Photographer Ruth Bernhard had always stated that the best photographs were those taken thirty feet from your front door. Imogen Cunningham also did a lot of photography that was either close to home or ”In the neighborhood”. And Photographer Ansel Adams did a lot of traveling for his personal photography; Edward Weston did some limited traveling, when he had the funds. But he also had the best place to photograph, Point Lobos, Calif. To date, I believe many of us do a lot of driving and flying for our photography. This is part of being a photographer, I would suspect.
I had just read that the forecast of gas prices might hit four dollars a gallon and I would like to hear from you if you plan to do any traveling? Do you plan to take fieldtrips, workshops, attend photography events or do you plan to stay close to home and plan day trips. If you are planning to travel. How? By car, plane or train. How far? Do you plan to stay closer to your home area or go out?
When I photograph, I find that I usually work by myself. Not that I’m anti-social but photography is a private time for me. I like to look, see, study what I’m photographing and then take my time. A rush photograph looks just like that rushed. I never go with my wife or kids. They just don’t get it. “It’s hurry, hurry hurry. We want to go.”
I do once in awhile go with other photographers because I also do enjoy the comradely of what we do. I don’t do much photography then and do more talking shop or listening to stories of my companions. Different aspect of photography but just as important to me.
So, my next question to you is. Do you think with the coming price costs, do you see doing more carpooling?
I would like to know what you have to say and share on this subject. I do see myself curtailing my outings to certain times, locations and destinations. What do plan to do?
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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit"
Aristotle
I cycle or take a train to get to where I want to photograph. Taking a car is a pain because you have to find somewhere to park, you arrive tired from the drive etc.
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I cycle or take a train to get to where I want to photograph. Taking a car is a pain because you have to find somewhere to park, you arrive tired from the drive etc.
Yes, I to would like to take the train but my train service here is so bad. I went to Northern Calif from Portland, Oregon. A supposedly 24 hour trip but it took nearly 36+ hours. I saved a bundle but lost a day. I tip my hat to Europe and other nations that have a great train system.
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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit"
Aristotle
Robert, you should have hopped a boxcar. I'm pretty sure freight schedules are better than passenger service in the States.
Mike
That would have been a sight. Me running to hop a moving train with a 8x10, medium format cameras, tripod and support equipment in tow. I would be an eyewitness news item. "Man squished by train."
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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit"
Aristotle
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I cycle or take a train to get to where I want to photograph. Taking a car is a pain because you have to find somewhere to park, you arrive tired from the drive etc.
I cycle to the local park, but arrive tired. I find that the drive to the park is much more relaxing. IDK how you do it!
As for train service, the worst schedule delays we have here are from NYC to Rochester. The other way, from Rochester to NYC seem to run on time. Trains I have taken out beyond Chicago have been within minutes of arriving on time traveling across the continent. The real problem I find is frequency and choice of destination. Thus, the train either does not go where I want it to, or I have to wait for hours at a time.
One amusing example is to go from Rochester to Montreal, I can get one train a day to NH where I change to the Vermonter. Unfortunately, the Vermonter leaves 1 hour before the Roch - Vermont train arrives in VT. So, I have a 24 hour layover. To make a better connection, I have to go all the way to NYC and then go north on the Vermonter.
OTOH, I can get to Toronto several times a day from Roch and they are almost always on time.
Unfortunately, I don't have bucket loads of money for it not to matter. BTW, what does this have to do with exposure?
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"Photography is an illusion. It is amazing that human beings consider a photograph to be a representation of reality."
---John Sexton
Location: Datchet, Berkshire UK- about 20 miles west of London
Posts: 280
Here in the UK petrol is between $9 and $10 per gallon depending on type and where you buy it. The roads are still packed Of course one difference is that our cars here are generally made to deliver much better mpg than cars sold in the US. For example I spent the first half of February in California. I hired a Rav4 which turned in maybe 22 mpg- which one of the best I've had from a SUV sold in the US. The same car in the UK would deliver up at least 35mpg, and my larger 4wd Volvo here gets me about that level too. The thing I find increasingly difficult to understand about the US is why there is not a great deal more pressure put on manufacturers and importers to deliver much better fuel consumption. Most other places in the world just put much more efficient engines in the same cars and if they didn't then they wouldn't sell many. The US consumer seems to be very concerned about the cost of fuel but not really concerned about cost per mile which surely is the important currency to judge. Put another way, instead of concluding that you need to stop photographing or stop photographing alone, why don't you (and others) simply swap your car for one that reduces your cost per mile. If you all stopped buying new cars with lousy mpg and stopped buying used ones so the prices collapsed, there would be a message going out that the Fords of this world could not afford to ignore.
For myself I'm going to stop renting the Explorers etc that I like to drive over there until they turn in the equivalent of 30mpg. I'm going to make sure that every company I rent from learns that fuel consumption is important to me, and that by failing to deliver acceptable mpg they are earning less because I'll choose less expensive cars that give me what I want. The thing I'm absolutely not going to do is to photograph less. I can save at least a third of my fuel and at least a third of my rental by changing the car I choose.
Gas is $112.9 Canadian a litre here (no calculator handy, but * 3.8 litres/US gallon * 1.02 Canadian dollars per US dollar) and it hasn't stopped me from doing any photography or travelling. In fact, I have a conference in Vancouver in May that I've decided to attend by car (padding the dates on either side with some vacation time).
I drive a decently fuel-efficient car (it's not a compact but it uses under 10 litres per 100 km).
I only have one life. If I choose not to see the world, then I don't see the world. I've chosen to see it.
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Jim MacKenzie - Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Four dollars a gallon. 
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