Straight Edge Life

I’ve been thinking about this for the last few days… where next? Do I head up to Glacier National Park for a week? Down to Yellowstone? What about going somewhere I’m already familiar with like Zion? You know… so I can spend more time shooting and less time familiarizing myself with the area? I like the idea of going somewhere new, but then I know I don’t get many chances to get out and shoot for a week at a time and I want to make the best of it. And I certainly haven’t shot everything there is to shoot in Zion. I’m equipped for either for the most part. Hmmm. I’ve got a week to decide.

After class yesterday I wandered down to a local park in search of something, anything, to photograph. I didn’t find much. The park was basically grass with a little bit of taller grass right at the edge of the river. Up a little way on the trail I found these crazy orange flowers poking through a fence. The wind was really bad and I didn’t have a plamp (plant clamp, the photographer’s cool tool) to hold the things steady. I haven’t edited them all yet but I shot enough that one of them is bound to be sharp. It was sort of a bummer though because I didn’t find any bugs to shoot. Well, none besides those in my crusty hotel room. Budget traveling sucks at times. I was very much in the mood to photography bugs last night.

This class kicks ass. George DeWolfe is the man. Not “The Man” in the 1960’s Black Panther sense of the word but in the other cool sense of the word. George knows his stuff and provides pretty much exactly what I would want of any professor of any subject that I’ve ever had. And the class is hella sharp. A lot of old school folks who know the zone system in and out, still shoot in 4×5 and larger but who are also doing a mostly digital workflow. So we’re all very much on the same page. I wanted to take this class to help me make the decision between building a darkroom and buying a printer. The jury is still out, but if today is any indicator of the rest of the week’s classes I’m going to be able to make a damn well informed decision.

Actually, I think saying that DeWolfe knows his stuff is an understatement… he’s more like a part of the team who creates the stuff. He’s a consultant for Adobe, Epson, and a number of others. Ok. Anyways. I’m going to sit here in this fine little cafe (Liquid Planet) and absorb a bit more before I go out looking for dinner. Cool. This class is so much fun.

Alright, a day later and more to say. One of the other cool things about this class is simply being around other photographers. I swear I would consider moving to a place like Missoula simply to be around a thriving community of photographers.

I’m sitting on a bend in the river. It’s a wide and fast river but I do not know it’s name. I wish the evening air were a little cooler. The sound of the river is soothing and I have no doubt that I’ll fall asleep quickly. It’s 9:10 in the evening and down here in the valley it’s getting pretty dark. Idaho and route 12 are gorgeous so far. Nothing at all like the southern part of the state. There are rolling hills that progress into rolling mountains the farther you follow 12 east. I didn’t take many photos today. A few at smith and a few on the way up 12. It’s ok I guess. Today was about distance. Normally that word “distance” might mean more than just the span of miles between my bed last night and tonight; perhaps emotional distance, as I have often used road trips to put a buffer between me and storms at home. There’s something about physical distance that can even calm the storm within. Or hide it. But that’s not what this trip is about. It feels like business as usual. Like going to visit an old friend, when it feels like you saw each other last night, not 8 years ago. I’m at home on the road, and with a camera in my hands. More and more so I’m at home with a laptop and code in front of me as well. I’m glad they play well together. But I digress…

N 46 degrees 08.163 minutes

W 115 degrees 37.574 minutes

That’s where I am. Sketchbook in hand. Tomorrow it’s off to Missoula (a mere 120 miles away) to start my digital fine printing class. After that I’m going to find some fun places to photograph for a week or so and head home. Lots of work waiting for me. I hope this class is good because I’m eager to get out of town and shoot. Maybe this first week is just what I need to do research on where to go next.

It’s day two of my trip out to Missoula for my week-long digital printing class at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. I spent the majority of day one waiting in Eugene for the UPS dude to drop of my new lens (18-70mm). By the time I got the lens and hit the road there wasn’t much light left out at Smith Rock. I managed to get a pretty good night’s sleep in the car by putting the rear seat down and sleeping half way in the trunk and halfway in the car. With a little extra padding from a good therm-a-rest and the fact that I’m pretty short (and therefore didn’t have to fold myself in half to fit, it wasn’t all that bad. I woke up at 5:00 and immediately went out shooting. Shooting last night was funky. I felt like a giraffe on roller skates, fumbling though my gear, messing up photos and in all the wrong places for the light. This morning was slightly better. I read a few things in the D100 manual that have helped me understand a little bit about how my camera works. Now it’s just a matter of mileage. Practice makes perfect, right? My whole goal for this trip is to get into a good flow. To be at one with my gear. Anyways… more later. I’m eager to hit the road again.

Ok, so this weekend I learned that Beaverton and Portland are very much NOT the same place. Those who live in Portland, or even those who work in Portland look down on Beaverton and feel sorry for those who have, by unfortunate coincidence or by conscious choice, made their homes there. I never really knew this. Beaverton is very suburban with strip malls galore and areas of sterile apartment complex micro bedroom communities who’s ugliness is only slightly masked by the gorgeousness of the evergreen trees and hillsides. Portland itself has a lot more character and, despite the headaches of living in a city, seems to be the choice place to live. If you can afford it. Anyways… I digress.

Spent the weekend up there visiting a few old and new friends. Had dim sum for the first time, ate some tasty sushi, and shopped for shoes with a couple of girls (never do this). All told, a good weekend.

Welcome to my travel journal. This area of the site will eventually take over Straight Edge Life as I spend more and more time on the road taking photos and living a less sedentary life.