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!


 

Hey Everyone! How's your week going? This week is an update or a review on my workflow while on the road. I did a blog on my workflow a few weeks before my trip and I wanted to give you and update and what went well and what didn't. Here is a link to that Blog.My Revised Workflow. In the revised workflow blog I went over the way I was going to manage my photo's and edit on the road. Here is what went right and what didn't quite go as planned. 

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 built in.  All SD cards worked fine and my filing system (Turning over when used) worked as it should. What really worked right and was not in my revised workflow was my phone. I used it for shots at every stop so I could share easily with social media. I also used it as my boarding pass for flights and apple iPay for most everything on the trip. So that was an unexpected surprise for me. The other unexpected surprise was the noise canceling earbuds I threw into the bag last minute. They worked like a champ on the plane watching movies on my iPad Mini.

What went Wrong.  Nothing really went wrong but unexpected is the word I would use. The first couple of days I backed up my photo's by just inserting the SD card into the RavPower File hub and the 1TB disc into the other side of the file hub and pushing a button.  After a couple of days I was looking at the drive and freaked out a little because the time date folders were not right. I started digging and all of the photo's were there just under a random time stamp.  I reorganized them and everything was fine.  Don't quite know why this happened (probably something I did) but worked great in test that I had done before the trip. But all the files were there which was the important part. I'll have to figure that one out.  I did edit a few shots on my iPad Mini and it is more difficult than my 27 inch iMac I have at home but doable. I think if my iPad was a full sized one it would have made it easier to edit. But I'm not doing that much editing on the road.

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!

Hey Everyone! How has your week gone?  Me? I'm still reeling from my trip to Utah. And don't worry I'll bore you with all of the details of each park soon.  This week though I wanted to tell you about the things that went right with the trip.  Now there was lots of planning and we had a lot of things that went right much more than went wrong.  Its like that saying the harder I work the luckier I get.  We worked hard on preparation before the trip to make sure we had things covered.  So here goes some stuff that went well because of planning.

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. Government Shutdown GenerosityA TSA worker helps passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, in Salt Lake City. The government shutdown has generated an outpouring of generosity to TSA agents and other federal employees who are working without pay. In Salt Lake City, airport officials treated workers from the TSA, FAA and Customs and Border Protection to a free barbecue lunch as a gesture to keep their spirits up during a difficult time. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

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.

4. Camera Equipment.  My camera Equipment worked great and I didn't have any breakdowns. I did bring an extra body just in case that was never used but I used all of the lenses I brought and was pleased with the performance of an older camera body.  I had no problems with battery power and maybe brought too many batteries. (but better to have and not need than to need and not have).  My tripod held up great even though I think my buddy Robert may have used it more than me.  He had some problems with his but we got it fixed while we were there. GoPro's worked well even though Roberts GoPro didn't always listen to him. (Voice Activation) Camera Gear worked great!

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 feel like we were following a strict list of things we had to do. We actually had scheduled some afternoons off to take a break and relax and do laundry because we knew we couldn't keep up the  pace we had planned for a week straight. So bottom line we really enjoyed ourselves and that was the whole point of a traveling road trip. Whats next? We have talked of some places but nothing in stone yet. We are at the beginning stage of another adventure. So until next time keep dreaming, keep planning and keep doing!  Get outside and shoot!