Charles T. Low Photography

Guess where I've travelled (again): northern Manitoba. As I said to some of the locals I met (wonderful people), if I didn't have a personal connection there, then I likely would never have seen it. And I cannot imagine not getting to see it.

The visual extravaganza there just does not end. As everywhere else, it does help to look a little more deeply, more actively.

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But I did another road trip, this one new to me, south from Vancouver, BC, then keeping as close to the coast as possible, diverting inland a week later to the little city of Lodi, CA (for personal reasons, and I did not get stuck in Lodi again [Creedence Clearwater Revival]).

That meant the mostly-coastal highway 101, through Washington and Oregon, then picking up Highway 1 in California at its northern end.

A little advice for those contemplating such a drive:

• Do it, unless you don't like slow, hilly, twisty roads with amazing scenery, with some drop-offs.
• Take some detours to stay closer to the coast, and in so doing expect to make some mistakes. (We only have one regret, but ... we only spent an unexpected 1.5 hours extra, on a terrible road, although eventually with some spectacular scenery, and we did get quite an experience!)
• Have a brother with a fun-car who entices a succession of passengers to join him, on successive legs of his longer drive, by offering to split the time behind the wheel 50:50.

The car has two seats, and a trunk the size of a glove-box. On re-entering Canada, I got asked if I only had one small backpack for a week and half of travel. Yep!

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Two Men, a Car, and the Road

For vacation-photography in general, I have another suggestion: have sympathetic company. I commonly hear, and have experienced, the problem of wanting to stop and work a scene for a few minutes, while the rest of the group needs to move on. After the first few times, they grow understandably weary.

With my son in northern Manitoba, this is less than not a problem — he is actively part of the solution, with good camera-gear of his own, the ability to use it, and an understanding of light and composition, partly self-taught, partly formally-taught, largely intuitive (and partly father-taught). So I get nothing other than encouragement and inspiration from him.

My brothers also encourage me, and they make this so much easier. On this occasion: John, thank you, for inviting me to join you for that leg of your long road-trip, and for seeing the value of incorporating art-time into it.

John continued, with new travel-companions, to San Francisco and beyond, and then to points east, so ... some day I will have to return to see those for areas myself!

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Charles T. Low
Photographer
Blog #95
2023-10-07

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