Ahh... the great American roadtrip. Almost a thing of the past for many. The convenience of modern air travel is astounding. Breakfast in Nashville, lunch in Phoenix and dinner in Vegas. It is still amazing to me, even after doing it so many times. It is how so many of us do business.

But there is another way to go as well. The automobile. It's slower, and has more potential for problems and challenges. But it is also way, way more fun. When I hear the words "roadtrip" I get a happy smile and am ready to go at a moments notice.

From one day trips to weekends to weeks and longer, the roadtrip can present a new experience to photographers who may not have had an opportunity to do one in a while. If ever.

Driving from San Diego to Phoenix on I8 in 6 hours is not a roadtrip. It is a trip. On a road. Driving from San Diego to Phoenix in 14 hours, taking the pass over Julian and down into the Anza Borrego Desert near the Salton Sea... that is a roadtrip. And it takes that long because of the constant stopping to make images. Making images is the point, not 'getting there'. Be prepared to live with no ETA for a couple of days.

Let's look at a few things that might make your roadtrip go a bit smoother.

Please Log In or Sign Up for a FREE Silver Account to access the rest of this article or others on ProPhotoResource.com{rokaccess !guest}Planning. And UnPlanning.

Planning the trip is important, but make sure you leave time for the serendipitous moments that will pull you away. That lonely road that takes off winding among the trees... maybe that deserves a few minutes or hours of exploration. If the schedule is too tight, the moments of discovery will seem like distractions, instead of attractions. And the point of the roadtrip is to get the images, and see new places. Bring fresh world to your eyes.

I use a combination of Google Maps / Google Earth, a GPS, and a paper map to help me find places that are off the beaten path. I like those places. The little ice-cream shop up the coast from Santa Cruz and inland a few miles served the best sandwich I have had in a long time. And the used record store in a little town far off the freeway in Tennessee where I got a few Miles Davis records in mint condition made the trip all the more fun.

I met Gayle, who does design and real estate in a little town outside of Atlanta... she helped me find out where the heck I was (pre-GPS). A wonderful designer/illustrator. And I still keep in touch with Lawrence who I met while shooting his farm near a tiny town in Kansas.

roadtrips are for that... seeing things and meeting people. I love it.

I plan on no more than 200-250 miles in a day for a photographic roadtrip. And I make contingencies for any unexpected changes. I book my hotel in the destination city, and make sure I can check in late at night. Hey, even if I only get 100 miles under my wheels, once it gets dark, I can make up the time. And the days are long, so it is not unreasonable.

I rise before dawn, and put the cameras away about 30 minutes after sundown, so it is a long and hopefully productive day. The road is mapped and put into the GPS and I head out, preferring to have breakfast at the first truckstop that has a lot of rigs in front. Truckers know good food... heh. The nice thing about a GPS is that no matter which road you take, it will reconfigure the route. Using the paper map, I can also enter interim stops along the smaller roads, and not listen to the nice English lady telling me to "turn around at your earliest convenience".

BTW, I use a voice recorder to make notes of areas and locations and times of day and such. Keeps the note taking way easier than trying to write while driving, talking on the phone, listening to Miles, paying attention to the GPS and attending my 12 Facebook games all the while looking for something interesting to shoot. Ya know...

What to Take

I dunno. Up to you, I guess.

I like to take my DSLR's and usually another camera or two. Maybe the Hasselblad or the Mamiya. Sometimes the Deardorff or the Toyo. The bigger the camera, the slower the shooting - which is one thing I love about the big cameras. They take time to work. They take time to set up. Time.

If you feel that it would take 'too long' to set up the camera and shoot, go back to the paragraphs above and re-read them. Time? We don't have no Time... We don't need no stinking Time... to get anywhere. The goal is only to be 'somewhere' and shooting.

I use a TomTom GPS and have been totally happy with it. Totally. I have been in a lot of cities, in a lot of different little burbs and out in the boonies... and the little English lady knows wherever I am. And she gets me to where ever I want to go. Whatever you use, I am sure it will be fine. My new Droid has a turn-by-turn GPS in it, and the Google Maps on iPhones and such are terrific in most places.

Water, snacks, music (jazz and classical for me) make the experience more tactile, but sometimes I roll the windows down and listen to the sound of the wind and the places I am going through. In a little town in the Smokey Mountains, the road goes along a small river in the middle of a town. Thousands of kids playing there made a joyful sound... and the silence of the forest a few miles later was such a contrast.

I always take a tripod, and a few stands as well as umbrellas and a couple of strobes. Meeting people means that sometimes you can get a shot of them. That is really fun. I keep the gear light and easy to carry. My Standbagger Grab-n-Go is all I need for most of these situations. I must admit that I take a big light with me these days as well. A Profoto 600WS Compact makes a nice light for working out in the sun. Modifiers are usually a 60" umbrella or a beauty dish.

I also take a first aid kit, extra batteries for my tools, and a back-up cell phone. You never know. I keep the folks back home informed of where I am with text / email / vm and check in fairly regularly when I am deep off the main roads. It keeps them happy and it keeps me within a smaller search radius for when I get totally lost and the GPS tells me to relax, help is on the way...

Got Wheels?

I don't have to remind you that you need to make sure your vehicle is up to the trip. Tires and oil and coolant and such... right?

There are many ways to go instead of the personal car. I know some folks who lease who really don't want to add that many miles. That is why there are rental cars. In Phoenix there is a place that only rents PT Cruisers. And some of the rates on the National chains can be quite low. Try HotWire.com for some amazing low rates... a tip. Look (not book) for the car as soon as you know, then the rates seem to drop a bit as the date draws close... book when the rate drops to what you want.

You can also rent RV's from Cruise America. And you can pick the RV up in one location and drop it in another. This could be the ultimate roadtrip vehicle... heh.

Having AAA or some other roadside assistance is a good item to have, especially since you may not be near big cities or lots of dealers. An make sure you have ALl the tools you may need if you have a flat or other minor inconvenience. I once had a blowout on a rental car and found that there was no Jack-Kit. Well, there went 5 hours of my life I will never see again.

Drive. See something cool. Make a Photo or Two. Repeat.

One of the hardest things you can do is to change your mindset from "I gotta get there" to "I gotta stop and get that picture". It isn't our nature... we need to get to our destination so we wont be late and we gotta check our email and see that latest edition of "Royal Pains" or whatever...

Relax. You don't have to do that on the Great American roadtrip. Just take whatever time you need to do whatever you want.

And stop. To get that picture... stop. Get out. Get the tripod if you think it is necessary. Get the shot. You may not be here again... ever. So this is YOUR time to make the images you see in front of you. It's OK that you may have to turn around and go back a few hundred yards. Remembering that back and forth are meaningless when you have no where to be by a certain time can alleviate you of the stress here.

I have been on roadtrips where someone HAS to 'get there' in order to satisfy their mindset of time and structure according to the rules of 9-5. It isn't pretty. They drive too fast, miss too many opportunities, leave the trip with far too many pictures. Sometimes it is the fault of not planning well enough, or over planning or trying to go too far in a day. Face it... if you are planning a 500 mile day, you will probably NOT have an opportunity to shoot for any meaningful time.

I keep my gear on the seat beside me if I am alone, and behind me if I am road-tripping with someone else. It makes it all the easier to grab the gear and get out and shoot. Of course, when I stop for lunch or to check something out, it all goes in the trunk - especially if I am losing sight of the vehicle.

Getting out of the vehicle, walking a few yards or a few hundred yards can be so exhilarating. When we were in the Everglades, we walked nearly a mile into the swamp... the near silence was amazing. The landscape was breathtaking. I sat and listened to the sounds of the Glade... tiny and imperceptible at first... but wonderfully sonic once I became attuned to them. Also got a few images that I like... and that is the point.

Go It Alone, or Take A Bud?

Yeah, before you get any ideas, Christina isn't going along on your roadtrip... so forget that.

I love to travel by myself. The total freedom is intoxicating in a way. My music, my volume, stop when I want and where I want... no idle chit-chat. Silence when it is needed, and the ability to get up and go without waiting for someone else is something that I like about going it alone.

There are times when we go as a group... from only two to four or five... and that can be fun as well. Camaraderie, the fun of exploring with someone else, seeing what others saw, the quiet, but always there competitiveness of photography... I can get into that as well.

If you know a model or talent that would be able to travel with you, that can be very much fun. I love to take a model and go for a day roadtrip... shoot stuff we want when we want to shoot it. Wardrobe always seems to fit when you are looking at somewhere new... Have them bring some things that are unusual as well as appropriate. If you know you will be traveling through the desert outside of Barstow, think of what would be appropriate for that desert climate. And then think of what would be totally out of place in that environment. Yeah, take that.

When you go as a group, even two, there should be some agreements on what the timeline is going to be, and any specific needs that one or another would have regarding the trip. Get it done early, and then plan for any special needs that must be met.

So that's my take on the Great American Roadtrip... I hope you plan one for this summer. And share the images/trip fun with me at Lighting Essentials.

Here are my latest roadtrips: 
Phoenix to Flagstaff to Williams (Arizona) in January.
Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay and then across the mountains to San Jose.
Nashville to Atlanta and back to Nashville on small roads.
Nashville to Greenville, SC and back through the Smokey Mountains.
Nashville to Columbus, Ohio and back. Side trips through the mountains of Kentucky and the farms of Ohio. 
Sprinkled in some day trips to the Globe/Miami area and Prescott.

Special thanks to our models for the article: Briana (brunette)and Christina (blonde) .

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