaving the camera to make all the decisions, and you won't usually have the source images — you'll just be presented with the final HDR image, and your camera will discard the interim files.

If you want more control over the final image, then you'll need to set your camera to "bracket" the exposures for you. This will allow you to take a sequence of photos of different exposures just by holding the shutter down. To find this mode in your camera, look in the menu for auto exposure bracketing, or AEB.

Then you'll have to use computer software to merge the images together into a single photo. There are a variety of software tools available to merge your images. I use Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix Pro, but there are many others out there.

Shooting multiple photos at once does mean you need either a very steady hand or — you guessed it— a tripod. If your hand moves between the shots, then the images will likely need to be aligned, which doesn't always work perfectly. In addition, be aware of moving objects, as these can create odd ghost effects as the software tries to combine images.

HDR works best in largely static, high-contrast scenes, particularly landscapes where there isn't much movement and the difference in brightness between the darkest and lightest parts of the scene is pronounced.

High-contrast scenes

Speaking of high-contrast scenes, don't forget that you can use these to your advantage. You don't have to use HDR; instead, you can use all that light to create wonderful silhouettes of your subjects.

This is a great way to get a different take on a subject, and used creatively can give you some standout images.

The shot above is a silhouette of a boat against two islands in the Seychelles. Shooting directly into the sun like this means that you are going to have to decide which area of the shot you want to correctly expose. If I had set up the shot so the boat was correctly exposed, the sky would have been a giant white mess as a result of the light from the sun.

I could, of course, have shot an HDR image, but in this case, a silhouette of the boat and two islands was a more attractive composition.

Other great subjects for silhouetting are people, trees…really, any object with a distinctive outline.

This sort of shooting will require a little practice, as the camera won't know what sort of exposure you want. The joy of digital is that you can review a shot and try it again — particularly in a scene like this, where you have a bit of time to get the shot right before the sun sets. Be aware that your exposure meter might be indicating that you are over- or underexposing the scene.

The easiest way to get good results is to shoot in manual mode and set everything yourself. Keep the ISO rating as low as possible, and adjust your shutter speed and aperture according to the composition you want to achieve, considering depth of field and any long-exposure effects you might be trying to achieve.

I use all the above techniques on a regular basis when I'm out and about in the world, looking to put a fresh perspective on a familiar scene. Admittedly, these are individually complex subjects to tackle, and it will take time to master each of them, but the rewards are very much worth it.

Laurence started his journey in June 2009 after quitting the corporate life and looking for a change of scenery. His blog, Finding the Universe, catalogs his experiences and is a wonderful resource for photography advice! You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr.

The post How to Take the Perfect Photo: Advanced Techniques appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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Dash Cams to Improve Road Safety

A small camera on your dashboard can cut your insurance and help you prove that a crash wasn’t your fault, as well as helping you prosecute the fraudulent and dangerous drivers.

Dash cameras are not as popular in Western Europe as they are in Russia. In fact, the majority of the famous Chelyabinsk meteorite videos in 2013 were filmed with dash cameras.



Nonetheless, there are more benefits to dash cameras than filming strange occurrences on the road. While young drivers get a black box to track their driving and lower their insurance costs, the really smart drivers, on the other hand, get dashboard cameras.

With a growing concern for insurance fraud and uninsured drivers on the road, people are becoming more careful when it comes to the actions of other road users. The number of drivers running away from accidents is increasing, leaving you with a crashed car and not only nobody to blame, but your no-claims bonus and low insurance premiums in tatters.

So what’s a dashboard camera?

It is a small video recorder, which clips to the front window of a car or a van. These cameras vary in their specs, but primarily they function in the same way that any CCTV camera does, by recording and storing data.

 While there are a host of cheap and simple dashboard cameras available on the market, companies like In Car Connections, sell advanced dashboard cameras that react to motion and sudden breaking.

Road Safety

While dash cams can be an expense, it is surely a worthy investment. Dash cameras record everything on the road, so if you get hit by a dangerous driver, there is no need to extensively argue to prove the true cause of the crash and pay the associated court fees. In addition, dash cameras can help other road users. While a lot of accidents go unreported, and numerous dangerous drivers escape fines, your video footage can help innocent drivers to find whoever injured them or damaged their vehicles.

Moreover, a lot of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists are captured by dashboard cameras. While cyclists involved in road accidents may not be quick-thinking enough make a note of a car's registration, you can surely help them out, by providing them with information or even the footage of their accident.



Prevent insurance fraud

Getting involved in a pedestrian accident is probably one of the worst fears of any driver. However, not all of those accidents are the fault of the driver. There are people crazy enough to run out into traffic to get hit by a driver in order to receive compensation.

Thankfully, having a dash camera will help to prove your innocence. Whether it is a pedestrian, or another driver trying to make a spurious whiplash claim.


Travel Safely Abroad

Important safety questions always arise when you are abroad. Not only surrounding local drivers potentially taking advantage of you on the road, but you may also have difficulties reporting accidents whilst you are abroad.

Thus, having a dash board camera can definitely improve your road safety abroad. So install a dash cam now and fight dodgy insurance claims. Your footage will help you to fight your corner against road traffic accidents and crash fraudsters, and help to lower your monthly insurance instalments. Improve your road safety, and help others improve theirs!





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