The Rest of the Story…

Last Monday, you learned of my trip to White Pocket, AZ.  I met up with fellow photographer/blogger Rich Charpentier of “The Airstream Chronicles”.  As we left off last week, he had met me at the Page, AZ airport, and we were heading off into the Arizona desert.  The ride was smooth at first, but as soon as we started the off-roading, things got a little bumpy.  True to form though, his Nissan Titan handled it with aplomb.  Check out this short video footage of the off-roading adventure, with Rich driving and me recording:

You’ve also already seen some of the shots from the trip, but here’s a few more to satisfy the image-intensive crowd!

White Pocket, AZ

White Pocket, AZ

White Pocket, AZ

White Pocket, AZ

Have a great Monday and we’ll see you back here tomorrow when I announce the winner of the March Contest and the theme/prize for April…it’s another good one so be sure to tune in for that!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you then!

White Pocket, AZ

Many of you have written in, asking when I am going to post some of the photos taken from the Arizona trip over last weekend.  Wait no longer, for here are some from the trip!  Several of these are potential “portfolio” shots…still debating which ones to include and which ones to leave off.  I’ve posted them to Flickr and to NAPP with some pretty positive feedback thus far, but here’s your chance to sound off on which ones to include in the newest updates.  Let me know what you think:

#1

White Pocket, AZ

#2

#3

S Curve

#4

The Road Less Traveled

#5

Lone Tree Hill

#6

Many Lines

#7

Window to the World

#8

Colors and Lines

#9

Other Worldly

So, which are your favorites?  All, any, none?  Sound off in the comments!  Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!  Happy shooting!

The Journey Began…

“The Journey” began with a double-stop plane ride on a double prop plane.  From Denver to Farmington, then Farmington to Page.  Each ride was about an hour, but in this cramped sardine can of a ride, there’s never a dull moment!  The pilots did their level best to keep the plane not only aloft, but sailing sans bumps.  Given the snow in Denver on Friday, the outbound trip was no picnic.  Thankfully motion-sickness is not normally a factor, but alas, no in-flight naps were possible for all but the soundest of sleepers!

Twin Props to White Pocket

After the trip, the question was now whether the unknown stranger would reveal himself.  Of course, having talked to the guy for over a year via email exchanges, shared podcasts and blog posts, it was a pretty safe bet this guy wouldn’t hack my head off with an ice ax or anything.  Still…with a trail name of “gadgetat” when he hiked the  Appalachian Trail for over 4 months straight – you never know what you’ll run into.  This guy has already indicated he beats to his own drum.  A former engineer with AT&T, HAM radio operator, and New Hampshire resident found enough internal strength of will to head out and travel the land in an airstream – not a lot of space to live in, but enough for him!

Rich Charpentier of "The Airstream Chronicles"

Not only did he reveal himself, but the easy-going nature and willingness to really engage in conversation and talk similar interests was evident.  So off we rode into the desert…with the rocks, the cacti, and the sand.  Oh yeah, and the heat – because it is a desert, so it’s warmer there than anywhere right?  Don’t forget the heat…

Desert Heat

We traveled in his Titan, not the Airstream (thank God!) – and this was a monster of a truck!  It flew down the paved roads with ease.  The size and strength was enough to reassure me that this could probably handle most off-roading adventures.  Of course, having never off-roaded much myself, the durability remained to be seen…

Rich's Titan

More tk…

Sun wind and Frost

White Pocket

A short excursion over the weekend took me down to see Rich Charpentier of “The Airstream Chronicles“.  For those of you that follow the blog, you’ll know that Rich has been on the podcast before and we’ve been sharing war stories for a little over a year now about photography.  Well, this last weekend, we got a chance to shoot one of his favorite little haunts, the not-so-well-known “White Pocket” in the dunes.  It was quite the trip…from a windy trip down in a twin propeller plane, to some nice afternoon sun while there on the afternoon Saturday, to frost at night inside our tent!  Yeah, it got pretty cold!  So much so we ditched the tent and went for the warmth of his trusty Titan before shooting some sunrise shots of the morning colors.  Quite a spectacular trip, and while only there for 12 hours of shoot time, I managed to burn off 8 gigs of photos!  I can’t even imagine what a 3 day trip would result in (lots of post process time is my guess).

More to come with the full back story and more photos that are worked up from the trip, but for now, it’s good to be back in a bed with controlled heat and coffee!  Thanks to Rich for the invitation, and be sure to visit his blog for more of the sordid details this coming week over at The Airstream Chronicles!

In other news – the podcast and blog now has an 800 number!  That’s right, you can call in your questions and get them answered right here on the blog, or listen to answers on the podcast.  To call in and have your questions responded to directly from me give it a whirl:  866-809-8663  If you are outside the U.S., I’d recommend Skype for calls as 800 number calls are free from anywhere!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, when I’ll for sure have some more details and photos from the trip to White Pocket!