RFID Sleeve

Keeping Your Private Travel Materials Private

Posted on by Michael

There are three ways to look at the mindset of a reporter. It’s either the life of a professional pessimist, a cynic for hire or… and this is the way I chose to look at it, the continuing adventures of a Boy Scout. Don’t get me wrong, while I was in fact a Boy Scout – kerchief, socks, merit badges and all – I’m of course referring to the motto of being prepared.

You can be working on the most harmless story about how to avoid buying a Christmas tree worthy of a Charlie Brown holiday special, and that will be the day the Colorado branch of the DEA has the raw nerve to raid a secret marijuana farm east of Pueblo (granted, not a major priority today, but in 1998…), so you have to be prepared to Continue reading “Keeping Your Private Travel Materials Private” →

Guide Dog in Training
Guide Dog

Si Se Puede, Part II

Posted on by Michael

The life of a visual storyteller is based on one hard and fast rule: you write to the video you have, not the video you wish you had. Our unscheduled shoot at Guide Dogs of South Australia and the Northern Territories was a reminder that whether you’re the last reporter on the scene and the police are rolling up the crime scene tape or filming an around-the-world documentary about what it’s like to explore the world in the midst of losing your eyesight, the rule is the same.

Guide Dog

For this, I couldn’t be happier.

The challenges facing my shooting partner and I could hardly have been more daunting. We had been on the ground in Continue reading “Si Se Puede, Part II” →

Tarmac in early morning

Jettisoning Jet Lag

Posted on by Michael

Jet lag is the many headed hydra of both domestic and international travel. It can take over your trip in as little as two time zones, and it can eat away at either your business or your leisure travel. Jet lag, though, is a beast that can be tamed.

I live in San Francisco, but most of my family is on the other side of the United States, so finding ways to deal with jet lag has been a major preoccupation over the years. Additionally, as a reporter for more than a decade, and then a traveling producer after that, business can hardly be restricted to one time zone. Sometimes you have to be on a plane. A lot of sometimes, actually. Now, with a Continue reading “Jettisoning Jet Lag” →

adelaide+aerial
Adelaide, Australia
veale_ws
Veale Gardens
What the...?

Si Se Puede: Adelaide Part I

Posted on by Michael

All respect to Ché, this was our motto as we began our travels in Australia for The Palette Project.  We would shoot the stories we came to tell, but we would be open to whatever new adventures came our way, and when it came to new stories, we would not be disappointed. They… were… everywhere.

I often tell beginning storytellers  if they end a project with the same story they started with… they’re doing it wrong. My goal was to leave the southern hemisphere with loads of footage that was never Continue reading “Si Se Puede: Adelaide Part I” →

An Unintended Treasure Trove

Putting Scottsboro in Storage. How to Avoid Losing Your Luggage

Posted on by Michael

In a small Alabama town called Scottsboro, there is an enormous and very successful business built on the woes of travelers who have lost their luggage. Unclaimed and lost bags end up here, and the treasures inside are sold for fun and profit. You should check out their website, and then you should make it your ambition that your bags never see the inside of this place. Your goal as a traveler should be very simple – to put this business out of business.

Let’s talk about how to avoid losing your luggage, and keep your valuables out of pictures like this:

Lost luggage
The results of lost luggage. A thriving business built on misfortune.

Tempting fate is never wise, but I’m declaring in front of God, country and American Airlines it’s been almost thirty years since I’ve permanently lost a piece of luggage. For those of you keeping score at home, that dates back to when I was a teenager. My dad and I were Continue reading “Putting Scottsboro in Storage. How to Avoid Losing Your Luggage” →