My trip to Monte Vista in March of 2020 was the last organized photo road trip I did before the pandemic started. Well, the pandemic is still raging but with a lot better clarity and people seem to have found a better sense of personal discipline over the past year, so off I go again. To Monte Vista.
It shouldn’t be a major issue for me, even though I haven’t been vaccinated yet. I’ll be driving alone. I’ll be staying in the hotel alone. I won’t be eating in restaurants, opting instead for the more unhealthy option of fast food and grocery items. It’s just a three day trip. I’ll be fine. I will be working with my friend Jim Esten, who is heading down too. We’ll be working together but not traveling or living together.
Famous last words?
It’s the day before I leave Littleton and I’ve pretty much have my stuff packed and ready to go. I decided to leave the laptop PC behind this trip. I’ve done this before, leaving the laptop behind. It’s just another hunk of stuff and honestly, I won’t have much time to sit around browsing through a bunch of photos while I’m traveling. I’m pretty sure that I’ll get plenty of good shots and that I can wait until I’m back home to download them and do whatever is required with them.
As for the kit this year. I’ll be using my “Heavy” kit on this trip. The Nikon D850 and the Nikon D500. Most of the birds in flight shots will be on the D500, that’s why I purchased that camera. Any landscape or wide-angle stuff will be the domain of the D850. I did throw my iPad in the kit. Give me a little web surfing time while I’m eating my drive-through cheeseburgers at night. And I can blue-tooth any interesting photos from the camera and maybe post a few if time allows.
I’ve been rethinking how I travel. What gear to bring, what to leave behind. I don’t need a ton of stuff with me to do this job, so I’ve relegated myself to doing things differently. I don’t know if that’s a result of the pandemic, old age or just a different mindset after sitting around for a year doing little to nothing photographically speaking.
One thing for certain. This year I’m doing things differently.