Route 66 - Kansas

Kansas is perhaps the shortest stretch of Route 66 in any state, and it only took us about a half hour or so to drive through it. But we did get out and take some photos at Four Women on the Route in Galena, Kansas, and explored the surrounding area with cameras in hand. These are some of those photos, all taken with the XPan II...









Next up: Oklahoma!

Route 66 - Missouri

The second state we drove through over the course of our Route 66 trip was Missouri. Missouri is one of those states I just never really thought about one way or another until this trip, but we found some pretty cool things there!

We stopped at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis and met up with photographer Stephen Seward who lives out that way. That was fun... partly because we got to eat dessert for dinner, but also because we got to meet the Seward clan. Those photos will be posted in a gallery I make of my point and shoot pictures at the end of the Route 66 posts. Stephen took this photo of us just before we departed Ted Drewes:



After meeting up with Stephen and family, we headed to the famous arch. It's one of those things I've seen plenty of photos of, but had no idea of the scale of it, or how incredible it would look in person. I did not go up inside it, nor did I really want to, but we got there at dusk and it was the perfect setting for photos. Here are a few of mine:

Holga:



XPanII:





One of Andy's of me, Amy & Josh (from left to right):



That night after playing under the arch, we set up our tent for the first time in pitch blackness and visited Merrimack Caverns the next morning, which was really neat. I took some photos, but nothing noteworthy (in my opinion) beyond a tourist type shot, so I won't bother posting them. The next two photos were taken later that day in Cuba, Missouri, of the same scene - one with Holga, one with XPanII:





This little pit stop also boasted the largest rocking chair in the Western Hemisphere. However, there was a very prominent sign posted on the chair (which was indeed huge) prohibiting climbing on the chair. Now, I ask you, what is the point of having a rocking chair you can't sit on? That would have made an awesome photo, to be sitting on a rocking chair two stories high. But alas, that photo was not meant to be.

Next up: Kansas!

Route 66 - Illinois

Here are some more photos from our travels through Illinois - pretty much everything south of Chicago in the state. Josh came to fetch us from Chicago Sunday morning, and brought us down to their house where we had a Route 66 kick off party! And then, on Monday morning, Josh, Amy, Andy and I began the road trip as a foursome.

First up, Cazenovia, Illinois. This is where Josh and Amy live, and are photos of their backyard, actually. These were taken not even an hour before we hit the road in our rented Ford Explorer. How very different than where I live!





Our first stop on the Mother Road was in the town of Springfield, Illinois. There were lots of cool things to see, but unfortunately, the town of Springfield apparently does not believe in opening anything on Mondays. So we had to stick to looking at the outsides of establishments before moving on.





And a lone Holga photo from Shea's in Springfield to round out the XPan shots:



Next up: Missouri! Stay tuned...

Route 66 - Chicago (Holga)

As promised, here are a few of the Holga images I made while visiting Chicago. I thought these deserved their own post because they are just so different than the XPan II photos... see my last post for the more detailed description of those differences!





Stay tuned to see more images from my cross country road trip along Historic Route 66!

Route 66 - Chicago (XPan II)

Chicago - where our Route 66 trip began!

I spent more time in Chicago than any other city on my trip, and therefore have the most photos from this portion of our adventure. To simplify your viewing experience, I'm going to break this city into two separate posts: Holga and Hasselblad XPan II.

Both the Holga and XPan II are film cameras and rangefinders at that, but beyond those few similarities they are as different as night and day. Those who have followed my blog for a while know about the Holga, with it's square crop (that I stretch into landscape proportions!) and use of 120 film. The XPan II is a panoramic camera that uses 35mm film and has a very nice glass lens (read: not cheap plastic like the Holga!).

I like breaking out the XPan II for trips like this because it's format is so vastly different and it forces me to think about composition a lot more. This helps to get me out of the rut of 35mm crop that I sometimes find myself slipping into. It gets my creative juices flowing, and that's always a fun thing! Plus, I love the format for travel. All of the photos you will see me post from this camera are full frame - I did not crop them at all, that is the proportion that the camera shoots in.

Since I'd never been to Chicago before, we checked out Millennium Park and that big shiny bean thing they have. It was pretty cool, although I felt like a total tourist! The rest of the trip was not so touristy, since we stayed with our friends from college who live there now and got to catch up and wander around and eat Chicago-style pizza and all that fun stuff for a couple of days before the actual road trip began.

Check out a few of the photos I made with the XPan II in Chicago here (click on the photos to see them a bit larger):













Up next will be my Holga photos from Chicago!

Published Again...

It's not a huge deal (at least not to me!), but I have an image in this quarter's Brides Washington DC / Maryland Magazine and thought I'd share. It's the Fall / Winter issue, and it's on stands now. I saw the Washington DC version in the store the other day, and my photo is on page 188 if I recall correctly. Apparently, several videographers were asked to list their favorite venues to shoot, and Gramercy Mansion in Baltimore was one of them. Gramercy has been using the image above that I shot of their grounds during a wedding back in 2005 for a ton of their profiles and ads, and asked if they could use that image in the writeup. I said yes, so there it is!

DC Artists - Holga Portraits

Rania Hassan

Before I post a bunch more Route 66 stuff, I thought I'd post some more of the artist portraits I made with the Holga toward the end of Artomatic last month. These were made at the artists' social, and I thought it would be cool to photograph each artist in or near their exhibit in a way that would say something about what they do, or that would integrate them into their artwork somehow.

Sarah Noble

Sherill Anne Gross

Tracy Lee

Michael Auger

Sean Hennessey

Danny Phantom

Duncan Guthery

Kerri Sheehan

Anniversaries Galore!

Yesterday was my birthday AND wedding anniversary, so I was busy eating Indian food and relaxing with the husband. But today is a special day for our Route 66 travel partners, Josh & Amy of Photo 98, who are celebrating their 10th anniversary today. Based out of the Peoria, Illinois area, they are very talented wedding and portrait photographers as well. You can check out their blog for even more Route 66 photos as they post them!

When we camped on the Pacific Ocean, I busted out my Holga setup and photographed Josh and Amy at our camp site. The photo shoot was a lot of fun, and thus will be my second Route 66 post (of many, most likely!).

Route 66!

There has been a lack of regular activity on my blog for the last couple of weeks... because during that time, I have been somewhere between Chicago and LA. Yes, kids, I have just finished traveling the entire length of Route 66! It was an amazing trip, and I have the images to prove it.
:-)

I shot black and white film with a Holga and Hasselblad X-Pan II, and digital with my brand new Canon Power Shot SD870 IS Elph point and shoot. The film is all developed, but not yet scanned, so I included a shot taken of me in California with the point and shoot (the ocean is just behind me). This was near the end of the trip, and we camped out very near to the ocean on our last day in California.

There's just too much to say in a single post, not to mention the tons of images I have to share, so as I wade through everything, I will make posts and label them "Route 66" and the state the image(s) were taken in, if applicable, so those interested can follow along with my journeys.