Capturing the essence of wanderlust: Exploring the world through the lens.
The Hook 3:47 AM call time. Victoria, BC. February. The set for Maid smelled like sawdust and stale coffee, and the BC dampness had already soaked through my rain shell—the cheap one I bought thinking “it’s just drizzle.” By hour six, I had a headache sharp enough to ruin my focus, and by hour nine, … Read more
The 2 AM Reality Check LAX Terminal 1, 2 AM. My flight from Sundance just landed three hours late. I’ve got two Pelican cases stuffed with camera gear from Going Home post, a backpack overflowing with festival swag, and exactly zero energy left to deal with LA traffic. The Uber line snakes around the terminal. … Read more
How I Got Scammed at the Colosseum (And How You Won’t) Twenty years behind a camera taught me to spot fake lighting, fake setups, fake performances. But somehow, I missed the fake ticket vendor outside Rome’s Colosseum. The guy had a booth. Professional-looking laminated badges. Even a printed rate card. The sun was brutal, the … Read more
West Coast Baseball Road Trip: A Home Run Itinerary I’m standing in the parking lot of what used to be the Oakland Coliseum, holding a commemorative “Final Season” pennant I just bought for $12. It’s 2024, and I’m filming a short documentary about disappearing ballparks—part of my ongoing project about American sports culture—when a guy … Read more
That Bangkok Coffee Shop Moment I’m sitting in a Bangkok café at 2 AM, frantically uploading 47GB of footage from a day of shooting street markets. My flight leaves in six hours. The Wi-Fi keeps dropping. My laptop’s at 23% battery, and the only outlet is behind a guy who’s been asleep at his table … Read more
The Footage I Lost in Victoria (And What It Taught Me About Travel) Three years back, I’m standing in Victoria, BC with my Sony and a dead backup drive. The entire first week of footage—gone. Not corrupted. Just… gone. I’d been so focused on getting the perfect shots of the Inner Harbour at golden hour … Read more
The Suitcase That Almost Ruined My Film Project Last summer, I flew to Iceland to shoot exterior sequences for “Par in the Fjords.” I’d packed all my camera accessories—lens filters, batteries, memory cards—into a budget suitcase I’d grabbed off Amazon. Figured it would be fine. It wasn’t fine. Somewhere between Vancouver and Reykjavik, a zipper … Read more
The Ultimate Business Shoes Guide For Traveling – Why is it so hard to find dress shoes well-suited for the professional polish and rigors of a company trip, yet versatile enough to be dressed down after a hard day’s work at the hotel bar? And why are so numerous of the options so very cringeworthy, awfully for women? Great…
The Frankfurt Problem I’ve been stopped at Frankfurt customs twice with film gear. The first time, I thought documentation meant having serial numbers written down. Three Pelican cases, one Blackmagic camera, and zero idea what an ATA Carnet was. The customs officer asked for one. I didn’t have it. Two hours later, after proving I … Read more
Why You Should Travel With Just A Backpack: Are you the type of person who seems to always get the shopping cart with a wheel that has a mind of its own? Now imagine if that was your suitcase. Not much fun is it? You can’t be stealthy when everybody around you can hear the thumping and rattling of your suitcase. Note: There are a few affiliate links sprinkled throughout this article.…