Epic Road Trip, 2024: Tennessee to Oregon Coast and back

[TNcasual]

Nearly four years ago, deep in the Covid nightmare of 2020, my family took an epic road trip from Knoxville, TN to Salem, OR to drop off our son at college. It was a wonderful experience where we saw many amazing sites.

Four years later, it was time for a return trip for our son's graduation. This time was a bit more direct of a route, but also an extended stay with our son to have a proper family vacation. Again, it was a wonderful experience where we saw some absolutely beautiful sites along the way.

To document this trip, I wanted to do something a bit different. I didn't want to take my heavy Pentax K1. Instead, I purchased a new-to-me Sigma fpL. This was in an attempt to have an "every-day-carry" type of camera. Also, I had a concept of the type of photography I want to work on. I chose to shoot more documentary style, mainly in black and white, and almost exclusively in 21:9 aspect ratio. I was going for a more cinematic look and feel. I did expand to color and other aspect ratios when the subject matter called for it. But I kept mostly to the theme. Also, the majority of the processing is the in-camera monochrome and color processing. Though if a shot needed re-cropping or adjusted, I PP the DNG.

The beginning:

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[TNcasual]

Day two (MO to WY):

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[TNcasual]

Day three (WY to ID):

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[TNcasual]

Day 4 (ID to Eastern OR):

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[rloewy]

Day two (MO to WY):

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That's in Nebraska somewhere, right?

 

[TNcasual]

That's in Nebraska somewhere, right?

Yes, Kearney, NE

 

[TNcasual]

Day 5 (all in OR):

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It was so windy at the beginning of the Columbia River Gorge that I had a hard time pushing open the car door to get out and take these shots.

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[doobs]

Nice treatise.

Congratulations to you and your son.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Now for the all important question, what is your son's degree in?

 

[lilyelliott4]

Your family’s return trip sounds like an amazing experience! It’s wonderful that you could enjoy such beautiful sights and make lasting memories together. Choosing the Sigma fpL for your journey was a smart move for its portability and versatility. Shooting in a documentary style with a 21:9 aspect ratio and primarily in black and white must have given your photos a unique and cinematic feel. It's great that you let the subject matter guide when to switch to color and different aspect ratios. Using in-camera processing for most of your shots shows your dedication to capturing the moment authentically. Your graduation photos must be stunning!

 

[doobs]

Your family’s return trip sounds like an amazing experience! It’s wonderful that you could enjoy such beautiful sights and make lasting memories together. Choosing the Sigma fpL for your journey was a smart move for its portability and versatility. Shooting in a documentary style with a 21:9 aspect ratio and primarily in black and white must have given your photos a unique and cinematic feel. It's great that you let the subject matter guide when to switch to color and different aspect ratios. Using in-camera processing for most of your shots shows your dedication to capturing the moment authentically. Your photos must be stunning!

Welcome to Camaraderie!

 

[John King]

How far was it in total, Greg ?

 

[TNcasual]

Nice treatise.

Congratulations to you and your son.

Thanks.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
Now for the all important question, what is your son's degree in?

Sociology.

How far was it in total, Greg ?

It was roughly 5,800 miles.

I still have more photos to post, as well.

 

[TNcasual]

The next few days was spent exploring around Salem, OR and celebrating my son's graduation.

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We also walked through the Oregon Garden in Silverton.

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Apparently there is a subspecies of the common garter snake that only lives in northwestern Oregon and southwestern Washington. It was a rather pretty snake

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[TNcasual]

Just outside of the Oregon Garden is The Gordon House, a dwelling designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The House was originally built in 1964 near the Willamette River. But in the early 2000's it was purchased and slated for demolition. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy stepped in and relocated the house to its current location at the Oregon Garden in Silverton.

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This is the second late career building of Wright's I have seen. The other being the Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ.

 

[agentlossing]

Just outside of the Oregon Garden is The Gordon House, a dwelling designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The House was originally built in 1964 near the Willamette River. But in the early 2000's it was purchased and slated for demolition. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy stepped in and relocated the house to its current location at the Oregon Garden in Silverton.

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This is the second late career building of Wright's I have seen. The other being the Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ.

I'm sad I didn't know about this when I lived in Oregon, it's very cool! I will definitely have to check it out when I am back down that direction.

I'm enjoying your photos thus far! The Sigma did a really nice job, as did you.

 

[John King]

It was roughly 5,800 miles.

I still have more photos to post, as well.

I'm very slowly keywording the several thousand photos we took on our recent 7,000 km trip.

Unfortunately, the extremely rough roads gave me a sub-dural haematoma that ended up with two lots of brain surgery, over 6 weeks in hospital.

I'm still convalescing, nearly 4 months later.
However, lucky to be alive, with only very minor deficits.

 

[lilyelliott4]

Welcome to Camaraderie!

Thanks @doobs. I might have a fun over here.

 

[TNcasual]

I'm very slowly keywording the several thousand photos we took on our recent 7,000 km trip.

Unfortunately, the extremely rough roads gave me a sub-dural haematoma that ended up with two lots of brain surgery, over 6 weeks in hospital.

I'm still convalescing, nearly 4 months later.
However, lucky to be alive, with only very minor deficits.

I'm sorry to hear about your health issues. Best of luck in recovery.

I had over 3000 images. But a good majority of that is because the fpL records a DNG for every bracketed jpeg option I set. I bracketed a color and B&W frame for each shot, so I got 4 image files on every frame. It is silly that that is the set up.

 

[TNcasual]

After graduation we spent a couple days exploring Portland again.

We spent some time on the Lower eastside where there is some really nice art on the buildings. While driving around my phone dropped out of my pocket. I realized this about 10 minutes later. Using Find My, I was able to see the phone was not too far away, but it kept refreshing and appearing that it was moving. Fortunately, my partner suggested just retracing our path. We returned to this first image. The phone was pretty much exactly where I stood taking this photo.

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