Frost/Nix-ing (The return trip West)
Canyons! Petrified Forests! And still more snow!
The trip back to California had also been planned to within an inch of its life. Mother Nature, once again, had different ideas.
My goal for the return trip was to drive from West Houston to Los Angeles without ever using an Interstate Highway. It was a glorious plan that I still hope to achieve one day. On this trip, that’s all it lasted: One Day.
The first day of my trip wound from Houston…
Up through Bellville…
To Comanche…
And finally Abilene - all on Texas state highways or Farm to Market roads. If I needed any reassuring that the idea was sound… this drive proved it.
Then the inclement weather came.
And stayed.
The remainder of the trip back did feature three main highlights:
Palo Duro Canyon State Park - just southeast of Amarillo, Texas.
Think of a mini Grand Canyon - with far fewer crowds and a road leading right into the canyon.
It was a stunning way to improve a snow-hampered day.
The second highlight, as I had hoped, was Petrified Forest National Park.
The park features beautiful rock formations with vibrant colors and vast expanse.
The final highlight, a day in Sedona.
I had long wanted to visit the Sedona area - with hopes that its fire red rocks would live up to the hype.
Spoiler alert: they do.
In the end, the drive West was, at best, a wash. I didn’t accomplish what I set out for… I didn’t photograph to my expecations… but I did see some incredible things, which serves as a reminder… Even stressful travel still holds value.
Until next time.
Best (way)laid plans…
Routes, Snow, re-routes, Tacos and Saguaros! The story of my drive from San Diego to Houston.
The route was circuitously gorgeous.
San Diego to Houston in the least direct manner I could come up with. And then mother nature took over. Snowstorms blanketed most of my gorgeous route. My car and snow do not mix. Hell, my car and slightly dirty pavement aren’t a great mix, for that matter.
So instead I traveled along the southerly route through Tucson, where at least I would still be able to check Saguaro National Park off my list.
Two carne asada, one barbacoa… both of which traveled surprisingly well back to the hotel.
But first… tacos. Having to replan the entire route, yielded very few scenic additions… instead i turned my search to the gastronomic.
You can easily lose an hour of your life scrolling through the various lists of the best tacos in Tucson… which I did in the days leading up to the trip. In the end, at least the culinary gods were smiling on me, as Taqueria Pico de Gallo in South Tucson helped ease the pain of redirected travel with incredible tacos.
The bright yellow facade made me wish I had arrived earlier, and had a chance to photograph the building.
I guess now I have two reasons to go back…
The Saguaro were a perfect subject for large format (4x5) film.
As for Saguaro National Park… it did not disappoint. I kept my travels to the west section of the Park… where deceptively large Saguaros fill the landscape.
This would rightly end up being the highlight of my drive east.
The rest of the trip was long hours - and rained-out plans.
But the journey did yield one more tiny gem. Tired and beaten down from highway construction, I stopped off in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Maybe it was just the Craig Finn lyric stuck in my head… maybe I just needed to take in some civilization after a few hundred miles of desert.
I made my way to Mesilla Plaza, a historic neighborhood on the southwest side of town.
Beautifully maintained buildings in classic southwest architecture reveal themselves around each corner.
After a nice chat with a local artist - and one last lap around this oasis… it was back on the road… refreshed, and feeling I had at least accomplished something photographically.
An Iphone photo from my hotel room is not how I should have experienced El Paso… A failure I will have to remedy.
Off to El Paso. And more tacos.
I’d post a photo of L&J’s shredded beef tacos here - but to be honest, I was far too hungry to let them sit long enough for a photo.
Truth be told - I should have made more of an effort to photograph El Paso. Between the fatigue from two days on the road, and plans that had suddenly evaporated from day three… I just didn’t venture out. I should have. I will next time.
Instead I powered through to Houston - a day early. Time to reset and enjoy family. After all, the return drive west couldn’t possible have as much bad luck as this… right?
RIGHT????
All Images ©2022 Brian Campbell Photography
The Kids are Alright
A trip back home to chronicle and honor the academic achievements of these whipper-snappers!
Back in Florida for a spell. Hadn’t seen my home state in half a decade. Been even longer since spending time with my nieces. The teens I hugged goodbye last time have all shot up into pretty impressive twenty-somethings in the bat of an eye.
One of ‘em even had the audacity to haul off and get herself a damned fine degree.
Seems like cause for celebration…
and photos.
Another of ‘em hauled off and started dating a really impressive young man.
Save for his choice in academic institutions (we here at BCP will always be University of Florida Gators at heart) - he too has gone off and got himself well educated.
Seems like cause for more photos… in Tallahassee of all places. Heaven help us, we’re going to the Panhandle. (More on that in a future post)
Seeing how we’ve had so much fun celebrating educations and making photos of young’uns, maybe we ought get the whole group together and well, you guessed it, take some more photos. One Grad on her home campus - one Grad on a roadtrip (we kept the signage out of his shots)… and a bunch of friends and family along for the ride.
A variety of what Joe McNally refers to as “Voice Activated Light Stands”
And one damned happy photographer.
Forced folksy charm aside - it is remarkable what this group of young adults is achieving in the face of incredible obstacles. I can’t wait to continue chronicling them as they fix the broken world we’ve stuck them with.
27 Hours
What happens when you drive 550 miles over 27 hours to complete three shoots? (or, “How I finished 2021 with a bang!”)
There was some part of me that worried I was trying to get away with too much. After two years of wanting to be busier… wanting to be photographing more things… scheduling myself to do three shoots in just more than 24 hours could be seen as over-compensating.
…But I knew I had to try...
Leg 1 of my 27 hour photographic rush of a journey took me to Imperial, California, where the tremendous staff at IBEW Local 569 were doing what they do best: take care of their members.
The annual holiday parties have been temporarily replaced with the more covid-friendly drive through. The change did nothing to hamper the spirit of community and charity among the members and staff.
From the Imperial Valley, it was a straight shot past the Salton Sea up to Joshua Tree National Park for sunrise. I’ve always enjoyed Joshua Tree, but never really felt like I’d photographed well there.
The combination of the beauty of a desert sunrise, along with some new approaches to photographing the park, I think, made this one of my best trips to this beautiful desert yet.
The final leg of this 27 hour journey was back home to BCPHQ - where a rooftop deck became an outdoor studio, of sorts.
A nine foot roll of white seamless, three lights, and a whole bunch of weight bags to keep everything from wandering off in the breeze transformed Saturday night into Portrait Night.
Now, I usually to prefer “environmental” portraits… placing people in a surrounding that feels natural to them… or tells their story, but Covid has restricted access to a lot of places, or just made them unnecessarily complicated to get to. So simple white seamless it was.
The portraits were of long-time BCP friend (and unofficial Brand Ambassador) Ashley. I’ll be featuring the images as part of a post over on a new series on Substack, which I’ll talk more about soon. Until then, here’s a sneak peak at the crescendo of my 27 hours of photography.
In the end, these two wonderful days tallied 550 miles traveled, 20 rolls/sheets of film shot, and a whole lot of inspiration to do this again regularly in 2022. I hope you’ll join me for the ride, both here on the blog… and in person with a shoot of your own.
Sunset vs Marine Layer
Part 2 of the saga!
So what does happen when the sunset you’re photographing gets swallowed whole by the oncoming marine layer?
For those of you who don’t live in California… Marine Layer is fog… I mean, I’m sure there’s a more exact scientific explanation for it… but for all practical purposes, it’s a big mass of fog that steams its way in from the Pacific with a good bit of regularity out here.
And since it’s wandering in from the same place the sun is setting… sometimes you end up with what I had during my trip to Morro Bay. The sun didn’t so much set as… well, get fogged out.
There was a bit of golden hour before both Morro Rock and the sun disappeared from view entirely… and I’m really glad I was there to witness it.
Sunset? over Morro Bay
Sunset and Marine Layer pt 1
I generally don’t like to shoot sunsets... I prefer the tranquility of sunrises. Having a space largely to yourself because you’re the only idiot to get up at an ungodly hour is very much my speed. But Morro Rock is a sunset shot, the hills to the east mean that western sunset light is the only chance you have for golden hour. That is unless the marine layer starts creeping in as the sun is heading to the horizon. In that case, you get... well, I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know after some time developing.
