“Chance favors the prepared mind” Louis Pasteur
Most every year my wife, Laurie, and I make a spring trip to the Southwest. It is a time we both look forward to; as she says ‘you drag me to such beautiful places and you don’t rush me once we are there.’ The trips are planned around getting good photos. How many times have you seen really nice photos and said to yourself, ‘ How come mine don’t look like that?’ Getting great pictures is not particularly a matter of luck (although luck certainly helps in getting dramatic skies, or blue skies as desired). In this case it is a matter of trip planning.
Many things go into a successful photo expedition; and getting them right makes a huge difference both in the photos, and in the enjoyment. Mostly trip planning is about all of the various logistics that are involved:
- What do I want to accomplish? What types of photos, what types of locations. Am I headed for Le Mans and car racing, or in this case the American Southwest. If you don’t know, then look at magazines, travel guides until you have an idea of what you want to do photographically.
- Having decided the what you want, then the trip planning is the logistics of travel and lodging given where and when you want to be someplace for a particular photo. For example; if you want Mesa Arch at sunrise
Mesa Arch – Island in the Sky – Canyonlands
, then you need to figure an hour plus from Moab to the arch (maybe longer), and you want to arrive at least half an hour before sunrise. Arriving at a place at sunrise is better than a couple hours later, but arriving before sunrise is so much better, particularly if you want one of those dramatic photos that you see and wonder why aren’t mine like that? Oh, and remember to bring a headlamp for walking in the dark, and a tripod that you know how to use for the long exposures.
- So, using the Mesa Arch as an example, what else is there to see that could be seen? Dead Horse State Park
Road, Canyons, the LaSals from Dead Horse State Park
comes to mind, or False Kiva.
- Oh, did we get the car gassed up the night before (most gas stations are not open at O’dark hundred).
- How do we get to Moab? Well it takes 2 days driving, need a place to stay along the way as well as a place in Moab. (AAA books are nice).
- What are the plans for each of the 10 days?
- Drive to Barstow, CA in the evening after work; what are we doing for food & water, where are we staying? Have I planned to have the car serviced before the trip?
- Day 1: Barstow to Moab the next day (I15 to I70). Do I want to stop, is there time to stop for some rock art photos?
On a major byway through the mountains
If I want rock art photos, what do I need like off camera flash? If I am planning a sunrise shoot the next morning, have I gassed the car up the night before, even if it is midnight?
- Day 2: Sleep in, continental breakfast in motel/hotel. Sunset shoot at Dead Horse, scout other locations. Maybe get False Kiva.
- Day 3:…
- Day 4:
What I have found to be successful for planning is asking a bunch of questions and then keeping notes on the answers that I group together .
The questions include
- What do I want?
- If I don’t know where or what I want I refer to either the AmericanSouthwest.net or to Photographing the Southwest, both are excellent sources of information about thing to shoot, and how to get there. Although the parks and BLM have good visitor sites, a good guide book or website can help you find locations, and plan that the visitors centers can’t. I have found both of the above to be quite useful.
- Getting There
- How long to get there? Do I have the needed maps? There are places GPS doesn’t work very well.
- When do I want to be there? Is there some slack built in for the unexpected? The featured image requires you to be there within a fairly small time window.
- What do I need?
- What camera equipment
- What clothing (Jacket? Sun hat, sun screen, boots, socks, etc.)
- Food & water (cases of bottled water work very well)
- What does my wife need (she doesn’t like the cold, and wants to be fed regularly, imagine that…)?
- Unusual things, e.g. first aid kit, head lamp
- Car charger and other electronics
- What preparation is required? e.g. servicing the car before the trip, motel reservations, checking out places to eat on yelp.
- What are alternatives if things don’t work out (e.g. the road is closed).
Asking myself these kinds of questions and knowing how to get answers (see references above) are critical to setting yourself up for success.
One of the things learned through not having done it, is to build at least a partial itinerary (say by half days) of places. It really doesn’t very well to go oops, I meant to stop at, and it is now two hours away. So, I might have an Island in the Sky itinerary that looks like:
- Mesa Arch (leave sunrise -2 hours)
- Aztec Mesa ( 2-3 hours)
- Lunch at visitors center
- Shafter trail long canyon 2 hours (get locations of rock art, and arches)
- False Kiva for late afternoon (2 hours)
- Dead horse point for sunset (easy)
- Return Moab, dinner
Some planning ahead of time greatly enhances the experience.
See more Southwest photos at PatrickLynchPhotography.com/Gallery
