Road trip out West..

[David Lobato]

Since it will be August for the drive home, pick up Interstate 70 north of Moab at either Crescent Junction or Cisco (great drive to there from Moab), or where Hwy 24 meets it, and head East. Then it's mostly a high country mountain drive to Denver, much cooler and more scenic. There is Colorado National Monument outside Grand Junction, and waterfalls near Glenwood Canyon, then numerous mountain towns. You will cross a few mountain passes on I-70 (or many other highways) in Colorado. You can work your way to Virginia on Interstate 64 from St. Louis.

[RPippin]

Thanks everyone who responded! Just got back online to check my posting and have lots of good advice. My plan has changed somewhat. Still going, but planning on spending more time in one place rather than trying to get it all on film. It looks like the four corners region is where I'll be focusing on, and also bringing my Bronica and some rolls of color film as well. I do have a bit more than 100 sheets of 4X5, so will be bringing all I've got, which is closer to 150 sheets. I'm also traveling a bit lighter, leaving the big canvas tent at home and checking on Airbnb's along the way. I also have an in with someone who taught on the reservations till she retired and hope to get some shots there as well. With permission, of course. If anyone has any thoughts about shooting film off the beaten track on reservation land, please respond. I have no allusions about becoming the next Remington, just want to see what's possible as portrait work is a big part of what I hope to shoot. Thanks again everyone who responded.

[Jmarmck]

I may not need to say this but early morning late evening pre and post sunrise/sunset are best. Midday light is pretty harsh even in the winter. I spent the midday scouting for the evening and morning. Do take a drive up Hwy 261 to the top of Cedar Mesa. Moke Dugway is a real treat. If you do go down Johns Canyon Road (244 on google maps) make sure you have a vehicle with ground clearance........and support gear including water. If you get to the gate at the base of Cedar Mesa and the drop off into the San Juan River, you can keep going, just close the gate. I turned around thinking the gate meant no trespassing but it simply says close gate. BTW you cannot turn around at the gate. Too narrow. Backing away from the gate is difficult as the road is narrow, steep, with rocks. Go through the gate then turn around. Don't go to the gate if you do not plan to go through it.

Goosenecks State park (camping available but no shade) is a natural wonder but extremely difficult to shoot as colors are similar making it difficult to bring out detail with color film. Great learning experience. Have the balls to walk out on one of ridges but be very careful particularly if you carry LF gear. I wanted to approach from the south but never looked very hard for a road. Perhaps you can find one.

Around Oljato and Mexican Hat your eyes will play tricks on you as the soil and rock are red. Your brain will adjust to the point where the sage brush will appear blue. People will look slightly dead. It is a weird experience. So don't try to take photos of the blue sagebrush because it will not come out that way. Voice of experience. Just stick to what you know filter and color wise because this place will make you question your knowledge.

One of the most solitary moments of my life occurred in Monument Valley. I took the road through the valley looking at all the monoliths, stopping to shoot at various places along the way. When I first hit the valley floor with the sun in the middle of the golden hour. I stopped to shoot and was thunderstruck by the silence. Being winter there were not that any people, none when I first stopped. There was no people noise, no critter noise, no birds, no wind, only the warm sun and the view. That was one unplanned gift from that trip. Simple yet astounding.

Take a wide angle lens. You will need it. A panoramic camera is a plus, something like a Nobeix. Keep it level.

Have a great trip. I want to get back there.

[Drew Wiley]

Aaah blue sage, sage hues in general. How I miss good ole Ektachrome 64! With its red-contaminated green dye curve, it was miserable for saturated "spring" greens, but sensitive to complex hues like sage, and of course famous for overreaction to blue itself. Now I'm bagging those kinds of complex hues fairly well with Ektar 100, properly color temp balanced via filtration, then very carefully printed in my own darkroom. Sandstone hues in direct mid-day sun are indeed, as Marty
also noted, rather deceptive. Again, I'm having superb results with complex warm tones with Ektar, but it is a beast itself a bit difficult to tame without some
patience and experience. A very different animal than typical color neg films.

[goamules]

Drew, can we see a sample?

[Drew Wiley]

I don't own a digital camera, Garrett, and even if I did, the web itself is a vehicle utterly utterly incapable of showing these kinds of hue nuances. But I happen to love the kinds of subtle greige, gray-green, nuanced rusts, and various gold colors we get in California. When I still had a place up in the hills I'd match the paintto blend into the blue oaks, along with the gorgeous purple-browns of the massive diorite boulders. And it always amazes me how stunningly a highly experienced watercolorist can pick up those kinds of hues, but how color films have utter hell with them. Never mind all the atrocities that the Fauxtoshop mentality does to nuanced hues with its fad of supersaturation. Effective color is about relationship, nuance and modulation, not sheer noise. But Ektar appears to be pliable in its neutrality in a sense no color neg film has been before - certainly not perfect - but it can be tamed. It took me a lot of expense and work to figure this out, however, and one needs immaculate colorhead and process control in terms of RA4 output. I learned how to do it on Cibachrome a long time ago, but the relevant films like E64, pre-E6 Agfachrome, and Kodachrome all soon disappeared, and were all in fact very restrictive in other parts of the color wheel. I do plan to set up a copy station again, but realistically, I'll never again devalue the appearance of my color prints by attempting to post them on the
web.

[goamules]

Well, I guess we miss out then. I don't let perfect be the enemy of good. I like hand written letters, yet here I am writing this electronically.

[Drew Wiley]

Even when I had a site I had to select from only about 2% of my color prints because anything which wasn't conspicuously saturated was impossible to present
intelligently. Most websurfers have no idea what a well done print looks like anyway. Other than the fact that web speeds are much faster now, so greater detail
is realistic, the color formula is still the same. It like trying to play scrabble with only a fourth the alphabet, and no vowels.

[Jim Michael]

Re Bosque del Apache, the grand landscape is punctuated with traffic on the nearby interstate, as well as power lines. The near landscape has a lot of interesting textures and color layers in the fall with layers of grasses and other flora. In late Nov, early Dec is a good time to go to see thousands of snow geese and sandhill cranes.

[goamules]

Thanks everyone who responded! Just got back online to check my posting and have lots of good advice. My plan has changed somewhat. Still going, but planning on spending more time in one place rather than trying to get it all on film. It looks like the four corners region is where I'll be focusing on, and also bringing my Bronica and some rolls of color film as well. I do have a bit more than 100 sheets of 4X5, so will be bringing all I've got, which is closer to 150 sheets. I'm also traveling a bit lighter, leaving the big canvas tent at home and checking on Airbnb's along the way. I also have an in with someone who taught on the reservations till she retired and hope to get some shots there as well. With permission, of course. If anyone has any thoughts about shooting film off the beaten track on reservation land, please respond. I have no allusions about becoming the next Remington, just want to see what's possible as portrait work is a big part of what I hope to shoot. Thanks again everyone who responded.

The Navajo and Hopi are generally very friendly and understand visitors. As far as photographing them formally, I don't know the best way to set that up. I'd research it, and maybe make some connections beforehand, with your plan. I would think just trying to approach strangers in the Navajo nation to sit for a LF portrait would be somewhat difficult. I'd also say if you pay people for their work in sitting for you, it may work better. In the past, the Hopi had some bans on photographing in villages, and generally you better find out what their rules are. Landscapes for private use are fine, but portraits gets into their culture more.

I've lived in NM and AZ for 26 years, and have been to the 4 corners a lot. My wife works with Native American school children. She said the Navajo, Hopi, Yavapai and other tribes all have different cultural beliefs. Some of them require a lot to do photography, at least with their children. I'd say get smart on the cultures first, then you know how to ask the question. If you are thinking of publishing, you may need a Commercial permit, in Navajo nation.