So it’s been awhile since I posted anything. Summer always seems to get in the way. Too much going on and not enough photography. That’s about to change.
Major Unwinding Tasks
We’re in the final stages of preparation to hit the road again. Although we were on the road during March and April, as we made our way North from Florida, we knew it was only temporary. We had a number of things to take care of back here in Michigan to finish the unwinding process I talked about in a prior post. You can read about that here. The biggest one of those tasks was to get the sailboat ready to sell and then actually get it sold. Well, we got that done. The sailboat was sold to a buyer in Florida and he elected to have the boat trucked down there. That was quite a process and I agreed to manage the activities on this end to get the boat loaded on the truck and sent on down the road. It’s a good thing I did as it was much more involved than either of us envisioned.
The second major task was to sell a vacant piece of property we own. With a stroke of good fortune we got that done as well. About the same time as selling the sailboat. It only takes one buyer and that certainly proved to be true in both of these cases.
The final big task is to continue reducing the amount of stuff we have in storage. I talked about this in that same post I linked to above. Well, we just completed our fourth garage sale and we did it without a garage! With the help of friends in southern Michigan, we took a lot of stuff in a U-Haul truck down to a multi-family garage sale they were having. We sold a lot and what didn’t sell we took to local charities. We’re still left with stuff here but we will consolidate into a smaller storage unit and call it done for awhile.
Coach Enhancements
In between all of these activities we’ve been making minor enhancements and changes to the motorhome to get ready to hit the road for an extended period. Since the coach is now our home, we have more stuff on board than the average weekend RV’er. This stuff needs organized storage and we’ve been organizing and reorganizing things to accommodate it all and actually be able to find it again!
Another big enhancement we’re in the middle of making is to add a desk to the interior of the coach. Most motorhome floorpans have two couches facing each other in the main living area. One is a sleeper sofa and the other is a love seat sized odd shaped thing that’s not too comfortable. Well the odd shaped sofa is gone and we’re putting a desk in that space. I still have my full sized desktop computer with 27″ 4K monitor that needs a home. And I need a better place to do my photo editing than the dinette where we eat. That should be done in the next week or so.
I’ve also been taking care of annual maintenance on things like the generator and the heating system on the coach to make sure they’re ready for extended use on the road. Those items are almost done as well.
Photography
With all this going on there hasn’t been much on the photography front. This tends to happen in the summer for me. I get involved in too many projects that need good weather to complete. This summer has been no different. This time however, it’s all prep work for a permanent change in lifestyle. One that will allow a significant emphasis on capturing landscape images in some of the most beautiful locations on our continent.
I am now shifting back into making images rather than all the prep work and a reliable place for me to go for images is the waters edge. The image above is a recent one I made at the lakeshore here in Northern Michigan. It was a nice summer evening with gentle breezes flowing through the dune grass. The sky had a nice array of clouds and it made for a relaxing end to the day.
I’ve also made several equipment changes that I’ll detail in a future post. Mostly lens changes. In addition to landscape images I’d like to pursue more wildlife photo’s than what I’ve done in the past. What better place to do that (in the lower 48) than the Grand Tetons (hint). As such I’ve recently picked up a new 150-600mm telephoto to bring in the distant wildlife without having to move in closer than you should.
Our Short Term Plans
We have many locations on the list over the next few months and I look forward to making photographs in all of them. In no particular order we plan to visit: The Grand Tetons, Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands and Zion national parks. Fall is such a magical time of change and we hope to hit up several of these locations at the peak of their color. If time and weather permit we’ll also visit the Grand Canyon again on our way south. This is what we’ve been working towards for many months and we’re now only a few weeks away from taking off. We can’t wait.
So stay tuned as we get this continuous roadtrip started. I look forward to sharing the images we find along the way.
Image above: Nikon D810 with Nikkor 16-35mm @ 16mm. f/11 at 11sec. Six stop ND filter. ISO 31
