A lifetime of training, experience, exploring
along with an inquisitive nature (OK, some say I'm just a sticky beak with a press card) are incorporated into every story I have to tell. Widely published and much travelled, my career has morphed across a range of genres with one constant theme: travel.
To travel the world is not a flippant luxury, it is the single factor that prevents me from plummeting into depths of insanity.
As a career-gypsy lugging around laptop and camera across the world as the tools of my trade, my workplace is constantly evolving, just as the world around me changes.
Background of a Travel Writer/Photographer
Escaping
from the
harsh light of a Gypsy-like childhood in the remote inhospitable
scrublands of Western Australia, I emerged with an unquenchable desire to
explore the world. Or more precisely, in the
days before low cost airlines, to discover the treasures concealed within my own
vast Australian backyard.
With the ink barely dry on my high school diploma, I slung a backpack
over my shoulder, boarding a Greyhound bus heading north from
Fremantle. Camping in the dunes behind Broome's Cable
Beach, in the days before the cocktail glasses tinkled on the
sunset deck of this now uber luxe resort, the hippies, or 'mung beans'
as this eclectic group were known then, delighted in the freedom
of one of the world's most beautiful beaches. Carefree days
revolved around the rising of the sun and the falling of the
tide, interspersed with regular expeditions to town where we
danced barefoot beneath the stars at the Roebuck Hotel. Heady, exotic adventurous days that must, according to
conservative parents, eventually end.
And end
they did, coinciding with a crew position onboard a yacht heading northwards into
the Kimberley sunset. Disembarking six exhilarating weeks later in Darwin my life had changed. With a newfound passion, I now had a dream and was firmly fixed on achieving the next goal. Having experienced
the awe-inspiring beauty of the open sea, combined
with the raw wilderness of far-flung anchorages, I emerged with a passion
for sailing and a career in travel. Hitching home to Perth the long way, via
northern Queensland, it became apparent that the journey had
only just begun. Indeed, after clocking up over 40,000 nautical
miles at sea, and countless inspiring voyages by land and air, the journey is far from
over.
As my career evolved across
the marine, travel and media industries, eventually I found my niche. To
encourage others to explore. To experience far-flung lands. To
see the world and its people with an open mind. To engage with others, embracing all the treasures that our world has to share.
A Travel Writer was born
Within the travel industry, I've worked at
the forefront of leisure travel, advising first time travellers who weren't
sure if they needed a passport to visit Tasmania (yes, seriously). In the corporate
travel world working the graveyard shift, I've sweated
over business traveller emergencies, coordinating evacuations for urban corporates abandoned in remote mining villages
of South America. I've up-sold, cross-sold, even over-
sold, until I had nothing left to sell in the competitive, commission
based world of travel. There was a rather tragic period when my travel-adled brain computed airline routes and airfares as a precursor to falling asleep, though thankfully that illness has cured itself.
In
researching destinations, I've lost room service crumbs, indeed,
my mini bar virginity, amidst starched linen of opulent
hotel beds. I've fallen for an Arabian guide over a hubbly bubbly
pipe beneath a starry desert sky. Trying
to overcome a fear of heights, I've suffered vertiginous paranoia crawling across a glass floor hundreds of
metres above a city (it didn't work, I'm still terrified of heights). I even once considered, then quickly dismissed the idea,
of bungy jumping out of a perfectly sound building, all in the
name of research.
My taste buds have been titillated by fried scorpion (they taste like peanuts with legs) and offended by ox genitals in China (no idea what it tastes like, though it looks inedible), and deliciously drooled over handmade Taiwanese dumplings. Tracking lions in South Africa I've been mesmerised listening to heavily-maned lions snore, seemingly oblivious to my presence mere metres away, gazed into polar bear eyes in the Arctic, giggled hysterically amid a penguin colony in Patagonia.
Moving vessels around Asia/Pacific waters I've encountered whales migrating, turtles mating, even a frightening mutiny mid-Pacific. Working as a charter skipper it's been inspiring to witness landlubbers overcome their fear of the sea. Rounding Tasmania's southwest and southeast capes enroute to Hobart stands out as a particular maritime highlight. As does traversing the Arctic's Northwest Passage, along with landing on the island of Cabo de Hornos (otherwise known as Cape Horn), before rounding this sailors 'Everest': both polar extremes that provide intriguing stories that may inspire others to follow, or at least to dream.
Along the way I've learnt an enormous amount
about travel, travel writing and photography, along with what constitutes a damm good story. Though, it's not all exhilarating, heart
stopping encounters enticing one to explore the world. Often it's invoking a sense of place, where, far-removed from civilisation, the startling bright Milky Way turns night into day or dancing Aurora Borealis curtains cast an eery green glow across the tundra. Or chatting with a street-side food vendor and being invited home to meet her family. As an
insightful travel writer, I draw upon these experiences in order to inform, engage,
entertain: to add depth to the story. Yes, it is a tough job, but no-one is better qualified than myself to do it! Seriously. There are, actually, many sacrifices made in order to succeed in this competitive industry. Long days on the road, even longer lonely nights in foreign beds combined with an intimacy with electronic gadgets that is surely unhealthy come with the territory. Is it really socially acceptable to take a laptop, phone, iPod, novel, notebook and glass of wine to bed with me when I'm on the road? Well, actually, yes it is when you;re a travel writer on assignment. Fortunately, I am comfortable venturing outside my own comfort zone, so that even the bizarre can soon feel normal, enabling me to dig deeper to find the real story.
Photography
Travel writing and photography are intrinsically linked to each other. Despite the fact that a terrific yarn invokes a sense of place, it's still important to have great images to support the text. Participating in photography workshops and learning from the pro's at every opportunity, I've an ever expanding portfolio of high res digital images available to accompany my articles. They're also available for purchase as stand alone images from Fiona Harper Image Portfolio
Writing Projects
In 2008 I developed and launched the Australian Marinas Guide, the only definitive guide to Australian marinas. Three years later this guide has become the first point of call for boat owners, particularly long-term cruisers, seeking waterfront and marina information. Its associated news blog, Travel Boating Lifestyle, was launched in 2009, developing a strong following around the globe amongst travellers and boaties alike.
In 2011 after many years spent researching, travelling and cruising Queensland waters, I launched a travel and visitor guide, Great Barrier Reef: Ultimate Guide in app format. Available for download from iTunes, this comprehensive guide is for use on iPad, iPhone and iPod.
Copywriting & Web Editing
But travel writing is not all I do. As an accomplished features writer
with scores of publishing credits, I'm also quite a talented commercial
Copywriter. And so modest too! I can write copy for your
website, brochure, newsletter or press release, regardless of the subject.
Anything really, that requires succinct, dynamic text to engage your
target audience.
With strong web editing and web management skills, I also manage website content and social media campaigns. Whether your website needs a revamp with new images and text, or just needs ongoing updates or maintenance, I can look after your online content.
As a member of the Australian
Society of Travel Writers, I am bound by our Code of
Ethics:
- As a representative of the
public interest, I serve as a travel critic, as ready to
comment critically as to praise. I will not accept payment
for writing favourably about travel destinations or
operations against my own professional appraisal.
- I shall only describe
those destinations or operations of which I have first-hand
knowledge, or have access to other reliable sources.
- Participation
in familiarisations are regarded as essential working
opportunities.
- Hosts of familiarisations
shall provide circumstances conducive to full
and accurate reporting, not as a favour to writers or
publications.
I adhere to the
Australian Journalists Association Code of Ethics:
- Honesty
- Fairness
- Independence
- Respect for the rights of
others
