If you're a fan of great photography, travel writing or enjoy the odd vicarious true-life adventure story, check out www.freedomrun.net, a website run by NetGuide's photography contributor and former editor, Jorin Sievers.
For those who don't know Jorin, in addition to being a very experienced journalist and photographer, he is also quite the adventurer – an open-sea-sailing, underwater cave-exploring experience hunter – and he's poked lava with a stick (and has the photos to prove it). The purpose of freedomrun.net is to share those experiences.“I'm a hopeless wanderer of our blue planet and simply wanted to share some of my experiences with the world,” says Jorin.
“Also, because I primarily visit so-called ‘third world' countries I wanted to show how amazing the cultures, people and landscapes in these locations are.
People think these places are death-traps for travellers. They think you'll be robbed and beaten at the very least – or kidnapped and murdered if you're unlucky. It's simply not true. I continue to meet the most hospitable, generous and inspiring people in countries most travellers consider too dangerous to visit.”Freedomrun's format is a little different than most websites, scrolling left to right rather than the traditional up and down.
“Some people find it strange,” says Jorin of the unusual format, “but it's certainly a point of difference that they remember. The idea behind it is two-fold. Firstly, sideways layouts have much more of a ‘magazine' feel to them – a feeling I want to impart because these are very much magazine-style feature articles. Secondly, having 250 words of text, then a large image, then 250 more words, etc. makes an in-depth story less imposing to read than a huge unbroken block of traditional vertical text.
Most stories on freedomrun.net are short and sweet – just a few paragraphs that capture an interesting incident or sketch an encounter in a few precise strokes. Others extend out a little more, but all stories are accompanied by breathtaking photography.
And Jorin's photographs are, quite simply, gorgeous. He has a talent for capturing images that can turn the merely idyllic into the utterly paradisiacal. Looking through the site you'll find yourself longing to be somewhere far way, perhaps the iridescent blue Tongan seas captured in quite a few of Freedomrun's features. And there's more on the way.
“I'm going to create a section of Freedom Run dedicated entirely to surfing. I've been travelling a lot over the last year and have produced some pretty awesome surf photography from Central America, Samoa and every corner of New Zealand. I'll tie these images together with safari adventure stories”.