The Plan never happens the way its supposed to

So my plans have changed. I guess I was always worried that I would have to change my plans for going to China and Australia. I have been in Europe now for 23 months I'm really enjoying being here I just feel that if I don't get this around the world trip finished I can't settle down anywhere just to up root my self again to keep moving..

But the Beijing 2008 and Bali, Australia trip is postponed till 2009. Why? Well a few reasons. First two major events have happened and are happening in China. First the Earthquake has put a strain on their economy. Then the coming Olympics have changed many things not only the price of everything ie. air fair, food, travel around China, and the one that is cosing me to change my plans is the Visa requirements for everyone coming in. June 1st the Visa requirements changed and I found this out with 17 days before my departure. The basics are I called the China consulate in Berlin and asked what I needed to do to get my Visa for the month of July. Well the response came as a wake of stress. Because I'm an American I can only go through the China consulate in the USA. Now this isn't really a problem I simply send in my passport with my travel plans to a Visa service then they send it back everything would cost a good penny. But because I have excluding weekends only 15 days and I would no longer be in Munich after 8 of those days it would if I did the fastest way possible, 2 days to over night my passport to the US then one day for the service to get the fast Visa then two days to send it back the Visa would cost me $280 and the shipping to and from the US would be $130. Now my flight to China from Milan was only $546.00.

Well because of a recent video project gone all wrong that I helped to finished.. I'm short in my travel fund around $1300.00..

So what to do now? I have to keep my life exciting if not for my self but all you friends that live vicariously through me..

Well I know I said I was not going to Herrang this year, but where else can I got to get some many great dancers in one place.

My goal is to be there for dancing and photography. I'm working on my next book "Lindy Hopin'" and I want to expand this new style of photos I started last year in Herrang.

So the new plan is...
Swing Crash Como Italy after that I have about 10 days before Herrang starts I'm think of doing a bicycle train combo travel from Italy to Sweden should be a good adventure. I'll spend the 4 weeks in Herrang then I'm going to GBLX (Gothenburg lindy exchange) to photograph the exchange. from here I'm going to try and visit the swing scene in Iceland. Yes there is lindy Hop in Reykjavík. I would spend about a week or more there.
Then I want to visit my father in the US and it will look good for me to go back to the USA before returning to Munich to do a new series of instructional DVD's for Marcus and Barbl.
I would then I would return to California and have time to travel in the US as long as I have the funds.
I'm once again returning to Munich (Yes I like it here) to run the video crew for Rock that Swing 2009. With all the problems I encountered finishing the RTS 2008 DVD I have a really good idea of how to do a very good job.

Then after this great event I will head east that illusive direction that I have been wanting to go sense December 2007.

Oh and Beijing is having an exchange in April 2009 maybe I'll go there at that time..

See you all on some random dance floor in the world.

Time to move on

So after much stress about if I will able to afford continuing my trip east I am finally just going for it.. I will leave Como Italy on the 23rd of June to arrive in Beijing on the 24th Too bad I only get an hour and a half in Dubi I'm sure it would be a great place to explore...

Maybe next time I go around the world..

Photography Contest..

So I have been trying to gain a higher ranking in the world of photography by entering contests.. A few years back it was just simply a web site where they had a weekly challenge and I never really did very good.. I submitted some of my best work and got all kinds of criticism.. But they I released that the site was full of amateurs who what to be professionals and very rarely did they ever say anything good about someone's photograph..

But this year I entered two contests either online or through publishing company.. Well the Publishing company Picture.com.. Well I don't know exactly what placing I got there but after carful research I realized that it was a scam and only designed to get people to spend money..

But I had also entered some of my photos I took in Herräng last year and made a third place.. Now I had checked the web site only briefly to see what photo actually placed and was surprised that it wasn't one of my favorite's but thats ok because After I looked at the other people and saw that second place is one of the photographers I admire the most I felt very good..

I got third place to Howard Schatz famous dance photographer who's book "Passion and Line" I love.. Momentum Photo Second place Howard Schatz
Howard's photos have inspired my latest style

I just looked up the first place photographer and he is also a well known and respected photographer in NY...
Jene Youtt






These are some of the best photos I think I have taken.. But I'm inspired to take more..
the photo that was placed directly behind one of my inspirations is of Andy & Jessica





You can see the contest page Momentum and my image Andy & Jessica


So this is now inspiration to keep going..

I'm currently working on my next book "Swing Out" Swing dance photography from around the world.. If anyone is interested I have only three copies of my first book "A Moment in the Swing-Out" left...

Bryant

The Worst Weekend I could have had..

Ok so I guess the trouble started when I got a text message saying it was not necessary for me to teach the lessons (this week) after the LLX weekend. There was no explanation nothing.. So I was disappointed as I had arranged my schedule around that.. I replied and asked why and all I got was that my friend would explain over the weekend..

I arrived into London just fine at around 2:00am after taking the long way of two different busses.. But it was good to see Judy smiling as always..

Late Saturday night one of the worst thing's that could have happened to me did... After loading the photos from that night my computer hard drive crashed.. I was showing photos and was about to send an email about attending an camp when it just froze.. Now I had been having problems with FireFox for about a month but as I had heard from my mom so had she.. So I thought it was just another freeze and application crash.. But when I restarted my computer it would not in gauge the hard drive... I tried restarting in every way that my self and the three people around me could think of.. Safe mode.. From a disc even though we didn't have one.. Anything but it was all with the same end.. No hard drive start up graphic.. So after staying up till 9 an the morning because of late night and missing the last night bus and the underground didn't start on Sunday mornings till 7:30 I woke up at 11:am, yes I actually had less then 2 hours of sleep, I went in search of the Apple store in down town London.. I did get a walk in appointment right there on the spot but the guy was not helpful in anyway.. I was asking him what options where possible for replacement and all he told me was what came stock on my computer, ie. 80GB 5400 rpm hard drive.. Funny thing is I had ordered the computer with the 120GB 5400 rpm drive so he couldn't even tell what my computer had.. Talk about frustration.. SO I went out and around London looking to replace the Hard Drive.. I didn't find anything I wanted and of corse the prices being in pounds I would be paying way more then in the USA..

After that I went all the way back to where I was staying only to find they had all just left to the dance.. each trip costs me a bit as the London Underground is not cheap and Judy lives out of the city.. I went back into the city and to the venue and went strait to work on removing the hard drive.. as most people had already heard about my problem I only attracted a small amount of attention sitting there with my computer in pieces..

When I removed the drive I found that it was not moving and completely finished (for lack of a better word)....

I had to borrow two friend computers as one left early to show photos but as I had spent most of Saturday and sunday trying to fix my computer I didn't have many photos to show..

My only saving grace was that I sold three of my books.. Other wise I didn't make any money and I really needed to..

I guess I got some sleep Sunday night but I can't remember by this time I was just trying not to think about it.. But Monday my flight was at 7:30 pm and I was to take the 3:55 bus to get there.. I don't know if it was the bus being late because of traffic or I got the times messed up but I arrived at the airport about 10 minutes after the check in had closed for my flight.. as I was only carrying two bags they suggested I leave one there and pick it up on my return.. Well that was not an option as one bag had all my camera and computer equipment and the other had all my cloths.. and I don't have a lot of extra cloths.. I asked about changing the flight or getting one to another city but all where too expensive.. I settled on returning to London meaning another bus trip in both directions and having to wake up at 3:00 am to get back to the airport for my 8:05 flight..

On top of all this I still have a cough I got after Slovenia..

But the good new is I was able to rebuild my computer with a Hard Drive twice the size of the old one and I upgraded to Leopard with the help of my parents.. I just need to say thank you to them again.. But the Apple store here in Munich installed Leopard in German.. so I'm trying to decide if I can live with it till I get my copy of the Operating system or make them fix it..

But its taking me two days to install al the 127 programs I had.. and many I don't have with me as I left the large back up drive back in the USA...

I still need to find a way to recover the photos and most importantly the writing that was on that drive..

Bryant

First Snow in Munich

Ok so I haven't been writing here much but I have been very busy..
I did get away from my video editing of the Lindy shock DVD to take these photos around my flat in Munich of the first snow today.
http://goverphotographic.com/travel-galleries/_munichsnow/
I hope you enjoy them...

Oh I almost forgot I can add Budapest, Hungry to my long list of cities and countries I have traveled to in my now 1 year and 5 months I have been traveling..

My travels

I finally put together the list of all the countries and cities I have been to in this last year pulse a few months.

I'm not sure about all the spellings but here it is.. Oh I'll try and get dates at a later time

UK London
Sweden Stockholm, Herrang
France Toulouse, Paris
Denmark Kobenhavn
Germany Berlin
Check Republic Prague
Germany Munchen, Stuttgart
Russia Moscow
Germany Stuttgart, Munchen
Spain Barcelona
Italy Rome, Bari
Montenegro Bar
Kosovo Kosovo
Bulgaria Just passing through
Turkey Istanbul
Grease Thessaloníki, Cartamila
Italy Milan
France Nice, Montpelier, Toulouse, Paris
Sweden Stockholm
France Montpelier
Germany Darmstadt
Spain Barcelona
France Montpelier, Grenoble
Germany Munchen
Spain Barcelona
Morocco Merracash, Merzurga
Spain Barcelona
Ireland Galloway
Spain Barcelona
UK London
Spain Barcelona
France Montpelier
Belgium Brussels
Holland Utrecht, Rotterdam, Amsterdam
Germany Hamburg
Denmark Kobenhavn
Sweden Stockomola, Gothenburg, Båros
Uk London
France Toulouse
Switzerland Just passing through
Germany Munich
Italy Senigallia
Germany Munchen, Darmstadt

yep thats long list..and its only getting longer..

I'm working on adding more photos from my travels but I have to get the photography work I'm making money from online first. so keep checking here or subscribe to this Blog to get up dates..

I know its been long enough

OK so I have been neglecting my blog its only been 4 months.

Well I will have to catch up on a lot of writing here soon maybe tomorrow. HA...

But I was searching around the internet looking for who uses my photos as I'm always greatful to everyone who does. and I found this Blog http://swingjazzblues.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html and Henrik Eriksson I have to say thank you as I'm floored by his appreciation of my work. He mentioned and linked to my site my book and the dance photography lesson I did.

Thank you Henrik Eriksson his blog and photos Floy Floy photography Very nice work by the way..

Other things I found were some interesting things I found. As I'm named after my grandfather my name came up on Wikipedia and I found a page about my father Robert Gover I always love hearing the stories told about my once famous father. Growing up my favorite things was to listen to him tell me about his experiences in life maybe thats why I feel like I want so many of my own. Thank you dad for your inspiration. I also found some very cool letters from my father to one of his friends Bob Harvey about when our family was living in Mallorca Spain I'm not going to post them here but Its very cool to read about my life before I can remember it. Guess I was destine to travel.

Ok well more soon. :p