Travel and photography are two of my favorite hobbies. Fortunately, they often go hand in hand. I'm by no means a professional photographer, but I'm always looking for tips to help me get the perfect shot. Thankfully, I found TrekEarth, a social networking site whose focus is less on building a huge friends list than on sharing and commenting on photography and travel stories.
Saying that TrekEarth is a social networking site is almost an insult; it doesn't look or feel like other social networking sites that pride themselves on user profiles with horrible backgrounds, embedded flash music players, or a "how many friends can you collect" attitude. User profiles at TrekEarth are clean and simple, with a quick bio, some contact information, the type of camera that the user has, and links to featured photos, galleries, and the member's location. It's just enough information to make you curious about someone and willing to click through to their photographs and read their travel experiences, but it's not maddening or frenetic like other social networking services.
The front page of TrekEarth is a great jumping-off point for a new explorer. You can immediately browse featured travel stories or photographs, click on a map of the world to jump to photos taken in that area, or view photos from a featured artist or artist's workshop to see how they've taken one of their photos and touched it up.
TrekEarth's mission is to share the world through photography, and I can't think of a better way to do it. TrekEarth members have uploaded photos from all over the globe, from small villages in Pakistan to tourist beaches in Mexico, and their stories are there next to each one. Once you've created an account, you can connect with other members, add their photos to your favorites, or add the user to your favorite users list. You can critique other members' photos or open your own up to comment, so you can develop your skills and share tips and tricks.
Members can also set their accounts to alert them when new photos from their favorite parts of the world are uploaded, or when their favorite TrekEarth members upload new photos and stories. If you have your own photos to upload, and want to use them to narrate your travel experience, you can create a "travelogue," where you can sort photos into a chronological order and make a slideshow of your trip, narrated with text.
Another strength of TrekEarth is the ability for artists to create "workshops," where you can compare original photos and edits and show off your retouching and editing work. Other members can make suggestions and provide advice on how to further edit your photos or refine your Photoshop technique.
TrekEarth has a very large memberlist, yet remains a very close-knit community. It's proof that you don't need a huge community to be a success, just a dedicated one that believes in your purpose and needs a place to come together. TrekEarth takes you on a trip with every photo gallery, and the experiences of the members are reflected with every click.
Post by Alan Henry
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