Road Trip! Preparing for a Road Trip; What to do?

Off Route 66 somewhere in Oklahoma

In a few days, I'll be leaving on another road trip.  Nothing gets my photographic blood going like getting in the car and heading out with no specific itinerary and no specific timeline.  I love to wander, explore, discover and seek out new places along the secondary roads and small towns of America.

On this trip, I will be taking my new Nikon D810 along with the following gear:

Nikon 16-35mm f/4 G VR lens
Nikon 24-120mm f/4 G VR lens
Nikon 70-200mm f/4 G VR lens
Nikon TC-14E II 1.4X tele-converter
Nikon 50mm f/1.4 G lens
Nikon SB800 flash with a remote cord
Medium-sized Gitzo carbon fiber tripod

That's it.  Only taking the minimum amount of gear.  I will also have packed away in my suitcase a point-and-shoot as a backup in the event the D810 malfunctions, but in 45 years I have never had a Nikon malfunction, so my level of confidence in the camera is high.  This relatively sparse kit will cover 16mm through 280mm at 36mp full frame.  If 280mm is not close enough, the 36mp Nikon D810 will give me some flexibility for improving composition through cropping.  That is a benefit of a camera with a huge number of pixels.

Along with the above equipment, I will take the necessary accessories such as a couple of extra batteries, several extra memory cards, a polarizer, 6-stop and a 10-stop ND filters as well as camera, lens and sensor cleaning materials.

I plan to carry the gear that I use frequently in a 1977 Domke canvas bag that I bought from Jim Domke long before he sold the company.  It seems no matter how many bags I buy, I seem to always go back to that canvas bag.  The battery charger, sensor cleaning stuff and miscellaneous things will go in a separate small bag that will remain in the car, but be available if necessary.

How do I prepare for a road trip?  Instead of writing about it again, I will refer you to my previous writings, which can be found here, here, here, and here.  Preparation, even on a trip with no specific itinerary and/or timeline, can be the difference between enjoyment, pleasure, education, making good memories as well as bringing back some really great images and regretting you didn't do more preparation!

I will be blogging along the way, at least three times a week if not more.  In the past, I would blog a short version of the day's journey and activities as well as post an image or two.  I intend to follow the same pattern, so check back.

We will leave southeastern Virginia and head west/southwest and spend the first night in Asheville, North Carolina.  After that, well, it depends upon what we find and what we want to do.  Generally, however, we plan to head west from there at least as far as Sedona and the Grand Canyon, if not farther.  For a return, we will head south, then take a southerly route back east.

I really look forward to taking at least two long and several short road trips each year.  To me, there is nothing quite like driving smaller roads, going through smaller cities and towns, eating at local restaurants and meeting wonderful people across this great country.  Couple that with visiting some of our great national parks as well as other attractions and you have one heck of a wonderful trip.

More later.

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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