On the Road

Bill Pierce

Bill Pierce

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Local time
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Joined
Sep 26, 2007
Messages
1,407
I'll be traveling and working for the next two weeks; so, my input to the site will be minimal. Feel free to use this space to start your own conversations. I'll check in when possible.
 
charjohncarter said:
Where are you going and what are you doing?
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I’m one of those dreaded bicoastal people with homes in CA and NY, one bucolic and one in the middle of Manhattan. Heading for NY, I plan to annoy as many people on its streets as possible with my little camera. For me, that’s the most important part of the trip. I’m also an advisor to a charitable foundation that gives grants to photographic causes; meetings with them will take a number of days and is number two on my list. Additionally, I’m meeting with two galleries, one camera company and as many old friends and old photographers as possible. Of course I have to drop by my favorite camera store. Fotocare is a relatively small store dealing with a lot of pros, but it’s also a meeting place. Probably because everybody drops by, they’ve set up a little auditorium for classes and lectures and an exhibition space for photo shows. It really is a camera club for working stiffs and overly serious amateurs. No shooting jobs scheduled, although inevitably something comes up. These days I’m mostly a California shooter.
 
Bill Pierce said:
I’m one of those dreaded bicoastal people with homes in CA and NY, one bucolic and one in the middle of Manhattan.
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I can't match your bicoastal experience; however, our home is a modern condo in the middle of the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and we make frequent treks to our semi-bucolic cabin on a lake in Wisconsin where my photographic endeavors consist of capturing the sunrises and sunsets that come and go each day. And I did get a wonderful moon shot with a sunset up there a few weeks ago.
 
I did this last summer on an old motorcycle, but the motorcycle trip asserted itself as the primary focus, photography came second. A car would be much more comfortable.
 
robert blu said:
FrankS said:
Crossing America by car and taking pictures along the way is a great experience.
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Specially if done on an old car and with a few film cameras...
Enjoy the trip, I would like sometimes to do something similar
robert
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+1

I often fantasize about road tripping, however, I still haven't done that across my own country! Not even country, I haven't yet explored some interesting places in my region or been to important cities on a 200km radius. I haven't warmed much to driving and it's a bit of love/hate to me.

There's a midsized town 120km from my place of which many people I've met are from, I've never sat foot on it.
And I'm having a friend from there spend the saturday in my town. I feel guilty of ignoring how nice his town can be!
I should, really should.

Though the european fantasy of crossing the US with a classic (muscle) car/Camper/RV has always been present... I must warm up my driving more :D
 
I've traveled across the US by car and motorcycle many times, last in 2006.

Somehow when I'm traveling like that, I always think I'm going to do a lot of photography. It never really happens; I've gotten some good photos, now and then, but being in motion, becoming one with the road and the trip, visiting with people, etc ... It overwhelms my focus on making photographs and writing.

I get my best photos in short stints of highly focused activity, when I am concentrating intently on making photos and on nothing else.

G
 
Sounds like we all giving our horrible experiences with various vehicles. Try driving from Portland, Oregon to LA in a '53 MG TD. You are next to death after that trip, but I had something with me that helped; Santa Barbara, CA 1963:

1964 by John Carter, on Flickr
 
One of my favourite On The Road picture.

56964906d016c8d8e866d78cadbfa8e7.jpg
 
FrankS said:
A hopped up vw van from the 60's or 70's. :)
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About 1978, my wife and I took a trip from Ft Knox to my home in Missouri for a couple of days. We then went to South Dakota, including Mount Rushmore and Cosmos, crossed Wyoming and over Bear Claw Pass (had some small flowers peaking through the snow), and down (through pink snow) to Yellowstone. From there we went to Salt Lake, UT, down to the North Rim, through Bryce Canon. Then across the desert, through Monument Valley, up to the Four Corners and Mesa Verde. Then through Wolf Creek pass and into Colorado Springs, and up Pike's Peak (wife: You mean we paid money to go up another mountain?). Across the plains back to home, and back to Ft. Knox.

All in just about 30 days. In a 1972 VW Camper, the wife and I, two cats, my Fujica ST 901 and a bevy of lenses, along with my Super Press 23. I enjoyed it, the wife was amazed you could drive that long and far in a car (she's Korean), and I got some really nice photos. Every 3 or 4 days we would stay in a motel, but the rest of the time we slept in the camper.

I enjoyed the trip, but it was fast paced. I wouldn't mind the trip again but would want more time. I don't think I could drag the wife into it however. :D And regardless, I am pretty sure I would never want to do it on a motorcycle, and I know my wife would not. A salute to those who enjoy long rides like that on a motorcycle. It just wouldn't be for me.
 
I'm traveling with my family in the southern USA right now.
I'm using a Leica M8.2 with an SA21, a 28 V1, a 35 Lux and a small and light Nikon Em with a 50 f1.8 pancake. I got rolls of Kodak Elitechrome and 100 and 400 B&W film.
My wife uses a Fuji X30.
Check our Flickr page
 
As a Brit, "biocoastal" is of little significance. We can ket from the North Sea to the Irish Sea in a few hours. However, my wife and I had the pleasure of a trip down Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. Not exactly coast to coast - unless you class Chicago as by the coast. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic experience and one I'd like to repeat in a year or two.

The joy is the journey not the destination and most of the places along the old and new stretches of what was Route 66 are just amazing and a world apart from anywhere I'd been before.

Chicago (or Nashville) to New Orleans - via Memphis, Clarksdale, Jackson, etc is also very high on the list.

The next big trip we're hoping to do is Cuba - but I want to do it soon as predictions are that big money will soon be pouring into the country and it will change out of all recognition.
 
or all we know, Pierce took off for NYC sitting comfortably in business class, bottomless wine glass in hand, but on the theme of road trips that has taken over the thread...

I spent '69 - 71 in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois. Future 1st wife and I took a 6 week road trip in my '63 Volvo P544 (a knock-off of 1944 Ford coupe), both photographing along the way. Northern route outbound to Seattle, Southern route back from LA. The path, drawn on two sides of the big Mobile map that covered the western US, ended up taped to the wall of our apartment over the bed. I have memories of pictures from the badlands of ND (pre-oil boom), waking up in the Craters of the Moon, and lots more. But only memories, as the negatives and contact sheets are in deep storage over a friends' garage in Burlingame CA, waiting for me to reclaim and scan them. Would love to have done the trip in an MG-TD (or Triumph TR-3), but the Volvo was a lot tougher.
 
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