Sharing Trip Photos

Now that you are home and rested, it’s time to play with those thousands of photos you took of beautiful Greece! Here are a few options for you (the titles are links to the sites):

A. WALGREENS – I created a photo sharing site on Walgreens just for our tour. Go to the Walgreens site , click on Photo at the top, and login at the top right with the username and password I sent you in an email. To upload photos you took for others to see (and share!), just click on “Upload Photos” in the upper left under Photo Home and click Agree to the Copyright Statement.

Name the album with your name, pick a date and write a description, then Select Photos. Now go to your trip album on your computer and hold the shift key to select multiple photos at one time. Each one will load into your Walgreens album.

You can order from Walgreens directly from your computer (I love this feature as I sit at home in my PJs and edit pictures, send them to my local Walgreens, and they are ready in an hour to pick up…and I can pay in the store! Way easier than sitting for hours in store.) And many times Walgreens offers 10 cent prints via email messages (I just get photos ready to print and let them sit in a folder on my computer until I see a deal and then they are ready to send at a minute’s notice).

I also like that sometimes Walgreens offers email deals for a free 8x10 or a free collage photo. No other purchase is necessary. I just send it through my computer at home and go pick it up…for FREE!

But you do not have to order photos from Walgreens that others upload to our site. To view any album, even if you do not upload any photos, simply login and click on any album to view photos. You can click on View Slideshow to see all the photos in an album, or just click on any one photo to view larger. If you want to choose a photo to add to your own album on your computer, simply click on the photo to make it larger, then right click on the photo and choose “Save Picture As…”, find the folder on your computer, and just make sure it saves as a .jpg. Then print as you please.

B. PICASA – I like using this free photo editing program from Google. I especially like it because it allows me to lighten those photos I took that are too dark (no flash allowed places) and actually see what was inside. It also will let you straighten a photo when you were a little crooked when you took it so all buildings don’t look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I also like that I can crop out unwanted items, too much sky, or zoom in to the main feature of a photo. When I get through editing, I appear to be a much better photographer than I really was!

Other features include adding sepia tones, making it black and white, and other color enhancing tools. I like that it will crop my pictures to exact print sizes…4x6, 5x7, 8x10 because a digital camera usually takes a more square photo, but that is not the size that is printed commercially or that fits into albums or frames. It lets you choose what you want cropped out of the picture rather than the photo printer. What it will not do…clear up your blurry photos. Sorry!

C. SMILEBOX – This free site is like an online scrapbook. You take your online photos and videos, add their designs and music and create slideshows, scrapbooks, greetings, photo albums, invitations, and collages. You can share your creations on Facebook, email, blogs, print at home or store, or burn to a DVD. It’s fun to play with and easy to use. I used it as our Christmas greeting on the blog last year and it would be perfect to share your favorite trip photos with friends and family.

D. PHOTO STORY 3 – This free download for creating a slideshow with your trip photos adds another new dimension…your voice! Easy to use, Photo Story 3 lets you add your photos, music (theirs or your own), and record your voice narrating each photo. This is a fantastic way to work in all those fun stories that a photo reminds you of. For complete details on how to use this tool, go to my library technology blog LUV2LEARN2.

E. TRIP WOW – This free slideshow creator from Trip Advisor adds another unique feature. In addition to putting music with your photos, you can also create an Indiana-Jones style animated map that shows our route on the trip!

You can download the slideshow you create on the site to your computer or burn it to a DVD. You can also share with family and friends via Facebook, email, or another web site.

Enjoy!

Photography Tips

Always take the traditional postcard photo of all the important sites, but don’t forget to take plenty of pictures with people in them too. After all, it’s the friends we make that also make the trip. And of course, you want the “I Was There!” photos too. With digital photography and plenty of memory cards, you can take as many pictures as you want!

Budget Travel magazine in their March 2011 issue offers some tips to perk up your photo album:

1. Group Portraits – do something different! Traditional stare at the camera over someone’s shoulders does say you are there, but not how much fun you are having. Ham it up!

2. Food/Meal Photos – Some of our travelers take pictures of every meal because someone is always asking what they ate while they were there. Try something new. Avoid looking straight down on the plate. Shoot at an angle to get the entire place setting. Use your camera’s macro setting (look for a flower icon) to capture the textural details of food.

3. Hotel Room Photos – Lamp light rarely provides enough light. Check out when you have the most natural light (hard to do in a cruise room with no window, right?), but you can do so with the hotel. Mornings and evenings usually provide the most sunlight, so open the curtains and turn off the flash. Better yet, also capture something local through the window as you shoot from an angle, but not directly out the window.

4. Panoramas – It’s hard to get a sweeping effect in one measly photo; everything is so tiny it loses its effect. See if your camera has a stitching function (see your user manual) and take several pictures that “stitch” together to create one large panorama. Even if you don’t have that function, try sitting your camera on a ledge or other steady surface and move it slightly to get the bigger picture. Then put the pictures together yourself.

5. Don’ t just shoot the “big picture” of the Parthenon or other iconic structure or scene. Yes, do get that photo, but then focus on the smaller details (statues in niches, carvings, trim, towers, doors, etc.) and snap those photos too. You simply can’t see all that in the big picture.

6. Reflections – Try shooting the photo with just the reflection instead of the object and its double. Add another element to the photo for something really interesting.

7. Flash – Turn it off when shooting through a window to avoid glare.

8. Flora and Fauna – It’s a family joke, but one we put into practice. We never take trip photos that we don’t cover the flora (flowers in the church garden) and the fauna (any animals we see).

Rick Steves, the travel guru, also offers some photography tips:

1. New angle for an old sight – Again you always want to get the classic postcard shot, but look for a new and unique angle for additional shots. Shoot a bell tower through a horse’s leg (statue!) or lay your camera on the floor to shoot a beautiful ceiling. Think outside the box.

2. Capture the personal side of your trip – Don’t forget to shoot the locals…and you interacting with the locals…or the picnic on the beach…or the sunset over your shoulder (get a friend to do that one!)

3. Vary your perspective – Shoot close, far, low, high, day or night. Don’t always center your shot. Use something in the foreground to add color or depth, like flowers closeup and the site in the background. Catch the reflection of a site in someone’s sunglasses.

4. Break the rules – Sometimes shooting into the sun makes a great silhouette. Experiment with existing light.

5. Best lighting – Early morning and late afternoon. Take advantage of it

For more photography tips, go to the LUV2GO archives on the left for Februrary 9, 2009.

Telling the Digital Video Story

So, you’ve decided to take the photography plunge and record your trip via video. With lots of tiny foolproof video cameras out there (the flip video, for example, or the video feature on your digital camera), taking video is not as cumbersome as it once was.
Here are some tips for shooting better videos as shared by Budget Travel magazine July/August 2010:

1. Tell a story – Every video should have a narrative (beginning, middle, and end). Record you getting ready and at the airport, fun action times on the trip, and you asleep on the plan home!

2. Video at the right time of day – The best light is early morning and late evening. Of course, that doesn’t mean ignore the rest of day!

3. Interview other people – Even though there are times when you will narrate, also get some fellow travelers to talk you through a site…or better yet , persuade them to video you narrating a fun time!

4. Use the zoom – Zoom in from a wide-angle to a close-up, or zoom out from a detail to the full scene. You don’t have to stay at the same perspective all the time.

5. Be your own tripod – Shaking in video is annoying. Reduce the movement by keeping your knees loose and your feet wide. Filming with one hand? Brace your other arm across your chest for stability.

6. Be patient – Take the time to line up a good shot.

7. Back home…and editing – When putting together a video that is interesting, be prepared to cut. Think about when you look at others videos…and wish they had edited hours of static mountain shots!

8. Set the mood – consider adding a music soundtrack to your video. Some video editing software allows you to add voice-overs after you get home.

9. Make it a real docu-video – Some editing software allows you to insert graphics (say a map) and credits at the end. Here are some samples of free video editing software to download. And more free video editing software...this site is overload! But you might find something you like.

Tips from ones who just visited Greece

Things we learned from our guest speakers:

1. Bring a refillable water bottle with you at all times.

2. Greece is known to take siestas in the afternoon. It is not unusual to find places closed for hours in the afternoon.

3. Greece is warm…much like Texas weather.

4. Churches and monasteries require ladies to cover shoulders and knees, but many times they provide thin draw string skirts to cover with.

5. Although the cruise ship states there will be a semi-formal night, they said that only applies to a waiter service restaurant and not all restaurants require that. They saw ladies and men in slacks (not necessarily dresses) and never saw anyone turned away. But don’t try to get in the nicer restaurant in shorts or swimsuits.

6. Photos inside churches and monasteries are not allowed. Buy postcards or books. Some museums don’t allow photography and none will allow flash. Always ask and respect their rules.

7. VAT (value added tax) is like our sales tax. If you buy something expensive (over 120 euros), then ask for a tax free checque to complete in the store and give a copy to customs on departure to get the VAT refund. Don’t bother with small purchases. You may be asked to show the goods and/or the receipt so keep it.

8. On the cruise you will give them your credit card number and use your room key to make any charges. Tap water and coffee are free, but alcoholic beverages, sodas, tea, etc. cost. If you drink a lot, then you can buy beverage cards, but they are expensive. Or you can charge an individual drink. Drinks and bottled water are cheaper on land than the ship. Bring some back with you.

9. You will leave your passport with the cruise ship when you board and get it back when you debark.

10. They said the Greek preferred the Euro (cash) over the credit card. And the Greek barter. Once they were offered a tour photo book for 20 euro, but walked off. The vendor followed them and then asked for 5 euro! Another vendor came up and offered the same book for 3 euro! Barter, barter, barter!

11. The electricity in many hotel rooms and the ship is “turned on” by putting the room key in a slot by the door. However, if you leave things to charge while you are out of the room, you must take your room key which shuts off the electricity. Leave the roomie’s room key if possible and take yours. If not, then ask for a second room key. You may not get one, but you can ask.

12. Their excursion recommendations: Did not take one in Mykonos, just walked around on their own. Their most highly recommended is the one in Kusadasi. They did both the Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary. On Patmos, they did the Monastery of St. John & the Grotto of the Apocalypse. They said the Tour around the island excursion only drives by these sites but does not stop. On Rhodes they did Old City and Philermos and spent half a day walking around as there is lots to see in Rhodes. On Crete, they did the Knossos Palace. They said some others on their tour did the wine tasting one but was not impressed but they couldn’t say for sure (matter of taste, it seems). They absolutely loved Santorini! They did the excursion to Oia Village. They said their tour director once did the sailing and volcano excursion but it was very hot. The choice to do any excursion is totally up to you. You don’t have to do any, but they said that the information they got from the guides was the reason they liked them so much.

Podcasts for Greece

You may have your trusty guidebook, but another option for getting information about sites on our tour are podcasts that you can download to your iPod or iPhone.

Podcast: A multimedia digital file (audio or video or both) made available on the Internet for downloading to a portable media player, computer, etc.

There are all types of podcasts. Some simply provide information, while others may serve as an audio for a walking tour of a site. (I used one at Versailles last trip, it gave a room by room description of all I was seeing. Awesome!) Just listen to several and decide if it is what you are interested in. Then download the ones you want to take with you. Here are some places to start and they are all free:

Five Free Podcasts (from Greek vocabulary to Greek food to an overview of Athens sites)
National Museum of Archealogy in Athens
The Agora, the Acropolis, and Parthenon
The Amateur Traveler (video travel podcasts from all over, scroll and look for ones from Greece - click previous entries at bottom)
A Trip to the Parthenon
Rick Steves Greece (free in iTunes store)
Rick Steves Europe - Athens, Greece (scroll to episode 56, free iTunes store)
Rick Steves Europe - Santorini's Black Sand (scroll to episode 112, free iTunes store)
Rick Steves Europe - Athens' Ancient Acropolis (scroll to episode 138, free iTunes store)
Rick Steves Europe - West Turkey: The Ancient City of Ephesus (scroll to episode 58, free iTunes store)
Acropolis and Parthenon (available free through iTunes store)
Learning Greek (free iTunes store)
Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece (iTunes store free)
History of Greece (iTunes store free)
Spirit of Place - Delphi (scroll to episode 30, free iTunes store)

International Cell Phone Update

I have an iPhone and went to the Apple store to ask about international service. Don’t waste your time going there. They know a lot, but this falls under your local service provider.

So, next I went to the AT&T store and they were very helpful. Most important…they said they do not cover service on a cruise ship or close to the ship! Cruise ships have their own satellites (or whatever they use!) and it costs a lot more.

AT&T charges $5.99 for the World Traveler Plan plus phoning in Greece is an extra $1.29 per minute. The big expense of using smart phones overseas is the data roaming charges. Be sure to turn off data roaming to avoid these unexpected charges.

AT&T users can pay $25 per phone for up to 20MB of data. Data roaming is anything that can be updated on your phone, such as texting, email, internet service, apps that update i.e. weather, time, money exchange rates, GPS, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Any app that you already have downloaded that has static/stored information to access (camera, language translator, etc.) will not use data roaming. Neither will your iPod or downloaded podcasts on your iPhone.

To see just how much 20MB is for your phone, (if you have AT&T service) go to www.wireless.att.com/global and click the Data Calculator.

The rule: Check with YOUR phone service provider to find exactly what they offer for your phone.

Tip for using iPod on your iPhone: Turn on the airplane mode in Settings. You will not need to purchase any special international plan to use your iPod only.

Tips for making an iPhone battery last longer:
1. Lower screen brightness (Settings>Brightness).
2. Push email: Turn off the Push feature and set it to Manually instead (Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Fetch New Data). The iPhone checks for email only when you actually open the email app.
3. GPS checks: In Settings>General>Location Services, you’ll see a list of all the apps on your phone that are using your phone’s location feature to know where you are. You can probably turn most of them off and save battery. And that is all data roaming too.
4. Notifications: Similarly in Settings>Notifications, you see a list of apps that are allowed to display pop-up notifications (those blue text bubbles that look like text messages). Turn off the ones you don’t need.
5. Background apps: Quit all apps that are still open and not being used. Double-press the Home button to open the multitasking app switcher. Hold your finger down on any icon until they all start wiggling. Tap the little X close boxes to manually quit open apps.

Time

Greece is 8 hours ahead of Central Standard Time. Getting sleep on the overnight flight is important. We will not nap when we land in Athens. Waiting to sleep until bedtime will help get over jet lag.

When calling home, remember they are 8 hours behind us. They won't be as excited to hear from you if you wake them in the middle of the night!

Try out this World Clock Converter.
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