Last year, I wrote a three-part series on basic travel photography. One of my posts focused on a question that I get a lot. "Do I need a camera?"...

Let me start by saying that cameras are mainly mirrorless now. For a quick review of what that means, watch this short video. The most salient difference between mirrorless...

I love this little guy. It’s as small as a deck of cards but sports a 200mm zoom lens, and a pop-up EVF. Let’s talk about that EVF. When...

Keep in mind though that these smaller sensors are going to create challenges if you are doing a lot of shooting in low light. Without getting too technical, these...

Now, here’s what a normal 600mm Lens looks like. In fact, a typical 600mm prime lens is even larger. The photo below is a very compact 600mm example. ...

Again, you have to realize that the RX10 is designed to be used in good light, but the possibilities are endless with such an incredible zoom lens. I think...

So, what sensor size (and thus which camera body) is right for you? Larger sensors can give you an edge. The two most important advantages are low-light performance and...

Fuji’s X-series of bodies and lenses, on the other hand, is completely dedicated to APS-C sensors. In this context, buyers that think they are committed to cropped sensors for...

Set 4: “Photography is the primary purpose of my trip, and I am willing to do whatever I need to do achieve the best possible image quality.”Based on my...

This brings us to the conclusion. I would like to close with the reminder that there are three things that go into a great photograph:Choosing an interesting subject. Every...

As we move through history, we get closer and closer to the year that would change Spain forever: 1492. It was in this year that the final Muslim state...

What catapulted Spain into the center of the world however was another event. As opposed to early and medieval Christianity which subjugated knowledge and reason as impediments to faith...

Abd al-Raḥmān’s Spain, often referred to as the Caliphate of Cordoba, was one of remarkable accommodation. With limited exceptions, both Christians and Jews were free to practice their faiths...

In 1035, Alfonso VI and his Christian forces captured the Muslim city of Toledo, another great center of Islamic learning on the Peninsula. Alfonso was the right conqueror at...

As Christian power was consolidated, and religious dogma became politically expedient, Spain itself would be gutted intellectually, but that’s a story we will get to in the next post...

My mom is in her 80’s and she is the most organized person I know. When I say organized, I don’t mean that her socks are folded more elegantly...

Evernote is marketed as a note taking application. When I begin planning a new trip, I open a new “notebook” (really just a digital folder), where I am going...

This new field is built around the concept of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). Let me explain it through my experience in military. There have been (and remain to some...

Roam Research offers a free trial followed by a $15 per month subscription. For a similar program at no cost, consider Obsidian. At this point, I am using PKM...

The Visigoths. You’ve heard of them, but you can’t really remember why. Often lost in history, the Visigoths (Eastern Goths as opposed the Western Ostrogoths) actually played an oversized...

First and foremost, the Visigoths made Spain a Catholic nation. This is no small historical milestone. Catholicism became (and remains to some extent) a core feature of the nation’s...

The second legacy of the Visigoths is even more fascinating. Although the Visigoths are caricatured as illiterate bearded Germanic barbarians, their enlightened sense of justice resulted in one of...

Like most things in life, my wife talked me into it. Ten days on a bus with people I don’t know?! “You’ll like it”, she said. All I could...

We have a lot of choices when we travel. Once we decide on a destination, one of the main questions is if we want to approach it independently or...

Do you value stress-free travel? That’s not a rhetorical question. Some people like the excitement of figuring it all out by themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but...

There are many organizations that offer guided journeys. At Kilometer One, our preferred partner is Insight Vacations. Here are some of the reasons that we choose Insight for our...

Flexibility. From group size, to duration, to destination, and activity levels, Insight has a journey tailored for you. Journeys are divided into three general categories. Discovery Journeys serve as...

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, is that Insight gives back globally. Beyond their proven long-term commitment to sustainable travel, Insight co-founded and generously supports The TreadRight Foundation to ensure...

As I started to collect my notes for this post, I realized that I might have gotten in over my head. How can I produce almost 600 years of...

Let’s start with the fact that the Romans suffered. Unlike the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians, the Romans were not satisfied with the coastal areas. They wanted to...

Although the spirit of resistance is an important legacy of the Roman period, it is hardly the end of the story. Iberia would go on to be a crown...

When we think about Spain today we think about the political entity that loosely binds the population of about 85% of the landmass of the Iberian Peninsula. This political...

While these two groups did not typically interfere with each other, it was the Iberians that had first contact with the emerging sophisticated cultures of the Mediterranean, and thus...

Today, many people refer to these pre-Roman residents of the Peninsula simply as Celtiberians, reflecting a gradual fusion. It's interesting to note that there is general agreement that the...

Today’s Spain faces a wide range of challenges. From separatist movements to rapidly changing demographics, there are both static and dynamic pressure points that seem to threaten the stability...

Spain, like our own country, is a nation-state. It’s easy to take this for granted but it is one of the most fundamental truths that shape our perception of...

So there we were! Luxor, Egypt, 1993. Looking back, the whole thing was probably not a great idea. (From Wikipedia: “1993 was a particularly severe year for terrorist attacks...

I think that for better or worse, most people conflate safety with avoidance of crime. I am headed to “x destination”. Will there be pickpocketing? Will I be assaulted...

Before writing this post, I interviewed a close friend. Rob Fagan is a retired US Army Colonel and former Defense Attaché. He continues to work and travel all over...

The most important thing that stuck out during my conversation with Rob, was his simplest advice. “Be situationally aware”. This is so profound. Few of us really pay attention...

This post is the third in my Basic Photography Series. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to read my previous posts on cameras and basic...

Further down, I will discuss how to choose the right photo editor. In the mean, time, let's look at a few settings that will be common to all editors...

Let’s talk about editing software/applications. One of the most important decisions you have to make as a photographer is where you want to edit your images. Professionals and serious...

Here is my typical Snapseed workflow for travel photography:I get home from my trip and remove my SD card from my camera. I load the SD card into a...

It is hard to imagine Spain without the legacy of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Cervantes created much of...

Cervantes was born (1547) into a Spain that was experiencing a serious case of imperial indigestion. The riches from the new American conquests were making Spain nominally wealthy, but...

Cervantes was the son of a struggling barber-surgeon in Alcala de Henares near Madrid whose own father had been an attorney and person of relative importance in the Andalusian...

By now, you are probably feeling a connection between Cervantes' disillusion and the “illusions” that plague the protagonist of his great novel. Let’s take some time to consider the...

This new approach to literature landed in a Spain that was discontent with its place in the world and its stagnant feudalistic society. The printing press spread Don Quijote...

I drove through my town in Ohio last weekend with out-of-town guests and was proud to show off a building constructed (at least the original foundation) almost 180 years...

Most of us can conceptualize our existence in an “historical context”. History is often defined as the human story since the development of writing systems. Most historians agree that...

Connecting with those that came before is more conceptually challenging for us not just because of the scale of time, but also because they did not leave as many...

The cave complex at Altamira is world-renowned for its remarkable etchings and paintings, especially of now-extinct bison. There are several things that make it special, even when compared to...

A second reason that these caves are so special is that we know (through modern dating techniques) that these paintings were created over a period of 20,000 years. Think...

Today I would like to share the second part of a three-part series on travel photography. As you may recall, the first part of this series dealt with the...

Now, place your subject on the lines, or even better..... on the intersections of the lines. See J. M. W. Turner’s painting The Fighting Temeraire below. The subject is...

(I can’t move on without mentioning how much I love the above painting. Did you know that in 2005, it was selected as Britains’s favorite painting? On the...

What a beautiful photograph. If I asked you, “What is this photo of?" you would say “Roosevelt”, and you would be right. But of course, we both know that...

Best Practice 3: Don’t fight the light. The word photography came from Greek roots and can be translated as “painting with light”. Technically, all you are doing when you...

Yes, it was behind me. Because it was behind me, the photo has clear colors, contrast, and clarity. Here’s another experiment. I’ll just walk into my backyard and take...

Obviously, these photos were taken from two different angles. In the first photo, the sun was in front of me. In the second, the sun was behind me. Can...

For several months now, I’ve been meaning to write a blog post on Goya. Of course, just as I prepared to get down to business, we have been saddled...

It was not simply this slowly diminishing sphere of the sacred that Goya’s work reflected. More ominously, it was this world in which God might not be as present...

“Bad winds and bad marriages!” So jest the Portuguese about Spain, their conjoined Iberian sibling. Although the winds may continue, there have not been any “bad marriages” lately and...

Eventually, three major Christian Kingdoms vied for power: Portugal, Aragon, and Castile. In 1384, the Army of Castile invaded Portugal to impose control. Remarkably, after two years (and with...

Do you know any shepherds? Any friends in the profession? Perhaps an aspiring niece or nephew? When I first started visiting Spain in the 1980's I was amazed by...

For over a thousand years, pilgrims have made the long, beautiful trek to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. They come from all over the Continent, following many paths...

Over the past decade, Barcelona has become the busiest cruise port in the Mediterranean, emerging as the point of embarkation for a variety of European cruises. For hundreds of...

As a travel photographer, one of the most common questions I get is about cameras. “Should I buy a camera for my trip, or is my cell phone good...

For better or worse, Spain has generally been known more for its art than its science. Historically speaking, the last 500 years have not been kind to Spain. The...

I consistently look forward to writing my bi-weekly post here on the Iberian Compass. It gives me a chance to share some often eclectic ideas and experiences collected as...

Although travel has been a necessary function of human survival for thousands of years, it is only in the 19th Century that people began to travel frequently simply for...

“In an attempt to build and maintain a national identity, language is considered to be the primary determinant of success.” Linguistic scholar Andrew Simpson’s observation is particularly relevant in...

Over the past 30 years, I have rented 11 cars in Spain. I returned 9 of them damaged. Needless to say, I am now an advocate of rail travel...

As an Iberian travel specialist, I’m supposed to know a lot about wine. And in some ways I do. I know the main varietals and the most popular appellations...

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One of the most common questions I get when talking about my business pertains to the meaning of Iberia. That’s partly my fault. Even in my website copy, I...

Map Source: Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community | CC BY 4.0 ign.es, Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA...

I had all kinds of ideas for the topic of my first post. Everything from the origins of King’s Day as it is celebrated on the Iberian Peninsula to...