Sudipto De, the founder and writer of the award winning blog  ‘Salt and Sandals’ delivered a talk on travel photography as part of the film festival.

Q. How did you start travel blogging? Was there anything particular that inspired you to do so?

A. When I was studying for my post-graduation degree, I used to daydream a lot. During those times, I crept upon a blog by a Delhi-ite. The opening lines of the blog talked about three friends who fell in love with the lanes of old Delhi while trying to discover food. And that got me into my love for food blogging. Now, five years later, I am in a position where I am talking to you about how food and travel blogging can land you an actual career.

Q. A career like travel blogging is associated with a lot of risks and monetary constraints. As budding travel bloggers, how do you suggest one goes about this?

A. You have to start small and dream big. When I started off with food blogging, I wrote about small places more than the multiple hospitality brands that I work with now. Since I was doing my post-grad, and didn’t earn a hefty amount, I could not spend money on food from 5-star hotels. Once you start small, you have to wait. There is a general perception that one needs to travel to exotic, foreign destinations to work as a travel blogger – that is not true. If you can show your photography skills in the setting you have, you will get opportunities.

Q. So once someone starts off small, what is the next step?

A. If one wants to pursue blogging as a career, then they need to be very serious about it. I did not pursue it as a career. Being a surgeon is my first love and I cannot let go of that. I sent several emails to editors requesting for a space in their newspaper, and I never received replies. Six months after sending mails, an editorial opportunity popped up. Our biggest break was writing a story for National Geographic. That was the fifth or sixth story that we wrote, and it gave us hope.

Q. How did you start off with ‘Salt and Sandals’?

A. I am not a photographer or a journalist. My blog co-founder, _______, had a corporate job and was inclined towards travel photography. Together, the two of us launched ‘Salt and Sandals’. After writing blog articles for some time, we started writing for print. In a print article, we worked with Malaysian Tourism, and that got us sailing.

Q. What are your plans for ‘Salt and Sandals’?

A. What we would like ‘Salt and Sandals’ to actually be, is the first place where people come to know about travel. And not travelling for travel’s sake, it’s about travelling for the joy of travelling. Bloggers write about travel, and bloggers write about food but no one combines both. We want to create a portal where we write about travelling to sample foods and beverages.