Road Trip Days 15 & 16: Chicago

The weather was great as I arrived in Chicago at 3pm and headed for Downtown to explore and see what shots I could get before the bad weather they had due rolled in.

It's an interesting city and I could see why they would shoot Spiderman and Batman here, I loved the transit system and how it was just placed on top of roads like a rushed job.

A walk along the Chicago river gives you a great view of the city with all the different architecture and I was able to get a few building shots.

For sunset I headed toward Michigan lake to try and find a nice clear view of the Chicago skyline, on the way I spotted a fountain, the Buckingham Fountain which looked like it was the perfect for sunset so I set up my shot and waited and boy did I get one of the perfect sunsets spreading across the shot.
This makes me very happy for my first day in Chicago!

On the second day I was not so lucky with the weather so I concentrated on finding interesting buildings to shoot in the city, only a few met my criteria for my style of shooting.

Road Trip Day 14: Sioux Falls

Today it was a long 500 mile on my way to Chicago where I would be stopping for 3 nights to see the town.
It was a very hot day and on the way I stopped at one of the very few sites to see of Sioux Falls, quite an amazing falls with lots of angles and layers to shoot so I was here for 2 hours. It's quite a big city named after the falls.

Road Trip Day 13: Badlands National Park

I woke to beautiful day after yesterdays crazy storm. I listened to the howling wind and hail in my motel room before going to sleep.
I headed for Badlands national park looking forward to a day hiking around the hills as I had been in my car too much on this trip.
Annoyingly this isn't a park for lots of hiking as the sides of the hills are quite steep and loose so it meant I was stuck to walking and driving around.

It's a very interesting place to drive around with the formations merging with the grassland all around you.

I'm certainly glad I didn't plan to spend more time here as there is only so much to see and do and it was so windy if was hard to get some shots as my camera would shake all the time.

Road Trip Day 12: South Dakota

It was raining as I woke today, which was perfect as I planned to visit the Windy Caves Park.
Along the way the road took me through a windy creek as I followed the river with some interesting falls to photograph.

I also drove past Mount Rushmore, it's alot taller than it would seem from photographs, for some reason I didn't stop to take a picture, most likely because I could see an interesting angle that would be different to every other photo taken of the sculpture.

Windy Caves is an interesting place, named so because when it was discovered the wind coming from the opening blew that hats of its discoverers off, the whole cave acts like a giant barometer either blowing of sucking air depending on the outside pressure, and it stays a cool 11 degrees C inside all year round.
The caves are 150 miles long in total and I got to walk along about a miles worth but it wasn't an easy place to photograph in the dark light.

Once I was finished in the Caves I started driving toward my motel for the night in Rapid City via Mount Rushmore again hoping I might spot a good location for a shot along the way, but a storm was coming in which I could no longer see the mountains, as darkness fell I could see lightening strikes in the distance heading towards me, I was seeing literally hundreds every minute flashing all over, I had never seen a sight like it. It was almost from a movie. I couldn't resist heading back to the devils tower to see if I could get the perfect shot of it with lightening in the background, and after some waiting I got it before the storm came over me.

Road trip day 10: Yellowstone National Park

 Today it was cloudy and raining so it wasn't looking like I would get any shots today so I just went exploring some areas I had yet to see getting soaked in the process. 

It wasn't long before I wished I had been around the trails near Old Faithful sooner as there were two shots I really wanted to get, but the rain meant they would not look good so I continued round and headed back to the car. 

But on the way back the sun started to appear from the clouds so I rushed to get my gear and was so happy to get the shots. 

The second one is one of my favourites from Yellowstone. 

Road Trip days 6-9: Yellowstone National Park

I had a little lie today after my 2 5am wake ups then headed to Yellowstone for the next leg of my trip. It's a 2.5 hour drive from Teton Village and I arrived at 2pm and headed straight to the 'attractions'. 

I started off with the Geyser Basins, it's an amazing place, but big so lots of driving to get the interesting spots. 

Luckily it's nice and quiet as the season hasn't quite started, this wouldn't be a dun place in peaks times with people constantly walking on the wooden platform walkways wobbling your camera all the time. 

I love how it looks like a wasteland on another planet. 

The tough thing about this park is it's very well photographed, so that means I need to try take different shots, hopefully my style is achieving that as I don't want the same shots as everyone else. 

I would spend 20 mins or so in each spot waiting for the wind to blow the steam coming off the pools just the right way, most of the time it would blow at me so I'd be in a steamy rotten egg smelling mist. 

All through the park I would come across Byson wondering the roads.

They almost knew which side to walk on!

I then went to the famous old faithful geyser and had a 40 minute wait before she finally went off. It seems she is not faithful any more as her timings are becoming less predictable, quite a sight but the surrounding landscape and the light was a bit dull. 

I think I will mainly photograph the small details here, as the wider landscape is fairly boring, but I did spot  a shot looking over the middle geyser basin that I went to for sunset but there was no colour in the sky tonight. I will be back another night, maybe on a clearer day when the sun is lighting up the steam from behind. 

For my second day in the park I explored the east side of the park, there wasn't much going on thermally open at this time of year but I stopped at Yellowstones best waterfalls, its just a shame there is only 1 vantage point for them so I didn't take a pic on my medium format since it would only look like everyone elses shot. 

Whilst I was getting shots of the landscape most people around were tourists and wanted shots of them in the landscape, one Asian guy even spent 20 mins in the same location of as me on his own taking pictures of himself in front of different things in different angles, he was going cazy!

It made me think I should atleast get one of me there. 

Next was Norris geyser basin, lots more pools although these less colourful than the basins near old faithful. 

Mammoth hot springs was my last stop today, with more beautiful colours being created on the rocks as the hot water flows down the terraces.  Apparently this place regularly changes as the water flows change and looks totally different today than it did 30 years ago.  

I also spotted an opportunity for another self portrait. 

I was in the area at the perfect time for the low sun, but my last shot of the day of the main spring didn't work out as the sun dropped behind some trees before it could light up the terraces perfectly. I will have to come back tomorrow early when the sun is at the right angle. 

I rose at 5 am for my 3rd day in Yellowstone since it was meant to be a clear day, and it was. Lots of shots were presenting themselves as I headed back to some spots I had seen yesterday. 

Driving along the Madison river I could see it steaming in places, something I didn't see yesterday as I drove past midday, so I searched for a spot to capture it, the steam coming from it is very subtle and was more visible in motion. 

I don't shoot wildlife unless I can get them within a beautiful landscape and today I was very lucky as the Byson were in the perfect place in front of the lower geyser basin, a shit that is a little dull without them there.  When I arrived all the Byson were all lying on the ground but after a bit of waiting a few started to stand.

I then headed back to mammoth hot springs, 

It's a nice shot but still not perfect., I should probably have headed here first but the Byson shot is far better. 

For sunset I headed back to the spot or the geyser basin to get the sun shining through. 

Just I had finished taking this shot I was moved by the park rangers as apparently there are bears around so they don't want anyone off the main trails or roads. 

At the time I thought it sucked as I may miss out on a nice sunset, but I remembered a spot I saw earlier and headed there and it ended up being far better than the the shot I would have got of the whole basin. 

A great days shooting!

After the last 3 days of long days and early mornings I was in much need of a lazy day so spent my 4th in my hotel room going over the shots and relaxing. It was a cloudy day so nothing was missed, hopefully tomorrow will be nicer for some more exploring.