I have a new camera! I'm very excited. Dan, less so....it's a Canon G9, and so far it has amazed me with its versatility. Goes right into my bag, can shoot totally manual, and has the image stabilization thingy so photos I shoot in the hopes that they'll turn out but with low expectations, so far mostly have turned out. Canons are my favorite. The G9 is coming with us, along with Dan's Canon XTI and its assorted lenses and filters and tripods (which I might borrow), and the other newest member of our camera family, the Panasonic HD video camera. It shoots in resolution up to 1080p and saves it to the same kind of memory card the G9 uses, and has a Leica lens, which will be fantastic for all those sweeping shots of the desert. It's also unbelievably tiny, even smaller than the G9, so we can take all kinds of sneaky photos.
And you thought we were kidding when we said we were going to take 1000's of photos.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
22 days and counting....
before we leave. Starting to think about the logistical stuff more, like what to do with our two high-maintenance wiener dogs, and how best to cram a keyboard into the car so it can still be played without dislodging the tent and backpacks from the hatch, or the car from the road for that matter.
We've also been working on multiple playlists on our iPods. Between the two of us, we have 220 gb-worth of songs, or approximately enough to drive to the moon and back several times without repeating a single song, assuming you could buy diesel and coffee once you got to the moon. So the playlists are sort of necessary for sorting out all the songs by tempo, mood, state we're in (mental and geographical), etc. We also like to quiz each other by putting the iPod on shuffle, and seeing how quickly the other can guess the artist. Dan usually wins. No surprise there.
Some of the music that will probably go into semi-heavy rotation in the car includes Dan's favorite New Orleans music, like Dr. John, the Meters, and Fats Domino; classic rock for playing loud and driving fast; and alt country like Uncle Tupelo, Jim White, and Gillian Welch for the long dusty stretches. But then, each roadtrip has its own soundtrack, and you don't know what that is until you're underway. When we went to Memphis, it was mostly Johnny Cash, Al Green, Leadbelly, and surprisingly little Elvis. Going down to NOLA, it was the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Walter Wolfman Washington, Dr. John, and Green Day found their way in there once or twice. So, who knows, we could start out listening to Zeppelin and the Stones and the Radio 4 News Quiz, and have devolved into Metallica or Kylie Minogue or both by the time we hit Tulsa. Driver picks music, passenger plays DJ, and when we get slaphappy, it's anyone's guess what will be blasting out of the sunroof.
And now I have "Tombstone Blues" stuck in my head.
We've also been working on multiple playlists on our iPods. Between the two of us, we have 220 gb-worth of songs, or approximately enough to drive to the moon and back several times without repeating a single song, assuming you could buy diesel and coffee once you got to the moon. So the playlists are sort of necessary for sorting out all the songs by tempo, mood, state we're in (mental and geographical), etc. We also like to quiz each other by putting the iPod on shuffle, and seeing how quickly the other can guess the artist. Dan usually wins. No surprise there.
Some of the music that will probably go into semi-heavy rotation in the car includes Dan's favorite New Orleans music, like Dr. John, the Meters, and Fats Domino; classic rock for playing loud and driving fast; and alt country like Uncle Tupelo, Jim White, and Gillian Welch for the long dusty stretches. But then, each roadtrip has its own soundtrack, and you don't know what that is until you're underway. When we went to Memphis, it was mostly Johnny Cash, Al Green, Leadbelly, and surprisingly little Elvis. Going down to NOLA, it was the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Walter Wolfman Washington, Dr. John, and Green Day found their way in there once or twice. So, who knows, we could start out listening to Zeppelin and the Stones and the Radio 4 News Quiz, and have devolved into Metallica or Kylie Minogue or both by the time we hit Tulsa. Driver picks music, passenger plays DJ, and when we get slaphappy, it's anyone's guess what will be blasting out of the sunroof.
And now I have "Tombstone Blues" stuck in my head.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Getting our Kicks, Part One
...on Route 66.
In a few weeks, we leave on our Roadtrip. We've both gone on long roadtrips before, together and separately, east coast, west coast, and south coast, but this will be the longest trip we've taken together. 13 days out and back, in a hatchback loaded with camping gear, camera gear, running gear, music gear, and probably a few books, iPods, and coffee cups rattling around there too.
The route will roughly follow Route 66. We don't have an itinerary, but Dan has a gig in Chicago the night before, and going that route is the most efficient way to get from Chicago to LA. Besides, it's the iconic Great American Roadtrip. We plan on flying through the midwest, and setting up camp somewhere between Tulsa and Tucumcari - depends on how far we get the 1st night. The next couple of days will be spent going quickly in a leisurely fashion through the desert Southwest, stopping at a canyon here, a National Park there, taking 1000's of photos (probably not much of an exaggeration), and ending up in Hermosa Beach. 4 or 5 or 6 days there, then we turn around and go back again, stopping at a diner here, another park there, and filling up the memory cards on all of our cameras.
This blog will be updated as time and WiFi connections allow. We're bringing one of the laptops, so we can share our trip with you Live and As It Happens!! More or less, anyway. The good stuff, anyway. Any suggestions along the way, let us know - we're flying by the seat of our pants here, with only the weather, the open road, and our less-than-reliable GPS as our guides.
I can't wait.
In a few weeks, we leave on our Roadtrip. We've both gone on long roadtrips before, together and separately, east coast, west coast, and south coast, but this will be the longest trip we've taken together. 13 days out and back, in a hatchback loaded with camping gear, camera gear, running gear, music gear, and probably a few books, iPods, and coffee cups rattling around there too.
The route will roughly follow Route 66. We don't have an itinerary, but Dan has a gig in Chicago the night before, and going that route is the most efficient way to get from Chicago to LA. Besides, it's the iconic Great American Roadtrip. We plan on flying through the midwest, and setting up camp somewhere between Tulsa and Tucumcari - depends on how far we get the 1st night. The next couple of days will be spent going quickly in a leisurely fashion through the desert Southwest, stopping at a canyon here, a National Park there, taking 1000's of photos (probably not much of an exaggeration), and ending up in Hermosa Beach. 4 or 5 or 6 days there, then we turn around and go back again, stopping at a diner here, another park there, and filling up the memory cards on all of our cameras.
This blog will be updated as time and WiFi connections allow. We're bringing one of the laptops, so we can share our trip with you Live and As It Happens!! More or less, anyway. The good stuff, anyway. Any suggestions along the way, let us know - we're flying by the seat of our pants here, with only the weather, the open road, and our less-than-reliable GPS as our guides.
I can't wait.
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