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Archive 2015 · Solo Photo Trip to the Southwest, tips needed!

  
 
elkhornsun
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Solo Photo Trip to the Southwest, tips needed!


Wilbur Su wrote:
Try to get the Laurent Martres books on Photographing the Southwest.

http://www.phototripusa.com/

This will give you a good idea of what to see and when.


Excellent advice. These books are terrific for trip planning and they are timeless.

Some places require a native guide as with Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly but it is well worth the expense.

Work out the travel distances so you do not spend half your time driving between places. Google Maps is an invaluable resource for developing a workable itinerary.



Jul 23, 2015 at 01:31 PM
GroovyGeek
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Solo Photo Trip to the Southwest, tips needed!


I am surprised that people still find these types of books useful. A quick search here and around the web, helpful tips from Greg who generously shares his knowledge of the area,and some quality time with Google Earth seem like far better sources. Every once in a while I buy one of these and I am invariably disappointed because there is rarely anything in it that I had not already found on my own. Sure, if you want to go to THE SPOT and take THE SHOT they are useful. But if you are just looking to get in an interesting area to explore on your own then you might as well save the $20 for gas station hot dogs, at least IMO :-)


Jul 25, 2015 at 03:29 AM
Greg Campbell
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Solo Photo Trip to the Southwest, tips needed!


Yea. Books like that have a strong Follow the Recipe feel that I find unhelpful. The photos you're likely to take are exactly the same ones you've already seen on-line or at the local Camera Club. For reasons I cannot comprehend, some people really dig that "Me Too!" Trophy mentality. As such, they are good if the shooter is looking to 'hit' the most places in the shortest time. That's fine with me, so long as the rapacious mobs leave immediately after bagging their prize and don't intrude on me and the cute location 1/4 mile away that I found earlier in the day.

OTOH, after looking at the free preview chapter of the St. George area, I now know of a few more neat locations to add to my Impossibly Long List.



Jul 26, 2015 at 12:08 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Solo Photo Trip to the Southwest, tips needed!


Greg Campbell wrote:
Yea. Books like that have a strong Follow the Recipe feel that I find unhelpful. The photos you're likely to take are exactly the same ones you've already seen on-line or at the local Camera Club. For reasons I cannot comprehend, some people really dig that "Me Too!" Trophy mentality. As such, they are good if the shooter is looking to 'hit' the most places in the shortest time. That's fine with me, so long as the rapacious mobs leave immediately after bagging their prize and don't intrude on me and the cute location 1/4 mile away that I
...Show more

Speaking as the author of a guidebook to a different place... in some ways I have to agree with you, though with qualifications. (I have not read any photographic guides to the southwest, so nothing I write here should be taken as a commentary on them.)

Like you, I'm not a big fan of the places the mobs go — though I may stop in those places once if I have never seen them before or if it is quiet and extra special conditions arise. In some ways, though, I'd rather not be told about them in advance. (I visited Canyonlands a few years ago, blissfully unaware of one particular icon that "everyone" shoots until I saw a sign for it. I drove past and went elsewhere.)

When I photograph in, well just about any place I photograph, I do not follow guidebooks. I follow hunches. I explore. I wonder "what if?" I return to places to see them in a different light. I gradually internalize the rhythms of the place and how its light works, and I come to know the things that make it what it is: the geology, the light, the weather, the wildlife, the plants. It is a process by which I come to know the places gradually, often over years and during many visits. For me, that process — as slow as it may be — is much more interesting and fulfilling than checking another spot off the list.

That leads me to think about some possible variables among guide books and guide book authors. Unless you really have no choice — and you are still at the point where you are attracted to such things — you might want to avoid a book with a title like (to invent one) "Top 15 Secret Icons You Must Capture!" On the other hand, some of the best guidebooks embody the accumulated knowledge, experience, and perspectives of a people who have thoroughly explored these places, and that — locations aside — can be something well worth engaging.

YMMV,

Dan



Jul 27, 2015 at 09:43 AM
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