ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

Photojournalist Travel Tips - Photographing Your Passport and Credit Cards

It's been a while since I've posted in my Travel Advice section and being on the road the last couple of months has reminded me that I need to get back into making these posts.  So here we go with one of my favorite and most important tips that applies to anyone traveling overseas, not just photojournalists.

I always like to take a photo of my passport (picture and information page) as well as the fronts and backs of all of my credit cards that I will be traveling with.  If I am traveling to a country that requires proof of vaccinations or other medical forms I also take shots of these. 

I then take all of these photos, compress them into a zip file and email them to myself.  If I get robbed or stuck somewhere all I have to do is find an internet cafe to print out the documents I will need to get into the embassy or into or out of an area I might be stuck in.  I can also call my credit card companies and cancel all of my cards without having to call home and have my poor family try to track down all this information for me. 

I was in a situation once when I was 19 years old and traveling abroad when I managed to get everything I had with me stolen except the clothes I was wearing.  This included my passport, most of my money and my airplane ticket (these were the days when you actually needed to have a paper ticket.)  I ended up having to spend a week in homeless shelters while the embassy tried to prove who I was and get me a new passport.  It is a situation I would not want to repeat and hopefully sharing this advice will allow all of you to travel with a few less worries.

Colors of Cambodian Ghettos

I have been working on a couple of heavy projects here, but I have also taken a bit of time to just get back to basics and hit the streets I used to roam ten years ago.  And in that spirit, I decided it was time to start doing more color work as well.  I will continue to post a lot of stories in black and white but I will also be working on more of balance, as I have neglected color a bit for the past two years.

These images are part of a larger story I am working on about life in the ghettos and slums of Cambodia. 

A group of makeshift floating homes outside of a slum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

 

Children playing on train tracks in a ghetto area that runs along the rail lines.

 

A dog snacks on discarded sugar cane in small dump area outside one of the ghettos.

 

After a rain storm a girl walks through a flooded street to fetch clean drinking water.

 

Residents pass time playing music outdoors on a holiday weekend.

In Cambodia Working on New Color Edits

I have been in Cambodia the past two weeks working on several new photo stories.  I am also working on some color edits, both of this new work here in Cambodia as well as my ongoing project on Child Labor.  I realize it has been a long time since I have posted regularly in color so I will try to do more in the coming months. I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Shampoo is Soap

Today the staff at my hotel told me that they would no longer be giving bars of soap away because shampoo is the same thing as soap and I should just use it to wash my hands and face with.  The statement came with a smile and hands outstretched, filled with lots of those small bottles of shampoo.

I am now rationing my final piece of soap which is about the size of a grain of rice...

I have officially been traveling to fluffin long!