what's Up

--TJG photographers had a strong showing at the 2010 Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Bill Muster Awards. They took all three of the SATW’s Photographer of the Year awards:

• Bob Holmes – Gold
• Blaine Harrington III – Silver
• Steve Bly – Bronze

TJG shooters also won in Single Subject Portfolio portion of the Muster competition:

• Michael DeFreitas – Silver
• Tim Thompson – Bronze

In the individual categories TJG members were:

• Douglas Peebles – Cultural (Gold)
• Kerrick James – Action (Silver)
• Yvette Cardozo – Animal (Honorable Mention)
• Douglas Peebles – Action (Honorable Mention)

--Blaine Harrington's image on our home page is of the undeveloped section of the Great Wall of China at Jinshanling. This image was a cover feature for a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine. The article was China’s Great Wall: Stories from a Crumbling World Treasure, another of his images, a double page spread, closed the story. This is the second time that Mr. Harrington’s work has been featured in on the cover of Smithsonian.

--Photographer Steve Bly has just completed a picture book entitled "Atlantic Canada in View". This was a culmination of media trips through Travel Journalist Guild and the Society of American Travel Writers.

Steve recently returned from the Canada Media Marketplace in San Francisco where he presented books to tourism representatives from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador. The book may be previewed by going to www.blurb.com and clicking on new publications.

--Patricia Arrigoni was awarded first place out of 150 entrants, a Gold Medal, for her website: www.travelpublishers.com. in the San Francisco Bay Area Travel Writers 2010 Writing Awards.

--In the 2010 Bay Area Travel Writers Best contest Ginger Dingus won first place, a Gold Award, for the best text/photo article.

Ginger’s winning article with images was the cover story published in the New York Daily News. The article was about a riverboat trip up the remote Peruvian Amazon. Contest judges were John Flinn and Don George both of whom are former travel editors of the San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner.

In the 2008 Bay Area Travel Writers Best contest Ginger won first place, also a Gold Award, for the best travel photograph published in a magazine. Her picture of Chios, Greece, was published along with her cruise article in Porthole magazine. Her article took the Silver Award for her writing.

--In March 2010 Garry Marchant was an invited author at Shanghai Literary Festival. Sixty authors from twenty-two countries spoke about their writing genre; novelists, journalists, travel writers, biographers, poets and crime writers were in attendance at this the eighth year of the festival. This year attendees to the festival topped 5,000.

--Stillman Rogers has been named Contributing Editor at JaxFax Travel Marketing, a trade publication for the travel industry. The magazine’s monthly readership is 138,000 travel agents.

--Noting that wineries are in great demand as unique, romantic and memorable wedding venues, Yvonne Michie Horn, who mixes writing about wine and wineries with her travel writing, has created www.WineryWeddingGuide.com.

The site contains a definitive listing of wineries, organized by state and region, of those with the facilities and permits to be a vineyard/winery wedding venue. No winery pays to be listed on it.

Ms. Horn developed the site in 2009 with one page of wineries in her own Sonoma County region. To date, following on the heels of all of California, Oregon and Washington - the most vineyard-clad states - a total of nineteen grape-growing states are now on line, with more to come in the near future.

--San Francisco based writer, lecturer and radio personality Jules Older has developed an app for the iPhone, San Francisco Restaurants. For 99 cents you can download it and discover the great restaurants that San Franciscans eat at. This app directs you to the hidden gems around San Francisco’s Moscone Center and Union Square and reveals the diner with the best view of the Pacific.

San Francisco Restaurants, the app, is sold at the App Store on iPhone and iPod Touch.

--Several Travel Journalist Guild members have produced travel apps – mobile computer applications that allow travelers to access cutting-edge insider information on their smartphones.

Already published are Everglades Photo and Travel Guide and Orlando Essential Travel Guide by M. Timothy O'Keefe, Hawaii’s Best Beaches! by Douglas Peebles. Joining them are Barbara and Stillman Rogers, whose Essential Italian Lakes will be released in late 2010.