Sunday, May 3, 2009

Desert Spaces



One 'disease' that is really good to get... is a thing called 'the travel bug'.
If you are a photographer, it will never do you wrong - gotta get out there, somewhere, anywhere, and 'shoot yerself silly' = make a capture (or shoot film) of anything, & everything that catches your eye...
& 'bring it on home'.... and sift thru it all, many times.
You may perhaps find that what you shot very quickly, 'off the cuff', to be better than what you thought initially was a good shot.
If you've been following my posts (thanks for doing so, BTW), you'll remember that I took a year-end 2008 trip to Nevada - shot 24 rolls of film, made about 550+ digital pix.
Sooooo glad I did!, I am still looking over all those images, and seeing things I didn't see before.

I suggest you do the same! - get out there, somewhere, anywhere, and 'shoot yerself silly'!.
You'll be glad you did.

If you are raising kids? Throw 'em in the car, and hit the road, show 'em a few things they haven't seen before. Eventually, they will thank you for it. If they complain? tell them to shut the **** up, and count cows, or something like that.

My dad took all the family on many road trips when I was growing up - our 'home base'? - Gardiner, Maine.
We went to: New Brunswick, Canada,...Quebec City,...Toronto, ..Upper NY state (Lake Champlain), ..the Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia).... and a lot of other places I don't remember in particular, after 40 years, but I definitely remember the gist of it it all.
What a grrrr-eat 'education'! So glad he did, didn't appreciate it that much at the time...
But wow!, it has really stuck w/ me.
I continue to 'get out there', follow the thread he started.

(It is said that the dead aren't really gone, until everyone alive... forgets them.
I haven't, and won't. Maybe you should consider doing the same.)

A couple more pages of Nevada landscapes:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2009/Spaces/index.html

If that ain't enough desert for ya, here's more:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/LscapeDigital/Desert2003/index.html

For more on the formation/geology of the west:

http://www.johnmcphee.com/
http://www.johnmcphee.com/annals.htm
http://www.johnmcphee.com/assembling.htm

And for good trip advice?...

108 road trips from Southern California
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-trw-roadtrip,0,5653256.special

*Anything* the New York Times publishes, is worth your time:

America’s Outback: Southern Utah
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/travel/12outback.html?8dpc

http://www.americansouthwest.net/

What better parting words could there be but 'hit the road, jack...' (and take a camera w/ ya!)

See ya in a couple of weeks......