If you don’t have much experience with traveling for business, then it’s easy to find the entire process stressful and overwhelming. But if you do travel frequently, it’s important to figure a few things out.

Here are a handful of helpful travel hacks you could gain from ten minutes’ conversation in an airport terminal with any experienced business traveler.

1. Avoid checking luggage whenever possible

The goal of business travel is to save as much time as possible by being proactive and efficient. In this light, one of the best tips is to avoid checking luggage whenever possible. By bringing only carry-on luggage, you avoid the extra time it takes to check luggage and find it again at baggage claim. More importantly, you avoid the risk of your luggage being manipulated or put on the wrong flight.

How can you possibly fit everything into one carry-on piece of luggage and a personal bag? Well, start by leaving things at home. Even traveling internationally for business, you can leave extra gadgets, bulky items and clothing behind.

Remember that you really need only a few outfits. “Unless you’re traveling to an extremely remote location — where your water supply is limited – there’s virtually no need to bring extra clothes, when you can do a quick sink wash and line dry,” Luggage Council notes. “You could also splurge and use your hotel’s laundry services.”

2. Pay a premium for direct flights

If you’re paying for your own flights, it’s easy to choose the cheapest option. But the cheapest option isn’t always the best option. Connecting flights are sometimes necessary to get from one location to another, but look for direct flights if at all possible.

With each connection, you are not only increasing the amount of time it takes to get from “Point A” to “Point B,” but also increasing the amount of risk. With each leg, there’s a possibility for a delay. If your first leg is delayed, you risk missing your second leg, which then compromises your third leg, etc.

If you can reasonably afford it, pay a premium for direct flights. This will save you a lot of stress and wasted time in uncomfortable airports.

3. Check in online

There are always unexpected delays on travel days. From the alarm that doesn’t ring and traffic on the interstate, to long security lines and issues at the baggage counter, uncontrollable factors will always be in play. So, when you get the chance to speed something up, take full advantage.

Thankfully, most airline companies now let you check in online within 24 hours of your flight. This one little step can save you a ton of time at the airport — especially if you aren’t checking baggage.

4. Always carry these items in your bag

Every experienced business traveler has a few simple items he or she needs to carry on every trip. These vary from individual to individual, but learn what’s important here by studying your peers. One important item is a portable cell phone charger. You never know when you’re going to need to charge your phone but won’t be able to find your charger (or an outlet).

Another strange, yet effective, item is a tennis ball. “Bring a tennis ball with you when you’re traveling,” experienced traveler Brian Povinelli says. “It’s great to roll under your feet and even under your thighs to keep you from getting stiff/sore. It’s small, inexpensive and easy to replace.”

5. Kill the germs

Airports, rental cars, hotels, and taxicabs … they’re all full of germs. In order to stay healthy on your business trip, do everything possible to avoid germs in obvious places. That’s why you should always carry three things in your bag: hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes and Bacitracin.

Antibacterial wipes should be used to clean down airplane table trays (which are rarely cleaned between flights). And sanitizer should be applied before eating anything. Apply a small drop of Bacitracin to each nostril to keep those pesky germs at bay.

6. Try negotiating with rental car agencies

If you’re renting a car upon arriving at your destination, consider inquiring about an upgrade. There’s a big difference in comfort between compact cars and premium cars. Plus, if you’re wining and dining clients, it’s always good to be thinking about your image.

“Premium cars can cost an arm and a leg, but counter reps will negotiate much lower prices if they are available when you pick up your car,” says Brian Kelley, The Points Guy. “Ask at check-in if you can upgrade to a higher category, and if they quote you a price, be sure to negotiate since they won’t start at their best price.”

Instead of fearing technological improvements of mobile phone cameras, there are things you can do to gain more control of your image.

Last weekend The New Yorker published an essay by Kyle Chayka with a headline guaranteed to pique my interest and raise my hackles: “Have iPhone Cameras Become Too Smart?” (March 18, 2022).

Aside from being a prime example of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, it feeds into the idea that computational photography is a threat to photographers or is somehow ruining photography. The subhead renders the verdict in the way that eye-catching headlines do: “Apple’s newest smartphone models use machine learning to make every image look professionally taken. That doesn’t mean the photos are good.”

The implication there, and a thrust of the article, is that machine learning is creating bad images. It’s an example of a type of nostalgic fear contagion that’s increasing as more computational photography technologies assist in making images: The machines are gaining more control, algorithms are making the decisions we used to make, and my iPhone 7/DSLR/film SLR/Brownie took better photos. All wrapped in the notion that “real” photographers, professional photographers, would never dabble with such sorcery.

(Let’s set aside the fact that the phrase “That doesn’t mean the photos are good” can be applied to every technological advancement since the advent of photography. A better camera can improve the technical qualities of photos, but doesn’t guarantee “good” images.)

I do highly recommend that you read the article, which makes some good points. My issue is that it ignores—or omits—an important fact: computational photography is a tool, one you can choose to use or not.

Knowing you have choices

To summarize, Chayka’s argument is that the machine learning features of the iPhone are creating photos that are “odd and uncanny,” and that on his iPhone 12 Pro the “digital manipulations are aggressive and unsolicited.” He’s talking about Deep Fusion and other features that record multiple exposures of the scene in milliseconds, adjust specific areas based on their content such as skies or faces, and fuses it all together to create a final image. The photographer just taps the shutter button and sees the end result, without needing to know any of the technical elements such as shutter speed, aperture, or ISO.

You can easily bypass those features by using a third-party app such as Halide or Camera+, which can shoot using manual controls and save the images in JPEG or raw format. Some of the apps’ features can take advantage of the iPhone’s native image processing, but you’re not required to use them. The only manual control not available is aperture because each compact iPhone lens has a fixed aperture value.

That fixed aperture is also why the iPhone includes Portrait Mode, which detects the subject and artificially blurs the background to simulate the soft background depth of field effect created by shooting with a bright lens at f/1.8 or wider. The small optics can’t replicate it, so Apple (and other smartphone developers) turned to software to create the effect. The first implementations of Portrait Mode often showed noticeable artifacts, the technology has improved in the last half-decade to the point where it’s not always apparent the mode was used.

But, again, it’s the photographer’s choice whether to use it. Portrait Mode is just another tool. If you don’t like the look of Portrait Mode, you can switch to a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a decent lens.

Algorithmic choices

More apt is the notion that the iPhone’s processing creates a specific look, identifying it as an iPhone shot. Some images can appear to have exaggerated dynamic range, but that’s nothing like the early exposure blending processing that created HDR (high dynamic range) photos where no shadow was left un-brightened.

Each system has its own look. Apple’s processing, to my eye, tends to be more naturalistic, retaining darks while avoiding blown-out areas in scenes that would otherwise be tricky for a DSLR. Google’s processing tends to lean more toward exposing the entire scene with plenty of light. These are choices made by the companies’ engineers when applying the algorithms that dictate how the images are developed.

The same applies to traditional camera manufacturers: Fujifilm, Canon, Nikon, Sony cameras all have their own “JPEG look”, which are often the reason photographers choose a particular system. In fact, Chayka acknowledges this when reminiscing over “…the pristine Leica camera photo shot with a fixed lens, or the Polaroid instant snapshot with its spotty exposure.”

The article really wants to cast the iPhone’s image quality as some unnatural synthetic version of reality, photographs that “…are coldly crisp and vaguely inhuman, caught in the uncanny valley where creative expression meets machine learning.” That’s a lovely turn of phrase, but it comes at the end of talking about the iPhone’s Photographic Styles feature that’s designed to give the photographer more control over the processing. If you prefer images to be warmer, you can choose to increase the warmth and choose that style when shooting.

It’s also amusing that the person mentioned at the beginning of the article didn’t like how the iPhone 12 Pro rendered photos, so “Lately she’s taken to carrying a Pixel, from Google’s line of smartphones, for the sole purpose of taking pictures.”

The Pixel employs the same types of computational photography as the iPhone. Presumably, this person prefers the look of the Pixel over the iPhone, which is completely valid. It’s their choice.

Choosing with the masses

I think the larger issue with the iPhone is that most owners don’t know they have a choice to use anything other than Apple’s Camera app. The path to using the default option is designed to be smooth; in addition to prominent placement on the home screen, you can launch it directly from an icon on the lock screen or just swipe from right to left when the phone is locked. The act of taking a photo is literally “point and shoot.”

More important, for millions of people, the photos it creates are exactly what they’re looking for. The iPhone creates images that capture important moments or silly snapshots or any of the unlimited types of scenes that people pull out their phones to record. And computational photography makes a higher number of those images decent.

Of course not every shot is going to be “good,” but that applies to every camera. We choose which tools to use for our photography, and that includes computational photography as much as cameras, lenses, and capture settings.

10 Commandments of Eating While Traveling

• 1. Plan your picnic ahead of time and buy as much as you can before you hit the road/air. You’ll be less stressed, and odds are you’ll spend less and end up with much better options. A wedge of good cheese and a baguette can easily be shared among three or four people and should set you back less than two soggy airport sandwiches.

• 2. Choose items that can last for a while at room temperature without suffering (e.g. cured meats instead of fresh, crackers instead of bread, hard cheeses instead of soft). Even for a short flight, you’ll need to account for the additional time spent getting to/from the airport, going through security, etc.

• 3. Plan for several mini meals instead of one or two large ones. We (and our kids) tend to get peckish while traveling—normally we’re not proponents of eating out of boredom, but these are extraordinary circumstances!

• 4. Pack your food in appropriate containers. Either use disposables like foil or old deli containers that you can toss immediately, or—even better—reusable bags that you can wash and press into service during your trip (we take lots of these silicone bags, which can hold snacks for our kids throughout the trip—also great for wet bathing suits!).

• 5. Include a couple of special treats—now’s the perfect time to splurge on those fancy Italian chocolates or handmade spelt crackers you’ve been eyeing.

• 6. Focus on things that don’t require utensils, or a transfer from one container to another. Dried fruit, nuts and seeds, cut up veggies, and homemade pita chips and hummus are all good options.

• 7. Pack things that range the full flavor spectrum to keep things interesting (see #3 re: boredom above). This will also help you avoid eating too much salt, which can cause uncomfortable fluid retention.

• 8. Opt for assertive flavors (olives, herbed or wheaty crackers instead of plain, aged cheeses). Your taste buds are less sensitive when traveling, for a whole host of reasons, so you’ll want to stay away from bland foods.

• 9. Eat the most perishable items first, and work towards the least perishable. If you only get part-way through that prosciutto and fontina baguette with arugula or you’re left with a bunch of battered bananas, those will have to go straight in the trash when you land. Leftover nuts or rice crackers will last you the rest of the trip.

• 10. Pack some napkins and wet wipes. If you bring delicate produce like tomatoes, peaches or plums, wrap the fruit carefully in the napkins to keep them from bruising or splitting.

From selecting your wardrobe to styling them right and rocking them with confidence, we’ve made a list of 9 style tips for teenage guys that every teen needs to read.

When you’re a teen, things suddenly start to change. You develop your own opinions, tastes, and you want people to start taking you seriously. You want to make sure you seem stylish and confident. Contrary to how it may seem, it won’t cost you a lot of money to become a stylish teenager. That’s why we’ve listed out the top style tips for teenage guys.

Teen life can be a handful – you sometimes feel rebellious because people never seem to understand you and sometimes just because! But your lifestyle will certainly pave the way for who you will become in future. It did for us!

Fashion for Teenage Guys

So, being stylish and fashionable with an open mind and confidence will help you to turn heads, making long-lasting impressions and not to mention look amazing on your social media platforms.

Knowing yourself is part of developing your own style. To help you out here’s nine styling tips for teenage guys from Faveable that will ensure you’re fashionable and trendy.

These tips will help you bring out your own style!

Why Style Matters

The teenage years of a guy’s life are some of the most important times of their lives. A personality starts to develop, and you discover what you like and don’t like. Getting into relationships, making friends and going out are just some of the few things teenagers face.

First impressions are everything, they are a critical part of it all. What style you have will speak volumes for years to come, right from your teen years to when you attend your school reunions. We’ve all been at that stage where some of us want to forget how we dressed in our teen years. However, others are remembered by how they used to have a bold fashion sense.

That’s why fashion for teenage guys matters. The first impression you leave during your teen years will make people aware that you know and care about how you look and present yourself. Dressing is a way of expressing your personality. A sense of style elevates your confidence and people’s perception of you.

9 Style Tips for Teenage Guys

1. Get the Right Haircut

Everybody knows that a good haircut can seriously amp up your style. That’s why it’s important for you to know what type of haircut will suit you best before you actually go get one. So this has to be #1 on our list of style tips for teenage guys.

What you need to take into account is the color of your hair, your facial features, and the shape of your face. Find out what type of shape your face has and start from there. Also check out the latest hairstyle trends for guys.

You may have thought about getting an undercut because it’s what’s in style these days. But, take a moment to picture yourself with one. Will it go with the outfits you wear? Does it suit your personality?

Often times we fool ourselves into thinking that the trendy haircut will suit us just fine and that we should just go for it. However, it could very well be the total opposite (been there, done that). But that said, don’t be afraid to try a new haircut if you feel that it’ll suit you. And at all costs, avoid bad or outdated haircuts!

2. Mind the Length!

When it comes to sleeve lengths, it’s a common fact that long sleeves are not for all seasons.

People may say it’s fashion, but it’s not worth it if you end up feeling uncomfortable. That being said, short sleeves are a smart choice for teens. They are a simple and cool look that you can whip up from your wardrobe.

Short sleeves can be worn on any occasion and they make you look slimmer too! Whether you’re just hanging out with your friends or your wardrobe for school, short sleeves are the perfect answer.

The tip is to make your biceps more visible. It doesn’t matter if you’re fit or not. It also matters that the sleeves are not too short like tank tops. Short sleeves make you look slimmer, give off the teen spirit vibe, and honestly speaking, they are pleasing to look at.

3. Retract Back from Complex Graphics T-shirts

We all love our cult classic t-shirts with really graphic designs. They are amazing and look seriously cool when you style them properly. We all want to represent the musicians we listen to, the movies we watch, and the artists we follow.

However, graphic t-shirts are hard to style everyday because they make you stand out too much. That’s one of the the secret style tips for teenage guys, if you wanna look unique. Unless you’re into the rugged, rebel vibe then go all out. On the other hand, if you want to switch up your wardrobe, give solid colors a try.

Solid colors give off a much fresher and neater vibe. They are easy to style and you can change it up with different solid colors as you go along. There’s really no way you can look bad with solid colors. Graphic t-shirts are awesome, but so are solid-colored t-shirts. Switch up your style and you’ll keep people guessing about your next outfit!

4. Repetitive Patterns are Repeated by EVERYBODY

Patterns are great in general, but repetitive patterns? Not so much. These days, repetitive patterns seem to be on every type of clothing there is – shirts, t-shirts, polo t-shirts. It doesn’t end.

What’s worse is that every young teen you see these days is wearing those same repetitive patterns. Sure, they seem to be the hype nowadays, but that doesn’t mean they look good on everybody.

If anything, they are boring and don’t really help you to stand out from the crowd when everyone is wearing the same type of clothing. You wouldn’t want to wear a uniform and fall into a stereotype that will eventually die out in a few years.

So when it comes to style tips for teenage guys, we have to mention prints and patterns. Save yourself and break free from the repetitive pattern cycle. Mix it up and choose something that will help you stand out, and make you look and feel at your best all day, every day.

5. Say No to Those Baggy Shorts

When it comes to style tips for teenage guys, keeping track of latest trends is important. Baggy cargo shorts died out a long, long time ago. These shorts cover your knees and make you look shorter than you actually are. Nowadays, shorts that cover your knee-cap or go a bit higher than that are in style.

You can style shorts with a plain-colored t-shirt, polo t-shirts, graphic t-shirts, and even short-sleeved shirts as well. You’ll look slimmer, fashionable, and most importantly – trendy.

Whereas baggy shorts that fall below the knees leave a small space between your exposed leg and footwear. Unless you intentionally want to look shorter or are inventing your own new style, then go all out with your baggy shorts.

You wanna keep a track of latest fashion trends for teenage guys, so that you’re always aware of what’s going out. Fashion for men evolves every day and old styles are surely making a comeback. Who knows, maybe baggy cargo shorts can be styled properly one day. For now, let’s avoid those shorts in 2019!

6. Slouching is Never an Option, Ever

No matter how better you dress, your whole outfit will fall apart if you slouch. Posture and physique are very important when it comes to style tips for teenage guys. Bad posture and body language can ruin your whole style.

Not only does it affect your style, but it also causes a number of health problems like back pain, poor indigestion, and even cardiovascular disease. If you practice sitting up straight from an earlier age, you’ll be saving yourself from a lot of problems in the future.

With daily practices of some diligent stretching exercises, you can maintain a straight posture and look good, too! Remember to keep your chest out, raise your head, and pull your stomach in. It’ll make you seem more confident.

Having a straight posture can say a lot about your personality as well. It’s a commendable trait for a teen to have. Young people, these days don’t care much about these things. So, for you to pay attention to it can help you stand out even more. Also take care of your body and work out or take up sports, so that your physique looks great.

7. Accessories for Teens

When it comes to accessories, less is more. You may want to wear whatever you have every day with all your outfits, but it just doesn’t work. You can’t really wear a spiked wristband when you’re wearing formal attire.

It doesn’t make you look like a rebel, it just makes you look like a bad dresser. Another thing about accessories is that many people think they are only to be worn on special occasions. However, that’s not the case at all.

The key is to know which accessory goes with which outfit and to know when to stop accessorizing. The accessory should be there to enhance your outfit. So, pick ones that don’t draw too much attention and something that actually goes with your outfit. This is one of the style tips for teenage guys that can be applied for any age group.

We all want to wear that Deadpool necklace and look cool, and by all means, you can, but you have to know when the right time and place for it is.

8. Exploring Other Colors

Many teens like to just switch between the colors black and white a lot. There’s really no one to blame for this. Black helps you look slimmer and white keeps you cool and fresh during the hot summer days.

They are also easy to maintain, they fit well with almost anything, and are perfect for lazy teens who don’t care about how they look. However, exploring other colors and trying them out never hurt anybody.

Pick a solid color and try it out. Most teens try the bold and bright colors like blue, red, etc. But you can also look for cool tones like mint, sky blue, periwinkle or dove grey. See for yourself how different you look. Experiment with your dress code and develop a whole new look entirely. Color schemes are an important part of casual wear for teenage guys, so be careful of them. The goal is not to end up looking like you dressed in the dark.

If you’re scared about trying new colors at first, start with earthy tones, such as beige, sand, stone and olive. They are easy to style, look comfortable and look natural as well.

9. Confidence is Key!

It may seem like style is all about choosing trendy clothes and accessories, but being stylish is about more than that. Confidence plays a crucial role when it comes to style; and it’s the most important among fashion tips for men. The way you carry yourself speaks more about you than the clothes you wear.

If you can pull off looking good in clothes you’re uncomfortable with, that’s because of your confidence. Believing in yourself that you look amazing and that you are rocking that outfit can be a game changer.

Confidence alone helps you stand out in a crowd, be it when you’re taking photos, dancing, or making small talk with someone at a party. Confidence is everything.

The minute you fumble, you lose all your cool. That bright t-shirt you bought but have never worn because it’s just not your thing? Give it a try and see yourself in a new light. Think positively about how you look and go with it!

Being stylish will make people notice, and therefore, judge you more. So you’ll also need to confidently ignore any snarky comments! Always be confident about what you’re wearing, that’s the key.

Final Thoughts

We hope these 9 style tips for teenage guys will help you to develop your sense of style and personality in a world where everything is being repeated by everybody. When there’s barely any room to stand out in a crowd, you must develop and evolve your own style and ideas. Following a crowd is easy, but standing on your own takes a lot of courage.