All right, welcome to our new car. This is going to be our car for the next 14 days
I just got it like an hour ago
But I'm already out here trying to make some images. I have to take advantage of having the car
I didn't have a car for the last few days. So yeah, I did miss being out here
This is our third rental car so far on this trip to the US and it's not gonna be the last one
so this is something I wanted to talk about because if your photography involves any kind of travel or going to
places at all
You're gonna have to deal with owning or renting a car at some point and it can get really expensive
We got the first car in LA and we dropped it off here in Portland 24 days later, 6,000 miles
later, and it was something like
$2,400. That's because we had to get all kind of insurance
Because we don't have any insurance here in the States anymore because we don't own a car
So yeah, it got really expensive and you have to add gas, of course
that was some $500
it's still not too bad for the amount of miles that we actually did
in Europe it'd have been much more expensive. And it also varies here in the states, I think it goes from the $4
we were paying in California to $2.50 in New Mexico. We're back to $3.50 here
But for example in Spain is something like $6/gallon and in France and Portugal is even more expensive
So yeah, gas is an important component too of course
the second car I got it for a few days, just 2 or 3, and it was a $100-$150
this is the third car, as I said. This is gonna be $700 for 14 days
I don't know if you've been doing the math, but this is gonna amount to
somewhere around $4,000-$5,000 if we count for another car than I'm planning on getting
in a few weeks for another big trip. So it's a lot of money, I don't have unlimited budget
I'm not rich
So $5,000 is a lot of money to spend on
photography and this raises the question that I was wondering about the other day: if someone was to give you
$5,000 to spend on your photography. What would you do with those $5,000?
I think this is a fair question
because a few weeks ago before we came on this trip
We had those $5,000 and I decided to spend them on this trip. This is something that we've talked about before
when we talked about photo books, if they were a good investment or if there was a a better way to
spend that money
We talked about camera gear and stuff like that
I said in that video that photo books can be a good investment
But I believed that traveling is a better investment yet
to improve your photography and to make you a better photographer and
$5,000 later
I still think the same way, I still believe that the best way to spend your money on your photography is just to go places
Even better than buying camera gear, you know
I could have bought a A7Riii or even a medium format a Fuji camera
Those are pretty nice. I could have even gone for a Hasselblad. That's my dream camera. I've always wanted to have a
Hasselblad but you know
if I did that I would be right now sitting on my couch just staring at my camera and
I wouldn't have any of the images and the experiences of
going to all those amazing place that I got to go in the last few weeks. I'm aware that
$5,000 is a lot of money and not everyone can afford that. I feel very lucky and very fortunate
I'm very thankful that I get to do this, and some people have the money but they don't have the time
so I'm also aware of that
but if for some reason you have some money to spare you have some time to spare
I would advise you to
Stop looking at camera gear if that's what you're doing and even stop looking at photo books and just go out
Rent a car and go somewhere or get a cheap flight to somewhere and just make some images on new places for you
That would be my advice.
One big, huge advantage that we have is that we don't pay
mortgage or rent at any place. We don't have a permanent home. So wherever we are, that's home for us
So when we travel we are not paying extra for lodging
it that makes sense. When we used to have an apartment here in Portland, if we went a couple weeks on a trip to
California and we paid for an Airbnb there, we would be paying twice: the rent here in Portland and the Airbnb in California
That's something that we don't have to do anymore now. Wherever we are, that's our rent, that's our mortgage
So it's not an extra cost, it doesn't cost us more. Of course, there are cheaper places
some places are more expensive, but it's our home and we are paying for that. It's not travel
It's not vacation, if that makes sense. I would also like to hear your opinion. Do you travel for photography at all?
Like you go on big trips just for photography, to make images?
And if you do, do you do it with your own car?
Do you rent a car or what do you do?
I'd love to hear your opinion on this
Of course me having a car means that I'm gonna be going places, expect a lot of videos and images coming soon, hopefully.
we have 2 days left here in Portland only
then we're gonna be heading south to Sonoma and San Francisco, to the Bay Area
I wanted to rent this car, we cancelled our flight we were supposed to be flying there,
I wanted to have a car down there to move and go places. So expect a bunch of videos, hopefully
and work from down there. Thank you so much for watching, see you in the next one