American Road Trip Journal #19: Joshua Tree

As I've mentioned before, the week we spent in Palm Springs was a lazy one. I was planning on going to Anza Borrego (didn't happen) and spend at least a full day and night at Joshua Tree National Park.

At the end, I only spent a few hours in the park, and that was a mistake that I still regret today. Definitely somewhere marked in red on my list of places I "must-go-back-to".

With very little time, I spent most of it driving through the park and trying to grasp what it had to offer. I did walk through a Cactus Garden and went on a tiny hike to a nearby arch, but that's nothing in such a vast land.

This video showcases my two sunsets in the park and some photos I took over there. Hope you enjoy it!

See photos of Joshua Tree National Park.

Eastern Sierra, December 2017

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 80mm f/2.8
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Ilfotec HC

Between the vast and desolated Death Valley and the green and snowy Sierra, there's a place that struggles to survive.

Some of my favorite landscape spots in the US are here. You can go on backcountry trips and get lost or just pull over on the highway: the view won't dissappoint.

I made this image on my way back from the Bristlecone Grove in the White Mountains. Instead of taking the main (only) highway to Lone Pine, I tried to take every exit and secondary road, and I found quite a few picturesque scenes.

It was a cold afternoon of December but it was sunny and bright. Far from the highway, you couldn't really hear much. In the distance, a couple of cowboys were working on regrouping the cows.

It's hard to find a place like this in the US. As I walked along this narrow, dirty road, it felt like I went back in time to an era that I never knew.

See more photos of the Eastern Sierra.

Location constraints in landscape photography

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I'm back from Portland. I had a blast visiting some of my favorite places once again: I drove over 800 miles in 3 days! But while doing so, I couldn't stop thinking about how bad that was for my photography and how different it is back here in the Midwest, where my choice of location is much more limited.

I must admit, I'd gotten used to have a million beautiful landscapes to photograph within a couple hour drive. I took it for granted.

I'm experiencing the opposite situation here in our temporary residence in the Midwest: the hundreds of miles of wilderness have been replaced with a few small city parks, and the (very limited) shoreline of one of the big lakes has taken the place of the vast ocean.

It might seem unintuitive at first, but I think this change has been really good for my photography.

This past week in Portland reminded me of most of my time there: jumping from one location to another, always struggling to choose just one. This might sound like a good problem to have, and it really is, but I've come to the realization that having some constraints can be really good.

Here in the Midwest, having limited locations has had a positive impact on me in a few ways:

• Images are much harder to find. But the good news is, there are images to be made here. Since they are not in plain sight in front of thousands of tourists and hikers, they'll probably be very unique as well.
• I don't jump from one location to another. Because there aren't many locations to jump to, I can focus on one and try to get the most out of it.
• You have some very needed "time off". Back in the West, there were so many places to go to that I never stopped and thought about what I wanted to do with my photography. All I wanted was to take more and more photos, make more images all the time. Now, and while this is going to be a work in progress for a long time, I know what I'm doing and where I want to go. I also have more time to reflect on my images.
• The world is my canvas. I used to think that I could only make beautiful images at beautiful places. Therefore, I was somewhat limited about where to go. But now that I've made some of my favorite images in a very harsh place for photography, the whole world has potential.

Amazing places are awesome for any photographer. But living in more limited places shouldn't have to mean fewer opportunities to make images, and most importantly, it doesn't mean lower quality images.

American Road Trip Journal #18: Palm Springs

Compilation of photos and videos from our 3 days in Palm Springs, in Southern California. Photos were taken with pretty much every camera I have, film and digital.

All episodes of American Road Trip.

Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, November 2017

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 80mm f/2.8
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Ilfotec HC

Some beautiful morning light at the wharf.

See more photos of San Francisco.

Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial, Michigan City, February 2018

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 150mm f/4
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Ilfotec HC

I had no idea when or how I was going to make this image, but I knew it was going to happen since I saw this monument during my first visit to Michigan City. A few weeks later, I finally had the chance.

See more photos of Indiana.

Fort Point, San Francisco, November 2017

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 80mm f/2.8
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Ilfotec HC

This photo was taken on this foggy day in San Francisco, near the Brigde Vista Point.

On the lower part of the image, Fort Point, a fort from the Civil War era. On top and separated by a layer of thick fog, the Golden Gate Bridge.

See more photos of San Francisco.

Palm Trees, Palm Springs, November 2017

Camera and Lens: Rolleiflex 3.5F
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 1600
Developer: Ilfotec HC

During our stay in Palm Springs, California, I took a few walks around the town carrying only my Rolleiflex (you should always carry a camera with you!) and of course, I tried to make some images during such walks.

This is one of my favorites from those rolls, featuring two of the many palm trees you can find in the area, taken near or during sunset.

See more photos of Southern California.

Ripples, Death Valley, December 2017

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 80mm f/2.8
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Ilfotec HC

Death Valley is one of my absolute favorite places to photograph, one where you can find a variety of subjects you can't find in many other places.

It's not easy to explain how that landscape makes you feel once you are there, scale is hard to comprehend. To call it "vast" is one thing, to see it in person is another. And I haven't even made it to the most remote parts of the park yet!

This was one of the last images I made that day, after hours of exploring, driving and hiking through the park. Just before sunset, at the very popular Mesquite Dunes.

They are indeed very popular, and it's hard to find dunes withouth footprints. I parked some half a mile away from the parking lot and walked to smaller but cleaner dunes, east of the bigger and more visited ones.

There I found plenty of unspoiled dunes (unspoiled for the last few days, at least) where I could play with the light and the patterns of the sand.

As you can see, I took this picture on the shaded side of the dune, where only part of the ripples were being bathed with light from the setting Sun.

See more pictures of Death Valley.

American Road Trip Journal #17: Salton Sea

After a month on the road and a week of heavy eating in San Francisco, we were a bit tired when we got to Southern California. Hot temperatures (for December) didn't help either.

We tried to visit LA but the smog was so thick that we decided to skip it. Palm Springs, a small town farther inland, was a nice place where I recharged batteries before the second half of our trip.

One of those days, I drove to the Salton Sea. It was the most surreal place of the whole trip and an experience that will not be easy to forget.

I found incredible post-apocalyptic, decaying landscapes, but the mud and the putrid, fetid smell I found once I got out of the car weren't things I was hoping to find there.

That night's sunset was one for the books. It was quite spectacular and it helped to make me feel like I was in some other planet, in a decaying, abandoned, fallen planet in a Star Wars universe.

Not the best photos of the trip by any means, but what an evening I had there.

Shooting film: Chicago, day 1

Day 1 of our long weekend in Chicago, Illinois. I walked around the city and shot some film, trying to take some images I had in mind.

Mt Jefferson, Oregon, October 2017

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 150 f/4
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Kodak D-76

This was the last photo I took in the mountains of Oregon, during blue hour on one of my last days in the state. We'd leave a few days later to start the American Road Trip and I haven't been back to what it used to be my backyard since then. 5 months! Time really flies.

As the title suggests, the mountain in the photo is Mt Jefferson, the second tallest peak in Oregon. To the left you can see the Three Sisters, farther south and containing the third tallest peak (which I climbed!). The image was taken from Mt Hood, the tallest of them all!

I struggled to make any images that day, I knew it was going to be my last day for a long time over there and I wanted to take advantage making images I hadn't made before. And while I didn't realize succeed at that, I still came back with a few pictures I like, like this one.

See more photos of the Oregon Cascades.

Tree, Indiana, February 2018

Camera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 80mm f/2.8
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Kodak D-76

I love winter. And last week, winter came in the form of a foot of snow so I headed outside and tried to make the best of it.

It was mostly car photography: you don't want to walk on the road when the shoulders are covered in snow and ice, and anything that is not pavement is private property.

But I was able to capture some cool scenes, like this tree. I can't tell you where I took it, somewhere in a radius of 30 miles from Goshen, but I was lucky to find it and to have the time to get out of the car and take it.

More winter photos coming soon, in the meanwhile, you can see more photos of Indiana.

I love winter

A video collection of some images I took these last days around here in Michiana, the Indiana Dunes and the Salamonie River.

Shooting Film: Indiana Dunes

The Indiana Dunes is one of the very few places I have here (within driving distance for a one-day trip) where I can take somewhat outdoors photos.

I'd never been to the place before, so I'm not sure what's going to look like when the snow melts. I've seen photos and to be honest, it's a bit "blah".

But now, in winter, it's a landscape I'd never seen before. This video is the first of my already multiple trips up there, and probably not the last one to come (last time I was there, the lake was frozen as far as I could see - truly an amazing view).