Salt Lake City, UT

The Road Less Traveled

(each link is to an Instagram photo from @travel_junkie or @alenkadesign)

Yesterday’s drive was an odd one. For the longest time, from Steamboat Springs, CO towards Utah along US-40 we barely saw a soul. The scenery was pretty, but nothing to compare to the day before in the Rocky Mountains, of course. We stopped for an early lunch in Craig at a fantastic joint called The Op Bar & Grill, where the burgers were fat and gorgeous.

Once back on the open road, there wasn’t much to shoot, which was fine by me as I wasn’t feeling terribly well. Too much running around in the Rocky Mountains at altitude, I think. Eventually we crossed into Utah and rolled to a stop in Vernal, which is a town with a serious dinosaur fetish.

Somewhere beyond that, Utah started getting really pretty. The mountains in the distance and the red rocks in the foreground were very picturesque. I kept looking for a place to get the “perfect photo” from, but just couldn’t find it. It seemed all the best spots had loads of power lines or ugly buildings or some other eyesore in front of them, and as mentioned before I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I just wasn’t in the mood to go exploring. Which is a shame, because now I feel like I missed some great opportunities.

I did make a few iPhone shots from the moving car, and inadvertently got a lesson in the iPhone’s HDR technique. Ultimately though, we were pretty much bored out of our skulls.

Tragically, where Utah gets exceptionally pretty, we literally could NOT pull over to shoot at all. A huge stretch of US-40 is under construction, and there’s just no where to stop. Which was truly sad, because we saw some amazing scenery. *sigh*… just not my photo day.

We stopped in Sinclair to refill the windshield wiper water (lotsa bugs!), and were a little surprised at this photo display of hunting trophies on the wall there. I’m not anti-hunting, but somehow this seems a bit tasteless. I’m sure not everyone agrees, but there you go.

We finally arrived in Salt Lake City, where we stayed in another private apartment found on airbnb.com. What attracted us to this place was the promise of rooftop views of the city and the lake, and the views definitely didn’t disappoint. We also met up with fellow photographer Nicole S Young for dinner, (she just completed a new ebook on (micro)STOCK, available from Craft & Vision), and she captured a rare picture of Alenka and I in the same photo on this trip. Oh she also let me fondle her X100. Very very nice.

Salt Lake City at Twilight

Truth be told, we wanted to be up on the roof at sunset, but as you’ve figured out by now, this just wasn’t my best photo day. We were late and by the time we were on the roof, it was well past sundown. But, twilight is still a beautiful time to shoot.

Salt Lake City, UT at Twilight @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 5D Mk II & 14mm ƒ/2.8L Aspherical @ ISO 160, ƒ/4, 0.5s

Today we’ll do a little sightseeing in Salt Lake City, then head out past the Great Salt Lake and then to the Salt Flats. We’ll stop somewhere in northern Nevada for the night, then it’s just one more day to Oregon!

Wild Animal Country; Colorado

Denver, Boulder, Estes, Rockies

(each link is to an Instagram photo from @travel_junkie or @alenkadesign)

We started late and our first destination was Boulder, only a short 40 minute or so drive from Denver. The prettiness started from the first moment, as we were driving straight towards the mountains that we’d soon be climbing. But first, a stop in Boulder was in order for a little lunch and to check out the street performers on Pearl Street (yes, there’s a person in there!).

One of the sites to see in Boulder is the Flatiron formation, which we drove up to the National Center for Environmental Research to get a better view of (which wasn’t really the best view, apparently, but still a nice drive and we saw the first of many large furry critters while up there).

Flatirons in Boulder, Colorado, from the NCAR @ June 2011 | Panasonic Lumix GF-1 & Lumix G 20mm ƒ/1.7 @ ISO 100, ƒ/3.5, 1/1000

Eventually we started the journey towards the Rocky Mountain National Park, and with only one quick stop to tweet a reality check that we weren’t in the flatlands anymore, our first proper stop was when we encountered some serious wildlife. Alenka spotted them and I swerved off the road to react, and after a few quick shots from the car, I pulled out the big guns and fired off a handful of frames of a small elk herd moving their way across people’s front lawns.

Wild Elk in the Rocky Mountains @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III & 70-200mm ƒ/4L IS @ ISO 160, ƒ/4, 1/640

Not the kind of thing you see in Los Angeles, for sure.

We recovered from this amazing sighting at the local Colorado Cherry Company, where a slice of cherry pie à la mode and two coffees were sorely needed. That made us smile.

The drive west and up continued, with more pretty prettiness that had to be shared, and another stop at the entrance to the Estes Park area. We were quickly accosted by a mob of hungry chipmunks who, in pretty clear English, demanded food for passage. Alenka was happy to oblige.

Alenka feeds the chipmunks. They demanded it. @ June 2011 | Panasonic Lumix GF-1 & Lumix G 20mm ƒ/1.7 @ ISO 100, ƒ/2, 1/500

She named him Cheery-oki. You’ll have to ask her.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We decided not to stop in Estes Park, the town itself. Adorable, for sure, but crammed with tourists and we had far more interesting natural beauty ahead in the Rocky Mountains National Park. Alenka had to prove to the world why were stopping so much, but when you have shocking beauty like this, you just have to stop again and again and again! And even though it’s June, and a refreshing high 60’s through most of the park, the snow was piled high. The drive itself was certainly different than what we had the day before in Kansas and eastern Colorado.

There’s no describing the stunning vistas up there; you simply have to go see it for yourself. Just don’t forget that you’re at some pretty serious elevation — over 12,000 feet in fact — so don’t do too much running around with a heavy camera if you’re not used to it (*pant*… *pant*).

The route down was equally gorgeous, but also in the shadow side of things, so we stopped a lot less on the way out of the park. Shadow Mountain Lake was worth stopping for however, where we saw an empty lot and dreamed ever-so-briefly about a life on the lake in a log cabin, before picking up a Realtor’s advertisement for a lovely cottage on the water priced a paltry $1.8M. Adorable.

Needless to say, I have a lot of photos to share over the coming months from this drive.

Rocky Mountain National Park @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III & 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L @ ISO 160, ƒ/7.1, 1/500

Today we head towards Salt Lake City, Utah. Never been, and we’ll be connecting with fellow photography Nicole Young. Can’t wait!

One more thing… Trey Ratcliff’s New Photography, HDR, and Post-processing Course

Many of you are already familiar with Trey’s fantastic HDR work over at Stuck In Customs, but in case you missed it he’s just released a new HDR tutorial series that includes 11½ hours of content in nine different classes, and at just $97 for the “best value” package, if you’re into learning HDR, it’s unquestionably a great value. Check it out here!

I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore

The Road Behind

(each link is to an Instagram photo from @travel_junkie or @alenkadesign)

The drive from the Middle of Nowhere, Kansas to Denver, Colorado was somewhat uninspiring. For the first part of the day, seeing something, anything, was an event to photograph. We passed a small windmill farm, and I questioned where Don Quixote was. I even tried really hard to make the vista more interesting with Instagram filters, but failed miserably. At one point the road curved, which was fascinating. As one facebook poster commented, “AGH! Untie the wheel! Turn off the cruise control!”. True, true.

We stopped for a much needed caffeine break in Colby and decided against a snack of fried fried stuff, then after some indeterminate period of time, were finally welcomed to colorful Colorado, although Alenka lamented the lack of hills to go along with the (lack of) color.

The weather looked like it might turn for the worse, which made for a pull-off-the-highway-worthy iPhone photo, where a Colorado state trooper was kind enough to pull over and ensure we were OK. That had to be the highlight of the day.

Finally to Denver, where we stayed at a B&B found on airbnb.com, walking distance to the Cherry Creek part of town and home to a new and wonderful “tacos and tequila” restaurant called Machete, which serves all kinds of “street food” deliciousness, some wonderful salsas and very very strong and creative margaritas (think jalapeño and cilantro muddled tequila). Yum.

The Road Ahead

The plan from Denver was originally to go straight up I-25 to I-80 and over to Salt Lake City, but we’ve decided to break that trip into two days and instead pass through Boulder and then the US-40 through the mountains. We will probably stay in Steamboat Springs tonight, or somewhere slightly past that, and at the moment we’re still deciding if we should go from Boulder north through the Rocky Mountains National Park, or south and visit historic Georgetown. We may not decide until we stop in Boulder, and of course we’re always soliciting your opinions!

Also the journey through there should fill the camera coffers with more beautiful vistas than open-prairie Instagram snapshots ;-)

Missouri, Kansas, and The Gateway Arch

Missouri to Kansas

(each link is to an Instagram photo from @travel_junkie or @alenkadesign—and yes there’s a lot of ‘em today!)

The day began in St. Louis, Missouri, with a visit to the Gateway Arch. We saw it the evening before on the way into the city, and I’ve been to St. Louis many many times (my mom was from here), and yet I’ve never been in the Arch! So this was a must-do on our little cross-country journey.

We rode the impressive tram to the top of the 630 foot (192 meter) Arch, which offers a window into it’s mostly unlit innards; four minutes up and three minutes down, with as much time as you like on the observation deck. The tram is a fascinating system of round “barrels” that stay upright as the system moves them from under the Arch, past a tighter-than-90˚ curve, then up her long, slender legs. It was designed in just two weeks by Dick Bowser, a clever inventor and elevator designer with no college degree who happened into the opportunity. If you visit the Arch, ask for a copy of the article about Mr. Bowser’s creation from the Museum Gazette and a park ranger will be happy to get one for you.

Once topside, you’re greeted by disappointingly small observation windows to peer through, but even still the view is fantastic. Looking west towards the Old Courthouse building or east over the Mississippi, or even straight down onto the lawn or to the river below if you stretch your neck, the vista is gorgeous.

From St. Louis we drove towards Kansas City for dinner with a cousin and his family. There wasn’t much to see along the way except for a bridge or two, a long desolate road and the finally-found ultimate road-trip snack (there’d been a shortage in the last several states—the horror!).

As the sun went down, we jumped off the freeway one more time to see Truckhenge, a listing from the fantastic iPhone app Roadside America that my buddy Chris Fenwick recommended before my last cross-country jaunt. Definitely worth downloading before your next road-trip!

St. Louis Gateway Arch

As with any major monument, photographing it in a unique and unseen way is virtually impossible, so all you can do is take it as a personal challenge to capture a distinctly interesting view of this oft-viewed structure.

St. Louis Gateway Arch @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III & 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L @ ISO 160, ƒ/4.5, 1/3200

We were fortunate; while nearly 100˚F and humid as a steam bath, there were clouds in the sky that reflected beautifully in the metal facade of the Gateway Arch. I suppose I should have come at sunrise, but frankly after the gorgeous Italian dinner we had the night before, an early rise was not in the cards.

St. Louis Gateway Arch @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III & 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L @ ISO 160, ƒ/8, 1/800

As regular readers know by now, I absolutely love using the Silver Efex Pro II plug-in. The Ilford Delta 400 Pro film stock simulation used in the photo above, plus a bit more tweaking, renders reflective metal gorgeously.

As mentioned earlier, if you stretch your neck, crawl to the top of the sloped viewing platform, smash your camera up against the glass and hope to not get yelled at by a Ranger, you can catch a fantastic view of the ground that looks like you’re mysteriously outside of the Arch. Reflections are a bear on the thick glass, but a warm body positioned appropriately makes for a good light block!

In the photo below, you can see the base of the Arch, and also her shadow cast on the lawn below. I love this view, and it’s certainly not commonly seen. Even most visitors to the top of the Arch won’t see this; you really have to work at it to get this view!

St. Louis Gateway Arch @ June 2011 | Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III & 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L @ ISO 160, ƒ/6.3, 1/200

I shot another one in portrait (vertical), which includes the Old Courthouse, but it wasn’t wide enough to get the full shadow of the Arch, so it’s not as telling. I’d love to shoot this again with a wider lens, in better light, and with the shadow creating a perfect Arch across the lawn. It’d be an amazing photo.

Tennessee to Missouri… Water Wheel, Big Wheel, Big Arch

Tennessee to Kentucky to Illinois to Missouri

(each link is to an Instagram photo from @travel_junkie or @alenkadesign)

The journey continues. We left Tennessee, passing through Kentucky and Illinois before resting in St. Louis, Missouri for the night. Along the way we stopped at what appeared to be an interesting roadside destination, Patti’s 1880’s Settlement. A quick google showed it to be one of the top eateries in the state, and I figured if it’s a settlement built in the 1880’s, there should be some cool old buildings to photograph!

Truth be told, it’s a pretty disappointing place. Other than an old water wheel and a creepy restaurant that was so quiet we were afraid to talk, there wasn’t much to see or do. You’re walking around a perfectly manicured path and fake waterfalls, from gift shop to gift shop, on a scavenger hunt for anything more than 30 years old. The food was good, but you know, we could have stuck to a roadside diner and been happier.

Back on the road we saw the biggest wheel ever on the back of a truck (and then ran across a convoy of them), and eventually made our way across the great Mississippi River and were welcomed to St. Louis by the Gateway Arch (where we’re going this morning for a proper tour).

For dinner, we were treated by family in St. Louis to an amazing Italian meal at Mama Campisi’s in an area of town called The Hill. The antipasti was amazing, and the main dishes were all fabulous. Alenka picked the best I think, with a seafood pasta that was to die for. The pasta primavera with a creamy pesto was beautiful as well.

No visit to St. Louis would be complete without a trip to Ted Drewes for frozen custard, where even at 10 o’clock at night, the place is packed.

Today we’ll go up the Arch, drive to Kansas City and stop to see a cousin, then spend the night somewhere in Kansas!