End of an odyssey?

It's been a couple weeks now, but I am back in Vancouver after traveling around the North and Southwest states for nearly 2 months. Camping in my Westfalia in snow and sand, giant redwoods and sage brush, experiencing brutal colds and brain melting heat. It has been an eye opening experience professionally, but even more so personally.


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Originally I had planned on passing through Vancouver a few times as I criss-crossed the continent. I didn't think much about the total cost of gas as I went, I just knew where I wanted to go and it just takes gas to get there. However, thinking ahead about driving across Canada to Ontario I realized that it was going to cost quite a bit to do it.

Unfortunately I've had to end the trip and sell my home on wheels. I'm going to be settling in Vancouver again, but hopefully I will be able to head out onto the road at various points to explore the continent in smaller excursions.

Here is a little recap of some images I've captured throughout the trip.


: : Graffiti on a railroad bridge in Whitefish, Montana.


: : Cow between train cars outside of East Glacier, Montana.


: : A frozen Jackson Lake below the Tetons in mid-May.


: : A jet steering clear of a tree in Jackson, Wyoming.


: : Clochette the shaved sheepdog.


: : Earthship outside of Taos, New Mexico. (see the Paul Frank-esque monkey face?)


: : Home sweet home, west of Telluride, Colorado.


: : Dry lake bed in Nevada. (the haze is from the wild fires in California)


: : A scale replica of my van, next to some giant redwoods in California.


: : A helicopter ride from Newport, Oregon. Why not.

I'd like to thank my very supportive friends and family, and all the people I've met that have helped make this journey so much more enjoyable.

Where the shampoo goes.

I'm currently traveling through Montana, and enjoying every minute of it despite the unseasonably cold and dreary days.

It's interesting when you're doing something like this, that you see your direct impact on the environment (if you're paying attention). So the shampoo I used to wash my hair in the sink of the van, which then pours out onto the campsite, which makes me realize that it isn't biodegradable. Then what do you do with the bottle of shampoo? Throw it out and it's worse, you can't give it away, because what weirdo gives away shampoo to a random stranger. Although this is an odd example, our society as a whole keeps putting us into these double binds, where you are screwing something or someone over no matter what you do.

I think the lesson here is just to do less of things, and the things you do, do better.



: : : I wrote about this in my personal travel newsletter, as well as things that I just don't need to bother with on this blog. So if you know me, or just want to receive my updates from the road, please send me an email and let me know.

Flash and natural light.

One thing I really want to work on, and something that really interests me is mixing artificial and natural light. But specifically when it is seamless enough that it's hard to tell. Some photographers are great at it, and I would love to work with them to really see how it's done.

It's been a while, but I've been so busy the last two weeks that I haven't been able to comment. Thanks to Heather Morton's blog I've come across Lindsay Siu in one of her Lounge posts. Her first two photos are a beautiful example of this.

Here's a little sign I saw just across from the campground I stayed at last night on the first day of this trip.

I'm off.

I apologize for the lack of posts. As you can imagine it's been a busy couple of weeks.

I'll be on the road within the hour, so not much time to chat. I'm sure I'll have more to say at the next coffee shop I get to.