Yes, it's been a while since I've last posted. There have been lots of events, shooting and visiting with friends that have made the past few weeks both busy and amazingly enjoyable! But the blog has been neglected, so I hope to catch up a little bit here.
I'm going to do this in two separate posts, since we've covered a lot of ground in the past month or so.
The last posting was in Acadia National Park, which was just beautiful… a photographer's dream, especially during that time of year. So what happened after Acadia? Well, Autumn was in full swing and we knew the temperatures would be dropping so the main goal was to head south and escape the cold. After Acadia, we made a stop in Catskill, NY to continue shooting the fall color on our way south. There are loads of great shooting opportunities in that area, especially if you're up for some mountain driving. We also met up with our friend and photographer Dan Burkholder.
Our timing, once again, was perfect, because our plans took us right through New York the same week as PhotoPlus. We attended the Expo, which was a smorgasbord of new gear, software demos and photographic talent. One of the coolest things we saw was the debut of Bert Monroy's "Times Square," a photo-realistic painting measuring 5' x 25' and featuring so many friends and colleagues in the photo/Photoshop world. If you look closely, you can even see the bus driving down the street into Times Square! The event was also great because so many friends were all converging in the same place at the same time and it was nice to catch up with a lot of folks we might only see while passing through in the bus.
After New York we spent a few days with Karen's family in south Jersey and then stopped in Washington DC, where we spent our time with Peter Krogh, author of The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers, and an all-around great guy. We actually parked the bus in his driveway so I guess you could say we were neighbors for a few days! That's one of the great things about the mobile lifestyle – the friends you make. We had crossed paths with Peter at trade shows and such, but it wasn't until we passed through town and spent several days just "hanging out" together, that we really became good friends. We also enjoyed visiting the nation's capitol, getting a taste of FotoWeek DC, and visiting the National Gallery of Art. But I've gotta say, one of the most fun nights in DC was going out with Peter and his awesome wife, Alyson, to a funky little joint called the Quarry House, which we would have NEVER found on our own. The atmosphere was great, and the band that was playing had so much character and fun stuff going on. In fact, they were SO great, that the evening ended with an impromptu, late-night light-painting session!
So the PLAN for after Washington DC was to slowly follow the Blue Ridge Parkway south. HOWEVER, there were a few nights in DC that dipped into the low 30's, and since we're not big fans of the cold, that plan got thrown out the window and we hitched up, bound right for Florida… with a few interesting stops on the way.
The first of those interesting stops was South of the Border, "America's favorite Highway Oasis," in other words, a glorified rest stop. I know it's cheesy, but we can't possibly pass up anything this goofy. Karen did a whole blog post on this crazy place and you can find it right HERE.
So there's more to catch up on, but that will come in the next post. Stay tuned! 🙂