The night before I left on my "Canyonlands" adventure, my son asked if I was excited. "Yes," I replied. He, after all, had watched all day as I rushed around, packing my bag, making last minute arrangements, etc.... There was no denying the fact.
Then I paused for a moment, considering the deeper implications of my answer (lest he should get the wrong idea) and added, "Unfortunately, it will all evaporate too soon... it's hard to get overly excited about such things anymore." (How's that for a wise-ass, old-fart answer?)
Now, just over one week later, the adventure is over and the realities of my day to day life are, once again, about to come back into focus. Off to work, dealing with projects, both unfinished and unstarted, caring for ailing loved ones (myself included) and everything else that makes life so grand. Little is left of my Canyonlands journey but a pocketful of shared experiences, a few personal insights, and a 7 gigabytes worth of flash memory.
Now, about that flash memory. I took around 1200 photos, in all, between my pocket camera (which I used far more than anticipated) and my aging DLSR. The pocket cam captured the JPEGs, and the DSLR the RAW. It will take weeks to get through the processing of the RAW images, as so many will also require HDR conversions. A tedious chore, to be sure, but also a labor of love. Even though I can see already that not many of them will be that good.
And really, what else do I have left?
To be honest, I'm not yet sure. Some things just take longer to digest than others. A trip such as this could take months, or even years to fully develop. The memories and insights, like the unprocessed RAW files, are not yet realized. They're in there, just like all the ingredients in that spaghetti sauce, but they have yet to be printed, framed, and mounted.
The image presented here was taken at Labyrinth camp B along the White Rim 4wd trail. A hot, dry, and windy place where the ground is so hard that rocks must be used to anchor ones tents. It is a truly desert environment where shade from the mid-day sun is a premium commodity. This is an HDR image, one of the first I saw fit to muck with. As usual, I have attempted to keep the HDR tom-foolery to a minimum in order to present a more natural looking image.
4 comments:
" "Unfortunately, it will all evaporate too soon... it's hard to get overly excited about such things anymore." (How's that for a wise-ass, old-fart answer?)"
And this Sunday we are off to Rome then Florence for a two week adventure (and crazy-person-spending-spree). And afterward it fades to... work-a-day reality. Thers's spmething to be said for building a holodeck with your money. You can return to a grand entertainment center whene ver you need to find an escape hole. After that money's spent.. the place exists both outside of your mind and as a refuge for it at any spontaneous moment.
Perhaps that's why you took gigs of images? Perhaps that's one reason we want images as ways to remind us... how to return to Great Adventures? Travel is an ephemeral barbituate, even when we take it continually. Unless we add the place we travel to our work-a-day-whirled... But if we return continually, is it an adventure?
In a couple of weeks my anticipation will mirror your memory. How to make one as powerful as the other?
Ted
And I do know how to spell "barbiturate"... see!
Stunning!
Not very HDRish, which is a good thing. In fact I would never have had an idea without your hint.
As to travel and taking images, well, at least it helps. Form all my travels I remember only those places where I have taken images. The only two exceptions are Venice and Rome. I have learned both cities by heart before I even went there and could easily have functioned as travel guide. Well, and in Rome I have been five times, each time for a week. Repetition helps as well :)
Andreas
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