Advantages of having a Photography Wingman for Travel!
1. The Cost. Traveling with a photography wingman cuts the cost in half. If your driving the price of gas is shared. The price of a hotel room is shared. Anything that is shared by the two of you from a case of water or food that you have packed for lunches is shared. This greatly lowers the cost. We got a rental car for a week and split the cost taking it from a crazy 800 dollars to 400. So traveling with a friend makes it cheaper.
3. Decision Making. I am a introvert by nature and Robert (my wingman) is very much the extrovert. This works well for us. I am a planner and not very spontaneous and he is the more spontaneous. With him being more Spontaneous I do things and go places that I would never go by myself. He on the other hand is Go, Go, Go without thinking and I slow him down with time to think about all of the consequences that could happen. So we work well together as a team seeing all of the possibilities. And Then Deciding on the correct course of action.
5. Its just fun! Traveling with another photo nut is like going on a photography workshop but smaller. Robert ( Wingman) and I are very much alike in the way we think and we have fun and cut up the whole time. Its like summer camp for old folks. This last trip we took to Utah was epic and we laughed the whole time. We did have some photography shots that were alike but we had a lot that were totally different even though we were only a few feet away from each other at every photo spot.
Photography Trip without Computer. How did that Go?
What went right. Taking only a small iPad with me on my trip and leaving my computer at home was the right choice for me. I had an easy time with packing and luggage and I could always have the iPad with me if I wanted to because of the small size and weight. It was a great way for me to view my photo's of the day's shoot very quickly and if I wanted to to edit one for social media in Lightroom. The RavPower File hub backed up all of my photo's to an external hard drive with only one problem which I'll explain in the what went wrong portion. I did take a little portable folding keyboard which I didn't use at all. (Note to self Leave at home next time). But I do think if I had a normal sized iPad I would have the case that has the keyboard
Overall the system worked well and saved room in my bag and on my back. This is the way I will be traveling in the near future until I figure out another way to do it even easier. I do love my gadgets. So until next week. Ge outside and shoot! What went right on my Utah trip.
1. TSA check in at the Airports. I have been through the security at airports before but never with a bag full of electronics on my back. I was prepared to take everything out and put in separate bins along with my shoes and everything in my pockets. I had even bought a belt that had no metal in it so I wouldn't have to take it off. (Nothing funnier than seeing a Fat Man trying to put on a belt in an airport) but the security people told us to keep things in the bags so I really had it made going through security. But I was glad I was prepared just in case.
2. Hotels and Booking. Over all this went well. Everything was prepaid and check in and out worked flawlessly. Most of the places we stayed in was much better than I had thought. I pretty much went with the cheapest and the closest to the parks as I could. I had booked and paid for in advance. As a matter of fact our whole trip except for food and gas was paid for up front which took out stress of how much things cost. 3. Rental Car/Air Travel. Rental car went better than planned. I had booked the cheapest an economy car. I was expecting a very small car with no features. When we got to the rental place we got upgraded at no charge and the car was pretty nice. It was a Kia Forte a mid sized sedan and it ran and drove great and got good gas milage which was important as the price of gas has skyrocketed . We picked it up in Vegas and dropped it off in Albuquerque. Like the Hotel stays this was paid for months in advance so no stress about money. Air Fare was booked and paid for months in advance which turned out good as gas prices went up after we had paid and air fares went up but since we paid months in advance of this it did not effect us.
5. Itinerary. We had a pretty incisive and event packed Itinerary. We completed everything on it! Which is amazing. On our Itinerary we had maps , photo's , suggested roads to take and even some places to eat. And we did all of the major stuff on it . I think we just missed a few places to eat because they were closed when we were there. We visited 6 National Parks, 3 State Parks and A few towns that we took photos in. The time we took making the itinerary really paid off. I could list lots of things from how I packed, what clothes I took or how my backup plan worked. But the planning really paid off and we didn't
Unexpected Surprise!
Pacific Northwest USA, I'm guessing they (the couple) were from the north west of USA, I have found photo's of the hay stacks on the coast of Oregon and Washington State. There is skyline shots of Seattle and probably National Parks in
London England. A week long trip to London with photo's of Big Ben, London Bridge and surrounding areas. I think they may have gone to France again because I saw the Eiffel Tower shots in this time frame also. Finally there were shots of a Island paradise somewhere. With Grass huts over water and lovely Island scenes. Sunsets over lagoons with lush jungles.
This was a glimpse into someones life. I could tell a story from the photo's that I saw. It was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. I'm sure this card was just thrown into the slot to sell but what a joy to find. I wish I could post more but not enough room. Until next week get outside and start your adventure.
Utah Trip Review!
Day 1- Travel Day. I usually travel by car or truck and rarely fly anymore. This trip we would be flying to Las Vegas and renting a car for our road trip. Flying used to be easy but has become more complicated since 9-11. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checks make me nervous . Not because I’m doing something wrong but because your in a line with lots of other people trying to get through like you and you don’t want to be “That Guy” that slows up
Day 2. We traveled out of Las Vegas to Valley of Fire State Park still in Nevada. We had researched the park like we had all of the parks and knew where to go and what shots we wanted. The famous road shot with the mountain and the 7 wonders trail. It took us a little bit to find the road shot but we got it and went to the wonders trail and went to the first spot the Fire Wave section. We took a lot of photo’s here and decided not even to do the rest of the trail because we were so in awe that we knew that we couldn’t finish before dark. So we backed out and looked for a better spot to do the road shot and
Day 3. Zion Day. This was a big day on our itinerary as my wingman was really looking forward to hiking Angels Landing. One of the scariest and dangerous hikes in the US. Our first obstacle was to get there and get a parking place as parking is a premium in this park. When we left it was 24 degrees outside but warmed to the low 60‘S for the hike. In this park you have to take a shuttle to get to places when we got to the visitor
Day 4. Bryce Canyon Day. We got up early and headed to the restaurant and had a great breakfast then
Day 5. Canyon Lands National Park, Mesa Arch. One of the most iconic Arches ever Photographed. We arrived at Mesa Arch as the first photographers , (the ones that want sunrise shot) were leaving and the families had not shown up yet . The perfect time to get some shots without anyone in front. The shot of the Arch is nice but the canyon that is below is awesome! We spent a couple of hours there and then in the afternoon we had some laundry scheduled to do. We drove back to Moab found a laundry mat
Day 6. Arches National Park. Arches is only 6 miles from our hotel. So we had a big breakfast and headed out. This is another place where you need a permit just to get into the park. I had acquired passes and permits months ago. Our first stop was Delicate Arch. It’s about a mile and a half hike to the arch and much harder than I had anticipated. We made it there and there was only a few folks there and we had a
Day 7. Cortez Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park. Our first stop out of town was Dead Horse Point state park in Utah. We went there and it was like the Grand Canyon without all of the people. It was pretty awesome. We went to Cortez
Day 8. Taos New Mexico. First stop after Cortez was a trip to the Four Corners Monument. It was about 45 min. Out of the way but we both wanted to see it. The monument is run by the Navajo tribal association and when
Day 9. Albuquerque Day. After breakfast first stop was Santa Fe. We walked around the town for an hour or so had some coffee and headed to Albuquerque. This being our last day we wanted to squeeze as much as we could into the day so we had a tram ride scheduled for Sandia Peak. We went from 6500 feet to
I had a great time and my head is still spinning from all of the traveling and photography. Can’t wait till the next trip! Until next week Get out and Shoot!
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