A month on the Road

You haven't heard from me in awhile.  It's been a whirlwind - first our cat Oliver died after being with us for 12 years (tribute here), then I conducted my first seminar in five years in Plymouth, Massachusetts at the end of April, then the next day we took the motor home on a month-long cross-country trip to California to visit my brothers and the West coast grandkids.  Two days after that trip ended my granddaughter's Bat Mitzvah happened in Boston (and my wife did a lot of the baking in those two days!)

I'll share some pictures and some captions.  Nothing award winning here or anything...  (As usual, click on any image to view larger and sharper.)

The first stop was at a relative who breeds show cats.  There were about 13 of these beautiful cats in their house during our visit.

She's ready for dinner now.

Wellfield Botanical Gardens in Elkhart, Indiana

World's largest truck stop in Iowa.  (Whoever made that claim was never in a Buc-EE's)

No trip through Iowa would be complete without stopping at a few Amish stores in the Amana colonies.

In Pella, Iowa (where the Pella Windows and Doors company is headquartered), we stumbled onto a local parade for their annual Tulip festival.

A close-up of one of their floats.  What's a Brittish phone booth doing there?

No road trip is complete without lilacs.

This guy is 91 years old and still makes and sells his woodworking projects.

He made a cane with a saw handle.  That's an unusual idea.  I bought it. :-)

Still in Iowa.  Stumbled upon a replica of a Danish Windmill in Elk Horn.  Didn't know that newer designs have the equivalent of venetian blinds on the blades to control the speed.  The attraction loses about $100K/year but the operator is hopeful it will bring in tourists and be an economic lifeline for the town.

A burger joint in Lincoln, Nebraska.

First Pony Express office in Nebraska.

Antique clock repair shop in Keenesburg, Colorado.  

(The rest of their store was a mess!)

Arches National Park in Utah.  The snow-capped mountains were named "La Sal" ("The Salt") because the Spanish settlers couldn't fathom that the mountains could have snow when it was so hot out.

Drove through Vegas.  I hate Vegas.  This is the most interesting shot I took there.  (Although their Neon Museum is really cool!)

Stayed a week in Huntington Beach to visit the grandkids and see a couple of old friends.  This is what the RV park looked like.  There are people living here year-round!

Looking in the other direction at the RV park.

YACP (Yet Another Cat Picture).  I'm including it just because it's so incredibly sharp. :-)

Me and Carol and the west coast grandkids.  This high-dynamic range scene was taken with my phone.  Had it been a conventional camera the windows would have blown out.  Computational photography strikes again!

This grocer worked for Safeway supermarkets for 24 years.  They fired him just a year before he was to collect retirement.  He's now working for Sprouts for a couple more years.  He purchased about 500 acres in Mexico for $50K, and he will be raising horses and cattle with his brother "just for fun" in his retirement.  Is he bitter about how he was treated?  "What goes around, comes around" he responds.  "The people who fired me were out of a job when Albertson's bought Safeway."

Took the family to the Magic Castle (you have to know somebody to get in.)  Cameras aren't allowed.  And despite my background in the magical arts, I had no idea how the vast majority of illustions were done.

Carlsbad, California, where I met up with my brothers and their families.

Nice sunset, eh?

Went to a deer farm in Williams, Arizona.  They got quite aggressive wanting to be fed.

(Here's a video showing just how agressive they were. :-) )

In New Mexico, we went to a store that carried Native American pottery made by the Acoma tribe.  This gentleman was kind enough to help us interpret the drawings and decorations.

Cadillac Ranch, an art installation in Texas.  Now overcome by several layers of grafitti.

This is how it originally looked in 1974 according to Texas Monthly.

Really good light out the motor home window.  (Yes, we brought some plants since there would be nobody to water them in our absence.)

A few more blue hour shots:

Cracker Barrel has a policy of letting trucks and RVs spend the night in their parking lot for free.  It's a good strategy, as we often ended up eating dinner AND breakfast there before hitting the road.

Granddaughter's Bat Mitzvah.  I did two things to maximize the chances of getting this difficult shot in poor conditions: 1) I moved so that the only light in the room was behind me, and 2) I shot an 8K video and then took a freeze frame at the decisive moment.  (This is how Sports Illustrated captures their images now.  I don't see that as cheating -- after all, I got the shot!!)  An 8K freeze frame gives you 12.8" x 7.2" @ 300 dpi, which is more than good enough for most people's uses.

A big shout-out to the Chevy Van chassis.  Although things in an RV cab are always unreliable, the 2015 Chevy 4500 engine and drive train have had NO issues since we bought it.  Extra special props go to the tires, which didn't pop nor go flat despite being subjected to all of the potholes and uneven patchwork found on our federally-funded highways - highways that countries such as Germany would be ashamed to call their own.  :-(

We did more on the trip, but I don't want to bore you.

In Other News...

Me at 15

Last year I applied for a professorship position at Tufts University and a smaller but delightful college in Rhode Island called Johnson & Wales.  I'm pretty well qualified, and there's a resurgence of interest in darkroom photography which I was doing since I was 15 (and I have lungs full of Dektol fumes to show for it!).   I've taught beginning and advanced photography literally around the world since 2007; have written more than 45 books on digital imaging, and I have the most incredible letters of recommendation: One from a National Geographic photographer who's been with the magazine for more than 40 years; one from the head of the Royal Photographic Society (UK), one from legendary photography publisher David Kilpatrick who is now publishing Cameracraft magazine (for which I've been  Associate Editor for more than 12 years).  

Despite all this, I didn't get the jobs because I don't have an Master of Fine Arts degree (just a lousy Engineering degree and 10 years at NASA).  But you know academia - they have to keep their high standards!

Until next time,

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman