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

This is the second chapter of my mini guide on how to plan your travel to Europe. In chapter one, we have learned how to find the best time to visit Europe. For this chapter, we will continue to discuss on how to fix the length of Europe travel. To successfully plan an Europe vacation trip, fixing an optimum period of time traveling in Europe is as important as choosing the best time to fly. It is the second element of our travel plan to Europe, after timing.

Europe is a huge continent. It consists of 50 countries, 27 of which are member states of the European Union, and covers an area of approximately 10 Million Km²! If travelers were to explore the whole Europe with hundreds of cities of interest, they will need years to do so! Eventhough not all cities in Europe are tourist frequented destinations, travelers will still need at least a year or four seasons to cover them all at one time! However, this is not advisable for a budget traveler, since traveling Europe is expensive and time consuming. Likewise, there are other factors limiting your holiday period in Europe, such as the following few.

Factors deciding the maximum period of your holiday travel to Europe

1. Different season, different climate. If you have decided in Chapter 1, the best time of year for you to travel Europe, it will mean that you are looking at visiting Europe in certain season of the year, which last for only 3 months. Europe is a continent with 4 distinct seasons in a year (with temperature varies as much as 30°c between Summer and Winter). That said, if you travel to Europe for more than 3 months, it will encompass 2 seasons of a year, and you will need extra sets of clothing to cope with that 2 different climate, extra burden and extra cost to your luggage. We call it uneconomical. So it would always be better to travel to different parts of Europe in a few year but in the same season of year. For instance, I traveled to Central Europe last Spring and then Western, Eastern and Northen Europe this Spring, since Spring is my favourite time to see lush greenery and colourful flowers in Europe.
2. Visa validity. There are 39 countries whose nationals do not need a visa to stay in Europe for up to 3 months, which include US, Japan, Australia and others. Other nationals will need to apply for a visa before flying to Europe. Validity of Visa is normally 3 months, albeit some are 6 months. So, it is advisable to plan your Europe trip for a period of not exceeding 3 months, in order to avoid hassle in extending your visa or of being blocked in entry border.
3. Annual leave. Generally, annual leaves for employees are around 2 weeks, or 14 days. Taking leaves for more than 2 weeks will need either cumulative leaves brought forward from previous years or, to apply for unpaid leaves. If you are traveling every year, with no leave being accumulated from previous years, the safest traveling period to Europe is 2 weeks or 14 days.
4. Health condition. Exploring historic sites after sites in European cities by walking is absolutely possible and advisable since most of the travel attractions are within walking distance in any European city. Having said that, a considerably fit and healthy body is still required to do that much walking on Europe trip. How far and long one traveler could go depends on how fit he or she is. Traveling Europe with walking for 20 days can be quite tiring, mind you. Even if you are fit for that long period of traveling time, accidents do happen. Travel Insurance could cover any emergency medication in overseas. However, you need to pay much higher premium for longer travel. Check with your insurance agent to see if there is maximum period of travel.

So, we know the maximum period for traveling Europe hassle free should be 3 months (or one season), but for how long would be the optimum?

Let’s answer this question: “How many days should we stay in each city?”

In general, I would suggest 3 to 7 days. For small cities, we need at least 1 day to get ourselves into the city environment, another day at least for sight seeing, and 1 remaining day to explore further and deeper into the city. The larger the city, the more days we need, normally up to 7 days per city. Since we are traveling Europe in a budget style, we try to plan our itinerary perfectly to have sufficient time to explore each city we are going, but not wasting anymore time in doing nothing, except for relaxation after a long trip.

It is not economical staying too short in a city either, since transportation cost carries a substantial percentage in our total cost of Europe travel, and it’s a fixed cost, means we must spend such money to travel from one city to another. Let’s elaborate briefly with sample equations below (more detail budget planning will be discussed in next chapter), with some assumption on fixed transportation (T), variable foods (F) and accommodations (A) costs:

1) Travel 5 cities in 5 days (1x): €625.00 (T) + €350.00 = €975.00 (1x)

2) Travel 5 cities in 15 days (3x): €625.00 (T) + €1,050.00 = €1675.00 (1.7x)

3) Travel 5 cities in 30 days (5x): €625.00 (T) + €2,100.00 = €2,725.00 (2.8x)

The above result clearly shows that with transportation a fixed cost, the longer you stay in a city, the lower average daily cost you would need to allow for each day.

So you should have your own answer for the above question by now.

Next, you can start fixing a period to travel Europe which is best suited you. Remember that what we have discussed here are merely for your reference, and I’m here to only guide you through the planning process. The final decision on the total number of days you are going to spend in Europe is all up to your needs and desire, albeit some of the following factors may justify your decision,

• Cost per city – We now know the average daily cost is getting lower when you travel longer period, but they still escalate along your stay in days until to a sum that you could afford to spend in each city, and that is the total cost per city for you;
• Time available – Check you office planner to decide how much time is possible for you to take leave off your work duty.
• Health and strength – Are you on periodic medications? Is your pregnant wife going to due soon? How long can you withstand the chilly weather in Winter? For how long could your travel insurance covers you?
• Number of cities of interest – Number of cities multiplied by number of days in that city and you will get the total period of your Europe trip. For example, you will need at least 15 days in Europe if you plan to visit 5 cities back to back.

With all the above information and tips, you should by now be able to fix a date to depart for Europe and fix a date to return back from Europe. Next chapter we will guide you to fix a budget. If you can’t decide a period just yet due to budget constraint, skip this chapter and jump to chapter 3 to fix your budget first. They are interrelated like a chicken and an egg. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate guide to Europe travel

AirAsia X low cost carrier is withdrawing its once popular flights to London and Paris starting from this April 2012! As part of its network re-aligning exercise to focus more on the profitable markets, Airasia X announced last week that a total of 4 flight routes including both the European cities, Delhi and Mumbai of India will soon be ceased from flying! Oh my god! I can’t believe the super duper cheap flights that have helped me to realise both of my Europe trips last 2 years will soon be dropped from Airasia X’s flight route map! I was still browsing through my photo albums of London and Paris to search for the best photos for Airasia Photo Contest last night!

According to the announcement, Airasia X decided to cease both the European flights mainly because of the high fuel cost, new going-to-be-imposed Emissions Trading Scheme and the escalating Air Passenger Duty taxes in UK, not due to its demand, knowing and witnessing myself that the recording load factors of over 80% from both flight routes in 2010.

This is in fact a real bad news of this new year 2012, remembering how Airasia X low cost carrier had inspired me to visit Europe twice in 2 years due to its cheap long haul flight option, and I’m actually planning to fly to Europe again end of this year (which was how I got to know this news). Could this be one of its move to eliminate those competing flight routes with MAS, after their merging exercise in the second half of last year? I don’t know, but it is a real sad news to me…

Budget travelers are filled with despair at the announcement and will need to work harder to fulfill their Europe travel dreams. I have to work even harder to complete my e-guide “From Travel To Photo” which help avid travelers to plan for their budget trip to Europe.

All passengers on the affected flights from the UK, France, and India will be given the option to cancel their reservation and opt for Refund/Credit Shell, re-route to any other AirAsia X destinations or transfer to an alternative airline subject to availability, without any additional cost to the passenger.

Here is the abstract of the Airasia X announcement:

AirAsia X, the long haul, low fare affiliate of AirAsia, today announced a realignment of its network with a focus on its core markets.
The move will see AirAsia X withdrawing services to India (Mumbai and Delhi) and Europe (Paris, London) from its Kuala Lumpur hub as follows:

• Mumbai- Four weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 31 January, 2012
• New Delhi- Daily services will be suspended with the last flight on 22 March, 2012. Flights in March will be reduced to four weekly services.
• London- Six weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 31 March, 2012
• Paris- Four weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 30 March, 2012

Note: Further details on AirAsia X’s withdrawal of Europe and India destinations:

• Europe (London and Paris) -AirAsia X started flights to London in March 2009. At that time, oil prices were less than US$40/barrel, and have since tripled. With the Arab Spring unrest of 2011 spilling over to the unrests in Syria and Iranian oil embargo this year, oil prices are expected to remain high and crippling the economics of long-haul flights, where fuel represents over 50% of operating cost. Moreover, the European situation is also compounded by a very weak economy and depressed consumer demand, which has resulted in a reduction in the number of passengers from Europe on the flights over the past several months. Flights to Europe have also been burdened by exorbitant government taxes such as the UK Air Passenger Duty which will be increased to £92 per departing economy passenger and £184 per departing Premium passenger from 1 April 2012. From 1 January 2012, the European Governments have also imposed an additional carbon tax under their Emissions Trading Scheme, which further adds to an already high cost. The confluence of macro-factors, including high fuel prices, depressed European economy and exorbitant taxes have made it economically impossible to sustain these flights, despite AirAsia X recording load factors of over 80% for its London and Paris flights in 2011. Attempts to increase fares to reflect the higher operating cost recently have shown the price elasticity of travel, with demand falling down adversely.
• India (Mumbai and New Delhi) – AirAsia X launched flights to Mumbai and Delhi in 2010. Structural issues in the Indian aviation market have made it difficult to operate economically viable flights. The airport and handling costs in New Delhi and Mumbai are already more expensive than even airports in Australia, and the authorities have just approved a massive 280% increase in airport fees effective April 2012. The Indian routes have also been under-pressure when the Malaysian Government removed Visa-on-Arrival facilities in August 2010, soon after the routes were launched. This places Malaysia at a significant disadvantage versus Thailand and Singapore who offer Indian tourists convenient Visa-on-Arrival facilities.

Now I really need to search around for more affordable long haul flights to Europe, probably via Skyscanner, if I were to visit Europe again this year. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

For those of you shutterbugs who haven’t submitted your best travel photos to Airasia, Airasia is hosting a photo contest for its Travel 3Sixty onboard magazine from 3rd January to 14th February 2012. If you haven’t sold enough travel photos for your next travel, this is another chance for you to at least win a free trip to Hong Kong! The contest is open for everyone from any countries!

The photo contest will run for 3 months from January to March 2012, with one different theme for each month. 3 winners each month will win a totally free 4-Day-s3-Nights Return flight + Accommodation package to Hong Kong. For January category, travelers needs to submit photos of those awesome foods or fashion they found and captured on their travel in one of the Airasia flight destinations for the last 2 years.

The contest already started since 3rd January 2012 last week. If you haven’t submitted your best photos and wish to grab this opportunity for free travel, hurry up! The dateline for photo submission for January session is on 31st January 2012. After which, a handful of shortlisted entries will be posted for public voting to choose the winners! Even better if you captured the photos on your trip with either Airasia or Airasia X, you will get additional 20 votes!

Before submitting travel photos to win the ultimate Travel Photographer Of The Year contest later this year, why not joining this simple yet rewarding contest as a warm up? As what I said before, don’t waste your talent and creativity in travel photography! Share with th world out there, you might be one of the lucky winner to win prizes for your next photo trip! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

Where did Jean and Chloe spend their Christmas Holidays in? Hong Kong Disneyland! Yes. They had a wonderful Christmas break in Hong Kong, without me! While I was still slaving away at my job, they were instead shopping, eating and having fun around Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Lantao Island for the pass 5 days! On the bright side, I have now a co-author who can share her experience and travel photos in Hong Kong on this travel blog!

What got my daughter Chloe so excited about the trip was her chance of a lifetime to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland! Even more exhilarating, her favorite movie characters are now featured in the new Toy Story Land! Toy Story Land is the recent and latest inclusion in the Hong Kong Disneyland park since November 2011 and children (well, mostly children I would guess) are now able to see Woody and Buzz Lightyear live in actions!

This photo was snapped by Jean using my old Lumix FZ28 which still serves me very well in taking some snapshots on travel. The benefits of taking only this kind ultra zoom compact camera along your travel are that you could shoot both decent photos and HD video with superb zoom range without needing to carry all bunch of camera bodies, lenses and flash (so it best suited to casual lady travelers), of course, with the expense of high quality images you would otherwise get from a proper DSLR setup.

She took quite some photos and videos in Hong Kong Disneyland and I will feature some of the highlights here in This travel blog in future. Stay coming back for more! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Asia