King of the Valley - Valley of the gods Utah, Spring 2012

We drove out of Colorado and into Utah, planning to see Monument Valley. And we did, but what was better than that was Valley of the gods Utah. A place created in the same magnificent beauty as Monument, but open and spacious. Where you camp below giant spires of red rock and stay up late into the silent night looking at the stars streaking overhead.

Sometimes I think God used more colorful paint in Utah. We stayed three days here in the valley on this little used public land. Exploring the area and enjoying the sweeping colorful views. The sunset brought some of those great early spring clouds and that radiant color of light that only Utah seems to have. It was a memorable place in our 2012 trip and a colorful image for my collection.

Release details: Print release pending.

For Photographers. How it was made…

Technical Notes: Canon MK2, 17-40L @40mm f11, 1/60, ISO100

In a great sunset, the right light really is essential. And the Utah red rock is no exception. It’s easy to get a flat scene if you expose too early or too late. The key is waiting for the natural light to define your subject in just the way you want. I watched and waited for the sun to go down and could see the line of light moving cross the stones. I was working on a large format film image around the same time and remember thinking carefully about when I would trigger that single frame. After that was finished, I quickly setup and did this from different perspective MK2.

When the light is just right and you nail the exposure just the way you want, the post processing is often pretty straight forward. Gentleness is usually the key and that’s what I used here. Just a bit of color and channel corrections in Lightroom before going into Photoshop for my final artwork and corrections, primarily some gentle burning and dodging to get the tones value right where I wanted.

I also find myself waiting for the right clouds more and more lately. What good is is having one part of an image look amazing and the other part lack. I’ll often stand and wait for the clouds to move into place and I may have done that here, but the sun was moving and clouds don’t always cooperate just the way I want. While I really enjoy the image and love the clouds, the open sky on the far is bothering me a little and I’m not sure what I think about that.

All told I really like this image. It may not be earth shattering, but it has a simple beauty that shows just how stunning this place is. I’ll know better what I think once I see it in print, but I think it’s a image worthy of this stunning piece of creation.

Hope you enjoyed… Gav

Photo Couch Podcast #29 MP3

Gavin is trudging thru the huge dunes of White Sands National Monument, discussing the odd light that he found there and looking at being prepared for whatever the light gives you.

Blue Suede Dunes - Gavin image from sunset. Click image for full post.

_____

Subscribe in iTunes – Direct Podcast Feed – Facebook Page

Photo Couch is the companion podcast of Gavin’s f164 project. Sort of an audio journal. Nothing fancy here. Just short musings, tips, and thoughts on photography. You can listen below, or subscribe for free and get all the latest episodes. If you want more, you can also check out Gavin’s full podcast, Pro Photo Show.

 

The Night Watcher by Gavin Seim - Near White Sands New Mexico, March 2012

An open New Mexico sky and a gentle foreground glow from the lights of a distant military base. This tree stands alone on a dusty patch of earth. In the daytime you might not think much of him. But as he watches over the trailing stars of night his delicate majesty is revealed in full.

I made this just outside the camper in the same spot near White Sands where I made Sliver Moon Blues. A seemingly barren patch of earth, that in three days offered me two new images. But I had to work for it and I was up until the middle of the night making it happen. It took well over an hour for each exposure and that adds up fast. It was worth the effort however and the Night Watcher is the result.

Release details: Prints Coming Soon.

For Photographers. How it was made…

Technical Notes: Canon MK2, 24mm TSe II, f1, 47 minutes exposure, ISO160

Night images take planning, but are incredibly satisfying to get right. The camper and distant lights helped me set this up, which meant I didn’t have to prepare it during daylight (sometime I try to do for most night images). That said, I took around 30 minutes of planning for exposure, composition and details. But as always that was time well spent. This was actually my third exposure, due to light pollution problems and position of the stars. Third time was a charm.

I generally park the camper on site to do these kind of exposures. It allows me to start the exposure, then go back with my family in the warmth of the Super Camper. It makes the long wait times vastly more enjoyable. I can relax while the night paints my visualization into the camera. But the exposure is just the beginning.

I’ve been using long exposure noise reduction on my ling exposures. At least I have after making 140 Minutes of Night. I learned a lot from that as my longest digital exposure ever. Without long exposure noise reduction I found that the artifacts get really bad on ULE’s (Ultra Long Exposures).

The down side is that long exposure NR takes an equal length of time as the exposure itself. It takes a dark frame to match up and remove the noisy artifacts from the exposed frame. This means every exposure you make takes twice it’s exposure time. That can be frustrating but it’s generally worth it, as otherwise we’ll find ourselves spending more time on complex techniques like I described in 140 Minutes of Night, to keep the artifacts and hot pixels at bay.

I love refined wall prints and I find night images take the extra mile to make them work well at wall sizes (24inch and beyond). Even with long exposure noise reduction there’s usually artifacts left over, hot spots that have to be carefully cloned or painted down. There’s always details that have to be managed. Things such as gentle burning and dodging for example to keep the main subject as the focal point and lighten the highlights of the sky, giving it a vividness that conveys the drama of the night.

I did all that here, including work on the light stripe across the bottom. While it gives a separation, I had to keep it and other distant lights that arise near urban populations from becoming a large distraction. I did this with some retouching, burning, dodging and gentle Pixel Painting of details to tone down and blend the hues and smooth colors. This included keeping the gradients of the sky smooth and gentle by selecting and painting where they met the light polluted horizon. That made a huge diffence in the final image.

The details matter if you want a refined image. Often with night images you need to work even harder because there’s so much Exposure time for outside elements like small distant lights to cause a distraction. But taking the time to visualize and plan a night scene and then doing the detail work to make it match what you visualized, will often pay in spades by producing a great image.

Hope you enjoyed… Gav

Blue Suede Dunes - Sunset at White Sands New Mexico, 2012

Just after sunset these rolling dunes take on a subtle cast. Like an ocean of sand dancing in with a tides. Subtle shadows and perfectly arcing curves sweeping in waves across the landscape for miles into the distance.

White Sands is a rather remarkable place. Not only for it’s giant dunes that seem by themselves in the desert, but for the way it plays with light, the way you can take the kids and sled down it’s swooping slopes, the way it’s like standing in summer snow in the heat of the day.

It was a memorable visit all around and I’m thankful I was able to make a memorable image. It should be stunning on canvas.

Release details: Prints Coming Summer 2012.

 

For Photographers. How it was made…

Technical Notes: Canon MK2, 70-200L @200mm f16. Frame1, 1/13 sec. Frame2, 1/6 sec.

This place it nuts. Beautiful sweeping dunes that are quite a challenge to photograph in any sort of broad scope. My wife actually helped me visualize this scene. She had taken a quick photo of me working with the 4×5 the night before and looking at it helped me see how I could take better advantage of the lines by compressing the scene into simple terms using a long lens.

There’s space in between dunes and by using 200mm I was able to compress the rolling details into simple lines of light and shadow. But that was also a challenge. The light is remarkably flat here. You don’t realize because the place is so bright. But each dune is a giant reflector bouncing light onto it’s neighbor. Even during the longest shadows of sunset I found a diffence of only around 1/3 of a stop. Hard to believe as the eye sees the lines and shadows distinctly. But the meter does not lie.

I visualized around Zone 6, but ended up exposing a but dark to bring the shadows of the dunes where I wanted at around zone 3 or 4. I did some bracketing so I would have lighter frames to work with as needed. I was a little concerned about detail and depth of field, but stopping down too far costs detail due to diffraction. I stayed a good distance from the nearest dune in the frame and used the compression of the long lens to make things feel close.

So I had my images. Next was the edit. And it was a whopper. Not really to change the overall beauty of the scene. It was there to begin with. The dunes were cool, the sky was orange and the lines were delicate. But it was flat. Flat because that seems to be the way light works out here. But I had a visualization and I tried to keep my eye on the ball.

I took my time on the initial LR edit, working the contrast and tonal details as much as possible with the raw file along with careful working of the sky. It had this color naturally but if I worked it too much it felt unnatural. I was also bit bothered by how much noise was in the deep blues (a problem I’ve seen in digital fairly often). I tried to be delicate in processing and not push thing too far. I also added contrast which had a darkening effect and added to the pastel blues and rolling lines.

Next I had to correct for how dark the dune highlights were to accent the natural shadow. I took the lighter exposed frame and layered them in PS. Then I carefully blended details, in particular, masking down to the lighter image for the highlights which brightened the sand a bit and helped define the natural lines of the dunes.

I carefully burned, dodge and cleaned up the resulting image, finishing with some manual brushwork to even out the hazy mountains and smooth out some details. I think this is going to make a beautiful print and I’m excited to finish a few details and start working with prints when I get home.

Hope you enjoyed… Gav

A study image only. Canon 5D MK2, 50mm 1.4 @f5.6, 1 hour, ISO160. Bright rock light from the moonlight

An image study for photographers.

Star trails, turning night to day, midnight landscapes. There is amazing image potential for the photographer willing to do their homework and pre-plan setups to take those grand steps into the dark of night.

This photo is lacking. What it shows me is not. I was in the New Mexico highlands. The sun has long set and the light is only from moon and stars in this one hour long exposure. This image is not fully up to my standards and hence may never make it into my Signature Collection. That said there’s something to be learned from it.

I’m trying to develop some baselines and ideas for working what I call ULE’s (Ultra Long Exposures) and I wanted to share some of those here. This image represents the first time I used “only” past experience to determine exposure time, running a single one hour exposure at 5.6, ISO160.

I was on a solid tripod of course and using bulb mode with a cable release. The exposure worked and the detail is amazing. Though in truth it was a stop lighter than I expected. The half moon really lighting land brightly. Is was so much like daylight in fact, that I had to work dial back exposure and work with tone values to bring it down.

Why only f5.6. The more open the aperture more light can be pulled in. I still needed depth of field, which I get with a larger f stop, but I find I’m stopping down for the sake of it sometimes. 5.6 was all I needed based on the near and far infinity. This is something I plan to do another study on soon.

What’s Wrong with this Scene? This image has a subject. A neat one at that. But in my opinion the focal point is not strong enough and that makes it only OK, which is not enough. I think we should note that just because we do something interesting or less common like star trails or long night scenes. Just because you take a long time to make something, does not mean it’s great. Regardless of how challenging the situation is, we still need to take into account the concepts of space, composition, line and tone. These are also topics we’ll be discussing further in my Lights & Shadows workshop.

High ISO Reference Tests: I often use these to get an idea of proper long exposures. Then convert the ISO down for the longer exposure. For example I might run a test at ISO 12,800 for 30 seconds minute and decide it was the right amount of light. Then calculating, I could determine the long exposure for say ISO100 at 64 minutes. This works pretty well and you can have a close idea of what you’re going to get.

More Thoughts: A few things should be noted. Digital is pretty straightforward in terms of exposure time. Film has reciprocity failure and will work differently (I hope to add some film tests in the future). It should also be noted that the downside of ultra long digital exposures is noise and artifacts. This gets worse as the sensor heats up, so the hotter it is outside the more this could be a problem.

So in cooler temperatures it seems we can get away with more. The bad noise and artifacts come from the sensor heating. So the cooler the temperature outside the longer I feel comfortable exposing. Spring weather with 40 degree nights seems to allow exposures well into the 1 hour range. I’m not sure I could pull that off on a 65 degree summer evening.

I have also found that using long exposure noise reduction really helps. Though it doubles the time the camera must remain active, as a dark exposure of equal length must be taken after the image. It does help.

Another approach is to make many shorter exposures. Say thirty 1 minute exposures. Then use special software to blend those. There’s nothing wrong with this idea, but it’s really not an ultra long exposure and I prefer the challenge and beauty of film inspired night exposures in a single frame.

I’m just musing here and sharing experience. Below are some other articles I’ve written that relate to this and will give your further notes. Also share your own experience in the comments. I’ll also be talking about all this further in my up-coming EXposed video workshop.

Unfinished image. Canon MK2.. LEFT, 32min, ISO160, f8 | RIGHT, MK2, 32min, ISO160, f8.. Both processed exactly the same. Ambient moonlight lighting the rocks. The right is too dark. To achieve the same exposure as the left at f11, I could have doubles the time to 64 minutes.

Things to Consider:

• Ambient Light. From the moon, lights etc (the high ISO test can help with this).
• Temperature. How fast will your sensor heat up and make more noise.
• Length. Too short produce trails too small. Too long can cause more noise.
• Visualization. You still need to plan a great image. It’s best to start in the daylight, planning what you want the image to be.
• Stability. A solid tripod is a must, but also consider wind, moving trees etc.

Favorite successful images and some of my related articles

• 140 Minutes of Night – Arizona – One of my best. Lots of notes.
• Night Watcher – New Mexico – A new one with more notes coming.
• The River Fork – A look at senor noise and heat issues.

A Digital Night Exposure Baseline at  f8 – ISO100

I’m trying to set a baseline idea, not a rule. Consider how changes in settings will effects the result. For example, increasing to ISO200 would add 1 stop or light. Changing aperture to f5.6 would do the same and increase light by a full stop. f11 would cut it by a stop. Using different settings you could alter exposure time to keep overall exposure as desired.

These baselines are for actual night scenes where it’s mostly dark and stars are visible. Of course this would all differ with a cityscape or any brightly lit scene. Those have enough light to expose with more normal techniques. Bear in mind these are just starting guidelines based on exposures I’ve made and I’m still experimenting. You can use the high ISO test above to make you own conclusions in each situation as everything can shift depending on ambient light intensity, reflectiveness of foreground elements etc.

• Scenes with little or no moon / ambient light – 1-2 hours.
• Scenes with a small amount of moon or ambient light – 45 min.
• Scenes with bright or full moonlight, but still dark outside – 30 min.

I’ll be back to add updates to this article and refine it as I research more. It’s not a paper yet. Just trying together some ideas and experience

Gavin

Sliver Moon Blues - Near White Sands NM, 2012.

It was just awhile after sunset and I was not expecting an amazing view. We setup camp on the barren landscape of a tiny lake in the New Mexico desert, near White Sands. We ran the usual paces, unloading kids from the truck, planning dinner, getting settled. This is an image from an unlikely place that’s reminded me to never overlook potential.

I noticed what that moon was doing. A sliver moon, but with it’s shadowed area beautifully visible (there’s probably a name for that). I realized it was setting fast and that I had to do something, so I setup just a few yards from camp and started to work. It was not an easy image due to the rapidly setting moon and the low light, but I made this before it set fully and I’m thankful for a good night and an unexpected image.

Release details: Prints Coming Soon.

For Photographers. How it was made…

Technical Notes: Canon 5D MK2 – Canon 70-200L @170mm – f4 – 1.6sec – ISO3200

It was actually quite a challenge and in truth I was a little surprised to get one this good. Not for reasons of composition, line or tone. I knew I liked what I was seeing in those areas. The problem was the low light and the moving moon, moving faster as it neared the horizon. Detail is critical for my wall prints and a few second exposure is all it takes to blur a moon like this. That was quickly confirmed it with my first few images.

I rapidly tried differing combinations of aperture and ISO, trying to strike a balance. I used the histogram solo and did not take time to get my meter. I whizzed thru highs and lows of ISO, visualizing my scene while trying to find a way to make it work. Finally the moon set and I called it a night, unsure of what I had. When I went through the results next day, I found one frame clearer than all the rest. A high ISO image, but good enough that with a bit of work it should make a fine print. It was time to develop.

I spent a good deal of time considering the best approach. I actually considered changing to a black and white scene, but I’m glad I didn’t. I then worked a lot with white balance to determine where I should be and I decided a gentle cooling blue really worked. Then I used an effect from Color Fantasies called Blueberries. Nothing too drastic, but it gave it a nice hue. I decides on a fully square crop and took some time balancing where the moons should fall.

Finally I went into Photoshop. A bit of burn and dodge was in order to make the moon sing the way I wanted. Keeping the bright sliver at Zone 8-9 and the shadows area a few values lower at about Zone 6-7. But most of my time was spent pixel painting. The technique I teach in Cloning Magic to carefully paint over noise and smooth out tones. It can happen easy with digital, but higher ISO images in particular can get blotchy on really smooth colors.

I worked, brushing in and using soft gradients that matched the natural color as close as possible. Not wiping out the original pixels, but gently painting in at partial opacity to smooth artifacts without losing important details. It works wonders and gave me the smooth finished look I needed.

On another note is my final aperture. It’s actually a bit wide, but I needed every ounce of light I could get to stop the moons movement. It’s good the water has some ripple instead of a glassy perfection. First it defines the top and bottom, so it doesn’t look like a faked mirror image. Also it negates the fact the foreground water is a bit soft. I was pushing it here in everything from ISO to Aperture to Shutter Speed. But thankfully I found a happy medium that worked. And I’m satisfied. It was a good nights work.

Thanks for reading… Gavin

This was a reminder not to judge a scene by it's cover. When we setup camp here I did not expect a great scene right outsode my door. But light changes things.

Photo Couch Podcast #28 MP3

In Big Bend NP once again, Gavin is working in the field and musing about how much we can gain by stopping, taking a breath and thinking about our scene before we release the shutter.

_____

Subscribe in iTunes – Direct Podcast Feed – Facebook Page

Photo Couch is the companion podcast of Gavin’s f164 project. Sort of an audio journal. Nothing fancy here. Just short musings, tips, and thoughts on photography. You can listen below, or subscribe for free and get all the latest episodes. If you want more, you can also check out Gavin’s full podcast, Pro Photo Show.

The Skinny Kid by Gavin Seim. Joshua Tree NP, Feb 2012

The family and I camped down on the flatland’s and took a nice drive into Joshua Tree that day. It was warm, but got cooler in the highlands and the choice to wear shorts turned out less than ideal. So the family was back in the car warming up after hiking and I ventured out near Skull Rock, finding this skinny little Joshua Tree standing alone, everyone ignoring it’s simplicity.

The Skinny Kid grew on me and soon I was experimenting with angles and ideas for how to best showcase what he had to offer. In the end this simple black and white scene struck me. A starkness of line. A cast shadow showing that his reach extends beyond his size. This tree has a perfect vantage. He gets to watch over this rocky landscape without distraction and reign as King of it’s trees.

Release details: Prints Coming Soon.

 

For Photographers. How it was made…

Canon MK2, 17-40L @21mm f11, 1/80sec, ISO160

This is a channel blended HDR. It sounds fancy but it’s fairly simple. I had spent some time refining the composition and details in the field, switching over to B&W mode on the camera to help me visualize, even though those settings didn’t carry over directly to the imported RAW file.

Once in Lightroom, I used the Hidden Valley and Dynamic Silver II presets from Silver Shadows2 as a solid base. Then I did a channel HDR. Controlling tones on two variations of the image by tweaking the color channels. This made elements lighter or darker as needed. I could then blend those tonal variants of the same image in Photoshop as required to achieve my final visualization.

The biggest challenge and one of the reasons I needed the channel merge approach was the rocks to the left. They were light in color and stood out in an almost white fashion. I wanted to keep them toned down around Zone 4-5, with the highlights on the tree around Zone 6-7. In doing this it was easy to muddle the tones. The solution was a combination of the channel process, combined with tonal brushing (ala burn and dodge). The result is what you see. It should print well and I’m eager to make the first run.

I will point out the crop. I spent a good deal of time deciding where the shadow from the tree would be. I really like what it adds to the scene, but did not want it to distract. To simplify I made it the stop point of the frame, rather than including the entire shadow. I felt this kept it relevant without making it too dominant.

The Whole Crew: Feb 2012, Big Bend National Park. Self Portrait. Look at those white legs. We need a tan.

By Gavin Seim:

Follow updates on… Facebook | Twitter

There’s nothing like miles of open road and your beautiful wife riding shotgun. Like giggling kids in the back seat with camera bags and cracker crumbs. Like the warm wind that whips in the window and tosses your hair. There’s nothing like the feeling of adventure and uncertainly. Of going somewhere you’ve never been before, tasting nature on the air, and doing something that, just maybe, no one else has ever done before…

A photographer and family road tripping across the USA? No easy task, but it teaches you a lot. About versatility, family, and of course, photography. In fact, many of my most advanced techniques and studies come from the zero deadline environment of road tripping.

In 2011, we spent around 3 months on the road. In 2012, we’re spending nearly that just for our Winter tour and probably 4-5 months in total. To be clear, we’re not just heading to snowbird hideaways and hunkering down. We travel, thousands upon thousands of miles, exploring the US and all it has to offer an American Pictorialist seeking the very best views in the world.

How It Works:

The long trips start months in advance: planning the direction of travel, lining up workshops or events to help pay the hefty gas bill. We’ll be up around three thousand dollars just for fuel for our Winter tour. That part can be a real burden, and it really makes you think about what’s happened to costs and the economy in this country. But let’s not get into that just now; I’m having fun here.

Next, I work like crazy around the studio in preparation. That also involves making sure sessions are scheduled for our return or out the door before we leave. I run a low volume studio that focuses on high end wall portraits, so I can be flexible regarding when and how I organize sessions, but it still takes planning. I don’t want to lose too much business. I make sure the house is sewn up, too, and try to leave things tidy. We make sure the maintenance and latest upgrades are done on the Super Camper. Back at the studio, I tie up all the loose ends, put out a sign that says, back in three months, turn ON the print spotlights, and lock the doors.

Here’s an inside look at The Super Camper. Our micro 4/3′ish home on wheels.

Snapshot of the the crew hiking in White Sands New Mexico, March 2012.

Time To Roll:

The wife and I load up everything we can fit, including the our three kids, and off we go To The Wild. The main thing that gets us out there is the Super Camper. It’s a 2011 Forest River 21SS that’s been tricked out as a boondocking machine. It’s pulled with our 2001 GMC 2500 Crew Cab 4×4 running a Duramax diesel. For those interested, this little trailer and all the upgrades we’ve installed run up to about $25k. No chump change, but not so much considering what we can do with it.

But the chaos and excitement does not end there. We rarely visit a paid campground of any kind. Yes, in part that’s due to the conservative nature lover in me that says one should not pay to camp in the wild. The other part is the fact that spending $15-50 a night for a campground adds up fast. The third is that avoiding the more developed sites allows us to see far more amazing things. If I wanted to sit in a gravel lot next to sixty huge motor homes and call it camping, I could just stay home. We only pay to camp when there’s no other option. And sometimes we get pretty bold, just pulling off the road and setting up shop.

No hookups, no problem. The Super Camper is boondocks ready, and with its small size and good ground clearance, I can take it places that would scare your pants off. And ours, too. Frankly, I’m so used to NOT hooking up, that if I have hookups it hardly feels like I’m camping. That’s just me.

As you’ll see in the video tour, we’re compact yet self sustaining. We’ve got solar, extra batteries, and a little generator when things get low. Combine that with some water mods and good organization, an extra hauling rack, and the truck itself, and we’re ready for the wilderness. The tanks and lines are even winter ready, and we can turn on heating pads if things get nasty. We can load everything up and make it four five days without even going shopping.

On the Bayou: Camping in central Louisiana, Jan 2012.

On The Move:

So it’s Sondra and I, three kids and thousands of miles, as we travel the US for workshops, pictorials and adventure. Let’s look at the typical day. Something that usually starts with us sleeping in, except, of course, the days when I go out to work the sunrise.

By the time we get up, dress the kids, have breakfast, make espresso (very important), and load up, it’s often time for lunch. So often we make a sandwich and then hit the road. Sometimes with trailer in tow, sometimes just us and the road, as we roam and explore potential locations for me to work in. Sometimes we it up the local tourist attractions and, of course, playgrounds for the kids. We rarely stay in one area longer than a week, and when we find a new camp, we can be fully setup in about 15 minutes.

And did I mention we love coffee? We grind it fresh every morning in out little camper, and while on the road, we seek out roasting companies which we then go visit, interview, buy coffee from, and blog about. The coffee site I run is called Epic Bean.

I learn a lot from these. And I mean a real lot. It’s during these trips that I refine and experiment photographically. Finding new places and sights is part of it, but I can just stand in a field for hours and try things, analyzing myself and other techniques that the industry uses. It’s often a science adventure as much as an artistic and a family one, and brainstorms come often.

Each day also brings work. I have to keep up with Seim Effects projects and customer service. I always have new blog entries and articles going, and, of course, there’s the fiction writing I do with my brother Nathan. That does not stop either. I have to take time each day for specific work tasks like email, maintaining FB pages, and the like.

The kids love getting outside and playing in the sand. Mom and Dad like cleaning up the sand a little less.

Not All Gravy:

Yes. There’s stress, yelling kids, too many potty stops, things breaking on the camper, propane bottles running out in the middle of the night, storms, bad roads, and plenty of other things. Some days we think we should just go home and take a vacation from vacationing. Then we come to our senses, look back on the memories and images, and think, wow, this is a real blessing.

Sondra is great and helps make all this happen. I don’t think most women would be able to handle it. But then, warm weather in the middle of winter is a strong draw for a women. And it’s harder to go crazy when you already are, so we’re both good there.

People say they don’t have time for road trips. OK, maybe not everyone can travel as much as we get to. But don’t let it stop you. Make the time to get out. Even for a day or two, or a week at a time. Just roam out in the wild. I put it off when we started having kids, pouting mentally that we were tied down and the goals of world travel were infringed upon. Then I changed my own bad attitude and jumped in. I realized that there are endless things to see right here, within reach of your wheels. There’s nothing like a road trip, not for your photography and not for your family.

You can view the map of where we’ve been here, along with notes on camps, coordinates, the works. We’re not stingy. And, of course, you can stay tuned to this blog and the FB Page for updates from our travels. You can also visit the tours page for a list of up-coming travels. This is already long, but I’ll be back to update it as I find more to say.

Road Trip Tips:  More details for those who love adventure

So how do we stay connected, sane, and nearly always find free places to camp? A lot of ways.

When on the road for a new destination, Sondra is charged with research while I drive. We use a Verizon MiFi along with our iPhones and laptops to keep us connected nearly all the time. Sometimes only ATT has service, sometimes Verizon. It’s good to have both. That part may not sound very camping-ish, but the main reason we can actually do all this is because I can manage writing and Seim Effects tools from the road. Staying connected is paramount, and it’s what allows me to write journal entries like this from thousands of feet up in the hills.

Boondocking in remote areas with no facilities is not the only way, but it’s king if you want to find great places. We’ve learned that sometimes you need a bit of Gypsy boldness to do this. Not that we’re looking to trespass or get in trouble, but laws vary from state to state and even on a per city basis. We try to research the area to which we’re going. Sometimes when we’re making miles, we just pull off on a side road and set up camp. We rarely cave to the “lets just pay for an RV park because we don’t know what to do.” It feels good to be bold sometimes.

As for traveling with three kids aged 5 months to 4 years, the main thing is you can’t be all business. They’re away from family, cousins, and friends, too. We frequently go to playgrounds and take time to get out and have fun. Sometimes the kids get cranky, but overall they seem to love the fun, snacks, iPods, hikes, grilling, and adventure.

Essential Resources We Use:

Using the MiFi on the road, we often pull out the laptops for finding locations. We browse the Days End directory, a giant list of user submitted boondocking and free (or nearly so) camp spots all over the US. It’s something you can get for a small fee if you’re a member of Escapees RV Club. Our Garmin GPS is also one of our essentials. Along with iPhones, apps and web pages that I’ll more below.

Google Maps are invaluable. Looking at them we can find National Forests and other parks, sometimes browsing using satellite views of the landscape. We get some amazing spots using that method, as you can find remote areas, then look for signs where people have set up camps in the past. Tire tracks, pullouts etc, fire rings etc. It’s a practiced skill.

Here other tools use to make it happen…

• Our Travel Maps. The places we camped our scouted in the past. It getting big.
• Gas Buddy. Saves us a lot of $$ by showing us the best fuel prices.
• Location allows us to find coordinates overplayed on the map so we can route or send ourselves coordinates for later use.
• All Stays camp and RV is really helpful for finding services and campgrounds when we need them.
• Cabelas Recon Hunt. An iPhone app with lots of tools but mainly a map that you can overlay western states public land boundaries on a Google map for a small fee per year. Good to have also as when you have data you can quickly load a G map with relevant info.
• AccuTerra is a mobile map system that allows you to download map grids for offline use and show public land boundaries like BLM etc. This covers all states, but you do have to download each sector (from the phone) to use.
• boondocking.org. A free website database of boondocking locations based on coordinates.
• freecampgrounds.com. A website with free or cheap camp spots. We don’t use it as much but it’s another recourse.

Texas Gulf Coast: Feb 2012. Open beach camping.

On the note of finding great camping. When on the move, we sometimes just use parking lots, truck stops, WalMarts, and the like. But once we arrive, that changes. National Forests are generally open areas where you can creep deep down remote roads and camp for free. NF people are “usually” helpful, rather than looking to get you in trouble for breaking some rule (read, State Parks). National Parks are sadly not so open to camping, but we visit a lot of them, so usually we look for a open area nearby, such as a bordering forest or nearby BLM/government owned land that’s not posted. OHV areas often provide open useable space as well.

Just be careful. In remote areas, old dirt roads can go from bad to worse very quickly. And when towing a trailer, turning around is not always easy. Oh yeah, we’ve been in some scary situations. One time, it was so bad I made the family get out, and I drove down a muddy hill with the door open, ready to leap out. I really thought the car might slide off the slick mud and right over the edge. Memories… Sometimes we’ll find a flat spot to drop the trailer and then scout further up into the hills so we don’t get into a “situation.” Other times we just dive in, saying a prayer and watching out for sheer cliffs and soft sand.

Of course we also load up on audiobooks for the long drives. It makes us look forward to travel. And then there are Sundays where we try to slow a bit and try to make sure we have cell reception so we can phone into the conference line of our family bible study, staying strong in things that really matter.

Of course in the camper we carry a plethora of resources, like extra food stores, extra water, lots of first aid stuff, chargers, batteries, toy bins for the kids and more. We cram it in.

More Tools and Gadgets:
Aside from all the software and goodies, there lots of valuable things we’ve found to carry along. Here’ some of them.

First Aid: Carry a good kit. I like this big one in the camper and then carry smaller ones like this in my day pack and the truck. Then update the kits with some Celox or Quick Clot for more major Trauma in the field. Also carry an Extractor of these for snake bites.
This Gerber folding shovel is rock solid and small. Don’t bother with the cheap ones.

Radios. If you don’t have Ham radio, get a pair of FRS units. They won’t offer as much range as they say in the hills, but they give some form of communication when people are apart.

A dash mount GPS is a great tool. Yes our smartphones have maps, but having a dedicated unit that needs no cell connection for basic road mapping is a huge time saver.

Bear Spray. People make jokes about me carrying this but it’s no joke. When in the wilderness you can run into a wild animal or a wild person. One of these huge can’s of pepper spray resides in the camper, the truck and my hiking belt at all times. I’m not against carrying a gun, but laws differ from state to state and Bear spray is a way to always have something without being harassed for carrying some you should not in a park or the like.

An Inverter. Converting power from your 12V battery system to run regular AC things like laptops and battery chargers is invaluable.Get a decent inverted and mount it somewhere easy access. It will keep you from running the generator so much, or once you add solar will keep with with AZ power nearly all the time. You wont be running AC on this but it will keep you going.

A Generator. A quality quiet generator is not cheap, but it’s also one of the kings of the boondocker system. Generally I’d recommend one like a Yamaha 2000. It won’t run your AC, but it’s fairly small, will charge your system and keep you rolling without waking the dead. If you get a great solar system on the roof (250-400watts) you won’t need it much, but it’s still a valuable backup. You can of course get a larger one that powers heat, AC and the like if size and eight are not an issue.

Laundry Bags. Not real exciting, but laundry will build up if you’re traveling more than a few days. You’ll want a place to stow it and these help keep it tidy and easy to take to the laundromat.

Metal detector. You want things to do on the down time and this is a fun one. This Garrett Ace is probably the best bang for the buck. A decent detector for a decent price that is pretty compact.

Weather Station. Knowing what the temp is and what’s coming up is very useful. You don’t need to get crazy, but this is a nice little wireless station for a great price.

Flashlights. Lights are essential. I prefer super bright LED lights that using 18650 laptop cells and a simple charger. For a small light this X2000 is great. Cheap and really bright for the size. Way more so than your average Mag light. I also like to catty a few insanely bright lights. For that, get P7 series LED light like this TurstFire, or something even more bright like this. Either of these is probably the brightest flashlight you have ever seen. If you buy this bright of light in stores you’ll probably pay 4x more.

A cozy camp up in the Southern CA hills. Warm weather and blue skies.

Extra Rig Notes: For the tech curious and RV fans among you. If you have other questions let me know.

The roof and it's solar system. We've also added a ham radio antenna on the left.

Our power system: We started with two UniSolar PVL 68 flexible panels. These stick directly on the roof giving a total of around 136 watts in full sun and  perform better than traditional panels in shade.

Next we added traditional silicon glass solar panels that put out around 140 watts combined. This bring us up to a total solar infrastructure of about 275 watts or 15 amps of max charge power in full direct sun.

These are 12V panels running in series, which means about 24-30v is going down the cable and into a Sun Saver TrackStar MPPT charge controller, which then converts it to the 14′ish charge volts going out to the batteries.

We have 4 batteries. Two front and two on the rear rack. The camper came with only one. Having more has been great and the extra power is invaluable. On a full charge we can fully run the house, computers etc for days even in bad solar weather. The latest batteries are the 6V Trojan T105 golf cart batteries, ran them in series to make two of them a 12v unit. We plan to replace the other two with Trojans as well. I’m also planning to put all 4 on the front of the trailer.

In practice, we use power pretty heavily with computers, heater fans and the like. The panels don’t generally keep us charged indefinitely, but they certainly help. Depending on sunlight and weather, we still have to run the generator occasionally.

Our generator is a Honda EU1000. These are inverter generators and extremely quiet. They rarely disturb anyone. We plan to get a 2000 soon (Honda or Yamaha), as the 1000 is a little small for this rig and charging batteries fast.

Under the from Cabinet we have a Cobra 1500 watt inverter. This will power AC things like computers and coffee machines from the batteries without running the generator. The Cobra is not the best inverter and in time we may upgrade it, but it works pretty well.

Our little projector. Mounted above the sofa in the slide out. Ready for movie night.

Other goodies: We have a silver blanket that goes on the tent bed for colder or hot situations. It really helps hold in (or out) the heat, by reflecting. You can make your own, but we use a one called a Popup Gizmo. They also help keep condensation down, something that’s a common issue in tent style bunks.

We use heat pads on the holding tanks and lines. Like these. I installed these with inside a switches and turning them on keeps tanks from freezing. These are 12V, but would drain batteries pretty fast if it was really cold. Extra generator time would certainly be needed.

The rack on the trailer was also an upgrade. We had a hitch installed and then got a 60in aluminum rack for it. It’s rated for 500lbs. We attach the storage bins and battery boxes with bolts. They’re very secure, which is important when going up rough mountain roads.

Our Espresso machine in a Breville 400 (older model). It’s nothing like the Giotto Rocket at home, but it makes a good cup on the road. We also have some manual drip coffee tools and we grind fresh using this drill modded hand grinder.

Our projector system uses an Optima PK301 pocket LED projector. This is no ultra bight, but on movie night or in need of a little presentation we can get a nice looking 50 inch image on our pull down screen that we can hang from the ceiling using 3m Command hooks we’ve installed.

35 Gallon fresh water tank we mounted in the truck for extra water. We can draw it into the RV using the suck line.

We made a Velcro cover for the skylight in the bathroom so I can go in at night, block out all light and load my 4×5 film.

I keep two extra 7 gallon water cans in the truck or shower when we travel. When stopped, we can pull these out and suck the water into the holding tank using the mod described in the video. This allows us to maintain fresh water without loading up the trailer and driving to water. Recently we’ve also mounted a 35gallon fresh water tank in the pickup. We full this and it gives us another full tank of water. We can now go for a week or so with normal water use and no going ti hunt for more.

I think that covers it, but I’ll update this as we update our rig and learn more. Hope you enjoyed… Gav

Midnight Naranga, Saguaro - Mesa Arizona, Winter 2012 by Gavin Seim.

It was night. Obviously… But it was more than that. There were a few stars, but more than that, there was this orange glow hitting the sky from the city as we camped in the hills, enjoying the warm weather and the desert views.

Just above camp there were these neat looking Sugaro’s that seemed to be watching us from the horizon. We came home late one night and frankly, I just wanted to go to bed. But I kept looking up at the stoic cactus, filled up with character and history.

I broke down. I had to. I pulled out the gear thinking I would just do it quick. But in truth I spent at least the next hour setting up, planning and exposing. The final result after some detailed artwork was Midnight Orange Sugaro. It’s a bit more painterly and textured than many of my pieces. But there’s something about it’s color and the subtle details that keeps me coming back.

Release details: Coming Soon.

For Photographers. How it was made…

Canon MK2, 70-200L @200mm f14, 414sec, ISO320

I started by doing a 57 second flashlight lit exposure and a 414 second time exposure. I did a general process in in LR, starting with presets and the working to bring out the orange in the sky.

I took the two exposures into PS and did a gentle HDR layer blend, bringing it some detail from the flashlight lit image and combining it with the other exposure. It took some extra time around the edges of the Sugaro to make sure I kept away halos from the blended exposure, but I spent that time blending because wanted to showcase a little of the natural texture in the cactus and foreground. Something I often favor over a straight up silhouette. Most the foreground area falls in very dark at around Zone 1 -to Zone 2 and here’s little that it totally black. In a finished print that can really be showcased.

To finish I used the Lincoln and Natures Pavement textures from the Naked Elements collection. I deliberated about this, considering how I might print and what the intent of my scene was. But while the sky was naturally orange it needed something extra. I don’t often use textures in a clearly visible fashion, but this is an exception. I’ll likely be releasing this on a fiber rag paper and or canvas so the texture detail blended carefully with the sky and other elements will add to the feel of this nighttime image.

Enjoy… Gav