Wildlife Travel Talk Forum?
- Thread starter ElenaH
- Start date
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ElenaH
Well-known member
I think that we need somthing like Hot Deals or Ongoing Trips or Hot Trips or Hot Workshops or something like that for the situation if for example, somebody from your own workshop suddenly cannot participate and you have a free spot and need to find someone immediately. Or if somebody is looking for people to join the itinerary. Or if there is a great deal what is not in concurence to your workshops and people can be intrested in it or other hot news like some country is closed, something what shall grab the attention of others.
I don't really think this site should get into the business of advertising for or serving as a clearing house for commercial photo tours. Members sharing location info is great but I'd strongly urge us to stay away from advertising, endorsing or otherwise serving as a vehicle for photo tours not run by Steve and BCG. For one thing it implies support of those tours and tour leaders and their methods which may or may not be the case.
Just my 2 cents but I'd recommend not getting into advertising, or otherwise supporting commercial photo tours unless they happen to be run by the site owners here.
ElenaH
Well-known member
Agree! But those from BCG shall be advertised. Any time I look at them they are fully booked ;-)
Good list, Bill.
I'd add to this:
Great Smokey Mountains NP
Acadia NP
Everglades NP
In terms of other locations that have come up recently:
Cape May
Machias Seal Island (technically this is part of Canada but accessed through Cutler ME)
St. Augustine Alligator Farm
Fort DeSoto SP
Too much detail can make it hard to find the right topic. For example, instead of Costa Rica use Central America. I had a great bird photography trip to Panama this year. Where the destinations are within easy driving distance it might make sense to combine them. Another example, Mt Rainier, and Olympic National Parks along with North Cascades Wilderness, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood might all fit under Pacific Northwest Mountains and Volcanoes. In southern Oregon and Northern California there are some great winter raptor locations in several wildlife refuges. Rather than listing each refuge it might be easier to find Klamath Falls Oregon Area. I have had some awesome adventures along the British Columbia Coast and around Vanouver Island, birds, bears and marine mammals. Possibly combine British Columbia and Alaska for those of us who don't mind being wet and cold. Just my opinion.
I agree. I could make a similar argument about Florida and perhaps Gulf coast regions in Texas.
Even so, I suspect this forum will be a work in progress. I’m willing to see what @Steve has developed and suggest changes over time as members use the forum.
My idea, such as it is, it that we wouldn't try to cover every location, but rather the places that seem to come up all the time and how they come up. For instance, often people go to YNP and TNP together, so that's one, but when they do FL parks, it's usually just a blanket "I'm going to FL" kind of post. My idea is that it would be nice to have a filter for popular locations so when people are looking for info they can filter by that location can get all the relevant threads. The trick is managing to not go overboard and try to squeeze in every location, but rather just the popular ones.
For instance, although I like Roosevelt NP, we don't get a lot of threads about it so I wouldn't put it on that list. That doesn't mean there can't be a topic or two about it, of course. And it would still be searchable as well. However, since we get YNP questions almost daily, I think having it in the popular park category isn't a bad idea
Sounds good to me!My idea, such as it is, it that we wouldn't try to cover every location, but rather the places that seem to come up all the time and how they come up. For instance, often people go to YNP and TNP together, so that's one, but when they do FL parks, it's usually just a blanket "I'm going to FL" kind of post. My idea is that it would be nice to have a filter for popular locations so when people are looking for info they can filter by that location can get all the relevant threads. The trick is managing to not go overboard and try to squeeze in every location, but rather just the popular ones.
For instance, although I like Roosevelt NP, we don't get a lot of threads about it so I wouldn't put it on that list. That doesn't mean there can't be a topic or two about it, of course. And it would still be searchable as well. However, since we get YNP questions almost daily, I think having it in the popular park category isn't a bad idea
And like you say, we can adjust as we go and make it streamlined.
My two cents. We may not need too many individual parks listed, since they can be listed in the title (and they will still have a region prefix). Plus some reports may include a park but include other areas beyond it, in which case region is a more appropriate prefix anyway. What about just using specific parks in the tags instead of as a prefix?
Tags don't work well since everything calls it something different. One person puts YNP, one Yellowstone, another Yellow Stone, etc. With more fixed options, everything that has to do with a particular popular park is covered. Not that you can't have both - as in the case of less popular places.
Steve you probably know this but Chat GPT is quite good at generating lists for tagging that you can build and copy paste quickly, including common misspelling and acronyms per the initial command request. It may be helpful for your future tagging purposes.
The problem is that tags are typed in by the poster, so differences and misspellings happen. The custom fields I'm using will be consistent.
ElenaH
Well-known member
Destinations in Africa will be split by countries? And not by parks or areas, I assume?
At the moment Africa is just a region in the system, like North America, Europe, etc.
Places to stay (not motels but areas),
Time of year
Events (to attend or avoid)
Hot news (need to date) - for example road closure
Also smokies, areas in Maine , UP, and northern Minnesota
My impressions are that the participants are better behaved, as well.
There is also a forum here for Landscape Presentation.
realspeed
Well-known member
I don't wish to be rude but to me it looks as if most members don't/can't think beyond the USA, and not realising there is a lot more to the world than theirs. ,For example places my wife and I have been to
Brazil-Egypt- Tunisia-Spain- Italy- Germany-Greece- Portugal-Iceland- Norway- Faroe isle- USA- Caribbean islands-Sicily- Brittany- China-Japan Argentina- some more than once to name but a few.
There is a lot of wildlife to be found in each that are native to one country only
In brazil as two examples both completely wild. the first beside a park cafe and the second where we were staying at my D-In-L's house
In the carribean
Norway
egypt
Brazil-Egypt- Tunisia-Spain- Italy- Germany-Greece- Portugal-Iceland- Norway- Faroe isle- USA- Caribbean islands-Sicily- Brittany- China-Japan Argentina- some more than once to name but a few.
There is a lot of wildlife to be found in each that are native to one country only
In brazil as two examples both completely wild. the first beside a park cafe and the second where we were staying at my D-In-L's house
In the carribean
Norway
egypt
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Yes, thanks for the reminder. Steve is a wildlife photographer, led wildlife photo tours, calls himself a wildlife photographer so I always think of that first. As a wildlife photographer who joined the forum because it was billed as a wildlife forum I do forget about the nature and landscape shots at time. I think I do need to get back to doing more of that and I do some of that when I travel, but I travel mainly for wildlife.
I totally understand where you are with this. I got really interested in photography years ago taking what we called "scenics." I was just a teenager using my Dad's Yashica 35mm rangefinder, and I just loved it, especially when my Mom had one of my shots printed and framed at 8 x 10. The shot wasn't really very good, but Mom gave the praise that only a mother can give, and encouraged me, even buying me a roll of film every now and then. As for my father's support, that camera was a big expenditure for him, but he never, not once, refused to let me borrow it.
Well, apparently like you, I've gravitated mainly toward bird photography over the last ten-to-fifteen years. This thread has caused me to rethink my future photographic endeavors, and not to reduce my time spent on birds, but to increase my time spent on scenics and other wildlife.
I don't wish to be rude but to me it looks as if most members don't/can't think beyond the USA, and not realising there is a lot more to the world than theirs. ,For example places my wife and I have been to
Brazil-Egypt- Tunisia-Spain- Italy- Germany-Greece- Portugal-Iceland- Norway- Faroe isle- USA- Caribbean islands-Sicily- Brittany- China-Japan Argentina- some more than once to name but a few.
There is a lot of wildlife to be found in each that are native to one country only
In brazil as two examples both completely wild. the first beside a park cafe and the second where we were staying at my D-In-L's house
In the carribean
Norway
egypt
I travel outside of the US and I think many other people on this site do, too., Many people are limited in their travel due to work and financial constraints. I'm sure a lot of people would travel more if it were not for the two issues mentioned. Additionally, the US has some of the most beautiful places in the world and provides many opportunities to photograph wildlife that people in other countries might not have. I don't think you were particularly rude in your assessment, just not taking everything into consideration, perhaps. Also, if someone can get the shot at home, so to speak, without spending thousands of dollars why not do that first, it makes sense to me. I frequent the many wildlife refuges that America offers as well as Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP, all great wildlife places, and travel to places like the Antarctic or Canada to get the shots I can't get here in the states. There are many choices for people and something to fit the needs of most everyone and each person chooses what works for them.
I like this idea! Destination as title makes it searchable.