last episode i mentioned that i was kind
of sick and that hasn't changed i'm
still fighting a cold but starting to
get over it and right in time too
because we're starting our massive
double road trip the game plan and maybe
i'll just do like a google maps to show
you this is today we're heading to white
sands then through roswell to west texas
to austin to new orleans
up through atlanta to philadelphia to
new york to drop jody off by february
10th on february 10th i'm starting the
crazy road trip all the way back south
and that's gonna be yeah crazy so um i
guess it's time to hit the roads to
white's ends
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[Applause]
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oh
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just made it to new mexico land of
enchantment still have like two hours
drive until we get to white sands and
hopefully there will be you know
enchanted let's go
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in a bit of a recurring trend i'm a
little bit late for sunset or at least a
little bit rushed but the good news is
i've been here to white sands before so
i kind of know what i'm looking for i
kind of know how the layout is
this place is crazy as you can see it
looks like snow everywhere this is sand
as the name obviously suggests we're at
white sands and this place is just this
vast area of beautiful white desert now
the challenge of this place though is
that people walk all over it there's
footprints everywhere there's tripod
like spots in the ground everywhere so
finding a spot that's clean fresh
pristine desert is the challenge and you
kind of got to walk in to find that so
we're going to walk maybe 20 minutes
into the dunes and try to find that
perfect composition
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so the hardest part about landscape
photography is somewhere like white
sands is showing scale this place is
enormous and it's just a massive area
the dunes are quite large and yeah it's
just a bit of a challenge showing how
big it is it's also a challenge finding
a foreground finding an anchor one of
the classic things photographers do at
white sands is to find a yuca plant all
by itself in the white and use that as
the subject for their image but since
that's become kind of a popular image
every time you find a yucca you'll see
footprints all around it and tripod
marks all around it so
it's a mission absolute mission
and don't believe in make believe just
make your hands me
say your weak and then we can never
stress a thing but we gonna go another
day when we don't disagree and when the
sun shining regardless if you do believe
hey
in the morning when i see your face need
you more when you go i need you more
everyday keep a foot on the break in
case i lose all control
yeah so baby don't
so finding a foreground has kind of been
a bit of a fail and option number two
for photos here at white sands is
using a long lens and compressing the
landscape i mentioned how it's really
hard to show how big it is and how tall
the sand dunes are we use a wide angle
lens it flattens everything out when you
use a telephoto lens it makes everything
look it looks deeper and with the
shadows right now just before sunset
there's really nice contrast to the
landscape almost a bluey shadow and this
white top to it so the contours the
textures are all just brilliant i just
need to add a little bit more depth so
i'm gonna get jody who's now strutting
her stuff over there to throw on her red
jacket to give a nice contrast to the
scene and go stand up on that dune way
back that way i'm going to shoot like
200 millimeters fairly simple shot maybe
f8 and i think it's going to come out
really really cool
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now you make me smile
baby how you make me smile
smile when i see you
the thing about being a travel
photographer is trying to be productive
when you're shooting shooting two or
three different images not just
landscape photos not just travel photos
but maybe even some portraits or
something like that so jody's got her
red dress on which i absolutely love and
huh red kite what did i say red dress
i stand corrected red coat she's got a
red coat on that i love i love also the
like fake fur hood and the way the back
light is catching it it's just
absolutely stunning it's really really
nice key light and i think this
contrasty white background will almost
look like a snowy background and i think
that could be really cool so i'm going
to stick with the 70-200 and knock out a
couple portraits
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sunset's about time maybe five minutes
10 minutes away
and i don't really have a shot for
sunset yet
but
i saw a yucca or a plant of some sort
just up this way that looks like it
might be an okay foreground it's a
little bit in the shadow already but i
think we're gonna make a move on it walk
over that way and get set up for sunset
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so i think i got kind of lucky i found
this really cool plant here right kind
of directly in front of the sunset and i
wanted to take it to a next level rather
than just a photo of this plant i'm
gonna get jody right
there jody stop
i'm gonna get jody right there i'm gonna
have the plant here and then i'm gonna
have the sun star behind jody's
silhouette and i think i i hope this is
gonna come out really cool with
landscape photography
yeah it looks great if you have a plant
and and a sunset but if you can add that
extra element of scale it just takes it
to the next level so that's what we're
gonna try to do the sun's almost on the
horizon and i think i hope this should
look cool
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this place just boggles my mind every
time and it tends to frustrate me a
little bit as well because it's so hard
to capture the beauty of this place the
sky right now is beautiful in every
direction blues that way pinks and
peaches that way yellows and greens that
way just such a phenomenal place i've
got a second composition set up aimed
towards the pink and blues i love the
kind of contrast from the blue onto the
pink there's one of these i think
they're yuka a yuka in the foreground
with some fairly pristine dune in front
of it and it's not a mind-blowing shot
it's a simple shot but i still really
like it and yeah you i can't get over
this place every time i come here i just
don't even want to take pictures i just
want to wander around looking at it it's
one of those places that just yeah
outerworldly
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so i'm not sure you're going to be able
to tell but the sky is absolutely
exploded in the background and i of
course had just packed up my gear and it
was gonna say that i was kind of kicking
myself for packing up early but the
truth is i'm packing up early for a
reason because in the past i almost got
extremely extremely lost here the first
time i ever came to white sands national
monument was maybe like five or six
years ago and back then i didn't even
own a phone and maybe actually i have
some footage of this you really see how
it would be easy to get lost out here in
these dunes
i'm on my way back after taking some
pictures i really have no idea where i
am
can't see anybody else
i'm just walking towards where i think i
parked the car
but i didn't have a phone so i didn't
have gps but i was clever or at least i
thought it was clever so i took this old
garmin gps that my parents had
took it out of the car and walked with
it out into the middle of the dunes i
was just wearing a t-shirt nothing else
it was warm got out there and i shot all
the way until dark
as soon as it gets dark here it gets
cold like like that instantly gets cold
here and i decided to head back i
reached for the gps only to find out it
was dead so no phone no gps
very little idea of where i was in the
dunes and this place is extremely
disorienting we have gps right now and
even now we're kind of a little bit
confused walking back and it was
actually pretty dangerous because it got
to be like minus three degrees
and i had no light
no gps and like i said no idea and i was
literally walking through the dunes here
with my old canon t2i
that had a flash on the top flashing off
the flash of the camera to try to walk
my way back to the road eventually i got
back to the road was triggering like the
keys hoping to hear the beep of the horn
and finally found it but it was actually
kind of getting a little bit desperate
and people do get into lots of trouble
here at white sands getting lost
disoriented and i i even think people
have died in here
kind of gruesome and that's a probably a
happy way to end this vlog
death despair
and beauty here at white sands national
monument it was a fun shoot even if it
was only like a half an hour 45 minutes
we've got a really really long drive
ahead of us
over the next week so we kind of got to
push on i might come back here tomorrow
morning for sunrise but i am still
really sick so i guess we'll see how
that goes and i guess that's it story
time's over vlog's over i'll see you
tomorrow peace
you