Brendan's Adventures

I’ll admit it, when iPhoneography started to really take hold it drove me crazy.  I hated all the photos being published of some terrible composition or some boring subject covered up with a 60s filter and some quote below like “OMG, I’m like an artist!!!” However, as time rolled on I realized a couple things: [...]

Last year I made the effort to go out and take photos each and every day.  I figured that 1) I would find photography opportunities I would have otherwise missed and 2) that all the shooting would improve my photography.  Well, I was absolutely right on both regards.  Looking back at my favourite travel photos [...]

Seen one beach snap, seen them all. Right? Portugal’s beaches may be sun-soaked and seemingly picture-perfect. But look at them through a viewfinder, and what do you have? Three horizontal strips of sand, sea and sky. Monotony in a photo. Next time you’re in Portugal, let your curiosity take you beyond the usual beaches – and [...]

I took a bit of a break from my travelcation in Bamako a couple weeks ago to head out and explore a bit of the interior of the country.  As you may know, Mali is currently a country divided by a conflict involving a faction of Al-Qaeda.  Essentially, the conflict has divided the country in [...]

Over the past year, one of the things I’ve really been working on doing a little bit more of is star photography.  Shooting the stars has always fascinated me.  Our camera’s ability to see even more stars than our eyes can gives us light into a world that we don’t yet know or truly understand. [...]

The thing about travelling so much is that almost everywhere you go reminds you of somewhere you’ve been before.  And while I really do enjoy the places that remind me of nowhere else I’ve ever been, I also get a kick out of places that make me reminisce.  While many places in Mali remind me of [...]

  A Bunch of Pictures of a Church – Yamoussoukro Basilica ————————————————– At first, I thought about writing a agnostically-charge article about the abuse of religious spending in developing nations. I thought about writing about what a shame it was that wherever I travel in the developing world different religious organizations spend millions of dollars [...]

After the many bumpy roads in West Africa, the trip to the Abidjan- after visiting the stilt dancers in Man, Cote d’Ivoire - was like riding around on a pillow.  I had been joking around for quite a while that the capital of Cote d’Ivoire was going to be my reprieve from West Africa.  The bus ride [...]

I apologize in advance for the terrible puns that are about to roll through this website, but I spent about a week in a town called Man, Cote d’Ivoire; and with a name like that you have to realize some puns are going to flow. My arrival in Man was such a blessing (see I [...]

As sad as it was to leave Sierra Leone and move on, it’s equally as sad to leave the content behind as well.  But as the saying goes, the traveller must travel and his writing must follow. Anyways, I didn’t spend nearly as much time in Liberia as I had hoped or planned.  I ended [...]

I sat at No. 2 River on the Freetown Peninsula drinking beers, relaxing and shaking my head at the potential for tourism in Sierra Leone.  The beach was beautiful, the scenery was stunning, and aside from a couple of documentary film makers – who I shared quite a few of the aforementioned beers with – [...]

Throughout my time in West Africa I’ve kept saying the same thing: “people don’t think this image when they think (insert country here)!” Truth is, there is just so much potential for tourism in West Africa it’s unbelievable, but yet over the past 2 months I’ve not met another tourist anywhere. Sure, poor infrastructure, inept [...]

On my hike in the Fouta Djallon of Guinea, I was struck by the friendliness of the people I met along the way.  It seemed that each village was ready to welcome us with wide open arms and friendly smiles.  The villages were dominated by children, and most of them were not only willing to [...]

Looking back on Bissau is a little bit tough for me.  It was one of those places that I just don’t feel like I got anything out of.  Sure, part of the problem was that I found myself in the grips of malaria, but it was also that there just isn’t a lot to do [...]