EPIC PHOTO TRIP 2016
Well for the last three years Cliff and I have attended the Photoshop World Conference in Las Vegas. Normally we fly down there, attend the conference and fly home but this year we decided we wanted to make a road trip out of it and boy did we!
Our trip launched on Saturday July 16th and our first stop was Bodie Ghost Town. The road in was a little bumpy, but the images came out great.
After leaving Bodie we headed to find a place to lay our heads for the night and landed in Lee Vining. I have to say the accommodations in this little quaint town are pretty sparse. We did find the last available room in town and it definitely earned its two-star rating. Not only did the A/C not work, the door kept opening by its self, lucky we were only there to sleep and shower.
After checking in we headed to Mono Lake to scope out our location for sunset. We decided the Tufa Towers would be a great spot to capture a nice sunset. As we go ready and settled into our location we quickly learned we weren't the only ones with that idea. As the sun set we also learned that the sun set wasn't going to be as colorful or beautiful as we had anticipated. We decided to pack up and come back in the morning for sunrise and try again.
The next morning we trekked back to Mono Lake determined to get a nice sunrise image. Once we got there we were pretty upset. Not because of the sunrise, but because we were about 30 minutes too late to get some gorgeous Milky Way shots. After cussing at the stars we took some sunrise images and loaded back up for our drive to Las Vegas.
The drive down to Nevada was a very long, open, boring road. At least it was full of good conversation and good music, well kind of. Cliff's one job was to DJ and I'll tell you what he sure was dropping the ball. After many needed skips we were very inspired by the open roads and played country the rest of the trip.
After the five hour drive we were finally in the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas. We checked into our room and decided that we weren't going anywhere else that night except to bed; because the city may never sleep but we definitely needed to.
The next morning, we woke up early to head out to Red Rock Canyon. Not ever being there and not scouting locations the night before had us a little worried we would find anything worth shooting. About an hour after we found what we thought was a good spot we were surprised to see a bus pull up and off load about 40 photographers; apparently it was a good spot because famous landscape photographer Moose Peterson brought those photographers to this spot on his pre con workshop. We finished shooting sunrise and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our own pre con workshop with Dave Black.
We met up with about 30 other photographers me that night as well as Dave Black to do some light painting in Nelson Nevada. We had never heard of this place, but let me tell you it was so great that Cliff and I changed the last day of our trip to come back to this little Nevada gem. We only spent about 2 hours painting at this place, but could have spent 5 more.
Well after 3 days of driving we finally came to the whole point of the trip; Photoshop World. The workshops were extremely good and inspiring. This year we spent some time in video workshops which we haven't in the past and I have to say I think there will be definite video in our future! The highlight of this workshop every year to me is being able to hear from and learn from the greats and this year that's exactly what we did. We had the unbelievable experience of learning from Jay Maisel, Joe McNally and Gregory Heisler. Hearing these men speak was not only motivational, but more inspiring than anything I have ever experienced.
Later that night we attended the always fun Midnight Madness. I have to admit that the fun wasn't as much as it has been in the last, but the swag is always worth the loss of sleep.
Nelson is a definite hidden gem...
...The world of stories this place contains is like no other...
... Such and amazing place we had to come back twice...
After the last day of the conference we took our motivation and inspiration back on the road and headed to Zion National Park. Once we got there I immediately realized that the very few hours that we had to spend there were just not going to be enough to capture the majesty that is Zion. This is definitely a location Cliff and I want to return to and spend a few days at.
The next leg of our trip sent us to Antelope Canyons. I have to admit this was the one location I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint at all! Even though we drove two and a half hours to get there did the two-hour tour and drove five hours back to Las Vegas is was by far worth every second.
After meeting our tour guide, Ron, he leads us on a 20 minute ride into the canyon that I may have lost a vertebra or two at. Once we entered the canyon the beauty of it is just over whelming and full of tourists. Ron did an excellent job of blocking people out of our way so that we made sure to get our shots in. After inhaling 10 pounds of canyon dust we took our images and memories out of the canyon and back to Nelson.
This part of the trip wasn't planned this way. We actually had the intention of heading to Death Valley shooting there, but after spending time in Nelson with Dave Black we decided that it was worth it to go back there and do some more light painting. After barely making it on time to shoot there; Nelson once again didn't disappoint. We got some great light painting and Milky Way shots making that trip back a great decision.
After staying at yet another amazing one-star hotel that smelled of things I didn't know existed we started the 7 hour drive back home. Our intention was to stop at the abandoned Royal Hotel in Baker, Ca but when we got there it was all boarded up. We asked someone who lived there and she said it had just been boarded up a few days prior. After that disappointment we just headed back on our way. On the way home we did come up with some other great series ideas that we can't wait to make happen. Photoshop World 2016 is in the books and it was definitely an EPIC one.
