Launch Video Player SPJ Members can view an 18-minute video of Kai Jackson's 2004 trip to Ghana. Requires the Quicktime Plug-in, which you can download free of charge for Windows or Mac. Kai would like to give special thanks to Matt Leeke of WJZ-TV in Baltimore for putting this video together.

My wife, Kia, and I traveled to Ghana in June 2004 and consider the trip we made the journey of a lifetime.

I must confess right from the start that we didn't rely on any one-size-fits-all tour company to arrange our travel. We worked instead with a longtime friend, Doris Ligon, who runs the African Art Museum of Maryland, the only African art museum in the state — and one that has played host to African dignitaries, formal dinners and an enviable collection of art and artifacts. I was a young journalist new to Baltimore when met Ligon more than a decade ago. My wife and I also consulted with Dr. Kwaku Ofori-Ansa, a professor of art history at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Ofori-Ansa, a Ghanaian, also helped structure our trip — and it was because of him that we were personally guided by his nephew, Francis Wilson, also known as Kweisi. All three of these people have my profound thanks.

About Kai Jackson Kai Jackson has worked for more than 20 years in television news. His career stops have been in markets as varied as Charleston, S.C., and Wichita, Kan. Jackson now works in Baltimore, Md., as an anchor of the 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts of WJZ 13 Eyewitness News. The national stories he's covered include the terrorist attacks of 9/11, abortion protests in Kansas during the 1990s and the devastation of Hurricane Hugo. The journey he and his wife made to Ghana is the beginning of Jackson's venture into documentary work. Jackson has spent much of his career mentoring young journalists through the National Association of Black Journalists and SPJ and by speaking to students at all levels of education. Jackson lives by the axiom that he should learn something every day — and if he hasn't, he hasn't had a good day. He is an avid reader, gardener and traveler. He also enjoys practicing Shotokan karate. Jackson lives just outside of Baltimore with his wife, Kia, and their daughter, Grace. Jackson can be reached via e-mail..

We divided our trip into smaller treks to different regions of the country, which is about the size of Oregon. We started in Ghana's capital of Accra and ventured west to the slave castles in Cape Coast and Elmina. We visited a 200 square-mile rain forest, Kakum National Park. We traveled north to Kumasi, the home of the historic African Ashanti Kingdom. From there, we headed east to the beautiful Akosombo region, where we saw Lake Volta and lush, green countryside. We ended our nine-day voyage in Accra.

In that time, we learned a lot about ourselves, about Ghana and Ghanians — and about how to practice journalism in a foreign country. Here are some of my recommendations for journalists wanting to do a little work abroad — particularly work that involves capturing video and audio:

Make a plan. This might sound incredibly basic, but it's incredibly important to take this seriously. Making the time to craft a particular project that has specific goals will help you make the most of your time and resources. Knowing whether you want to focus on a particular type of people, a specific place or a tightly focused concept will drive a lot of your preliminary research and subsequent travel.

Consult with local experts. Guide books, travel agents and tour groups are nice, but no one knows a country better than the people who are from there or who have spent a significant amount of time there. Journalists should consider contacting local scholars and business leaders with expertise in the countries they'd like to visit. Consider it an opportunity to cultivate new sources — and to identify potential stories before you arrive at your destination.

Check the U.S. State Department's Web site early and often. This site includes a section about travel and business that provides information about countries or regions of a country that may be vulnerable to, or experiencing, hostility. This Web page is also great to review because it contains information about embassies, emergency services, travel tips and much more. Then surf on over to the section titled Issues & Press, which includes a wide range of information and instructions on how to receive State Department news via RSS feeds, podcasts and listservs.

Make sure you know the rules of reporting in the country or countries you plan to visit. The last thing you need is to be thrown in jail for violating the laws of a foreign country. And the chances of you getting caught acting out of turn are even greater when you're wielding cameras and other recording equipment. Each country has different requirements and procedures when it comes to obtaining and using press credentials. Some countries require no accreditation at all, while others try to ensure reporters are accompanied by information ministry officials nearly all the time. If you aren't sure where to start, SPJ offers some very general guidelines regarding foreign press credentials that may help you. Just remember: There's no substitute for your own research about the countries you plan to visit.

Check and double-check your equipment before leaving home and immediately after you arrive at your destination. This, you would know, is where we got burned. Our still camera, a film SLR, had a shutter problem that had surfaced months before we left. I had forgotten about this problem, and, as a result, hadn't gotten the camera repaired. Big mistake. The camera behaved just fine during the trip — or so I thought. Of about 250 photographs we took, fewer than 30 were good, clear images. To say that I was near tears when my wife broke the bad news is not an understatement.

Fortunately, all of our video was outstanding, and we were able to salvage pictures using still images from the video.

Budget for emergencies. This goes for matters of personal safety, of course — and it also goes for tech malfunctions. If you arrive at your destination and find your equipment is working (which is why you should test it promptly), ensure you have taken enough money to make the necessary replacements. If we had known our still camera wasn't working, you can bet I would have sprung $300 to buy a new one. It's also smart to consult with contacts ahead of time to determine where electronics can be purchased easily.

Travel light. I used one backpack big enough to hold video and still cameras. This made a world of difference when it came to gathering photos and video. You don't want to have to fumble through multiple bags to use your equipment. Trust me.

Honor local rules of etiquette. From experience, I learned to be careful about where I gathered video and photographs. While standing in a crowd in Accra, people were completely at ease with the camera. But when I trained the lens on one woman in a market, she promptly shooed me away for pointing the video camera in her direction. Always ask before taking pictures or video unless you're with a local official and are absolutely certain that acquiring permission isn't necessary. It's important to remember that you are guest in the country you're visiting.

Make the most of your technology. When gathering multimedia, you'll obviously want to be smart about lighting and sound. You can get a lot of bang for the buck — and avoid blowing your budget — if you clearly define your needs. Do you want to conduct on-camera interviews? Do you want to capture both indoor and outdoor footage? To establish a smart game plan, do some reading first. One good book on the market is Writing for Digital & Video Television (2nd Edition) by John Jackman. And before investing in a light kit, remember that most new cameras produced these days are designed to compensate for low light levels. Make sure you understand your camera's capabilities before springing for a kit. If you decide you do need a kit, check out the Lowel Light Pak, which is available at lowel.com. A video photographer I trust recommends this product for its simplicity and value.

Be smart about sound. It's tough to weed out all unwanted sound, especially if you decide to conduct an interview outdoors, where you're at the mercy of people and Mother Nature. When interviewing a person, use a hand-held microphone, and guard against "ambient sound." Examples of that kind of sound are a car back-firing, a person shouting and a plane flying overhead. When those sounds make sense given the story you're working on, they're fine. Otherwise, they're just noise. To avoid capturing those sounds, consider taking your interviewee indoors. And don't forget to capture "natural sound." Those are sounds that fit well with the story you're working on. Birds, flowing water — and even sirens — can work well. Smart use of natural sound will enrich your story. When it comes to navigating all of these tasks, it's smart to focus on one at a time. Don't try to hold a microphone while you're also taking notes and trying to wield a camera. Focus on your interview — and consider having the subject of your interview hold the microphone out of sight of the camera (it's an old trick). Focus on recording natural sound separately.

Share you work with others. Once you've returned home, spread information about the places you've visited. You don't need a news organization to help facilitate your presentation. Consider hosting an SPJ event that encourages others to consider broadening their reporting using the information you've gleaned. You could hold a formal or informal gathering, where you provide contact names and numbers, video, photos, literature and Web-based exhibits. The goal is to create a cycle of learning and knowledge that is perpetual. My wife and I held a gathering at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, which provided an auditorium for our seminar on Ghana at no expense. The library also provided audio and visual equipment and light refreshments. Do a little investigative reporting, and you'll be surprised by what local universities and other educational institutions may be willing to do to present your work to the public. More than anything, this outreach helps us to move from being all about ourselves to being more about others.