alangrant wrote:I think Andrys is probably right, a travel forum might come closer to meeting your needs than a photo hosting site. As well as the sites already mentioned, I'd also suggest the Lonely Planet Thorntree, especially the "Computers, Cameras, Phones" branch. There is a lot of discussion on that branch about things like the best camera gear for travel (or particular types of travel), and insurance:
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.cfm?catid=34
Thanks for that reminder, Alan.
For advice about photography in specific locations, I don't think I've come across a forum dedicated to that type of question.
I've run into something similar on
http://slowtalk.com for sure where all
kinds of questions are discussed under Italy (and other countries) and on
other questions, but again, travel insurance and airport rules as well
as how to get in without waiting in lines to places where you want
to photograph are discussed a lot. This is in tandem with their general
area on travel electronics and gadgets.
But I think you probably need a forum that is divided into geographic branches. A forum branch dedicated to Italy, for example, should have plenty of readers who know a bit about Italy.
Right and again Frommers and Fodors have geographic splits,
and in each one, camera questions as well as insurance and airport
rules are discussed.
PBase's crowd is not focused very much on travel, and those of
us who are tend to want to go to travel forums, which not only
separate discussions by geographic areas but have TONS of people
responding re travel questions (especially today including digital
camera and associated electronics as well as laptops).
But Fodors and Frommers (mainstream travel sites) have a lot
more people answering those questions. pbatchou made it over
to dpreview which is as camera discussion site rather than
a photo-displaying site. That made sense.
pbatchou
Re the complaint about displaying photos instead here or
calling attention to one's galleries, the S&T style forum is indeed
very effective in bringing attention to one's galleries even existing
since pbase is featuring the forum and then people find the other
forums. Fire up statcounter (it's in your Settings area).
The most often asked question is not photography in specific
countries but how people get visitors at all to their galleries.
If you like a person's photography in various countries you
can always ask them questions, and if your question is in their
galleries they'll notice it.
If you consider "self promotion" to make sure other members
or visitors know, in a personal way, that they have galleries in
specific travel locations, not depending on pbase's search
mechanism which can bring up 422 galleries for you to peruse
(for Italy alone), then that'll be your take.
I understand your disappointment because things are not the
way you'd want them. You can try to change that by actually
posting a travel photo question here in this forum rather than in
Show and Tell (though I don't think many pbasers come to this
particular forum, being more interested in general picture taking)
and by not putting down the others who do post here to let people
know about their galleries, on a site with something like 200,000 users
(including the non-paying members).
Remember though that this is a site just for sharing photos
and galleries and the forums will naturally tend to be about
how to do THAT though we get 'technical' 'artistic' and 'photo-editing'
areas in connection with that and I find them very helpful so I
read those daily. Sometimes we travel only a block away for a photo!
(Just kidding in that last but I hope you'll find the place useful for some
of your questions.)