Why Beer is Important for Travelers
The first thing you see when you arrive in a foreign country is usually a taxi. Whether exiting an airport or crossing a border, it's the taxi drivers that first make contact. The question here, is how much should you be paying? Pay too much, and they'll get used to ripping off uninformed visitors, pay to little and maybe you'll end up in an alley…..
The Forced Variable Technique
Getting better at anything is hard work, especially when your ego tells you you’re already an accomplished adventure photographer. To help myself continue to learn how to be a better photographer, I introduced something new to my workflow, and I call it a "Forced Variable." Don't ask me where I got the name, that's just what I ended up calling it.
Journal Entry from the Corcovado Expedition
The jungle wears you down bit by bit. It starts with bug bites that you scratch, that then turn into infections. Then it's the heat, or the mud, or just going crazy while trying to figure out where the hole is in your tent that all the bugs seem to be able to find but you can't. It's this pain I have in my left eye that I can't for the life of me figure out, and my stove which takes a surgeons attention to actually cook food with. If you can get past the discomfort enough to actually look around, the jungle is beautiful and inviting…..
Leaving the Jungle
I don't necessarily have good luck, or bad luck, but the luck that I do have is pretty strong. Whatever happens to me usually happens in full force. I showed up in Corcovado ready to work, ready to get some amazing photographs of bull sharks that we could use for conservation.
Seeing Eye to Eye
Out of the bushes not 15 feet away, a huge elephant appears as if from thin air. I’d never thought of elephants as sneaky before this moment. I could hear the whispers of the clients, "BEN, get back in the car!" but I wasn't about to move….