From the Editors: 1,000 Words

YOUR MATADOR TRIPS EDITORS believe a thoughtful photograph can rival a well-crafted travel tale. This was reconfirmed for me recently when I found The Boston Globe‘s photo site: The Big Picture. Seriously, check these out:

On the shoreline: A celebration of those narrow lines where water meets earth.
Watching the H1Ni flu pandemic: Surgical masks, syringes, and wet wipes from around the world.
Pushkar Mela: Shots from an annual camel fair in Rajasthan, India (and some of the best photos I’ve ever seen).

We’ve brought you some pretty sweet photo essays ourselves in recent months. In fact, one of them, The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth, just surpassed half a million pageviews. Here are some other classics:

12 Lesser-Known Ruins of the World
GIANT Redwoods, the Tallest Living Things on Our Planet
Berlin 20/20: A Photo Tour of a Reunited City
13 Places to Get Close to the EDGE

We’ve also invited everyone from the Matador Community to join in the photo fun. If you haven’t already, make sure to visit the Matador Photography Flickr group and sign up.

Carlo’s taken the initiative there, putting out calls for shots that we can use for our Wordless Wanderlust series, as well as submissions for an upcoming wildlife photo essay.

But most importantly, Matador Network has been active on this topic from the beginning, publishing some truly valuable content designed to help you step up your photog game. Have you read these?

The A-B-C-D-E of Travel Photography
What makes a photo tell a story?
Studies in Travel Photography: Perspective, Timing, and Themes

It only gets better from here. Just a couple weeks ago the news came out that MatadorU, fired up from the success of its 12-week Travel Writing Program, will be offering a travel photography course in 2010.

Here’s to more photo essays on Matador Trips, and more kick-ass photographers in the Matador tribe.

Hal Amen, Co-editor

Community Connection

Again, you’re invited to join Matador Photography over at Flickr. We’ve already got more than 100 members and hundreds of travel photos.