Travel Writer Photographer

Great Gear: Get national park guides on iPad

What says green summer fun more than outdoor adventure?

And with more than 281 million visitors last year, national parks are expected to be a top destination this summer.

Just in time to help plan that much-needed outdoor vacation, award-winning travel writer, photographer and national park expert James Kaiser releases two of his national park travel guides (Yose-mite and Grand Canyon) as eBooks for the iPad.

Why they are useful:

* A greener way to plan travel - hike through a forest or canoe through a canyon without tree guilt.

* Bookmark info, maps, pictures, locations you want to visit.

* Instantly search for keywords, etc. - much quicker and all-encompassing than an index.

* Order it on the fly if you take a last-minute trip or lose the guide you brought along with you.

* Rich info at your fingertips - believing behind-the-scenes information leads to successful, thoughtful travel, James is dedicated to giving travelers the tools they need to make every moment of their vacations count.

Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Full-Color Travel Guide in 2010, Grand Canyon

The Complete Guide equips travelers with detailed maps, travel tips and extensive listings for lodging, camping and sightseeing. The most popular hiking trails are covered in detail, and outfitters for backpacking, mule rides and whitewater rafting are listed.

Yosemite The Complete Guide, was the No. 1 best-selling guidebook for Yosemite in 2010. It covers lodging, camping and dining, as well as outdoor adventures, transportation issues and seasonal weather patterns. More than 20 hikes are listed, with trail descriptions, topographical maps and photos.

They cost $11.99 each at Apple's iBookstore.

Guidebooks can get better on iPad

What says green summer fun more than outdoor adventure?

And with more than 281 million visitors last year, national parks are expected to be a top destination this summer.

Just in time to help plan that much-needed outdoor vacation, award-winning travel writer, photographer and nation park expert, James Kaiser, releases two of his national park travel guides (Yosemite and Grand Canyon) as eBooks for use with the iPad.

Writer rafts down Grand Canyon

After months of anticipation, trip planning and a final reminder to keep our life vests on at all times on the river, the moment finally arrived.

Decolonization of Self: Interview with Travel Writer ...

SO MANY writers seem entrenched in commodified thinking .

They isolate whatever they’re writing about from its temporal, historical, environmental, and cultural context, thus reducing it to or framing it as a kind of commodity.

I’m always looking out for writers that seem aware of this and are doing something new. I was stoked to find Marcus F Benigno’s website A Sustainable Feast last week.

MFB’s subjects are people and projects that challenge conventional paradigms. Throughout his work there’s always a sense of maintaining a historical perspective, remembering what has been tried (and perhaps failed), but instead of conjecturing about “the future” (an act which often seems to derive from commodfiied thinking), MFB focuses on individuals’ sustainable actions as the necessary, ground-level response.

I immediately wrote MFB asking for an interview. We emailed the following questions / answers back and forth:

Name: Marcus F. Benigno

Age: 24

Education : B.A. International Development Studies, McGill University, Montréal, Canada

Current work / projects: 1) Personal travelogue and reports on sustainable constructions worldwide; 2) documentation of youth involved in sustainable/green action (photography, copy)

Writers / Journalists whose work inspires you: Hemingway, André Gide, George Lakoff, Miranda July, among others

Photographers whose work inspires you: Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Jimmy Chin, Balazs Gardi, …

Artists whose work inspires you: Audrey Beardsley, Paul Klee, Olafur Eliasson, Charles Spearin, …

Several phrases in that sentence resonated with me, particularly “decolonization of self.” Can you elaborate on what this means?

[MFB]: Everyday, I make decisions whether they be conscious or routine. The belief that I make these decisions autonomously is an illusion. The rationale that guides my choices is dictated by a sphere of influence external to me as an individual. This system is a naturally occurring, socio-cultural phenomenon that is neither good nor bad.

However, when the sphere of influence mutates into a sphere of imposition and starts to limit the epistemological framework of the individual through conditioned desires and identities, then that individual has been colonized.

The travel writer's handbook, how to write and sell your own travel experiences

Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing

The Web-Savvy Writer, Book Promotion with a High-Tech Twist

Travel Photography, A Complete Guide to How to Shoot and Sell

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Bali and Lombok