I am pretty excited about this. Probably more excited than I have been in a long time. I am going to Nepal for the first two weeks of October. I have wanted to get to Nepal/Tibet/N India for a long time, and one of three is a great start.

This trip is a photography workshop with 2 great cultural, humanitarian and world photographers: Jeffrey Chapman and David duChemin. I have been following David, and reading his books for some time now. It never seemed like it was a good time to go on a two week trip to the other side of the world, but the desire to go wasn’t just nagging anymore, it was calling. Fortunately for me, (but not the other poor soul) there was a participant that injured their back, and a space opened. I luckily had some early knowledge, and got to think about it for a couple of days, and when it was announced via Davids blog, I jumped.

The goal with this trip is not just to take some pretty pictures. It is a workshop, and with a small group and two instructors, there should be lots of learning opportunities. It should be a good deal different than the previous landscape workshop (DLWS) that I was on, and the weddings I have been shooting, and that is a good thing.

The last time I was halfway around the world, it was Indonesia, and I was a teenager. That was a long time ago. I’ve been to England with Annie in there, but this is different. Indonesia was where I first shot slides on a manual 35mm film camera. Haven’t done that since. Been meaning to look for those and grimace a bit

Well, I can’t wait. I have three weddings and other stuff in there before that, but it seems both soon and far away. I guess that’s what looking forward to something does for you.

Slideshows on my return.

This is one from the archives. It has nothing to do with Memorial Day, other than the sky looks like this here right now.

I just like this picture. Nothing special, plain sky, skyline almost centered, but somehow I like it. I still think your eye travels around the image, from the down town to the Space Needle, to the little red boat in the middle (that would be easier to see without my signature in the way!).

I was traveling from Winnipeg to Minneapolis on March 21 when I ran into a long traffic line. Right in the middle of I29, I came to a stop. I knew that there was flooding issues. I had seen lots of water on the sides of the highway for quite awhile. Most of the flooding was occurring when there was a tributary flowing into the Red River. So when we came to a stop, I had an idea that it was water related.

I figured that there was a problem on the road and we were getting diverted. Maybe one side of the road was higher than the other and we were needing to have traffic from both directions merge onto one side of the divided highway. But I couldn’t see what the issue was yet. All I knew was that the water was getting higher and higher in my lane!

By this time the road had been narrowed to one lane, and there was less than an inch flowing across the road. Well, this isn’t too bad I thought. They wouldn’t keep the road open if there was a lot of water, would they? But the water kept getting deeper and deeper. There were shorter sections where it dipped at bit, and the truck in front of me was making pretty big splashes, especially considering we were going so slow.

I figure that the most water we went through was about  6 in. That was enough for me. I was expecting my hybrid to get swept away!

I took some video with the D90 too, but don’t have that processed yet. I had it resting on the steering wheel, which turns out not to be the most stable place. Seem like you have to turn it a little bit! Made it back safe. That looks to be where the worst of the flooding was on I29.

I am pretty sure that it was the Sheyenne river trying to make it’s way to the Red river.

View Larger Map

When we first looked at the map, Google said it would be 11 hours to go through Chicago. Been there, done what, wanted a different way. Checked out the route above. Google said 14+ hours. What? It’s shorter! Well, just like when reading a topo map, the shortest route up that path with the gradient lines really close together isn’t always a good idea. The twisty turny single lane highways of Michigan at night with zero light from the sky and people doing 35mph in front of you, can throw off your time estimates off as well.

Well, we made it, and it was fun. Will probably take the same route home, this time when there is light while heading up through the pretty sections of Michigan.

Anyway, only 5 hours left until DLWS starts!

I found a couple of sites that could help in the research. The Photographers Guide to Seattleblog looks interresting.

There is a flickr map of Seattle to check out.

I also found this Google map of one guys Seattle photos. Some of these night shots would be really neat to take. Once again, not sure how easy to get to these by bus. A scooter maybe?