Travel photography has featured more than once upon the STA travelbuzz agenda and here it is once again. This time around the inspiring snaps come courtesy of the travelling-taker-of-pictures Paul Dymond.

Paul’s blog, Have Camera Will Travel, is a haven for all with a penchant for either travel or photography, and if you’re into both then seek no further. It’s practically blog shaped nirvana! As a professional photographer Paul is contracted to Lonely Planet Images and a quick scan through his profile reveals what a superb job travel photography can be when you’re at the top of the game:

“I‘ve managed to catch a few Z’s in such places as a sleeping bag on top of a sand dune in the Sahara Desert, to a $1000 a night room on a luxurious private island in far north Queensland. And I’ve managed to make the acquaintance of incredible people ranging from camel herders in the deserts of Mauritania to his Holiness the Dalai Lama in India. And they call this work?”

Realising that his musings on the art of photography are read by many, Paul is keen to get to know his audience. Utilising a popular photo site has set about doing this:

“So I put together a little group on Flickr where everybody can post their own photos, ask questions and just generally get to know who else is in the group.”

It’ll take time to get rolling, but there is no reason not to get involved now, and you can do so here. Get snapping and jump in.

Although this is the latest news on the site there are plenty of other interesting topics to digest. These include a post reminding you to never forget to look over your shoulder when trying to capture that shot that is a little bit different, and a comprehensive ‘links for the weekend’ post that is full of great sites that any photography nut should give some time to for gentle perusal.

Time for a new addition to our hall of fame and a worthy addition I feel. Wayne Bernhardson writes Southern Cone Travel, a blog that delivers detail and definite knowledge on the area.

The Southern Cone is literally the cone shape at the southern end of South America and includes Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and parts of Paraguay and Brazil. Wayne has spent almost 30 years travelling the region and is excessively well qualified in the art of exploration; just run your eyes down his about section.

Latest posts include the state of the Argentinean Airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, what it is like to ride the colectivo (city bus) in Buenos Aires and the arrival of the Paris to Dakar rally in Argentina and Chile, odd but true, due to unmitigated circumstances that led to the suspension of the 2008 event.

Final word though to Wayne himself regarding his grasp of other languages,

“I speak fluent Spanish, less fluent German, serviceable Portuguese and desperation French.”

Desperation French huh? I know all about that…

I’m a bit of a magpie, easily impressed by pretty glittery things, and many of the travel blogs I nominate for our Hall of Fame are visually very slick. However, Chadams World Travel Blog, Chris Adam’s record of work and play round the world, shows what excellence you can achieve with the plainest Blogger template.

Blogging since 2006, Chris’ posts are rich on content, simple on design. Currently touring the Balkans, his writing is particaulrly good on political and social history; from sampling the delights of Europe’s little-known Cultural Capital for 2010, Pecs in Hungary, to exploring ancient Roman palaces in Croatia, this is inspiring, insightful stuff.

And Chris doesn’t neglect multimedia content. In fact, his method of keeping it all about the text on the main blog but then publishing his photos and videos on other sites means he has a great presence across social media so that others can find his content in a number of places. Hence his YouTube travel videos, his Picasa photo albums, his Google Docs ranking of favourite countries and his Trip Advisor map, all linked to his blog but kept separate.

It’s obviously working - he’s already had his India and China blog made into a book. Look and learn, my friends, look and learn.

I had a lovely coffee with our STA Explorers Meg and Mojo yesterday, to gossip about travelling through social media (and, OK, the joys of red lipstick) before they set off on their interrailing trip. One thing we discussed was the surprising lack of good travel video clips and video blogs on the web, despite the medium being perfect for capturing and remembering journeys. So, this morning I got hunting to see what I could find.

And although I found a few worthy dull Judith Chalmers-style video diaries, I absolutely knew when I saw Where The Hell Is Matt? that it had to be part of our Hall of Fame. Matt, ‘a 31-year old deadbeat from Connecticut’, became famous for his 2003 world trip where he, well, did a stupid dance in loads of amazing places and made a video out of it. This led to another trip in 2006 to repeat the project in 39 countries, and a third in 2007 where he danced with his online fans.

Yesterday’s Times got it spot on when they said:

This kind of travel bragging should be annoying, but strangely, it’s rather sweet

It is. It makes you feel very good indeed, for all it’s gimmickry. You may want to ‘do a Matt’, as many of his fans have done (their own travel-dance videos can be seen at the bottom of Matt’s Video page). Or you may want to just learn from the spirit of his project: sharing travel online can be joyous, and personal, and silly, and moving.

Oh, and that video is a perfect way to do it, especially if you add music.

At STA travelbuzz we try and connect you to the humble amateur travel blogger on the street. That doesn’t describe Rolf Potts - he’s a professional travel writer with years of experience wandering and pondering for the blue-blooded likes of National Geographic and The New York Times Magazine.

However I couldn’t resist sticking Vagablogging in the Travel Blog Hall of Fame because it engages with travel in a truly bloggy form, being personal, diverse and provocative. The blog from Rolf and his team can always be relied on to round up the most interesting articles, videos and interviews of other well-known travel writers on the web, as well as recording their daily thoughts on countries and issues such coping with jet lag and, most recently, the increasing weirdness of our planet’s weather. These lead to all sorts of talking points that Vagablogging readers are only too happy to pile in and debate.

Clean, uncluttered and conversational, Vagablogging brings you the best of both worlds: the knowledge and contacts of professionals teamed with the informality and eclecticism of a blog. Take advantage of the opportunity to read and wrangle with the writers in this open, friendly forum, and maybe be inspired to address some similar issues on your own blog.

Yes It’s time for us to wheel out another another example of travel blog excellence to encourage us poor lumpen plebs to transform our pedestrian travel journals into things of sparkling splendour.

The new entry into our coveted Hall of Fame is Old World Wandering. In 1997, Iain Manley and Claire van den Heever travelled overland from London to Shangai, passing through the UK, Western Europe, India and South East Asia, covering a foot-blistering number of famous cities as well as smaller towns and rural villages, and recording their journey here. It’s quite simply the most beautifully written travel blog we’ve found so far- evocative, thoughtful and entertaining, peppered with quotations, anecdotes and an incredible level of detail - the portraits of the locals they meet along the way are particularly powerful.

The design is elegant and easy to search, with a map of their journey and professional-standard photos illustrating each destination. Most importantly, it is clean and uncluttered, leaving the fantastic writing to be the focus of the blog, with each piece prompting plenty of comments from fellow travellers.

And Claire shows that blogging isn’t just important for sharing stories with others, but encourages a much more switched-on approach to adventuring: ‘a habit of writing about my travels will hopefully unlock the thoughts that may otherwise dissolve in my head.’

Who could ask for better reason to become a travel blogger?

Most travel journals out there are the Ugly Bettys of the blogosphere. Humble little things, they are typically called something like ‘Jim’s Trip’ and feature a weekly post along the lines of ‘I saw the Grand Canyon and it was really nice’ with a grainy mobile photo alongside. And we love them: what they lack in style or substance they make up for in charm and individuality, and they represent online writing at its most democratic.

However, in our new feature we want to ogle at the travel blog Gisele Bundchens - beautifully designed, cutting-edge, well-known sites we can all use as inspiration. These witty, pretty multimedia babes show just what you can do by breeding broad-minded travel with the best of social media tools. Feel free to nominate your own, and over the coming weeks we’ll be suggesting just a few of our own wet dream superblogs.

Vagabonding is a bit of a museum piece by now, but this site, created by Mike Pugh to record his trip through Asia and East Africa in 2002-3, became well-known for pushing the travel blog format, with its witty, in-depth text, images and videos that prompted loads of comment and debate. It remains a key resource for travellers and bloggers alike, so go do some vagabonding here.

One Man’s Travels has won a bevy of awards for the vibrant design and engaging writing of travel hungry Wiltshire man Graham Ettridge. Stunning photos, audio clips and an active reader community makes it a great resource on such destinations as the Sinai Desert, Istanbul, Corfu and the Amazon, as well as a number of British sites. Explore it here.