Mainer with cabin fever itching to go on a road trip, needs suggestions [Archive]

View Full Version : Mainer with cabin fever itching to go on a road trip, needs suggestions

mentalcrisis00

1-Nov-2010, 10:19

Hey all

I'm a Mainer and I know it's alittle early for cabin fever to set in but with my job, trying to get a website going, and other obligations I have barely been able to get out to photograph anything.

I'm going to Peru next May for a month, I'll be working for a non profit group in a small traditional weaving community in the Andes. I've been planning and saving for this trip for awhile now and really want it to come together. However I do want to take a winter trip, it's already started to snow in Maine and most days it's 47 degrees so bitter cold for photos.

I just got a Wista DX for landscaping so I would like to find a place with some remarkable landscapes and wide open areas where it's nice a warm. I'd like it to be no more than 1500 Miles from the east coast for money reasons. I've had the strangest impulse to go to the desert. Maine is mostly closed in with huge forests and tall trees, I'd really like to see wide open expanses of land especially for night photography.

Any suggestions? Or should I just head out west and see what I stumble onto? I'm no new comer to camping out either, I have a full hiking pack with featherweight tent so I plan to sleep out of my car or camp the entire trip. I'm thinking about getting the photoflex film changing tent that B&H sells for $75 anyone have experience with this item?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/41880-REG/Photoflex_AC_CROO1_Film_Changing_Room_25.html

I'm also looking for a cheap hard case I can use to stick my wista and maybe the 90mm and 210mm lens in. I'm more partial to hard cases cause of the glass on the back. The camera fits in my lowepro nova soft case but I'm afraid if any pressure was put on it it'd crack the glass. I've been looking at the dirt cheap zeikos 13x11x5.5" case for $20 there's also one vaguard makes for $40 Any opinions on either of them? I'd like to spend under $50 on the case.

http://www.amazon.com/Zeikos-ZE-HC18-Small-Hard-Case/dp/B001T9N12U/ref=sr_1_2?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1288632481&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Vanguard-VGP-13S-Digital-Camera-Hard/dp/B000167P0G/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

Mark Woods

1-Nov-2010, 10:57

You could go to Texas and Oklahoma. There are some wide open spaces there, and during the winter will have a different look. It can get very cold and blow like crazy.

BrianShaw

1-Nov-2010, 11:57

Smokey Mountains, or Cumberland Gap area.

1-Nov-2010, 13:17

47 ain't too cold to be out making photos. Dress for the weather. Gray days are great for B&W shooting, and winter color is so subtle and golden hour in winter is conveniently late in the morning. Cold weather means no ticks or mosquitos or heat to deal with.

I'm living near Rockland and have started scraping my car windows in the morning now.

What sort of stuff in Maine do you like to shoot?

For Maine landscape photography you have to go for smaller tighter scenes, Eliot Porter style. He can fill a nice book with photos from the dense woods of an island one mile long. There are thousands of places like this in Maine. For bigger landscapes in Maine, visit many of the thousands of big ponds and lakes. Other wide open expanses are islands and coastal scenes of course, and visiting them out of season is a better experience.

You can fly amazingly cheap to Las Vegas. Get there, rent a car and visit the desert and outlying areas. You can actually fly lots of places pretty cheap right now. Flying with film isn't fun though.

I'd suggest the Canham plastic groundglass protectors. It looks like a document stand that is bent to clip over and protect the groundglass during camera transport.

mentalcrisis00

1-Nov-2010, 13:29

Thanks for the advice all, to jp498 47 degrees really isn't that cold considering how cold it gets in the dead of winter. I've been out taking panorama's on my 4x5 camera in the wind and the snow for 2 hours before. However it's not always all that fun for me.

It's not really that I can't get the shots I want, it's just that I've lived in Maine my entire life and I'd like to go somewhere totally new. I went to Ireland a couple years ago and Georgia/Florida last summer and it was great to take pictures in places completely different from where I live.

I usually get out at least twice a week to take photos around my house, I concentrate on landscapes, wildlife, and astrophotography lately and Maine certainly does have a lot to offer. I go to Portland a lot for city shots and on long hikes over mountains which are abundant. I'm almost always surprised by something new certainly, or find something I didn't expect.

Maine is a great place no doubt, but there are a lot of other great places I'd like to explore. And once it starts snowing in Maine it's going to be hard to get anywhere by car, I live out in the boonies and it gets dangerous quick to drive.

Harley Goldman

1-Nov-2010, 15:02

Drive a few extra miles and head to Utah/AZ. Wide open spaces, great scenery and warm weather.

mentalcrisis00

1-Nov-2010, 15:52

mmm I've been wanting to go to Arizona for awhile as well. Maybe I'll see what a plane ticket/car rental for a week or 2 would cost. It might be cheaper in the long run than driving all the way out.

Update: looks like flights one way to Arizona or surrounding area from Boston would be $100-$130 they go up $100 if I go straight out of Maine. I usually get a bus Maine-Boston for $30 round trip when flying just because it's much more expensive to fly out of Portland for some reason. Then car rentals are as low as $300 for the week from Fox Rent a Car or $500 from enterprise. But like my friends and I found out when we went to Florida they charge ALOT more in person than there online prices. Best thing might be to figure out a place I want to land and book the car online for the lowest price. So it looks like going to Arizona for a week would cost about $800 for transportation.

1-Nov-2010, 19:30

There's a lot of people like that here; itching to get someplace warm and different for a while in the winter. I'm very strange and like the winter perfectly well.

Sounds like fun. There's lots I'd like to see in Arizona. A big aviation museum, some cold war stuff, that'd keep me busy for a few days.

Eric Leppanen

1-Nov-2010, 21:07

This ought to get your juices flowing. Highly recommended...

http://www.amazon.com/Photographing-Southwest-2--Arizona-2nd-Ed/dp/0916189139/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288669763&sr=1-2

A note regarding the cover photo: there was a flood at Havasupai in 2008 (after the book's publication) which did considerable damage. I suggest you google Havasupai flood and talk to some folks before considering this as a photographic destination.

Also there are a variety of Photograph America newsletters pertaining to Arizona:

http://shop.photographamerica.com/

There's even an old cold war missile silo south of Tucson, if you're into that kind of thing...

http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

The biggest problem will be editing down what you want to see in one week!

Two23

2-Nov-2010, 08:10

If you've never been to the Grand Canyon, my thinking is everyone should go at least once. On the way there, check out Mesa Verde in Colorado. It's possibly one of America's most under rated and under photo'd parks. It's closer and could be a destination all by itself, along with the Great Sand Dunes. If you want something closer, how about southern Florida? Sanibel Island, the Keys, Everglades. Drop in on Clyde Butcher's gallery. As for me, I'm thinking of Yellowstone in February. I'm weird. :)

Kent in SD

Jim Galli

2-Nov-2010, 09:05

Look for a whiz bang Las Vegas special, rent a car, and drive to death valley. may as well not fight the urge. It'll be 86 degrees there at 9:30 in the morning.

Donald Miller

2-Nov-2010, 13:11

We are in the mid to upper 80's with morning lows in the lower 60s here in Phx at this time. There is a lot to photograph out this way. The Painted Desert, Sedona, Imperial Dunes, Canyon de Chelly, as well as the Grand Canyon that others have mentioned.

venchka

3-Nov-2010, 06:18

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway close to home. The area around Boone is nice. Side trips from the Parkway could keep you entertained all winter.
Big Bend N.P. in Texas is different. Not too crowded.
The Four Corners area could keep you grinning for a lifetime. Too many good places to mention here.
Have fun!

mentalcrisis00

3-Nov-2010, 06:38

Wow thanks for all the great suggestions! I think I was just overwhelmed by the mere amount of places to visit that I couldn't really pick a few. I certainly have some material to plan my trip with, probably be able to go november 12th long as nothin comes up :)

venchka

3-Nov-2010, 12:01

If it's too cold in the mountains of NC, the outer banks are just a few hours away. Different seascapes than you find in Maine.

rguinter

3-Nov-2010, 18:57

I'd gladly switch places with you! Maine is one of my favorite places for photos and the reason I started with MF/LF photography in the first place. I wanted to be able to do better justice to the wilderness scenes I was enjoying while staying at my uncle's wilderness camp.

Now alas... he and the camp are both gone. But the happy hunting grounds are still there and I'm always itching to return.

Cheers. Bob G.

mentalcrisis00

5-Nov-2010, 08:18

I've taken a few LF shots here in Maine but I'd be far too embarrassed to show them here. These are a couple digital images I took around here and it is beautiful.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/rpringle2003/DSC_2834.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/rpringle2003/DSC_2823.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/rpringle2003/DSC_2405_0252.jpg

Nathan Potter

5-Nov-2010, 09:07

mentalcrisis00, the desert or semi desert is a nice change from most of Maine. BTW there is a desert in Maine if you need one (well, sort of) called the "Desert of Maine". It's a kind of wind blown area of dunes, I think near or in Freeport near the coast just north of Portland. Never photographed there but probably worth checking out; and a lot less than 1500 miles.

But we have in TX. Big Bend Nat. Park which is a premier place for desert scenery and Nov. is good there. Cool, rarely a bit of snow at the high elevations but delightful at the canyons, Boquillos and Santa Elena along the Rio Grande.

Whence Mainer? I guess things have changed. When I was a kid we used the term Mainiac to describe the indigenous people. Hopefully the women are more attractive now. Back then we used to compare the facial features of the women to those of the local moose population and sometimes find an amazing match. Yet another reason to visit TX. where the women are beef fed, hefty and enough to scare you to death.

rguinter, nice images. Do I see Mt. Katahdin from the east in the first two images. Could be the pedestrian bridge across the Androscoggin river at Brunswick in the last image.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

mentalcrisis00

5-Nov-2010, 14:14

I think it's pretty much nationally accepted that there are ugly women anywhere you go. At any rate that sort of thing is on the low end of my priorities, but thats for another thread.

I should have probably titled the thread Mainah but Maniac would also be appropriate.

rguinter

6-Nov-2010, 18:12

...rguinter, nice images. Do I see Mt. Katahdin from the east in the first two images. Could be the pedestrian bridge across the Androscoggin river at Brunswick in the last image.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

One and two are from the same camera position on the West side of Deasey mountain. An old logging road, probably now very obscure and difficult to access, with a clear view of Mt. Katahdin. At least there was at the time.

Three is from the back yard of a camp named Lunksoos Weget... originally built by the Great Northern Lumber Company as a remote hunting lodge accessible only by float-plane. The lake is Lunksoos Lake (naturally) with Lunksoos Mountain to the southwest in the background.

Fourth is the wooden bridge at Wetstone Falls where I snowshoed in from the tote road one February. Had chains on all 4 wheels of my landrover and drove in as close as I dared. Snow was up to the radiator and I didn't want to get stuck. Town was a good long walk and about 20 below. Wetstone was visited (and mentioned a number of times) by Henry David Thoreau in his writings. And my uncle's wilderness camp was up river a few miles.

Bob G.

rguinter

6-Nov-2010, 18:29