Upcoming Major Road Trip! How to Prepare

Beartown State Park, West Virginia, USA

Next week, along with three lifelong buddies, I will be embarking on a major road trip from the Virginia coast to the Oregon coast and return. We expect the trip to possibly take as long as a month.  We don't really know how long it will take because we purposely don't set a timeline or agenda.  That makes the trip completely spontaneous, relaxing and much more fun.  I'm really looking forward to this trip for several reasons.

First, these thee guys have been friends since any of us has any memories about anything.  That, in an of itself, will make this trip special.  We grew up on the same street, on the same block and hung around together all through our younger days.  After we had gone off to college, married and gone our separate ways, we managed to stay in touch, individually, with each other but not so much as a group of four.  In 2001, we decided we had too much history together and our friendship was too valuable to continue as it had been.  Since then, we get together as a group every year for a week or so.  Also, we are fortunate for a couple of us at a time to get together quite frequently.  This year, our annual get together will be different, as this year our 'significant others' will not be along.  It will be just the four of us.

Second, as you can imagine, I love to travel, wander, discover, explore and photograph.  This trip, as I said above, is another with no timeline or set agenda, will loosely follow the trail that Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery traveled in 1804-6 from St. Louis to the west coast of Oregon, near Astoria and the Columbia River.  I anticipate many interesting photographic opportunities as I suspect we will make several side trips along our way.

Photographically speaking, there are many things to think about and do when preparing for a long road trip such as this.  Last year, I wrote about how I go about preparing.  I thought I would republish some of my thoughts for those of you who didn't get an opportunity to read those posts. For those of you who had read them, it wouldn't hurt to refresh your memories, as the travel season is fast upon us and none of us want regrets and not be fully prepared to capture the images we want to make.

As soon as I decide I will be taking a road trip, the future journey starts rolling and rolling through my mind.  This is a subconscious process, it just starts happening.  I suppose it is from a lifetime of being a planner-type person.  I don't do much that is last minute or which is not thought through.  Even weeks before I go, I start thinking about all aspects of the trip, especially photographically.  So the process starts.  Hopefully, it ends with a great trip and wonderful images.

Preparation is the key for success.  I'm not talking about preparing the night before.  I'm talking about preparing earlier rather than later--weeks, even.  I've learned some lessons on not being as prepared as I had thought I was.

What I will write here is not comprehensive, but the procedure I go through as the concept of the trip gels into reality.  My goal is to give you the highlights of my process and have you then think and devise your own method of preparation.  The end game is to bring back good images (memories), for our lives are a succession of personal stories which we want to remember and tell our family and friends.  Photographs help us remember and recount those stories.  Also, I want to be able to travel as light and quickly as possible but take enough equipment to cover the majority of opportunities as well as not miss key images--and, with whole process being stress free!  Good luck!

To photographically prepare for an upcoming road trip, here is what I think about.

First, I ask myself the basic question.  What is the primary purpose of the trip?  Is the primary purpose making photographs or traveling with friends or family with making photographs secondarily?  Answering that question puts me on one of two paths because the goals of the trips are much different.

Paddle Surfing at Sunset, Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii

I then ask myself a series of preliminary questions:

What are my photographic goals for this trip?

What will be my photographic style be for this trip?  (all handheld, time for tripod work, etc.)

How long will I be gone?

How much time will I have to photograph?

How will I feel if something goes wrong and I lose the photos through my own negligence or some external force?

Have I researched the areas I will be traveling to know what opportunities I will encounter?

When, generally, is sunrise and sunset each day? How long will daylight last each day?

What weather and humidity can be expected?

What other considerations do I need to be aware, such as the number of bags, luggage, size, weight that might restrict what I can take?

Is there anything I need to do before I go such as getting a permit or are there any restrictions on photography (usually with large DSLRs only) in the places I might visit?

What gear will best serve the majority of my purposes for the trip?  Not necessarily all purposes?

My general philosophy is that going lighter, faster and taking less is better.  I cannot tell you how many trips I have taken and not used most of the gear I carried.  My advice is don't try to anticipate everything.  Don't take equipment and prepare for EVERY possible photograph that may present itself to you.  Its okay to miss some.  Its okay just to stand, look and enjoy a scene or event.  You don't have to bring the kitchen sink just in case.

The first priority of any trip should be the experience itself and bringing back vivid memories.  Don't let that message get lost in trying to photograph or record everything you encounter. Photograph what you can and don't worry about what you may miss.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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