What does it mean to be the largest city in the world? Tokyo is not the largest city by size. It also does not have the largest population for a legally defined city. Tokyo is the most populous metropolitan area and most populous urban area in the world. Essentially, if you were to ignore technical/legal boundaries of cities, which can be very arbitrary, and just defined a city by a contiguous urban area, then Tokyo has the largest population.

Visiting Tokyo though does not feel like you’re visiting one city. It’s really made up of 23 smaller cities, many with their own central or downtown area. I’ve heard people describe New York City as a city with no center, but I’m sure many people would agree that lower Manhattan is more or less the center of New York. But Tokyo, to me, really felt like a city with no center, or with many centers.

My main reason to go to Italy was to trek in Dolomites, blog post and photos to come, but I also spent some time in a few cities as well. I was planning on going from Slovenia straight to Venice, but the woman who hosted me in the mountain hut I stayed at in Slovenia told me she was from Trieste and that I should spend a day there. Trieste was a great place to spend one night, and also a great first day in Italy. Trieste has a lot of history. It was originally a Roman town, and then it became a major port for the Austrian Empire. The main downtown area is architecturally similar to Vienna, and other Austrian cities, and was the perfect place for a blue hour self portrait!

My main reason to go to Italy was to trek in Dolomites, blog post and photos to come, but I also spent some time in a few cities as well. I was planning on going from Slovenia straight to Venice, but the woman who hosted me in the mountain hut I stayed at in Slovenia told me she was from Trieste and that I should spend a day there. Trieste was a great place to spend one night, and also a great first day in Italy. Trieste has a lot of history. It was originally a Roman town, and then it became a major port for the Austrian Empire. The main downtown area is architecturally similar to Vienna, and other Austrian cities, and was the perfect place for a blue hour self portrait!

After Vienna, Budapest and Slovakia my next main stop was Italy. On my way to Italy I figured I’d stop in Slovenia for a few days and check out the mountains there. In Slovenia I spent one night in the capital city of Ljubljana and three nights in the mountains, two of which were at a small little mountain hut. The mountains in Slovenia were amazing. My pictures definitely don’t do them any justice. I had a hard time getting myself to the right places at the right times for epic golden hour landscape shots, but I think I was able to pull together a collection of shots that together can show the true beauty of the Slovenian alps.

Slovakia, the land of mountains and castles! And apparently rain. I spent one night in Bratislava before renting a car and driving all over the country for a week. It rained just about every day. This put a bit of a damper on my plans of hiking up lots of mountains and taking photos of beautiful mountain landscapes, but I had a great time none the less. And got a fw decent pictures too.

Budapest, the land of soups! At least that’s what a waiter told me. Not Budapest specifically, but Hungary. He said Hungary is similar to France in its love for soup. And apparently I really like soup! So that’s one thing to like about Budapest. I had a ton of great food overall, not just soup. Budapest is full of cuisines from all over the world. I got sushi at a Vietnamese restaurant. Thai noodles at a Japanese restaurant. Traditional Neapolitan pizza. Traditional Hungarian fish soup and bean soup. Pudding! And lots of great vegan food! I was pleasantly surprised by all of the vegan restaurants I found throughout my trip. I have no pictures of all that delicious food, so please take my word for it. But I do have a couple of pictures from Nagy Vásárcsarnok, or the Central Market Hall, with food in them. I got some cherries and apple strudle there. Do not get the plates of traditional Hungarian food at this market. It’s a tourist trap. The food is insanely expensive. No idea if it’s good or not. Produce is good and cheap.

Vienna is a beautiful city. Vienna is also a very modern city. And a city full of chaos. My number one tip for visiting Vienna is to look all twelve ways before taking a step anywhere. Cars, buses and scooters fill the streets. Trams are everywhere, sometimes going against the vehicle traffic on a one way street. And then add in all the bikes, with a complex of network of bike paths that go all over the sidewalks. People are drinking on the streets and plazas, with DJ’s blasting music everywhere. And every once in a while a parade of bikes and rollerblades will cruise down the street, taking over major intersections, and preventing anyone from crossing the street. Which is a great time to check out the awesome vegan food festival that happens to be on the side of the street where you are.

On my recent trip to Europe I got to spend two days in a Prague. When I was originally planning my trip I had no plans to go to Prague, but I ended up finding a good deal on a flight there so I decided it would be a good place to start my journey. My favorite thing about Prague was how old the city feels. So many of the buildings in the old town area have survived for hundreds of years. You feel like you’re walking around in the middle ages with cobble stone streets and old historic buildings at every turn. Of course Prague is a modern European city, but they seem to be making a conscious effort to have the more modern constructions blend into the style of the old city.

I just spent 5 days up in the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY. Normally when I go up to the Adirondacks I focus mainly on climbing as many big mountains as I can, but this times I decided to prioritize photography, particularly sunset/golden hour photography. I actually found a nice rhythm of hiking up a big mountain during the day, and then finding a smaller mountain with a nice viewpoint for an evening sunset hike. This also ended up being a great way to test my new headlamp!

To get to and from Patagonia I decided to fly into Buenos Aires, Argentina to start my trip, and finish up my trip in Santiago, Chile. I did very little research about either of these cities before arriving, and spent most of my time just wandering around looking for food and taking pictures. Each of these cities has a vibe of its own, and I figured I’d share some of my photos and give a little overview of my experience in both Buenos Aires and Santiago.

On my recent trip to Patagonia I spent a week hiking the O-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park. This is probably the most famous and popular place in Patagonia so there is plenty of info online already, but I just thought I’d share the seemingly unique itinerary I took, and why I really liked it, and fill in some other information gaps that I had wish I had known while planning my trip.

El Chalten, “the trekking capital of Argentina”! With five days in and around El Chalten I got to experience a small piece of what this place has to offer. Other than hiking and camping, the area around El Chalten in also well known for mountaineering, rock climbing, mountain biking, and I’m sure much more.

This winter I decided to try some real winter hiking for the first time. I have been to the Adirondacks a bunch of times in the spring and summer, but with a few days off at the end of December I figured I’d buy some snow shoes and head up for a few days to give winter hiking a try. As someone who has been an avid three season hiker for awhile now, snowshoeing up mountains for the first time has opened up a whole new world to me. Winter hiking can require a bit more planning, as well as more gear, to fully enjoy it. So here’s a quick guide to getting started for winter hiking, alongside some of my favorite photos from the trip.

This past summer I embarked on a long road trip throughout the US and western Canada. The one place I was most excited to visit was Jasper National Park way up in the Canadian Rockies. When I first got to Jasper it didn’t seem to be quite what I was expecting or hoping for, but after three days backpacking on the Skyline Trail and several days of running up mountains for sunsets I quickly learned what Jasper was all about.

Earlier this year I took a trip out to California and visited San Francisco for the first time.

San Francisco is obviously a very well known city, so I don’t thing I have any new information to offer on things to do and places to see, but I suppose I could offer a few tips to other photographers, who like me, just like to walk and wander with their camera. So consider this post to as a quick guide to photographing San Francisco.

For an experienced photographer the difference between a full frame camera and a crop sensor camera is easy to understand, but for beginners it can be difficult to fully comprehend how the size of a sensor will effect your photography. As someone who was a beginner not too long ago, I thought I’d take a stab at trying to sum this topic up. This is meant for beginning photographers, someone who has recently bought their first camera, or is looking into getting their first DSLR.

After driving from NJ to the Alabama gulf coast, I decided I needed to find somewhere a little warmer, and a little more exciting.