We just completed a 10-day photography trip. We covered about 2,500 miles between Las Vegas, Nevada and La Conner, Washington; we shot 15 locations, hit all but 3 sunrises and 1 sunset and covered over 10,000 feet of elevation. We shot mountains, beaches, forests and bridges and lighthouses. In short, we had a blast and completely exhausted ourselves.
Landscape photography is unlike any other endeavor. It requires knowledge of photography, hiking, survival and planning skills. It is not unusual to find us out hiking in the pre-dawn darkness to do a sunrise shoot and hiking back in the dark after a sunset shoot. It requires good reliable equipment and through understanding of how to use that equipment so you can find the buttons to adjust the settings. That is before you even consider the knowledge associated with the camera menus and the features and uses of lenses and filters. It also requires a certain flexibility about signage at parks and waysides. Just what does “open dusk to dawn”really mean? You need to know when to park outside the gates of public places, and which gates will be left open.
Perhaps the most important skill/attribute is stamina. We shot almost every morning. This meant we were out of bed, dressed and heading to the location around 4:30 AM and waiting for the sun around 5:30 AM. It also meant that we didn’t hit the sack until around 11:00 PM after returning from a sunset on a beach and having to clean all the salt spray off the camera gear. We drove around 200 to 300 miles most days. A lot of that driving was on mountain highways. When we arrived at a desired location we hiked in during daylight hours to scope out shoot locations for both sunset and sunrise.
I can’t think of any other activity that has so much activity built into a single day. Although it was exhausting, it really is living to the max!
If you would like to see more of the images from our trip, please visit http://www.zfrontierphoto.com and click on the Gallery button, then look in the collection of “NEW” images.
Recent Wanderings 