Tips and Tricks

These are some Tips and Tricks Amy and I have learned during our travels. This is geared towards the urban traveler (not the backpacker crossing the Alps who won't see civilization for 2 weeks). Hopefully you can find some useful information here!

TRAVEL

1. Don't check luggage. Fit it all into a backpack (with a waist strap) and a carry-on (with big wheels). It has taken me several rounds of unpacking and re-packing to really hone in on the need-to-have items. One of each, and maybe a few extra socks for the long stretches without a washing machine. I have accumulated some nice-to-have items, such as a pair of nice goggles and walkie-talkies. Take your time when purchasing more stuff, make sure it's the RIGHT one, and be ready to get rid of other stuff to make room.
2. The overflow shopping bag is a nice buffer to have when travelling by bus and train only (you will have to shed the excess when you catch your next flight). We have one "overflow" grocery bag which has our travel essentials such as salt, pepper, honey, rice, lentils, etc, which doubles as our grocery bag when we go shopping.
3. Brewing my own coffee has been a struggle in Europe. It took about a month to figure out how to brew half decent coffee at home with the sad excuse for coffee grounds I find at the grocery stores (there are little boutique coffee shops with fresh grounds that would break the budget, so I stay away). Not buying coffee out saves a pretty penny.
4. Plan for public transportation ahead of time, and make sure to leave little towns before 7pm. The transit systems in Europe are not well defined in Google Maps, so I have downloaded 9 apps and use all of them (no joke). Due to this complication, I like to plan our day trips and transportation a day in advance. To make things more challenging, French trains are notorious for being untimely or completely on strike. Here are the apps:
• FlixBus - nice and cheap alternative to trains for long distance travel
• Ouibus - similar to FlixBus, but usually a little more expensive. I have not used them but always check.
• GoEuro - gives you "all" options for travel, including FlixBus, SNCF trains, etc. I use this app to get a quick sense of my options, but then check with other apps.
• FlixTrain - I haven't used it yet, but I assume it is similar to FlixBus and cheaper than SNCF and Trenitalia.
• Trainline EU - I haven't tried it yet, but have seen many advertisements.
• Moovit - great app for local transit systems, where Google Maps will certainly fail you.
• BusConnect06 - when Moovit failed me in Menton (sadly) I found this app for the local buses. It has a very simple UI which requires you to know a thing or two about the route you intent to take, but has accurate timetables. I guess that is all you really need.
• Lyft - not available in cities I have visited
• Uber - available in some cities but very unreliable. I suggest hitch-hiking before getting duped by Uber.

AMATEUR VIDEOGRAPHY

1. For my first two edits (Lago di Como, Life as a Drone in Switzerland) I used GoPro Studio. Honestly, I'm surprised I was able to produce anything remotely impressive with this limited and clunky program. Right now I cannot even find what version it is! One thing I will say it is very good at mixing frame rates and resolutions without any fuss (which I believe can be challenging with other programs).
2. For my third and most recent edit (Tour de Lavande) I used Adobe Premiere Pro CC. It is amazing, and I love it. There is a bit of a learning curve, but there is a huge repository of tutorials on Youtube from many sources for every little detail. I strongly suggest watching a few beginners tutorials before you jump into it, unless you know your s%*t. 
3. Action shots are taken with the GoPro HERO4 Black. This little camera is super impressive. The 4K resolution looks amazing, the slow mo is powerful (although smart phones can now do 240 fps as well). My only complaint about the case is the sound quality suffers dramatically with it on (obviously).
4. Drone shots are taken with the DJI Mavic Air. I cannot praise this little beast enough. It takes impressive 4K footage that are, in my inexperienced opinion, production quality. The quality is great, it is easy to fly, and can handle some pretty serious wind and altitude. Furthermore, this thing packs up into a water bottle sized case including the remote, for maximum mobility.
5. Pictures are taken with the Sony Alpha 5000. This is a capable mirrorless camera with an interchangeable lens. The aperture, shutter speed, ISO, WB, etc, give you enough control to take interesting shots in 20.1 megapixel resolution. I'm not happy with the 1080p video quality, I am still trying to figure out why it looks noticeably worse than the GoPro and DJI (I think it might have to do with the lens).

• *UPDATE 9/21/2018 - About 1 month ago I figured out the settings on the Sony to get the video quality as advertised, in Full HD.
• I had it set to MP4 / 1440x1080 12M because MP4 is a very friendly format. The "problem" here is that the pixels are actually rectangular to get you an aspect ratio of 16/9 ~ 1.78. There are fewer pixels than there are in Full HD (1920 x 1080), so the image is worse. 
• Then I set it to AVCHD, Sony's preferred recording format, which is not as friendly. You get a few more options here. I first selected 60i 17M (FH). Also "wrong" because the "i" stands for interlaced, recorded at 60 frames per second. Since it is interlaced (half the image is recorded at a time), you end up with playback at 30 fps. Interlaced video is not as crisp or good as progressive.
• THE "CORRECT" SETTING is 24p 24M (FX). This is Full HD, 1920x1080, progressive, with 24 Mbps bitrate.
• Useful help guide for Sony video settings.