Hi,
I’m Tom and together with my wife Marie-Claire we are Sporty Travellers, located in Belgium. We have our own blog but I also actively post, comment and review on Google Maps as local guide. A community can only exist and grow when people are sharing. As we use a lot of information found on the internet, we wanted to do something back for the community and take the time to create reviews ourselves.
On both platforms I prefer to show things how they really are and use pictures without filters. Mainly because I don’t like it when things are not reflecting reality, when pictures are adjusted or when filters make things nicer than they are. Although I really enjoy beautiful pictures and follow many top bloggers on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, I prefer to see the real pictures. I want to show how people can expect the place to be without being digitally improved, how it will look like when they see it with their own eyes. Off course I will also try to make nice pictures, wait a bit till strangers are out of the picture and position myself for the perfect angle. However, that does not mean that I try to make reality better. I try to post the pictures that I expect to find myself online. Off course, I do realize that is very subjective. I also try to avoid to fully experience the place through a camera window or a cellphone screen. I try to quickly snap a good shot and then explore the area by myself and form memories for many years in the future. I’m lucky to have a photo graphical memory and when I have the time to absorb the area I can project myself to the same place many time after. When I had no time to build the memory deeply enough in real life, or only did it through the camera, it will not stay that long. Below this post you can find few pictures taken by me with my cell phone, and these are the pictures I think will inspire people to go check out the place themselves.
Next to the motivation to post images without filters, I try to post righteous reviews. Often when I read reviews I realise that some people have way too high expectations, are very critical or are way too positive. I hope that my honest reviews make the mid range reviews more significant in number and dominate the excessives. My goal is to build a correct online profile and that people can feel affiliated with me. I hope that when they checked a picture or review of me in reality they feel like-minded and they will trust my other reviews as well. That when they have to chose between two or more options they take my vision into account and that they can more easily make up their mind. If that would happen a few time, with a few of my reviews, that would make me very happy and satisfied.
Best regards,
Tom
Sporty Travellers
