… more than just about anything else, is travel. I’m not a big fan of modern air travel el, bt if you overlook all those inconveniences, the bit that is left is what I miss. Exploring new places with a camera is one of life’s great pleasures. And you don’t have to go very far to find an entirely different macro ecosystem to experience. When I started this channel, more than six years ago, I had this idea in the back of my mind that I would find some way to incorporate travel into my work. The reality turned out to be a little less glamorous, though still a great deal of fun, and travel just wasn’t going to be a part of this life. But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream!

And dreaming is exactly what I have been doing! A friend asked me where I would go on holiday, if I could go anywhere I wanted. I gave it a great deal of thought, did a little research, and came up with the answer to my friend’s question. If you want to hear a very detailed and specific answer to that question, drop my Macro Talk on Tuesday. Here is the link - https://youtube.com/live/iYfbMuMnw-w?feature=share

Sticking with the theme of macro destination travel I thought this would be a good time to tell you everything I have learned over the years, about how not to do travel for photography. Walking around your home town with a bag full of expensive camera gear can feel, and may even be, a little risky - but just walking through a foreign airport can be genuinely nerve-wracking.

In Thursday’s livestream I will give you a few practical pointers on how to travel, for photography, in relative safety and comfort - I can do that because I have seldom missed an opportunity to do it all wrong and I will share a few of the misadventures that turned into valuable lessons for me. The discussion will be right here… https://youtube.com/live/bB8IFb_QT94?feature=share, on Thursday at 2PM.

Saturday is Pzoom day, when I meet for 2 hours with my Patreon Supporters. I do this every other Saturday and we talk about anything and everything related to macro photography. It is one of the ways I say thank you to the kind people who like my work and would like to kick in a little bit each month to help me pay thie bills. It makes a huge difference to me and I could not be doing this were it not for those wonderful folks!

In keeping with the travel theme, I am going to lead a discussion on macro photography and destination travel. What I love about these gatherings is that I get to do a lot of listening and always learn a lot from my friends. If you want to learn about becoming a Patreon Supporter, please drop by https://www.patreon.com/allanwallsphotography

Last Saturday we had another excellent AfterStack with Bud Perrott. Once again there was a lively discussion with much sharing of ideas. There were plenty of specific examples of how to make a selection and clean up the mask and we went into a little more detail than during our last discussion. If you would like to watch this recording, it was posted to YouTube this afternoon and should be available by the time this is published - just click on this link https://youtu.be/1rWIKCLY3Mc

The group was very interested in spending the next session examining the most recent suite of editing tools by Tony Kuyper, TK8. YouTuber Dave Kelly makes excellent content related to all the TK tools and I suggested inviting Dave to drop by for the next session and everyone was in agreement. I will let you know after I have talked to him, but make your plans to join us for the next After Stack on August 24th, 2024.

There is no AfterStack and no Tangent this weekend - so maybe we can all get out and take a few pictures while the weather holds. And talking about the weather, our picnic is on for September 7th and the window to RSVP has closed. We have a good group signed up and I can’t wait to meet everyone on person. If you couldn’t make this one, don’t worry, there will be more, I am sure.

I am going to cut it short today as I still have a ton of unpacking to do (though I did make a fair anmuont of progress over the weekend, but I look forward to seeing you soon.

Allan