Solo travel opportunities abound for everyone, not just seniors. However, without the right mindset and focus, we often either don’t see them, or if we do see them and wish we could go, we are held back by our fears.
Here’s how to shift your focus, and open up the worldwide solo travel opportunities that await you!
Here’s the story…
I woke early on March 5, 2011 with a profound feeling of sadness.
Which led to the life-changing phenomenon that I share with you today.
A discovery which caused me to lose weight. Gain fitness. Feel great. And gave me the keys
to going anywhere, totally solo. While enjoying these solo journeys with no thoughts
whatsoever of self-consciousness, or loneliness, or fear.
First, indulge me please this brief return back to my morning of sadness for clarity…
To everyone else, today March 5th, probably seemed like any other day.
Same old, same old.
But to me, it was my birthday.
I was 50 now.
And I was fat.
The mirror confirmed this. I looked older and wider. Not wiser.
One good thing came of this sadness though. I resolved to coast no more!
Things had to change.
My life had to change, if I planned to live another 50 years.
And I did plan to live 50 more years. Because there are so many things I did, and still wish to do.
My bucket list is more like a barrel list.
-Elderbob
Up until that point, I had led the typical life. Get up, work 9 to 5. Come home and have dinner. Then watch TV to relax. Or help the kids with homework or school projects. Or just play with them. Or read.
Rinse and repeat. Day after day.
Lunch was typically drive-thru food, because I was on the road all day going from office to office, fixing machines. Copiers, fax, printers, etc.. For the past 25 years. Sitting, fixing, driving. Eating junk food.
Day after day.
So I resolved that fateful March day. “Things can’t keep going this way.”
-Elderbob
“What Bob, do you want to do?” I asked myself.
“What do you REALLY want to do, if you could choose anything?”
“Digital photography”, was the very clear answer I received.
It was just getting started then. Film was nearly gone. Digital was in now.
I had been a big photography nerd back in high school. Even made my own primitive darkroom in the basement to develop film like I did in the high school classes at Kenmore West. Mr. Giordano was my teacher there. Great guy. He’d let me use the school’s full darkroom anytime after school.
But in high school, even though I had worked my job since age 16, I could never afford all the film, equipment, and space that a “real” film photographer needs.
So I dropped that. Moved on to fixing up cars and chasing girls.
Ah, youth. Probably should have channeled that money into photography. Que sara, sara!
So now I’m 50.
The expense of film, and darkrooms, and equipment are gone. You just need a digital camera ($500), computer, and a photo editing program. Everyone kept touting Photoshop for editing. I got the software, but couldn’t even figure out how to open a file for editing back then!
Clearly I had some work to do.
Luckily, taking digital photos was still the same as taking film photos. All the old rules applied. Composition, color, and light. And, in focus goes without saying.
During the work week I would scout locations where I could take photos on the weekend. Google and I became best friends.
Come Saturday morning, I would eagerly burst up from bed, excited to head out and capture beautiful photos. Even though it was only March here in Buffalo, NY, 30-40 degrees outside, I would walk for hours outside. Around parks, Along streams. Finding waterfalls in nature. Birds. Animals. Anything “cool”.
Walk. Walk. Walk. Fingers often numb from the cold.
Then I’d come home and edit the photos to make them look better. All the best digital photos require some editing I learned. Everything you see is either edited, or filtered. So if your photos don’t seem as good as everyone elses, take heart. It’s probably not your photo taking. You’re probably missing that secret sauce. It’s probably the editing!
Anywho..
By June of that same year I had lost 15 pounds.
Puzzled why, I thought about what changes I had made in those past 3 months.
Only thing changed was, I added my photo walks!
Now imagine how hard it would have been to get me up and out of bed, to go out and walk, on all those cold weekend days.
Never would have happened.
Photography, taking photos, caused me to get up, get out, and lose weight.
I had a reason. A big enough “reason why” that got me to take action.
And that, my friends, is also your secret to solo travel, without feeling lonely or self-conscious.
You have a mission – You are traveling to capture photographs. To report back with a visual account, so that those who cannot travel can see still all of this magnificent planet we live on.
You will bring this beautiful world to them, in your photographs!
Fear not though. With modern smartphone camera technology, you don’t have to be an expert photographer or buy all sorts of fancy, expensive cameras, or gear. You can if you like, and I encourage that because it adds an element of thought. But you certainly don’t have to.
Your very own smartphone, once again. opens doors. This time, with it’s camera!
When I say opens doors, I do mean it literally opens doors.
Several times, when I was out taking photos near some building of architectural interest, someone would pop out, even though the venue was closed, and ask if I would like to come inside and take photos?
I was at the art museum with my daughter and they were setting up a new exhibit. When the foreman saw me and my daughter watching their setup from the balcony, he invited us down for a private show!
Cameras…
Can literally open doors for photographers! You get to see things others can’t.
Shhh! That’s our little secret. I have more too!
Let’s pause briefly though to recap, ‘cuz I know I can ramble, especially once I get started talking about all the exciting benefits of photography.
Here are the 5 benefits of photography we’ve discussed so far:
- You can lose weight because it gets you up, and out, and walking.
- You can get more fit. That’s what walking does. But we often can’t find a good enough reason to walk, so we don’t. Here’s your reason. Your mission.
- You can gain access to places others can’t. It’s like having celebrity status!
- You can solo travel anywhere, locally or globally, because you’re not there for you, you’re on a mission. Like a journalist.
- Your mission gives you something to share with others, on social media. Connection.
Weight loss, fitness, motivation, renewed zest for life, learning something new, travel opportunities, connection, loss of self-consciousness and loneliness, and meaning…
Are those things you’d like to have in your life too?
I got all this, and more, from a simple decision to get more serious about photography.
Intrigued by the simplicity of this phenomenon, I began to take surveys of other amateur photographers, and look for stories of what else photography can do.
I uncovered stories like…
- The parapalegic cop Ken, who gets his maximum pain relief now from photography.
- The 20 year old kid who was released from lifelong mental care after being given a camera – and after that he never returned to the hospital again, until his death from natural causes 40 years later.
- The middle-aged, divorced, substance abusing, “Gate Lady” who through photography, opened the gate back to success and sobriety. She wrote a book about it too.
- The professional fishing spokesperson, who lost it all after a botched back surgery left her mute, then she beat her crippling depression through photography and does gallery showings now.
And these are just a small splice of what I discovered!
There were so many benefits, mentally and physically, to taking up photography that I started a website to document them all. Then wrote books, like “The Photo Fitness Phenomenon“, and produced audio cds like “Change Your Life in a Flash” and “24 Surprising Health Benefits of Digital Photography”, and more, to help get the word out. I wrote a successful Photoshop tutorial book as well.
And here I am again, singing the praises of photography. This time, for the solo travel opportunities it provides.
If you’d like any of those materials I produced, send an email request to bob@elderbob.com and I can make them available to you – so you too can reap the full benefits of this fun, fitness-building, “hobby”.
Photography turned my life around for the better in so many ways.
I hope it can for you as well. Now that you’re hip to the many hidden benefits it provides.
Here’s how photography can help you specifically in your solo travel adventures…
When you travel alone, travel solo, even around your own town, thoughts can often turn inward. To self-consciousness.
“Are people looking at me because I’m alone?” “Why is that person wandering there, sitting there alone? Are they ok?”
Literally, once you have your camera out, everyone gets it. “Oh, they have a purpose. They’re taking photos! It’s ok”.
Having the camera, taking photos, gives you purpose. A mission.
It’s exactly what I needed to get out and walk more. To go places on my own. To explore more, on my own.
Quick side story, my good friend Jane had been after me for years to buy a kayak and join her on paddling excursions.
I put it off, and put it off. Seems too scary. A lot of work lugging that big kayak around. I’d have to buy this and that, and more.
Lots of excuses not to. You know how that works.
One day, while searching on a photo website, I saw these beautiful ice photos of the glaciers taken from a kayak.
That was all I needed to see. I wanted to take photos from the unique perspective of a kayak too! The very next week, I had my own kayak.
But it wasn’t the kayak I wanted. I wanted the photos.
Just like I didn’t want to get up on those cold Saturday mornings and walk. I just wanted the photos!
You might not want to go to Hawaii by yourself. But what if you really wanted those photos!
What if you had a mission! Others were counting on you to see Hawaii?
Having a big enough “reason why” lets us justify doing all sorts of things we would normally not have the will or the courage to do.
Photography. Great photos can be your BIG, HAIRY, (NOT SCARY) REASON WHY!
Take photos. Edit. Share online.
That’s your new mission. Use it in good health and you’ll be amazed at the many positive changes it can bring to your life.
I’ll leave you with three things to do…
- Consider, begin searching online, for how to take better photos. Dive down the rabbit hole.
Here’s a couple of my free photography websites to get you started:
https://totalfitnessphotography.wordpress.com/
http://creativephotographytricks.com/
http://photoshoptipcards.com/
https://shutterbugshaman.com/
- Imagine all the things you like to take photos of. Places? Landscapes? Architecture? Seas? Boats? People? Birds? Animal? Safari anyone? Photographers shoot beautiful photos, not deadly bullets!
- Watch for my future post where I talk about all the travel photography workshops out there. You can solo travel to exotic locations where you’ll be met by other photography buffs just like you. You travel alone, but you’re not alone! Once there, professional photographers instruct you on how to best capture that particular area. Some workshops even give you the opportunity to photograph beautiful models in exotic natural settings, or in grand mansions you would never otherwise have access to. Stay tuned for that post!
OK. If you’ve gotten this far, I sincerely thank you!
Photography is truly my passion, so if I tend to go on and on about all the wonderful benefits available to those who will take up this hobby, my apologies.
But perhaps my enthusiasm has moved you, even just a millimeter or so in your interest. Please keep going.
There is the regular world, and then there is the Photographer’s World.
The one where we look for all the wondrous and beautiful things in this life.
Funny thing is, we humans tend to find what we’re looking for. What we focus on. Good or bad.
We photographers choose to focus on the good. The unusual. The interesting.
And that’s exactly what we find, in our world.
Come join us, won’t you?
A world of solo travel opportunities await you.
I promise you this: you’ll begin to feel better when you do!
“Bene Vivere”
Bob, Elderbob, Schwarztrauber
“Award winning photographer, Photoshop Pro, Traveler, Author”
P.S. Senior Solo Travel Opportunities Part 4 offers one of my favorite activities. If you’re the curious sort of person, you’ll absolutely want to read that post right now.
