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[S961]Stay At Home Husband

by Dan Williams, Dan

In the UK the devaluation of the British pound against the Euro has seen many people opting to take holidays in the UK this year. Popular resorts in the south of England are experiencing healthy visitor numbers and the once popular British pastime of caravanning is seeing a resurgence. But for how long will these ?old style? holidays satisfy the typical British traveller who has become used to the warm weather of Southern Europe or the excitement of a trip across the Atlantic to the United States?

In other countries the trends are slightly different but exhibit comparable traits. In Germany for example the resorts of the Black Forest and Harz Mountains may become the preferred choices above the most popular destinations in the past of Austria and Italy. Of course the Germans don't have the same currency issues and therefore may even be tempted to take a trip to the UK to take advantage of the exchange rate shift. However with nearly a quarter of Germans preferring to take a beach holiday, the UK is unlikely to satisfy. The Germans are already quite content to stay at home for their holidays, with over half of all trips booked by Germans being made to home locations, including the resorts on the North Sea and Baltic coasts.

Environmental issues are also affecting the German holiday market. Eco holidays or packages that offer reduced carbon emissions seem to be increasingly in demand. For many, that means forgoing the flight to the resorts of southern Spain and taking a rail or road trip to somewhere closer to home. As the weather continues to play its part, climate change may be a good thing for the German home travel industry.

For the UK holiday maker things are unlikely to be so simple. The UK has experienced a succession of summers recently when the weather has put a dampener on holidays at home. This year could well be the one and only chance the home tourism market has to secure an increase in numbers. Money issues will tempt many families to try out a holiday at a UK resort, either in a hotel or a campsite perhaps. Unless the weather plays its part and delivers warm dry days, that UK audience could easily be lost forever. The UK can be a miserable place for a holiday when the weather is poor.

So what is the price of a decent warm weather holiday? For British people, holidays are very important and many will choose to forgo other luxuries in order to make their foreign holiday affordable. For families going on holiday as a group, the thought of a wet fortnight away during the summer, struggling for things to keep the children occupied, may be a step too far.

So how can the UK family make their usual holiday abroad affordable? Well for many who, so far, have not ventured onto the internet, things could be remarkably easy. Searching and booking a cheap flight, then deciding on a resort and hotel could easily make up for the price increases caused by exchange rate fluctuations. The number of low cost airlines flying to the Canary Islands, for example, has increased recently so the choice of flights is larger than ever before. Another benefit is that these new flights often depart from regional airports, which frequently means a shorter journey from home to the airport, reducing transport costs even further. A further consideration is airport parking, which is often much cheaper at these regional airports when compared to the major airport hubs.

All things considered, the perceived increase in holiday costs may not actually make much difference to typical holiday trends, certainly in the longer term. If weather was not very important then many people would already be choosing to holiday at home. But it obviously is and if money becomes an issue, many people will prefer to solve the financial problem rather than change their travel preferences.

Why not take your friends on a walk while they stay at home? It's easy to do. Just grab that digital camera and head out to your favorite trail. Since you'll be taking a lot of pictures, make sure your memory card can hold enough pictures; otherwise you'll need a spare card, and why not bring along some extra batteries, just in case. You can carefully frame each shot, or, if you have a camera strap long enough, you can let the camera hang from your neck and shoot from there. Start with a shot of your car, the door being opened, the trailhead, and then start out.

Every twenty yards or so, take a picture. If you shoot nothing but straight ahead shots you can assemble them later into a stop-motion-frame effect slideshow. If you want to take some side shots or close-ups of flowers, etc., you'll have to do some editing later. As you walk, keep in mind what you might be saying to your ?imaginary? trail partners. Later, when you assemble the slideshow, you'll want to add a narrative.
You could also take your shots in a pattern: walk twenty yards, shoot 45 degrees to your left, one straight ahead, and one off to your right. Walk another twenty yards and repeat the pattern, over and over. You could vary the pattern of picture taking on different parts of the trail. Where the trail is thick with trees on the sides, just shoot straight ahead. If the trail circumscribes a lake or river, then shoot one towards the water, one towards the trail, and repeat.

When you come to a particularly scenic place, you could shoot a 360-degree pan. Simply start straight ahead; take note of what detail is in the upper right hand corner of your viewer, take the shot, then move that detail to the upper left corner and shoot; take note of any object in the upper right corner, move it to the left corner, shoot, and repeat until you are facing forward again. At the end of the hike, you might want to take a time-delay self-portrait. Set the camera on a safe, level surface, look through the viewfinder and note what's in the frame and where you should stand; hit the delay button and run over and strike your best trailblazer pose. Review the shot to make sure you are in the picture! Now head on back home for the really fun part.

After you transfer all the pictures to your computer, take a program like Windows Movie Maker and load in your images; they should be pretty close to the right order. Once you get them arranged, decide how long you want to show each picture; set the length of the first one to this value and apply it to all the others. Make a note of the length of the entire show.

Now fire up a program like Avnex's Voice Changer Software Diamond 5.0. With that little gem you can create an impressive narration to complete your slideshow. Try the voice morpher module. You can enrich your voice with just a few simple adjustments to sound like a professional voiceover talent. I like to drop the pitch and timbre just a few notches, and my voice comes out like a Darth Vader wannabe. Because you can add more than one sound file, think about adding some sound effects to the presentation as well. It's always a good idea to adjust the volume of the sound effects to be softer than the narrative; you don't want the sounds to overpower the vocal. Voice Changer can also allow you to alter your voice dynamically, so that you could add a second or even a third voice to the narrative. If your narrative comes out a little long or a little short, consider simply adjusting one or two or a few slide lengths, especially at the beginning or the end.

Once you've completed and saved the project, give your friends a call. Tell them you want to go hiking with them. Tell them to meet you at your house. When they arrive invite them in, and sit them down. When they ask what's going on, start the slideshow! Be sure to have plenty of refreshments on hand, in case they get a little restless. I hope they enjoy the walk!

BIO: Wayne Rice is a freelance journalist, copywriter, photographer and artist. He currently resides in the United States.

Article Source : Best In Travel 2009

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Both Dan Williams & Wayne Rice are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Dan Williams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family Travel, French Vacation and Travel and Leisure. Providing the latest views and news on tourism, Dan Williams has been a well regarded travel writer for many years. His advice on. Dan Williams's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.

Wayne Rice has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet, VOIP and Guide Guitar. http://www.audio4fun.com. Wayne Rice's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.