How To

Dos & Don'ts of Airport Wear

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Sometimes my travel faux pas turn into teachable moments. This is one of those times.

But first, some questions to set the mood: When you're about to take a flight, do you think about the overall impact of the items you're wearing? How long will it take to partially disrobe before security---think jacket, scarf, sweater, shoes---and do your pants have too many zippers? And will those pants be comfortable on a six-hour flight?

A few weeks ago I traveled to BC's Wine Country, and in a Speedy Gonzales packing session, I planned my outfit based on fashion, not function.

On the way there, the culprit was a brown leather belt connected by metal bobbles. True, I could have removed it in line, but I forgot, so I took 1.5 mins to weave it out of my belt loops while everyone in the security line behind me grunted with frustration. On the way back, the culprit was a dark jean shirt with 12 metal snaps. As I was about to walk through the metal detector I sighed, knowing I'd made the wrong shirt choice. As expected, the beep called out my shirt {and 6 am outfit choice} and a touchy-feely body search ensued.

It had been about a month and a half since I'd been on a plane and my airport skills were rusty. Don't make the same mistake I did; airport attire is one of your most important packing decisions because you have to sit with your choice while traveling to the airport, going through security, waiting for your flight, putting a bag in the overhead bin and sitting for however many hours in your seat.

Good Airport Wear
- loose tops and blazers and jackets
- pants with some sort of give
- skirts
- a scarf/pashmina for warmth
- flats

Bad Airport Wear
- zippered anything
- snaps
- metal
- jewelry
- crocs or uggs
- juicy couture-like tracksuits

More Travel Fashion
Runway Style
Travel Staple :: The White Shirt
Like a Virgin
Celeb Travel Must-Haves
Airport Style

[graphic by @tripstyler with photos sourced online]

Pro Tips For WOW Vacation Photography

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Kirsten Alana {left} is a traveler, writer, and photographer on a quest to experience life to the fullest, and capture it behind the lens. When she's not snapping cityscapes in her home base of NYC, she speaks all over the world about travel photography and iPhoneography. Basically, if you want the 411 on how to photograph a landscape, dish, or subject, she's your gal, and was kind enough to share a few of her pro tips for taking WOWZA vacation photography! Knowing a lot of people are about to leave for fall getaways or are thinking about a winter escape, I thought today would be the perfect time for some vaca-tography 101 {which I'm definitely using while currently in Maui}. By the way, if you're on instagram, her photos make your eyes pop out cartoon-style they're so good...

1/ Your top three tips for shooting landscape photos? * If it is black and white, make it dynamic and high contrast. Seek to emulate Ansel Adams. You can get away with the whole scene being in focus {shooting at f/11 or even f/22}.

* If you want to capture a place in color, look for a way to give the scene depth, placing some part of your scene that is in the foreground in sharper focus than whatever is in the distance/background. For some reason, depth becomes far more important in color landscape images than in black and white, and is more appealing to the human eye when constructed in this way.

* Include a dynamic sky! The worst thing you can do is have an entirely flat, white sky in a landscape photograph. Fog is different of course, but images with no clouds have nothing to distinguish the sky as an important part of the composition {and usually fall flat}. A stunning sky can set the tone, communicate the weather, give a sense of place---even be the most important part of a photograph.

2/ Snapping people - how do you add depth and interest to the shot? I've studied Steve McCurry's work---think multiple National Geographic covers--- for a long time and I try to learn from the images of his that I really love. He adds a sense of place to his best images, making it more about WHO the person is than what they look like. Also, my best portraits have been of the people that I know at least on some level. Even when I was a full-time wedding photographer, my best portraits were of the clients who I had been able to know as friends. I attributed that to the fact that I was familiar enough to know them and then be able to express the best version of who I knew in a photograph because of that knowledge.

3/ Can you depend on your iPhone {or Smartphone} for wow-factor travel photos? Yes! That being said, not out of the box. You have to take the time to learn a smartphone just like you would a point-n-shoot or dSLR camera. Few people can get the most out of any device right away. A smartphone is a complex tool just like any camera. * To get WOW, you have to work for it and use your tool to its greatest advantage. * A beautiful image is created by the photographer, their skill and their imagination, it's not created by the device---only captured by it. There's a big difference!

4/ You shoot a lot with your iPhone. What are your fave photo apps? Currently, I'm really digging Hipstamatic again, I've discovered a love for VSCO CAM, my old standby Camera+ and I like Instagram for sharing but not as much for its filters. Additionally, I often use: * ProHDR * Filterstorm * Over * Diptic * moreBeaute2 * AutoStitch

5/ Snapping food, your bite-sized tips? * My golden rule is always use natural light. Food looks most appetizing captured this way. A steak lit by dramatic, high-contrast, noir style or candlelight does not usually look super appealing---and that's coming from a steak and potatoes kind of girl! * I like to think of breakfast or lunchtime as the meals that I photograph before eating and dinner is the meal I simply enjoy. * Also, if you're using an iPhone like I do, the Hipstamatic Foodie Snap pack is simply delightful.

6/ Going through hundreds of snaps at the end of a trip, are there any tricks {aside from using your gut} to decide what photos to feature? Think about building a framework for the story you want to tell, whether that's in a blog post, an album or a slideshow for your friends and family. Use a variety of images: detail shots, wide shots, maybe an image of you in the place or portraits of people you were with. A well rounded group of photographs has little repetition and a lot of variety. You shouldn't show, or even always keep, every photograph you take.

[photos by @kirstenalana]

You = Greener At Hotels

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Green: environmental friendliness through the efficient use of energy, water and materials

Hotels, resorts and cruise ships know they are putting a huge strain on natural resources, but it takes two to tango. Looking inward, we are the ones traveling, so how can WE be green at hotels?

At home, many of us keep the environment in mind turning lights off, using natural heating/cooling {when we can} and limiting water use, yet when we're staying at hotels we quickly forget our regular energy-saving techniques in lieu of vacation. Why should a holiday put more strain on Mother Earth?

A few weeks ago, I caught myself unknowingly doing the I'm-on-vacation-so-why-should-I-care-about-the-earth-thing when leaving my room at the Metropolitan Hotel in Vancouver. As I was closing the door, I realized I'd left every single light on, so I quickly ran in and turned off all the switches. I know this isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of life, but if everyone is wasting a little {plus taking 20-minute showers and requesting new linens daily}, every action adds up a lot.

Because we can't all stay at zero-waste retreats all the time, here's a few VERY SIMPLE techniques for being your own ecotourist at hotels:

  • Let housekeeping know that you don't need them to replace your sheets and towels every day; this will reduce energy AND water usage. Simple solution: don't leave towels on the ground {indicating they need to be changed}, or opt out of daily housekeeping.
  • Turn off the lights, air conditioner/heater and the electronics in your room while you're out. Even when I'm in tropics I turn off the a/c when I'm gone, opening windows and doors when I return.
  • Turn off the water when you brush your teeth, and take a shorter showers.
  • BYO toiletries, or if you use what the hotel provides, make sure to take what's leftover home. Think how many little soaps are being thrown out, and the millions of petite plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles created. Plus, hotels always give you two soaps, so who needs two soaps and a shower gel???
  • If the hotel doesn't have a recycling program, try to find a bin close by for take-out containers and water bottles.
  • Take advantage of free bicycle programs.

Do you use other green techniques at hotels?

[images sourced online]

Miles :: To Free Or Not To Free

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At TS, we love using "strategery" {as George W once said} to choose when and where to redeem the air miles we accumulate flying around the world toward free travel, but there's an art {and science} to air miles redemption.

How To Calculate The Value Of An Airline Award Ticket The generally excepted miles-versus-dollars calculation {according to Travel+Leisure} is "use the 1.4-cents-per-mile rule to calculate the value of an award ticket. If the cash price is considerably cheaper than the award ticket calculation, save your miles. For example, if a flight will cost you $300 cash or 50,000 points, you'll get more value paying cash as 50,000 points equals approx $700."  Here are some examples of my recent travel that will help provide miles-versus-dollars insight:

When It Makes "Cents" To Use Airline Miles
  • Colorado/Spring 2012: used 25,000 Aeroplan miles instead of booking a $1,100 ticket
  • ABC Islands/Fall 2011: used 25,000 American Airlines miles, instead of booking a $1,000 ticket
  • Eastern Canada/Summer 2010: used 25,000 Aeroplan air miles, instead of booking a multi-city $1,500+ ticket

When It DOESN'T Make "Cents" To Use Airline Miles Thailand/Spring 2012: I didn't use air miles because I got a business class fare on a super sale, tilting the scale in favor of a cash purchase. To add value, I chose a carrier that would add to my American Airlines miles accumulation efforts. Not only did I fly business class for a heavily discounted rated, but got 22,000 AA miles in return---just 3,000 short of getting from Vancouver to Aruba AND achieving elite status. Win!

Saving Points {Dream Trip Anyone?} Looking ahead, like any wonderstruck world traveler, I'm pining for a trip to the Maldives, saving my Alaska airline miles to get there. On business class {hey, it's a long flight!} the trip costs $9,180 from Seattle on Emirates {it's $14,000 from Vancouver!}, or 115,000 miles. The points trump the cash purchase because any ticket costing more than $1,610 {115,000 miles x 0.014} is good value.

Are you saving your air miles for a Maldives-esque dream trip? Do you use air miles when it makes sense, or all the time?

More 'Free Travel' Tips The Six-Week Rule {When to buy airline tix} Free Travel 102 Free Travel 101 Going The Distance With Your Air Miles

[photo by wallpaperswide.com, text overlay @tripstyler]

Travel App :: Send A Postcard

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When I was little, buying 10 postcards was much more fun than waiting for my shoddy photos to develop at the camera store. Once home, I'd stick them in my scrapbook along with leaves, museum ticket stubs, candy wrappers {read: the candy on the trip was as important as the trip itself} and other mementos from the trip. I bought my last postcard in Paris ten years ago {and consequently made my last scrapbook} when I conquered the Arrondissements and Tour Eiffel solo.

Now, there's an app for that.

Sending A Digital Postcard I used the Postino iPhone App {free, and available on other smartphone platforms too} to create and pen the above postcard about my recent trip to Montreal. After a two-min process of selecting the photo from my iPhone's photo library and writing the text, I entered an email address and hit send. In a few minutes, mommy and daddy dearest had a postcard from their gallivanting gal waiting in their inbox. Sure, most of us just email or iMessage vacation photos from our photo gallery, but I like the idea of sending something a little more stylized and formal. >If you want a postcard app that's a bit more sleek and customizable than the above example, try fCards {$0.99}.

Turning A Digital Photo Into A Physical Postcard If your Grandpa isn't email savvy and still wants the 411 on your trip, no problemo, both above-mentioned apps can also convert your digital postcard into a physical postcard, and send it via mail {for a small S&H fee}.

More Travel Tech Create A Travel-Themed Pillow From Your Instagram Photos Hotel Tonight Adds Canada Eh Pic Frames {aka – photo collages} Tingo “Money Back” Hotel Search ‘n Book Instagram For Android How To Make Animated Travel Photos Phoneography Google Traveler Tricks

[photo by @magabout // postcard created by @tripstyler using Postino]