West Coast Trip
On Wednesday August
29th 2012 I am planning on packing up my Camry once more and heading out on a
trip spanning the west coast. I have already started
the process of gearing up and packing. I am really excited to get back
out on the road to travel camp and create some media.
This trip will span
the west coast of the US. First I am driving north, moving slowly each day and
taking my time. I plan to really get started in Washington, I will be
spending a week or so travelling around western Washington, from there I will be
moving south criss-crossing the state of Oregon, backpacking and camping the
whole way. From Oregon I will be moving toward California. Spending some
time in the Redwoods and working the northern Californian coast.
That’s the first
section of the trip, but I am doing my best to not plan out this trip too much.
There is no calendar or schedule, my goals are more focused on keeping a
low profile and creating the best work I can in the places that I am traveling
through. The plan is to travel south toward San Francisco, then east to
Yosemite and through some of the landscape of eastern California
Gear
I have been gearing up
for a new trip for a few weeks. I know that I already have more stuff than one
regular person would need to go camping, but I am also trying to find some
solutions to creating a producing on the road. I am really excited to start
creating videos about our travels and share them where ever I can.
[This is my video production rig. An M-Audio stereo audio recorder, a handheld Sony HD camera, and a Swann HD, with Vegas pro 10 running in the background as my video editing software. I was looking for a set up that would be cheap (under $200 for everything) Simple- a set up that would work together and edit smoothly- and quality, each camera shoots in HD at 1080p, I know that not all HD is created equal so we will see how the video quality fairs, but I do know that this blows away the bulky, heavy, standard definition, Cannon XL1 that I began learning on in 2005.]
I picked up a handheld Sony HD camera and Swann HD action camera (a go pro competitor) and I plan to capture and put together videos of the places we travel. Some about our travel experience, some about the people we meet, some about the places we go. I think that the video component will be a great expansion of what we do while we are traveling.
The small amount of equipment that I am bringing for video is in contrast with the bulk of cameras and lenses that I will be packing for the photography side,
- 2 DSLRs,
- 3 film cameras,
- around 10 lenses (though only 3-4 are really worth using) ,
- 2 tripods, 1 sb800 flash,
- reflectors and about 50 GB of flash storage.
…Plus all of this stuff
- 2 laptops (for me) and 1 laptop for Marina
- 2- 500 GB external hard drives
- A handful of thumb drives
- A Polaroid POGO printer (for instant prints)
- IPod Touch
- Android smart phones/ wireless hotspot
- Kindle Fire
- Handfuls of USB cables, car chargers and inverters
My intent with this trip is to learn how to work as a photographer on the road, to create and share images that I develop while traveling. I have a few cool plans for how I will be sharing this content, but to create it requires a little ingenuity. Trying to turn a 1992 Toyota Camry into a production studio is a difficult task. I have tried to build cases for editing laptops; I picked up 2 500 GB external hard drives to make regular backups of my data. I stripped my 4 year old laptop down to as lean and mean of an editing machine as I can make it, production and publishing essentials only. I remember from the last trip that power was the most inconsistent element of our production. You can only run a laptop so long on a car battery. Unfortunately my main power issues still remain, but I have set up a little work around to help out with my production work flow. I picked up a small Bluetooth keyboard a while back that works great to cut down the time I need to use a laptop. I can keep up with writing and saving documents to publish later, or writing blog posts and publishing directly from my phone.
My goal is to really push the boundary of smart phone and tablet media production. Having a Smartphone that can double as a wireless hotspot will keep us connected to the net. It’s pretty fun having a 20 year old Camry be a rolling hotspot when you’re traveling. I will be sure to get into my production workflow more (sounds exciting, I know) but I have a goal to find out how much I can create – edit – and publish just from a smart phone.
This is going to be a project that certainly keeps me busy, it’s something that means a lot to me, I love adventure. I love travel, and I really care about making great photographs, images that express how I see the natural world. This experience will be work; it will be a test to see if I can keep up and produce work that I am proud of. It may not pay off immediately, but I believe that the experience is worth it, I know that there is value in me doing this type of work.