Hey gang, it’s David. It’s been a while!

In 2021, I archived Strobist as a completed project. I can’t honestly say that I’ve missed the breakneck pace of running a solo site. But I’ve definitely missed being in touch with so many cool people all of the time.

That said, I am still teaching. X-Peditions gives me the twin advantages much smaller class sizes, plus being in Hanoi every fall. And that’s been wonderful.

Better yet, it has given me the breathing room in my schedule to be able produce my current project. Like Strobist, this project is designed for photographers. But unlike this site, it has nothing at all to do with flash.



Today I’m introducing my new book, The Traveling Photographer's Manifesto. It aspires to be for traveling photographers what Strobist always tried to be for lighting photographers.

Anyone who has ever read this blog will find the format to be very familiar. It’s essentially a year’s worth of blog posts, but set in hardcover. Or paperback. Or Kindle. Your call. And much like Strobist, it draws on my 20 years spent as a newspaper photojournalist—plus another 15 years teaching.

My hope, as with Strobist, is that this book will find the readers for whom it is best-suited. To that end, I have uploaded two documents to my Google Drive for anyone to download if they are interested.

The first is a quick-read, 5-minute summary of the book. This way, you can get a really good idea if it is right for you without risking a cent.

The second is a 27-page visual supplement available to readers of the book. Because The Traveling Photographer’s Manifesto is a “word book.” (For, you know, thinking photographers.)

A small-ish section of the book is devoted to bettering your understanding of ambient light, and exploring dynamic, layered composition. So, for visual learners, the photos may help.

But, as you will see from the summary, most of the book is not about camera operation at all. It’s really about the countless little things that working photojournalists do while on assignment that an enthusiast might not think of.

And these little things, taken together, start to form the impression of a photographer being consistently, conspicuously lucky. When luck probably had very little to do with it.

So, if this sort of thing might be of interest to you, I hope you’ll give it a spin. It’s available now, on Amazon.com, worldwide.

As with all things Strobist, I welcome your feedback from this project as well. My email is on the copyright page. (Or even better, leave a review. I’m a total newb, as far as Amazon is concerned.)

Thanks for your interest, and for your readership of Strobist. As always, ping me at any time on Twitter at @Strobist.


Cheers,
David


The Traveling Photographer’s Manifesto (Amazon)