So Composition is one of the most important things of the three parts of a photo (light, subject, composition). Also remember the "rule of thirds" as well as how lighting makes a difference. It was all very interesting and I took a fair amount of notes for this one.
At 1pm I sat in on Mike and Marianne Robertson's Touring Africa presentation. They took an organized tour in Africa but they were on a motorcycle. Food and lodging were all organized so this was a bit more expensive than the other types of trips described over the weekend. They had a great time and had some amazing pictures to share, but this type of tour is out of reach of a lot of people, myself included.
For the 2pm slot I stayed for Patrick and Belinda Peck's discussion of the hidden gem that is Montenegro. They were a lot of fun to listen to. But I confess I didn't know where it even was (it's across the water from Italy to the east) but it was really interesting and made me want to visit. But what really caught my attention was some interesting ways that they stretch their money. They are from Australia and belong to a house-sitting website where they are allowed to stay in people's homes for free as long as they care for the plants, pets, or just keep the house occupied. So they often work their vacation trips around this type of lodging. Very clever! In addition to that, they also "time-share" some things to allow them to have motorcycles or in the case of this meeting in Canada, a RV to tour in. They pay part of the cost of the bike and the other person in the country (such as Germany or France) keeps the bike and uses it too. Then it's just a matter of organizing the use. For people that are willing to work together, it gives a lot of flexibility in travel. Again this is a very clever idea and one not restricted to just motorcycles.
The next one at 3pm I went to was bike mods and setup led by Grant Johnson and Kevan Ibbonson. There were a couple bikes present, one a Honda Varadero (I think) and a Suzuki DR650. Using them as examples, the discussion covered how any bike's controls should be set up so that it's ergonomically comfortable. Then we went into different mods to make the Suzuki work for it's owner who is setting it up for a RTW trip.
Tom Feuchtwanger and Janet Wilson's 4pm meeting was called "A Global Perspective - Achieving The Art of Overlanding". They toured Africa in a Toyota Landcruiser. It was like many trips through Africa - lots of amazing animals and adventure, but they had a tradegy occur that marred the trip. While in the car a 10 year old boy darted in front of the car and was hit, eventually dying as they tried to rush him to a doctor. It was a horrible thing to happen, but it was an accident. During this ordeal they had the opportunity to pay a bribe and skip the country but instead they did the right thing and saw it through. It is a sobering realization that in some areas of the world, behaviour is different and can lead to serious events. It was a hard thing they went through, but for them the trip was still something they would do again, though without the accident.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
