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I'm back on the road! I drive across the country and do some photography in places as distant from each other as Lake Michigan, Devils Tower in Wyoming, and the Salt Flats in Utah. I also show how I live on the road, why I do it this way, and why it has been so beneficial for my photography.
Sometimes the hardest part of photography is simply going out the door. Driving somewhere always feels like an investment of time and money, and that pressure can make us overthink everything. On this day, I had no plan, no destination, and no idea what I was going to photograph. But this is what photography is about, embracing uncertainty, following the process, and giving chance a chance. From Dollar General parking lots to the farms and fields of northern Indiana, the day became less about outcomes and more about seeing what happens.
I'm back in the city for just a few days, and in this video, I want to show you one of my favorite spots. One that is lesser-known and not crowded, but a spot that I love visiting.
Talent is great, a good camera helps a lot, and having the resources to travel is amazing. But no matter where we start, the gear, or the locations we have access to, the biggest factor for our work is time. There’s no shortcut, no substitute for showing up, over and over, year after year, decade after decade. And doing it in a sustainable way.
The third time was the charm. After failing to make any images on my previous two visits to this spot, I finally managed to get something I love.
I got to try something different, a reflex lens. This Kase 200mm f/5.6 is a prime, fixed aperture reflex lens, and it's able to do some crazy stuff. The bokeh it creates can lead to very interesting photographs, and it opens a new whole new world of creative possibilities.
These are some of the images I've made with this lens.
I always keep an eye on the forecast, and in the summer, as soon as I see some chance of rain somewhere relatively close, I start packing my things. It was a long day on the road, but soooo worth it. I got some beautiful atmosphere, I got to make some good images, and most importantly, I cooled off in the rain.
There's so much to learn from the work of other photographers, and you just never know what the next source of inspiration is going to be. Like a souvenir shop.
It's hot, very hot. It was even hotter in Valencia, in SE Spain, where I spent a few days with my family. I got to do some photography, but I was happy to be back in the fog!
I forgot to share this video here, one I published last week while dealing with the heat. The perfect time to sit down and edit some photos, especially when using these creative editing techniques in Lightroom.
I've spent many years photographing my hometown and the landscapes around it. There's not much else to find, I would think. Wrong. There's so much more out there, waiting for me to find it. So I take my bike and go on a 18-mile ride on trails I had not explored before.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Greek photographer Dimitros Kotakos on his YouTube channel. Watch our conversation here.
Change is the only constant in life, and photography. Every photo we take might be the last one we can make of that subject, or location. They change, we change. Some images are gone forever... but there are new ones replacing them.
If dealing with snow, mud, wind and rain wasn't enough, the Upper Peninsula gifted me with some thunderstorms. It was a constant struggle against the conditions, but the images I made there were well worth the fight.
I continue my road trip across Michigan as I enter the Upper Peninsula. My first time up here, and so many things don't go according to plan. If not covered in snow, roads are flooded; many parks and spots I want to visit are closed; trails are full of mud. But the good thing is, I have the whole place (or whatever is accessible) for myself.
Some ways a daily photography practice can improve your photography.
A photography road trip is a big change from our everyday life. New routines (or the lack of one), habits, motions, and mindset. It takes a while getting used to it, and that's why the first days are the hardest. As I hit the road again, I try to make it easy on myself by visiting a location I'm familiar with, in Northern Michigan.
My last days in the Bay Area.
My experiments with the ultra wide angle Laowa 10-18mm (Amazon link).
More megapixels doesn't mean better photographs... but in many ways, high resolution sensors can make our lives as photographers much easier, and enable us to do things we couldn't do with fewer pixels.
