Climbing Africa's highest mountain, Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro

The summit Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, from Karanga Camp, the stopping point for the fourth night of the climb. 

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro at Age 66: FITNESS MATTERS!

What does it take to stand atop Africa's highest mountain in your seventh decade on the planet?  

Travel Boldly asked Sally McKinney to interview a man that knows. Billy Giles has climbed Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, or "Kili" as it affectionately known, three times since he topped 60 years of age. Billy's feats certainly give me hope of summiting at least one of Seven Summits during my seventh decade. Read Billy's interview and get yourself motivated for your own Kilimanjaro climbing adventure. 

                                                                       Jerome Shaw Publisher of Travel Boldly

Sally's other inspiring stories of travel for Travel Boldly

• After Slow Travel in Tanzania - We Went Poco y Poco in Peru. You are never too old to travel.
• Travel Adventures in the Galápagos Islands

Questions by Sally McKinney   Answers by Billy Giles

In July, 2014, Billy Giles climbed Africa’s highest mountain. For the third time.

While Billy walked uphill for days to reach 19, 385 feet, Sally took it easy and read: “Kilimanjaro: A Photographic Journey to the Roof of Africa”.

After Billy (BEG) came home to Indiana, he answered Sally’s (SMK) many questions:

All photos by Billy Giles

Map of climbing Kilimanjaro on the Machame Route, courtesy

of Machame.com

SMK   You’ve done this twice before. What makes climbing Kili so special?
BEG   The first time, it was because I thought it was a real adventure and something I could possibly do. It was a reason to go somewhere that was not like anywhere I’d ever been. I could also go with someone from that place. After I went once, I wanted to go back to see more and to see friends I’d made in Tanzania. When friends and family have approached me about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, I’ve jumped at the chance. And, at 19,385 feet, Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa.

SMK   Which route did you take?
BEG   I took the Machame route for all thee climbs. Marangu route uses huts for sleeping. For Machame, the porters bring tents, so you don’t have to reserve hut space. The weather is said to be better and more scenic on Machame. The Machame route is less direct, so there’s more time to acclimate to altitude, therefore a greater success rate.

Mt. Meru can be seen in the distance to the west from Shira 

camp. It is the second highest mountain in Tanzania at just 

under 15,000 feet. The Shira Cathedral, one of the three 

volcanoes that make up Kilimanjaro, is on the right.

SMK How many miles (kilometers) is your route up-and-down Kili?
BEG   One source says from Machame Gate up to Uhuru summit and down to Mweka Gate is 37 miles (62 kilometers). But I have found that different sources give different distances for the trails and different altitudes for the camps on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

SMK   You spent six nights sleeping in tents on the mountain. Tell me more. . .
BEG   Walter (a long-time Tanzania friend) and I shared a tent. I had a sleeping pad, a bag and a pillow, but my coat was a pillow most nights. We’d often sleep on a slope, heads up, feet down, so I’d have to pull myself up again--several times a night--whenever I slipped down!

SMK   When you climbed Kili  the first and second times. . .how old were you?

BEG 61 and 63.

Shira Camp at the eastern edge of the Shira Plateau is the 

stopping point for the second night. The summit of Kilimanjaro 

is in the clouds in the background.

SMC  How did you get started climbing?
BEG I read Edmund Hillary’s account of the first climb of Mt. Everest in the fifth grade. A few years later, I read a book on the history of climbing Mt. Everest, including George Mallory’s tragic attempt. And I knew that climbing Everest was something I would never do.  My first experience in climbing came much later when my cousin, Pete, and I climbed in Rocky Mountain National Park. Then I saw a documentary on PBS about a scientist with a neuromuscular disease who tried to climb Kilimanjaro. After this, climbing Kili seemed like something I could do. In 2004, when I met Walter Miya (former ranger for Tanzania National Park), I knew this could become a reality.

SMK   What made your third climb different?

Alpine chats are common along the middle portion of the 

Machame Route.

BEG Even though I was 66 years old, climbing was easier than when I was younger! I owe it all to working out at the YMCA.  This time, I wasn’t the last one to reach camp. I could actually walk around in each camp at the end of the day’s hike and not just collapse into my tent. On summit day, I actually made it to the crater rim before sunrise. I had never made it to the summit of any mountain before sunrise. The porters still called me “Babu” (Swahili for “old man” or “grandfather”).

SMK   What else motivated you?
BEG   It was there! It was an adventure! It was a reason to travel!

Looking down on one of the glaciers on the flanks of Kilimanjaro 

from the crater rim. The glaciers look much larger from above than 

from below.

SMK Tell me more about how you trained for Climb Number Three?
BEG   In 2011 during the second climb, I was in bad shape, weighed more than I had ever weighed before and had a very, very difficult time. I swore I’d never climb it again. It was time to take action, to do something about my lack of fitness. For me, joining the YMCA was that action. After joining in January, 2012, I spent 2 ½ years working out on treadmills, stairs, steppers, free weights and resistance machines. The first six months, a personal trainer was very helpful. Every day I was in Bloomington, I tried to work out at the Y. In 2013, I went for a streak of 50 days in a row! Gradually, I’ve gotten in much better shape and feel much better, much healthier. This transformation has been without drastically changing my diet. . .except for drinking less beer.

The summit of Kilimanjaro from Shira Camp. Small glaciers 

can be seen on the flanks of the mountain.

SMK   What was the weather like?
BEG Weather was good. It rained lightly the first night, then for about an hour into the morning hike. After that, we were above the clouds!

SMK   When I was in Tanzania, we walked around outside Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park. We walked along dirt roads past “shambas” (Swahili for small farms). I saw small block houses, chickens in the yard, banana trees, big family gardens, avocados hanging on branches. What did you find just inside the park?
BEG From Machame gate to Machame camp we walked through montane rainforest. We saw some blue monkeys near the gate, but wildlife is difficult to see in the forest. You can hear birds, like turacos; usually, we only get fleeting glimpses of them.

White-necked ravens are common once you get above the tree line. 

They are opportunistic and will attempt to pilfer food while you 

eat your lunch.

SMK The zone from about 9,200 to 15,000 feet has been called heath and moorland zone. What did
you find there?
BEG  The second day the trail is much rockier and the vegetation more sparse. The trees become smaller and eventually are no more than shrubs. There are numerous flowering plants, a lot of which are called “everlasting” by the guide. We start to see white-necked ravens and alpine chats. The ravens have very imposing beaks and have been known to take a climber’s chicken-leg out of the lunch box.

The second night is spent at one of the Shira camps on the eastern edge of the Shira Plateau. From here, if you are above the clouds, you have good views of the summit and good views of Mt. Meru to the west. Shira Camp can be a very windy place and sleeping can be difficult.

The morning half of the third day we spent climbing from Shira Camp toward the Lava Tower, a landmark on the southwest slope of Kilimanjaro. This time, I climbed up the Lava Tower over a shear, rock face.

SMK Oh, sounds scary!

The Lava Tower is a landmark that becomes the highest point 

on the third day of the climb.

BEG  This is one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever done. If I had known how risky it was, I would not have done it. Climbing along vertical rock surfaces (without technical equipment) is not something 66-year-olds should be doing!

From the Lava Tower into the Barranco Valley, you walk downhill through senecio forests. There’s a great view of the summit and some of Kilimanjaro’s glaciers above the Barranco Wall on your left.

Climbers descending from the summit of the 

Lava Tower.

SMK How much oxygen is there at 19,385 feet compared to sea level?
BEG The density of air at sea level is about twice what it is at 20,000 feet. So there’s roughly half the oxygen at the Kilimanjaro summit as there is on the Tanzania coast.

SMK I’ve read it takes twice the energy to do something if you have half the oxygen to breathe. How did you sustain your energy when you climbed?
BEG I would sit on a rock to rest, or just lean on my poles. I didn’t eat much on the mountain. No appetite.


SMK   Some people who start this climb don’t make the summit. Did you ever consider quitting?
BEG No. Continuing to climb seemed the easier thing to do. On the mountain anyone who quit had to walk down, or be carried on a stretcher—if there were carriers to do this. In a real emergency helicopters could land at some of the camps to evacuate climbers, but I have never seen that happen.

Uhuru Peak, the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.This was
a new sign since my last climb in 2011, but already
well adorned with commercial messages.

SMK We were all excited to get your “summit” Email! Later, you wrote that after you came down to Camp, you could not walk.
BEG The descent from the summit to the highest camp, Barafu, left me with very weak and sore legs. Barafu is so rocky, it is difficult to walk at any time, but now my legs were too weak to walk at all. Eventually, I rested in my tent for an hour or two and recovered somewhat.

SMK How did your third climb end?
BEG On the last day we walked from Mweka Camp to Mweka Gate in 2 ½ hours. This has taken me 4 hours before. Since this was my last time (to climb Kili), I gave my walking poles to the guides. I was not sick after the climb as before, even though it had been a very difficult seven days. We were back at the hotel in Arusha by early afternoon. The water was shut off, so I did not get a shower until next morning.

The climbers, guides and porters celebrating the last day on the mountain.

SMK What advice would you give about climbing Mt. Kili?
BEG  You gotta want to do it!

~~~

Sally McKinney has been a travel writer and photographer for 4 decades and has hundreds of travel
stories in magazines and newspapers.  She has also written several guide books. You can read another of Sally's travel adventures here on Travel Boldly about her learning how to travel in her 80s in Peru and Tanzania.


Sally McKinney on Travel Boldly

The moon rising in the east next to Mount Kilimanjaro.

• After Slow Travel in Tanzania - We Went Poco y Poco in Peru. You are never too old to travel.
• Travel Adventures in the Galapagos Islands

Interview with Travel Photographer Jerome Shaw on Mode - Moderne Journal

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER: JEROME SHAW SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH A LENS

Imagine being able to travel the world, exploring exotic destinations, eating the most unique foods, sipping native beverages, while discovering a completely diverse way of life. Travel photographer and writer Jerome Shaw doesn’t have to imagine this scenario, he actually lives it. MMJ. was able to locate Mr. Shaw on the map and he was so kind to share some of his incredible journeys with us.

KELLY: What sparked your interest to become a travel writer and photographer?

JEROME: I come from a very small town in Nebraska. Certainly, as a child, my family didn't travel much. A few trips around Nebraska and Kansas with my father (who ran the J.I. Case tractor dealership in our little town), delivering tractors and other farm equipment, were about the extent of my travel experiences growing up. About as far as I ever got from Hayes Center, Nebraska in my first 10 years were our annual summer trips to Colorado.

After my brother, Jim, brought home a camera with him during his break from college, I became interested in photography (I was 12-years-old). My first paid commercial assignment was photographing for the catalog of an Appaloosa Horse breeder. I’m sure I was very annoying, but my parents humored me. I had a darkroom before I had car.

After studying Fine Art at the University of Nebraska, I quickly learned that my plan to become a famous “art” photographer, getting a gallery and a book deal and make millions wasn’t going to play-out. I moved to Aspen, Colorado where my brother was managing The Nugget Lodge on Main Street. I’d never been to Aspen, but I was an avid skier (well, as avid as a Nebraska Cornhusker could be). I accepted the job as assistant manager at the Nugget and was seduced by Aspen.

I wasn’t much cut out for life in the hospitality industry: making beds, cooking breakfast and doing bookkeeping is not for me. I found there was niche for a photographer somewhere between the local portrait shooter and the well-known ski photographers that were based in Aspen. I clawed my way in, went commercial, and postponed my graduate studies.

It was while I was in Aspen that my brother formed a film production company. I worked on projects with my brother and fellow photographer, Roger Morgan. Pat Griffin often joined our crew and we began making TV commercials, documentary films and eventually ski and adventure travel films.

I’d have to say that it was working on a television series sponsored by Outside Magazine for the Discovery Channel entitled “Sir Edmund Hillary’s World of Adventure” that cemented my love of travel and provided me with an opportunity to travel widely for the first time.
​
KELLY: When traveling, how long are you usually away from home?

JEROME: I usually have a very defined trip-length planned when I travel. And, for reasons of business and personal preference, I often keep my travels relatively short. For me, 10-14 days is best for business. However, my personal travel style is to go to a single destination and stay for month or two. I like to be in one place for as long as is practical. This way I get to know people, the pace of life and local hangouts.  But unfortunately, this method takes a toll on business and personal relationships.

KELLY: Can you tell us a few of your favorite spots off the beaten path?

JEROME: The Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia cast in a central role by Herman Melville in his book Typee, and it is one of my recent favorites that are off the beaten path - waaaay off the beaten path. The Marquesas Islands are 1000 miles northeast of Tahiti. The main access for this chain of islands with names like Ua Poa, Fatu Hiva and Hiva Oa is aboard the freighter Aranui 3. I took a 14-day trip onboard the Aranui a couple of years ago. It is one of the best trips I have ever been on.

KELLY: Is there a destination you would want revisit over and over?

JEROME: New Zealand is one place that I would visit over and over. I lived there for a year and did not see nearly enough of this geographically diverse and visually dense country. Also, Brazil is my current mistress, specifically Rio. If someone calls tomorrow with a trip opportunity, I’ll be on the next plane. There are so many places in Brazil that I want to experience. Russia and Ukraine are places I have visited more than once, but I haven’t been back for many years and would like to return. In the US, Alaska is a place that I could visit once a year and never tire of.

KELLY: Where have been the easiest places to write and/or photograph?

JEROME: Peru and Ukraine, because the children are beautiful and the elderly are very photogenic. Alaska, due to its immense size and the landscapes are vast and uncluttered. But Brazil, The Marquesas Islands, and Russia were some of my favorite places to photograph.

I can’t think of any particular place that is easy to write about – but places where you get totally immersed in the culture and people prove easier to write about than places you have a tepid experience with.

KELLY: The hardest?

JEROME: As far photographing people, The British Virgin Islands was the most difficult. The people there often turned away from the camera or wanted money to have their photo taken. Weather often makes a normally photogenic locale difficult. I have had that happen in many places, but the most memorable have been in the Fiji Islands and Rio de Janeiro. Days and days of rain and gloom made getting good shots of exterior locations very tricky.

Another place that proved very difficult to capture was the lighthouse in Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia. They rightly placed a lighthouse on this rocky outcropped. It’s foggy there often, but the best photos of the lighthouse are made when the fog lifts. It took many, many drives out to Peggy’s Cove before I finally was fortunate enough to get that quintessential photo of the lighthouse at sunset.
The most difficult places to write about are places you are indifferent to. Love or hate make for better stories than indifference.


KELLY: What’s one of your favorite streets in the world?

JEROME: I’m going to cheat a bit here. I don’t know what the street name is and suspect that it is not even one single street that winds its way up from Rio Centro to the hills of the Santa Teresa district of Rio de Janeiro. But I love this street and the homes and shops that line it.

I recommend you take the streetcar called bondinho, or the "little tram" (tram leaves from a station at Largo da Carioca) up to Santa Teresa. Part way to the top is a stop with a great little pizza café, and near there - up some stairs - is a wonderful Book Hostel  Rua Francisco Muratori, 10 - Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20510-180, Brazil. There are many wonderful B&Bs in Santa Teresa and some are in artist homes.

If I ever get the opportunity to live in Rio again, you’ll find me wandering the streets of Santa Teresa, whatever their names.

KELLY: I was surprised to learn you don’t spend as much time behind the camera as one would think a travel photographer would. What takes up the majority of your time?
​
JEROME: Marketing and getting the next job take up a lot of my time. The normal every day minutia of operating a business also devours many hours per month. I’m also a writer, so research and writing combine into one of the largest blocks of time I spend away from my cameras.

And then, there is the management of the photographs I have created. I spend as much time editing, captioning and preparing the images for publication as I do creating them. The fact that digital photography has changed the nature of travel photography won’t surprise anyone. But many people don’t realize how is has impacted the amount of hours photographers spend behind the camera. Many of the services that I once relied on a photographic lab to perform, I now can do myself on the computer. Certainly the computer consumes more of my time than it did 20 years ago.

KELLY: Where are you off to next and what do you want to accomplish in these travels?

JEROME: Next up is a trip to Nebraska to go sailing with one of my best friends. I know, ‘sailing and Nebraska’ doesn’t sound like a natural. After that, I’ll spend most of the rest of the summer in Colorado with the possible exception of a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I have trips to Glenwood Springs, Boulder and Aspen on my summer itinerary.

I have a busy fall travel calendar, with the highlights being The Big Island of Hawaii, Bora Bora and the Riviera Maya in Mexico. I am also planning trips to Mesquite and Las Vegas, Nevada to cover events and Florida.

Each year I make my Travel Wish List and, amazingly, even with such far-flung, exotic destinations included, I usually manage to score an assignment or invitation to at least one a year. So far, I haven’t had a hit on any of my 2012 list, but Bora Bora will take care of that. Some of my other wishes for 2012 are Bali, Tibet, South Africa, Iceland, Italy and Argentina.

For more information visit www.jeromeshaw.com


Kelly Shannon is a native Californian & journalist who believes each of our unique lifestyles creates our very own way of life; from our preferences of art & literature to fashion & music. Deeply intrigued by the creators and innovators of trends, style, and vitality, she is also the Editor in Chief of MMJ.

Excerpt of Interview with a Travel Writer/Photographer Jerome Shaw on JobShadow

Interview with Travel Writer and Travel Photographer, Jerome Shaw on Job Shadow

Interview with a Travel Writer/Photographer, Jerome Shaw     

Read as acclaimed writer and photographer Jerome Shaw talks about his career as a Travel Writer and Photographer.   You can find him at the links here or on his Twitter feed in the sidebar. 

What do you do for a living?

I am a travel writer and photographer. I also teach photography workshops in Colorado, Utah & New Mexico and develop & lead tours and workshops in Cuba, Fiji and Europe.

How would you describe what you do?

Travel Writer and Photographer: I develop story ideas about travel destinations and travel to the location to produce photography and gather information with which to create a travel article package for publication. Most of my writing and photography product is now consumed by online publications. Ten years ago it was predominately published in print magazines and newspapers.

Photography Teacher: I conceive, design, set up, market and conduct photography classes and workshops here in Denver, Colorado as well as in travel locations in the Western USA and internationally.

What does your work entail?

I am a one-man band. I do a bit of everything; from marketing and advertising to accounting and collections to website design and social media. And, now with digital photography I also perform many of the post-production photography services on my computer that my photo lab used to do for me.

All the while doing what you’d expect from a writer – writing, and from a photographer – photographing. When you are self-employed you wear many hats during each day.

What’s a typical work week like?

There is no “typical workweek” for me. Every week is different. Some of things I do consistently are answer and send emails, administer my blog and website, post to social media accounts, make travel arrangements, keep up with developments in both the travel and photography industries, read press releases, attend PR functions, call on clients and prospective clients, and manage account receivable and accounts payable. Occasionally I travel.

When I am not traveling I do try my best to keep regular hours. Though, that can difficult when I encounter high work volume and short deadlines.

I am sure many people are surprised that I spend more than half my time not doing any travel writing or photography. I was certainly surprised when I first became a photographer just how little time I actually spent behind the camera. While the advent of digital photography has changes some things it has not increased the number or hours I spend actually working with cameras but it has increased greatly the number of hours I spend on the computer.

How did you get started?

I started as an amateur photographer at age 12 entering 4-H completions. In high school I worked on the school paper & yearbook, and did small local photography jobs. I attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. I have Bachelors of Fine Art with an emphasis in still & motion picture photography and three-dimensional design with a minor in art history. I also accrued enough hours in business and law courses to have a minor in business but art majors are required to take their minor in art history. From there I expected to become a well-known fine art photographer in a few months after graduation and be represented by countless galleries and museums … but that is not how it worked then or now.

After graduation I moved to Aspen, Colorado for what was a to be a 6 month break between undergraduate studies and a graduate program at UCLA or USC in film. Fortunately or unfortunately I found work as a commercial photographer and as a sound engineer, still photographer and assistant cameraman for a film production company. Five years later I left Aspen without a graduate degree but with a lot of experience. I moved to Denver and continued to work as a commercial photographer in the ski and adventure sports industry.

I was fortunate to get several jobs that entailed travel: shooting swimsuits in Hawaii, airline brochures in Mexico and as part of 4 man crew working on a adventure travel television series entitled “Sir Edmund Hillary’s World of Adventure” that eventually was picked up by the Discovery Channel. The television series took me from New Zealand to Greece and from Alaska to Peru. The travel bug had bitten me hard. I was hooked.

During most of my early work for travel publications I was the photographer in the writer/photographer team. I enjoyed being able to concentrate on photography while the writer did the research and gather information and details. Soon though, I noticed that when only one person was invited on travel assignments it was NOT the photographer. I began watching how the writers I worked with gathered material. I often saw the first draft through the published article, which gave me great insight into the writing process. I began to teach myself how a travel article was created start to finish. I was also involved in the marketing of the article/photography packages and learned that side of the business too.

For the past 10+ years I have been both writer and photographer on 90% of my jobs. While I still do enjoy being able to concentrate on only the photography portion of the product, when the publication and budget allows, I have come to enjoy the writing as much as the photography.


Read the full interview on JobShadow at: http://www.jobshadow.com/interview-with-a-travel-writerphotographer/

Visit JeromeShaw.com 

Interview with Travel Writer Jerome Shaw

A few months ago I was contacted by a college student, who asked if she could interview me about travel writing. Each month on Twitter and Facebook I receive questions from people wanting to break into travel writing, so I am publishing the Q&A in hopes that it will answer a few of the most common questions that those starting out in travel writing commonly ask.

Travel Writing & Photography Workshop and Tour 

Santa Fe, NM  December 11th - 14th, 2014

Interview with Travel Writer Jerome Shaw

• How did you start off your career as a travel writer? 

Oddly, I began my career in travel writing as a photographer.  I worked as the photographer as part of a team with travel writers.  I often traveled with the writers and photographed the places and experiences that they would eventually write about.  As budgets became more restricted many publications began sending only one person on the assignments and it wasn’t the photographer. Having worked with writers on travel stories over the years I saw how they worked on location and then read their finished articles.  This insider look at their processes gave me excellent training in travel writing. I began to both photograph and write on many assignments. 

• Why did you decide to pursue travel writing?

I enjoyed traveling and found the creative process involved in writing very satisfying.  To some degree it was an economic decision to combine travel writing with travel photography because of changes in the publishing industry. 

• What obstacles did you face breaking into the industry?

I met with some resistance having been a photographer for so many years. Some publications refused to accept me as a writer.  Travel writing is a very competitive field, especially for the well paid assignments for high circulation publications.  The move from print to electronic media has changed the landscape of travel writing greatly.  It is now easier than ever to be published but more difficult than ever to get paid well for being published.  If this trend continues the best talent young will naturally migrate away from the industry.

• What’s the best way to establish yourself if you’re starting off freelancing?

Create an excellent product, on time.  You will likely have to finance your own travel in the beginning or concentrate on local destinations.  You may also have to also accept low or no pay but I recommend you do as little of this as possible.  And never with the expectation that once you get your foot in the door with a publication by writing for free, that they will eventually hire you as a paid writer. This rarely happens.  Once you establish that you work for free or low rates it is very difficult to break out of that mold as far as an individual publication is concerned.  You’ll always be their low-cost option and the better paying assignments will go to writers that established early that they expected to be paid. Though, in the beginning you may have to allow some of your work to be published for little or no money to gain clips/samples to build your resume, chose these instances wisely.  

• What advice would you give to new travel writers?

Think about the place where you live as travel destination and produce travel pieces featuring your hometown.  This is a good way to produce low cost material that won’t break the bank if you don’t get top dollar for publication.

• What are common mistake travel writers make in their copy?

The mistake I make most often is to tell my readers how wonderful or terrible the travel experience was rather than show them what the experience was like.  

• How did you first get published?  

As a photographer I broke in with a Aspen Magazine in Aspen, Colorado illustrating features.  My first writing publication came early in my career when I was asked by Windsurfing Magazine to write 600-800 words to accompany my photographs of boardsailing in the spring in the Rocky Mountains.  It was a laborious, time consuming process for me to write that article.  For the time spent writing I would have made much better money shooting photographs. For the next fifteen years I declined writing assignments or passed them on to my writer friends.  

My first travel article publications were for an independent small market newspaper.  They were creating a new travel section and needed a reliable source of content.  I had a backlog of content from years of traveling as photographer and had seen the necessity to do add writing to my skill set.  We were a great fit.  

• Do you think it is necessary to have an agent?

No.  

While it may not be the best situation for travel

journalists the reality is most have to hone 

their skills in both writing and photography. We 

are re-entering the era of the "one man band" travel

journalist.  Soon we'll all have to add video

production to our skill set too.  

• Do you think travel writers should do their own photography? Why?

Funny you should ask.  I actually do not think they should but the reality is that they must in many cases do their own photos.  Especially in the early part of their career.  I still enjoy getting an assignment to do only the photography.  It allows me to focus one thing and do it well while the writer can concentrate on getting the details right and developing a complex story.  However, many publications simply do not have the budgets necessary to support two people traveling to a location and time necessary for them to create the article as a team.  

As a fledgling travel writer, especially working for on line publications, you will certainly be asked to create or provide photography to accompany your story. Becoming passable as a photographer is the least you should do.  If you really want to put yourself in a position to be in demand you should learn basic video production skills.

• Do you do any other writing besides for travel?

Yes.  I write social media and marketing copy.  I write promotional copy for brochures and website.  These are often for travel industry clients but not always.  

I write a lot of photo captions. I also write how-to photography articles.  I have in the past written for film and television projects.

• What is ‘good’ travel writing?

Writing that brings the location to life and draws the reader into the story being told while providing useful information is good travel writing.  The best travel writing shows, rather than tells the reader what the travel experience was like.  Everyone thinks that they can write travel even if they can’t write a business letter or a decent short story.  The best travel writing is personal without becoming a “what I did on my summer vacation” style of writing.  Good travel writing is just good writing.

• What is ‘bad’ travel writing?

Conversely, bad travel writing is just bad writing.  Two issues that are often part of bad travel writing are the use of cliched descriptions and overuse of adjectives, especially superlatives.  

• What are the benefits of being a travel writer?

Travel. More specifically travel with a purpose built in.  When traveling as a journalist you get access to people and situations that the average tourist or traveler does not get.  The satisfaction of being creative is also one of the benefits of being a travel writer. For me personally, meeting new people is one of the greatest benefits of my having become a travel journalist.

• What are the negative sides to being a travel writer?

Low pay and high competition are two definite drawbacks to being a travel writer. Travel writing is not a a high paying field except for a few elite writers. 

People also often equate travel with vacations. Traveling as a journalist has very little in common with vacation travel and much more in common with business travel.  It is a bit like living in resort town where most of the people visiting are there for a holiday but you have to get up and go to work while they play.  

• Anything else you want to add?

If you love to travel — get rich.  If you love to write — become a traveler. ~ Jerome Shaw

Links to other interviews with Jerome Shaw: 

Mode-Moderne Journal - Travel Photographer: Jerome Shaw  Seeing The World Through a Lens  

Job Shadow - Interview with a Travel Writer/Photographer