Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well this week.  As you know this year I have been concentrating my photography and all of my efforts into travel. Travel can be expensive. Especially now a days with the price of gas going crazy.  Travel can also be scary if you travel alone.  But this year I have taken 4 trips visited 7 national parks 5 new state parks and a few cool towns.  I have done all of this with my Photography "wingman" or travel buddy/photo nut Robert.  Not only are we photography nuts but we love traveling. I'm going to list advantages of having a traveling Wingman!

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.

2. Not Going Alone. My photography wingman Robert has traveled the world and the US extensively.  He has years of traveling under his belt. When I travel with him I know that he has the experience traveling say through Airports, Train Stations, or Subways. Things that I have not done much.  It is a great comfort to have someone experienced in this part of the traveling experience. Not to mention that it's just fun to have someone like minded to go out and explore!

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.

4. Seeing things from a different point of view.  When I travel with my family I seem to be the main planning person , driver, sherpa , dog walker pretty much everything so its just my point of view.  Traveling with a Photography Wingman sometimes we have different things that we want to see or do and its nice to let that person plan that part of the trip and you don't have to think about it. Its great to see things or an area through other photographer's eyes.

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.

So start looking for your wingman.  I have friends that are mother/daughter duo that travel all over together and have a ball.  Make sure you find someone that you like being around with because you're going to be with them 24/7. Take time plan your trips together so  you and your photography wingman gets an input.  Hey and it doesn't have to be just 1 wingman you could have 2.  This would cut down the cost even more. Traveling and photographing new and exciting stuff is a blast.  So until next week get outside and shoot!