You've got a few hours to shoot - how far will you drive for an outing?

[Corran]

Idle curiosity here...

Say you've taken a half-day off at work, or it's a casual Sunday and the weather is perfect - you feel like going out to shoot. The 4x5 is already packed, film already loaded. How far do you drive for an outing? With gas ~$3.50 at the moment (here, at least), a major drive can be quite expensive. So do you stick close to home? Or do you commit to driving to someplace 100 miles away?

[DrTang]

100 miles is 4 hours of just driving ..or so


so a lot less.. 25-35 miles..maybe, unless I have a perfect spot in mind

[Brian C. Miller]

I just finished up a photo trip this weekend, and I found out why people drive out and die in the desert: the gas station maps are bad, and you can get a bad case of, "oh, it should improve in a bit."

Anyways, it would really depend on what's around. If I am close to something were I can run out and photograph it, then fine, I'll do it. But I wouldn't do it for a random wander.

Also, a quick drive isn't expensive with a car that gets top fuel mileage.

[Corran]

Depends on what roads but 100 miles shouldn't be 4 hours unless you were going through residential areas the whole time...

I got to thinking about this because I went to a wildlife refuge that is about 85 miles away from me, one way, so 170 miles round trip. About $20 in gas just to go. I would love to go once or twice a week if it was right down the road because it's a huge swath of land with a lot of potential, but realistically I can't do that when it's almost 200 miles round-trip. Maybe once a month? I bought a year pass for $15 - still less than ONE trip in gas!!

I'm a bit sad because there is about 5 locations that I really want to explore but every one of them is 2 hours or so away. And Saturday I drove 2.5 hours out to the coast just for a sudden storm to blow in not predicted by the weather and ruin the whole trip!! Here in rural south GA there is not a lot of anything in huge swaths of territory so it kinda sucks sometimes.

[jnantz]

if you have someplace in mind id just go there,
if not ... plenty of things are close by but you have to notice them

[DannL]

I have never had any luck driving somewhere specifically to photograph. There's always something working against me. So instead, I take a camera everywhere I go.

[tgtaylor]

Once, not long ago, I got the urge to shoot Bodie in B&W with the 8x10 for alternative prints. Got up at 3am and drove straight to Bodie, ~ 225 miles one-way, spent the whole day shooting, and drove back arriving back home at around midnight. Was it worth it? YES!

BTW, I drive a small Toyota Echo which gets ~45MPG so it probably cost around $40 in fuel.

Thomas

[Corran]

I have to say that if I was roughly 200 miles away from Bodie or any number of the absolutely amazing and massive state/national parks in your part of the world, I wouldn't think twice about driving that far.

[DrTang]

Depends on what roads but 100 miles shouldn't be 4 hours unless you were going through residential areas the whole time...

I factor in getting lost and stopping at a 7-11

[invisibleflash]

I didn't vote, as I will drive a thousand+ miles.

3 weeks ago I drove 10 hours+ one way. It didn't work out. I got back in the truck after 45 min and drove back 10+ hours. About $400 in gas plus $45 for misc. Got nothing out of it, not one pix. Just how it goes, I still gota try. I did my research best I could, but that was how it worked out for me that day.