The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. ~ Hunter S Thompson
This shot was taken by Britta, across the way and up the trail a bit. I had to scurry down the log you see to the right of me from the trail. It’s really not as bad as it looks, but I was out of battery in my camera so I don’t have a view from the ledge. Next time 😉
Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror. ~Byrd Baggett
Cross Country // Illinois to Oregon
Okay, so I’m going to apologize ahead of time. I picked a lot of photos for this post. I think it’s 25 or some crazy number like that. I hope that’s okay 🙂
Apartment Finding
My first trip to Portland, and what do I decide to do? Leave the city straight away and head to the ocean. I mean, really, I was supposed to be looking for an apartment, but it’s hard to concentrate with the beauty of the ocean being only 1.25 hours away.
Day 2 of apartment finding, Mutlnomah falls. If you’ve been following along on the blog, you’ll have already seen some shots from there. There were no apartments available at the waterfall.
The Big Move
We picked out an apartment, finally, and it’s awesome-sauce. Just saying. So we packed up the car and hit the road. After about 200 miles, the GPS said something along the lines of ‘stay on this road for 1,643 miles’. This is going to be a bit of a long trip.
First stop, the Badlands in South Dakota. It kind of feels like ‘flat, flat, flat, whoa where did those come from?’ Also, I didn’t know I did that tongue thing when shooting… I might need to work on that.
Later that day Britta and I got photo-bombed by some stone-faced guys.
Rabbits like to travel too.
Especially when they get to hang out with a carrot toy in the bed.
Day 2: Bearclaw Pass, heading to Yosemite. Actually technically I think this was day 3, but day one was just Illinois/Wisconsin/Minnesota, part of South Dakota, and day 2 was Badlands. Back on track now. I was stoked to get some use out of my new tripod and ballhead by Feisol and Sunwayfoto respectively, and they both performed flawlessly, setting up quickly in the cold, and letting me get some great angles of the mountains, mist, and fall colors.
See, new tripod. It’s tall, and I like tall tripods. I think I was standing on a hill, which is why I’m leaning funny…
Well we couldn’t actually cross Bearclaw pass, because they had just closed it. I say we should have waited for the the guard people to leave and gone thru anyways, but alas, we went around, and that turned out okay too. First things first, Yosemite has a lot of Bison. I mean a lot. Sometimes they are just all up in your space.
But, it turned out good for some nice close-ups.
That night, we found a cheap hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I’m not actually sure if it’s Jackson or Jackson Hole, just that some people call it both names. So whichever you prefer. They were right next to a massive elk reserve, so needless to say that had a slight abundance of elk antler sheds. They put them on everything! “Hi, welcome to Coffee Express, would you like an elk antler with your coffee this morning?”
I have officially lost track of the days, but we’re somewhere in the Grand Teton National Park here. Enjoying larger than life mountains, perfect fall colors, and great weather.
See, fall colors.
All the sudden, one day it decided to snow. A lot. Good thing we weren’t moving to Florida, we might not have had our coats. Then again if we were in Yellowstone on our way to Florida, there may have been other issues other than coats…
Then all the sudden 4 days had gone by, and we were still in Wyoming. Oops. Time flies when there are mountains on the horizon!
This shot is for my friend Daphne, she asked me long ago about a perfect fall birch trees picture, and to be honest I had nothing. But, now I do 🙂
We left Yellowston/Tetons and made our way to Idaho/Washington, right on the border. We ended up in a swanky hotel, which Lola quickly decided she was very happy about, and promptly stretched out under the bathroom sink.
Day 7? Must have been, because after we left the Palouse Falls, we drove straight thru to Portland. There was a teeny tiny trail along those cliffs, that one day when I’m feeling courageous I will climb. But that day was not day 7.
That’s all folks! Hope you all enjoyed the ride-along 🙂 Oh, and what are we doing now that we’re here? Still shooting of course!
We all know how much I love behind the scenes stuff. I end up spending as much time shooting the ‘behind the scenes’ photos from time to time as much as the actual scene itself! First off, the camera itself, and you’ll see that I’m using live view to double check the horizon line. I find that it does a pretty awesome job of doing a quick check that all my lines are even with the world. Also, settings are at f10, ISO100, 10 seconds.
I don’t really do snakes, so I’ll be honest, the walk out in the dark was a little unnerving. Especially since I had to do a fair bit of climbing around to get to this spot.
Heading out by flashlight. Definitely feeling like a snake is around every corner.
Broken Bow by Sunset
If it wasn’t for having heard from my photographer friend Glenn that there are RATTLESNAKES hiding around here, and that he had recently seen one on a trip in, I would have completely enjoyed this spot.
Taken just after sunset, I was a little concerned that the night was going to be a wash, with clouds moving in before sunset. Luckily, though, the belly of the clouds were low and had a nice glow from San Diego. So we’ll call this an ‘artificial sunset’.
You’ll notice some design changes over the next weeks, so that’s going to unfortunately be occupying a good bit of my time, but hopefully I’ll have some time to knock out a couple of new photos from New Orleans. But, in the mean time, here’s a little behind the scenes of a shot. I’ll give you the full scoop as to why this was a little extra cool when I finish up the shot.
The Waving Family – Grand Central, NYC
There is soooo much movement in Grand Central Station, that it seems strange that you could take a 2 second exposure and have any one person stay all that still, but in this one moment, there was a single family posing for a picture, that all three stayed still! I had a couple shots where everyone was in some sort of motion, but this one seemed to have a little more essence to in because of that family, standing there waving to someone that must have been standing right next to me.
Today I’m going to try something a little different. Instead of a polished, developed photo, today we’ll look at a few of the behind the scenes moments that make up a successful road trip, or any type of travel for that matter. Here’s a few tips and tricks that I’ve recalled from recent explorations.
Follow the light, wherever there is good light there is opportunity for good photography.
Don’t let a bad situation hold you back from going out and exploring. My tripod was lost with my checked lugage, but as I’ve said before “When the world leaves you without a tripod, find something else to rest your camera on.” The shot below turned out to be an awesome one, and I wouldn’t have had the chance had I waited around for my tripod to get back!
Enjoy the moments that you have. Sometimes I’ll find myself almost too caught up in photographing something beautiful, but don’t forget that it’s nice just to enjoy the beauty. Take moments and just enjoy where you are.
Watch the tide. Otherwise your feet will get wet. If you take your shoes off, it’s okay for your feet to get wet. 🙂
A well packed bag will make getting to your gear that much easier, and when a moment happens, you’ll be able to get ready quickly. Some essential gear: comfy shoes, main camera, music (this is definitely an essential!), and extra cleaning supplies for that pesky travel grime. Your extras may be extra lenses, a film camera (for the nostalgic types), remote shutter release, filters and the like.
Always try something different. If you experiment, you never know what kind of shot you may get! Also, be careful when leaving your camera and tripod suspended over the water to take a picture of your setup. This could have ended badly.
Get LOST. Get off the grid. I’ve found the best photos in areas of “No Service”. Also, it helps break the addiction you have with your cell phone. Admit it.
When possible, take a few videos, they are fun to watch later!
Pack light, but if you don’t, have a full sized vehicle to pile all your crap in. Also, if you end up somewhere without a room to sleep in, this doubles as a decent bed.
A change in perspective can warp an entire scene. Look for elevation, such as mountains, buildings, etc to try and get a bird’s eye view. (If it’s this windy, don’t wander too far from your camera).
And last but definitely not least, even though I’ve become pretty good at travelling alone, having someone to join you on these adventures makes them all the sweeter.
