Jimbojack - About me and the site

It's always a bit strange to write about yourself, at least it is for me.

My greatest passion in life is travel. I started traveling in the mid 1990's when I was still in High School. Since then I have traveled extensively around the world as well as the United States where I have been living since elementary school. In the last few years I have travelled on average about 3-4 months each year. My estimate is that at this point in my life I have spent a total of more then 3 years traveling around the world, visiting around 100 countries (depending on how you define what a "country" is).

I started becoming interested in Photography after I started traveling. To me it was a way to attempt to capture the feeling of a place where I was. I never really studied photography, just bought a camera and figured things out on my own over the years. A few years ago I started this website as a platform to share my photos with my friends, colleagues and people I met during my travels. You might be one of these people, or maybe you just saw some of my photos online somewhere.

I'm a traveler first and a photographer second. That means I go to places that are the most interesting to me and not necessarily the most photogenic. Most of the pictures I take are a way for me to document a place or preserve a memory of something, thus they are often not that good (bad light, taken through dirty windows, etc.). Instead of spending a couple of days waiting for the perfect light for a landscape shot, I would much rather take a walk through a souk or go to see a small tribal village.

Photography is not the reason I travel, travel is the reason I photograph

I work in the field of business/economics, but I have degrees in History and Anthropology. I try to place photos/comments and places within a historical and cultural context when I write about them. Most of the descriptions and writing on this site are to a point researched by me and are historically accurate.

This website and all the photos and text/comments written here were created by me. I do it as a hobby and am happy to share my experiences and pictures with people. However I do retain the copyright under international law to all parts of the website, so please do not steal any of my images or writing. I do license my images and articles for all kinds of use, so please contact me if you would like to do so. At the same time, if you want to use my images for a personal, non commercial use, such as a school presentation, I will usually let you use them free of charge, but please ask me first. Please understand that it costs me a lot of money to travel, and I personally pay for the webhosting of this website, edit the photos and write about everything for free. So don't expect me to send you high resolution copies of my pictures so you can advertise your business for free (yes, people do ask).

Starting in April 2011 my photos from the Syrian Dead Cities will be on display at the Antiochian Heritage Museum in Pennsylvania. Sometime soon after one of my photos will become part of the permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh

For those interested in photography, this is what I currently use:

Bodies: Nikon d7000, d300, d100 (converted to Infra Red by Life Pixel)

Zoom Lenses: Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, Tokina 10-17 fisheye, Nikon 17-55mm f2.8, Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VRI

Prime Lenses: Nikon 35mm f1.8G, Nikon 50mm f1.8G, Nikon 85mm f1.4D, Sigma 150mm f2.8 Macro

In addition to that I also use various filters, tripods, cables, etc.

If you would like to contact me for any reason, if you have some travel questions or comments, you can do so by emailing my at:

calphillip @ gmail.com

I generally respond to all emails that I receive, although it might take me a while sometimes if I am traveling.

If you enjoy the site, please consider donating whatever you like. All money received goes towards the costs of running this website which I pay myself. Thanks!