Great travel photography comes with practice, diverse experience and a sound working technical knowledge of your camera and electronic accessories. But if you are still struggling to get travel shots, of the quality you know you are capable, time and time again, then we’ve compiled a few of our top travel photography tips to help you out along the way:

1. Take pictures in context. Whatever you are photographing, whether it’s a person, an object, a landscape or a meal, getting in a few details that provide a little background information or a clue to your location can help to make your picture come to life. That’s not to say that every New York shot needs to have the Empire State Building floating in the background, but a few everyday cultural indications can give an otherwise average shot the impact it requires to be a great one.

2. Try your hand at a range of different locations. The light, for example, in the Mediterranean, is totally different to the light in Norway. Practising your photographic techniques in different climates will help you to hone your skills. And if your struggling to find a break away to fit the budget, take a look at some Thomas Cook package holidays available from your local high street travel agencies.

3. Remember that people are not tourist attractions. It is often tempting to take pictures of locals as if they were landmarks, but, not only is this naive, it is also an arrogant and rather rude approach to subject based photography. Obviously, a language barrier can make it difficult to engage your chosen subject in any kind of in depth conversation before you take their picture, but a gesture asking permission, or an exchange of any kind, will help to break the ice at least. Furthermore, isolating your subjects by making them feel like tourist attractions does not promote classy photography. Interacting with subjects before you click can help to transform your photograph into a snap shot of cultural exchange, a fragment of cross-cultural communication.

Looking for more tips? Check out my collection of travel photography tips here on Travel Feeder. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

Let’s talk photo travel blog. I started this travel blog, Travel Feeder in year 2008. When this blog was created 3 years ago, it was initially my personal travel blog to share all my tips, guides and experiences gathered from my travels during the past 6 years. During this period, I traveled to numerous parts of the world from Asian to European countries, from east to west, from China, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia to UK, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, German, Denmark and Netherland. With my deep passion in travel, I was able to keep traveling and sharing new tips and guides on my travel blog. Travel Feeder has now more than 540 original articles being published on the blog.

Coincidentally, I fell in love with travel photography within the same period. I bought my first digital camera Nikon 4100 after losing my old film SLR Nikon F70 on my travel to Gold Coast. It marked the beginning of my digital photography journey. Before I went to Shanghai in year 2008, I bought myself the lovely Panasonic Lumix FZ28 ultra zoom prosumer camera. From there on, I was completely spoilt by the art of photography. In year 2009, less than a year of owning the FZ28, with the encouragement of my affection towards travel photography, I bought a DSLR, the Nikon D60. It was my first ever digital DSLR. It was also the time when I decided to include my limited knowledge of digital photography into Travel Feeder, and to expand it to become a more interesting photo travel blog, with much more exciting stories on both travel and photography.

I was then confused with the title description of this blog, whether Travel Feeder should call itself a photo travel blog or, a travel photo blog. A travel photo blog is a blog sharing mainly travel photos with captions, while a photo travel blog means a travel blog sharing various tips and guides, with helps from photos. Contextually, both are equally right. In fact, Travel Feeder has more to offer than just each of these 2 niches. With a synergy effect,  it actually combines both niches into a wider aspect which more people are getting interested in nowadays. It features articles that encompass the entire range of scope from travel to photography. So, Travel Feeder is both a travel photo blog or a photo travel blog!

Today, Travel Feeder has emerged as one of the top photo travel blog on the internet with numerous pages ranked top 10 in Google search result. Among those pages are:

1. Top 10 places to visit in Malaysia
2. Nikon D7000 category
3. Packing list – Power socket adaptor for china travel
4. Top 5 travel tips for booking Airasia flight
5. My western Europe tour itinerary 1st draft

As you can see, these popular pages are about different locations of this world. However, they are aiming to the same group of people, or travelers. Who are they? “Budget travelers?” “Bingo!” You are right. I’m a budget traveler so I’m blogging for budget travelers! I’m an advocate of budget traveling who believe traveling is for anyone who loves to travel, regardless how much money they have in their bank accounts, and how old actually they are. Anyone who fall for the hobby, Travel Feeder will surely enlighten you some how, some where.

Now, how do travelers normally find this blog in Google search engine? Which search keywords are most likely to put Travel Feeder on top of the search result? Let’s see some of the top keywords or phrase queries that could reach me in top 10 search result:

1. Nikon
2. go
3. My Western Europe tour
4. Airasia free seats 2012
5. Arc de triomphe

With over 35k impressions each recorded in last month, ‘Nikon‘ (photography) and ‘go‘ (travel), are both the most popular keywords to find this travel blog in the top 10 search result. This again both the core interests of Travel Feeder are well accepted. Also, Airasia and Europe are popular keywords as well.

Next. Let’s talk about what most bloggers are really keen on. Let’s talk monetisation. Travel Feeder has been around in the blogosphere for 3 years. Apart from my passion and enthusiasm in travel and photography, monetization of the blog is the next best motivation for me to keep writing articles and blogging travel! By adopting various monetization system into my photo travel blog, I have successfully made more than enough money to support all my travel expenses as well as photography equipment. And this is the best part of my blogging journey: I travel to blog, I blog to make money and I make money to sponsor my next travel! Let’s come back to this afterward.

Next, I wish to touch on some innovations found on Travel Feeder. In Year 2008, I ran a link love campaign on my blog and it has successfully attracted more than 100 travel blogs and sites to join us. In Year 2009, I joined istockphoto as a contributor and the photo slide box has since been a prominent feature on my blog’s side navigation bar. In October 2010, in conjunction with my Birthday, I announced the launch of my Photography blog, Cecil Lee Photography. Early this year in March, I launched my online photo e-store. All my top travel photo selection could now be bought or downloaded free in the e-store. Being inspired by my second travel to Europe early this year, I announced 2 months ago in August the launch of a new category named “From Travel to Photo“, featuring mini travel guide on how to plan your Europe travel. And finally…

Finally today, to celebrate my birthday this year, I’m excited to announce another new feature on my blog. This would be the 3rd announcement of Year 2011, a breakthrough on my blog. I believe it’s going to be another hot cake around, since most of the blogs found on internet currently were created with hope to make money. Yes! I’m here to introduce a brand new, dedicated page on Travel Feeder. It’s all about “How to make money online from blogging“. Starting from today, bloggers who are fresh in blogging, or bloggers who are frustrated for not making money so far, can click on the Menu Bar on top of any Travel Feeder’s page to gain access to this exclusive guide on how to make money blogging. This page is dynamic with the content being updated every now and then when I found necessary. This guide gathered things that I have been doing to make me enough money for all my travels and photography expenses and hope it will help you in the same ways. And this is the biggest announcement from Travel Feeder for Year 2011. Happy reading. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

p/s: This post is dedicated to the late Mr.Steve Jobs, the former CEO and co-founder of Apple and one of the greatest leader and entrepreneur in the world, who left us on 5th October 2011, the day after Apple announced the latest iPhone 4s in the media conference named “Let’s Talk iPhone“.

Italy undoubtedly is one of the most popular travel destinations in Europe. It is the fifth most visited country around the world. Its rich cultural and historical features with the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites to date (totally 44 of them)  that inherited from different period of time, has won Italy over 40 million international arrivals each year. Unfortunately, traveling to Italy is always like a dream comes true for most of us who have limited budget for travel.

Reasons contributed to this costly visit inlcude its strong Euros, high tourist demands and high local living standard. But don’t let them stop you from visiting Italy! there are still ways to cut the overall travel cost to Italy down to a level that could fit into your available budget. These are 5 tips that may help you through your Italy travel planning and budgeting:

1. Spend more days in each city of Italy. Traveling to your dream country for the 1st time need lengthy and well ahead plan. Plan longer period for the whole trip and spend more days in each day. Your average daily budget would be much lower since transportation cost plays the biggest role in Italy travel. You will have more time instead to explore further into Venice, Florence or Rome. Don’t be so ambitious as you can’t have both worlds at one time!

1. You will be able to find cheaper deal and nicer authentic local street food, by staying more days in each city! Best discovery always comes last.  I always found the best value food on my last day on any travel but could only hope to stay longer. With that in mind, You need to decide what would be your maximum period available for Italy travel, and your maximum allowable budget. Strive a balance in between to achieve a lower daily budget.
2. Book all your local transportation and accommodations well ahead as soon as like 3 months in advance. Domestic train online booking can only be done 3 months before traveling day. So book at least 3 months ahead especially in peak season to grab the cheapest possible fares. Most likely local transport will determine your period of stay in that city of Italy. So, confirm your domestic trip before booking your accommodations. Following the above steps, you are very near and on the right track to achieve an average daily budget of 150Euro, by rule of thumbs.
3. Book entrance pass and travel pass online. The longer you stay in a city, the cheaper you would get to travel around city. The best example would be Roma Pass which costs 25Euro but covers 3 days unlimited travel pass and 2 entrance passes, which carries extreme value!

1. The last tips to fit the Italy travel cost into your budget is saving one meal for the another meal. After deducting all costs of transportation and accommodation, and also those expensive entrance fees, with your budget, you will know how much you could spend on each meal. An average meal in Italy costs 12Euro. If you have only budgeted 10Euro on each meal, save your lunch with 5Euro pizza plus Coke and you will have 15Euro to spend for an authentic dinner with a cup of cappuccino!

Hope these will help you to plan immediately your next travel to my favorite country of Italy. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

Italy, ah, what a beautiful place. Beautiful food, beautiful scenery, beautiful life – everything is just wonderful. Now, all you need to add to that wonderfulness is a great trip budget or a cheap vacation. Like Travel Feeder suggests, plan ahead and map it out. So, what are you waiting for? Go be brilliant in Italy! Happy Travels to you from Reader’s Digest!

If you are traveling from Paris to Amsterdam, like what I did, the most convenient mean of transport would definitely be train. It provide city centre to city centre transport where Europe travelers are most likely to travel from and to. This is convenient for flash packers like us where we don’t have to drag our heavy luggage a long way from our hostel in Paris Monmartre and to our apartment in Amsterdam Dam Square. Thalys trains provide this service every hour in a day.

Thalys is a high speed train operated by the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer français) or the French National Railway Corporation. It provides regular high speed train service to major cities in northern part of central Europe, such as Paris, Brussel, Amsterdam, Masseille, Cologne, and Rotterdam.

If you book Thalys tickets well in advance, you can actually get one of the only four seats in their special First Class (or they called it Comfort 1) Salon lounge cabin with special low fare. We managed to get those seats in our early booking when we traveled to Amsterdam last Spring and I can tell you that it was awesome!

This little cabin lounge with 4 seats is actually separated from other First Class seats in the carriage by the luggage compartment and the entrance/exit. In other words, it is well isolated from the rest and you would be the first to get off the train with your luggage stored just next door.

Traveling in First Class means they are plenty of free services provided on board. Free Wi-Fi broadband service is available throughout the journey. Electrical sockets are fitted beside our seats for charging our laptops and cameras. Newspapers and magazines are also provided in our cabin free of charge.

Reclining and ergonomically designed seats are perfect for our journey, albeit not a very long 3-hour-trip. Coat hangers are fitted beside the entrance door where we hung our jackets.

One of the surprises was the complimentary on board catering service. Breakfast are served in the morning train with a savoury selction of 2 choices: sweet or salty. Sweet option of breakfast comprised of pastry, fruits, croissant and cakes; while salty options included cheese, cold meat and bread. Both are served together with yogurt, fruit juice and coffee (or tea).

The portion wasn’t enormous but sufficient for our morning trip. On top of that, additional pastries and drinks refill are offered regularly after our breakfast to make sure we were fully satisfied. Another surprise.

After all, Thalys high speed train was the best train travel experience I had on my Europe travel last Spring. Special low fare of only €79 in a Comfort 1 salon lounge seats was definitely a steal of our money, if compared to the normal fare of €171. This is something good in Thalys trains where tourists like us who always plan and book transportations in advance will get these extra benefits.

And this First Class comfort with only the Second Class fares had just proved to be one of the advantages to plan your Europe travel in advance! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

This is something we always overlook when we plan for our travel overseas. We know we should start planning now for visiting Europe next summer. We plan for when we should visit Europe with perfect daylight for photography, where we are going to stay cheap abroad , what we are going to do on our holidays, and how we can travel cheaply in Europe. But we never seem to plan for how we can park our car safely and cheaply before flying off!

Many of us prefer to drive to the airport ourselves and park our car there for the period of our travel. However, depending on whether you book your airport parking in advance or not, you could be upset by hefty fees if you turn up at the airport on the day without having pre-booked online!  For instance, at Heathrow Airport, you could find yourself paying more than £20 per day if you park your car at one of the airport terminal. Just imagine, if you are away for 20 days or more, you could end up forking out an additional £400 for parking! This amount of money is definitely enough for another weekend trip! Think of all the things that money could be spent on rather than wasting all of it on airport parking?

It’s not just the money that matters either – it’s the security of your car when you go on holiday. Heathrow airport parking is so huge that there are thousands of cars parking at the airport every day and no car park manager would be able to guarantee that your car would be secured for such a long period! Don’t even think of leaving your car at home either. Your could find yourself carless or your in-car Hi-Fi system stolen when you return home from your long holidays!

One of the ways to fully secure your car before flying off is to pre-book airport parking in advance with reliable operators, such as Heathrow airport parking. Normally this could save your parking cost at airport as much as 60% or more! On top of that, your car would be fully secured by the operators with plenty of measures in place to protect your car while you are away. With such a low fare, you could really travel abroad with total peace of mind, for both your car and your money!

Another place to park your car safely and cheaply while traveling is at your friends or relatives’ house, if they are warm-hearted and they have extra parking lot. Even so, you will need to hire taxi to and back from the airport, and, some extra money to buy souvenirs for your friends or relatives…

Bottom line? We have to plan for every minute aspect of your travel, from your home, to your home. Don’t spend unnecessarily when you have chance to save. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog