Can we vacation again?
Overlooking McClure pass, Carbondale, Colorado - September 2020
A few days ago Josh text me, “Can we go vacation again?” Along with a selfie from our recent southwest trip over the Christmas holidays. Made me a tad nostalgic for getting outside with our cameras to experience new places. I think this was also the impetus for me to revisit my archives and consider starting a blog. Last year was such a bizarre year for all of us. Weird time to decide to start my photography website and now a blog. I think maybe we have all begun learning new things and have been pushed out of our comfort zones, that my inclination to put my passion on display may be an extension of our missing connections and the human need for those relationships and to share with others. I’m not one for prose, my own anyhow, I truly love reading other’s, hopefully my attempts at writing will improve over time and possibly produce something enjoyable.
My thought for this blog is to talk about the process. The mistakes, the learning and those things that are memorable and meaningful but maybe aren’t good enough for the portfolio. I hope to share the other, not necessarily technical or photographic process, but a perspective of the good, bad and ugly that is our travel and photography adventures. I don’t purport to have any sort of technical expertise or really much artistic ability, what I do have is a love for the places we go and a passion for expressing the beauty and the drama and the emotion through my photos. I hope I am able to convey the joy the process brings even with the cold hands, early mornings, long drives and missed focus.
Jeep trail in Sedona, Arizona - December 2020
We locked down right away in 2020 and missed out on some planned trips, like everyone did. Most memorably, an NYC trip and a Moab week Jeeping with friends. Instead, we hunkered down and tried to do our part to keep everyone safe and healthy. We turned our focus back to camping, but added a roof top tent to the Jeep with the hopes that we could load up quick, slightly more comfortable than the tents, and head out to some very socially distant locations and do some scouting, shooting and relaxing over the weekends. We clocked 21 nights in the new roof top tent over the last 6 months of the year, which in our mind was more than worth the price tag. Being able to set out with a loaded fridge, extra fuel and water and explore some remote and not so remote places helped us weather the pandemic.
Josh and I are fortunate to live in Colorado with so much natural beauty and wonderful places to get out and see the natural world. Though we spend a lot of time wandering around Colorado we also enjoy exploring the western US. And periodically we have ended up on the east coast marveling at waterfalls and SO MUCH GREEN! Our bucket list of locations to visit and photograph is long and vacation time is short. This year we were able to do several mountain trips, a long weekend down to New Mexico and a two week adventure looping through Arizona out to California and back. I will try to add some more detail about some of the places we went and the experiences we had. But for now…
