October 8, 2013

We are on the road for a month of Fall color. Not as long as the great 3 month winter tour, but no less epic for that. This time it’s yours truly Gavin Seim, my wife Sondra, our 3 kids, my brother and co-producer Nathan and his wife Allie. Yea, that means two cars and a lot of gas to pay for. So this trip has to be really good.

We’re filming the new PHOTOGRAPHICS Miniseries, making new pictorials and Super Camping around the west. (FYI you can check out our camping resource guide here). We’ve got 4×5 film, a cinema camera and the open road. We’ll bring you the play by play right here. You can also check out our travel map. Bring it on! Gav

Day 17-25 – Epic Hiking, Climbing Rock, and Death Camp

We’ve been on the move. Some very nice days in Utah. We were up as high as Ten Thousand feet near Cedar Breaks and down to Zion and one of the most amazing campsites ever. I finally got an image that did our secret view justice. Stay tuned for that. Nathan and I even hiked the Subway. 8 miles of grueling labor but the stunning scenery was more than an ample reward. The goods and footage are coming soon from that effort.

Nest we headed down through Vegas. We stayed most of the next day, but we didn’t touch the slots. We ran errands and did some rock climbing with a guy we met while looking around REI. It was really cool and we geared up a bit so we can climb on our own.

Next up was Death Valley. We camped on the ruins of an old trailer park on some BLM land just outside the park. Since it was so close we affectionately called it death camp. Desolation abounds, but so do interesting things. We spent a couple days there and now we’re moving on to Yosemite as we come into the final week on the road. Photographics is coming out beautifully and I have a selection of grand images that will make this trip well worth the effort.

Sondra Seim and kids
Sondra and the kids with me at sunset in Death valley. It’s a desolate place, but there is much beauty here.
We went climbing with an off duty promoted we met at REI. That promoted us to go out and buy some gear of out own. Good times.
We went climbing with an off duty Policeman we met at REI. That prompted us to go out and buy some gear of our own. Good times.
Zion hike, subway
Nathan rolling some stunning footage during a long hike. What a beautiful area.
Gavin Seim Shoes Tree
The shoe tree along US 50 in Utah. Apparently it’s a thing.
Gavin Seim truck
The great new sign on the tailgate. Just so people know who we are. 😉
Cedar Breaks Camping
Camped at 10,500 ft near Cedar Breaks. Neat area, but it was a bit cooler.

Day 8-16 The Wild Wandering Color: It’s been a good week. We’ve moved from Idaho, to Utah, to Nevada and Back to Utah. The color has been soothing to the busy mind and the filming we’ve been able to do in these locations is nothing short of stunning. We’ve pulled hours of footage in some of the most beautiful places on earth.

We’re catching up on email and supplies and then we’ll head into Cedar Breaks for some new views. After that, off to Zion, then down through Vegas to swing up to Death Valley and Yosemite NP. We’re about halfway through and the results are looking good.

here's a fun outtake from the filming we were doing up in the hills. Sometimes you can't help yourself.
Here’s a fun outtake from the filming we were doing up in the hills. Sometimes you can’t help yourself. You can pre-order the film here.
The secret is for the parent not to enter a situation whereby the children can see the playground from the car window. Once this happens the parent has few options for escape.
The secret is for the parent not to enter a situation whereby the children can see the playground from the car window. Once this happens the parent has few options for escape.
Nathan working hard as we film up on the Nebo loop.
Nathan working hard as we film up on the Nebo loop.
We found wild Ephedra Viridis which makes a great tea. The kids were having a blast.
We found wild Ephedra Viridis which makes a great tea. The kids were having a blast.

 

A free camp up in Great Basin National park. A little hidden gem in Nevada that's quite stunning.
A free camp up in Great Basin National park. A little hidden gem in Nevada that’s quite stunning.

 

Day 6 – 8. Braking Bad: We we made it down into Utah and camped at a favorite spot up by Ogden. You can see it on the maps.

Then we headed down to Salt lake area. Now along the way I realized that something as seriously wrong with the brakes on the camper. It was barely grabbing and that’s not a good feeling on those steep Utah hills. We parked at the Cabelas lot in Lehi and tore into them.

It’s taken us a few days of running for parts, but being in a big city helped. It was shot, drums scoured, magnets worn to wire. We totally replaced the entire brake system on all 4 tires and should be ready to roll in the morning with beautiful grippy brakes.

While in town I picked up some other parts for the Super Camper and ran some errands, including a trip to Picture Line in Salt Lake where I dropped them a copy of the EXposed workshop to consider carrying in the store.

We also just released a brand new image from Idaho. Check it out. Tomorrow we move on and see what the open road brings.

Side 1 torn down. It's not as hard as it look. Replaced the entire system for about $400. We're talking backing plates, drums and all.
Side 1 torn down. It’s not as hard as it look. Replaced the entire system for about $400. We’re talking backing plates, drums and all.

Day 2-5 – It’s been a great ride already. We covered a good deal of miles and made it into far Idaho (from where I live, that’s SE Idaho). We’ll head down into Utah soon. We have two vehicles in our little caravan and we have been roaming all over. We left the interstate and found some Fall color in the Idaho highlands. We went up to Craters of The Moon monument and the stunning desolation that was there. Gavin even nearly got arrested in an encounter where he filmed a traffic stop and would not back down. It actually got a lot of news coverage. Some agree, some do not. But we can all agree that there’s nothing like a great American road trip.

We have have camped out in WalMart lots for the first few nights, but now we're fining the color. This stunning free campspot up by Bigwood river in ID gave us some great views and we pulled form neat footage for PHOTOGRAPHICS.
We have camped out in WalMart lots for the first few nights, but now we’re finding the color. This stunning free camp spot up by Big Wood River in South Idaho gave us some great views and we pulled some neat footage for PHOTOGRAPHICS.

 

Stunning textural lava flows at Craters of The Moon.
Stunning textural lava flows at Craters of The Moon.
We drove up to Creators of the Moon National Monument. It was truly a grand piece of barren desolation. But due to our lovley goverment shitting down it was closed. We managed to go back down the road and walk in from a pullout. Got some good visuals.
We drove up to Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was truly a grand piece of barren desolation. But due to our lovely government shutting down it was closed. We managed to go back down the road and walk in from a pullout. Got some good visuals.

Day 1

Loaded and ready. We did not hot the road tille about 6PM, but we drove none the less making it to a wal mart parking lot on Pendleton Oregon the first night. The secenmey will get better ;)
Loaded and ready on 10/7/11. We did not hit the road until about 6PM, but we drove none the less, making it to a Walmart parking lot in Pendleton, Oregon the first night. The scenery will get better 😉

 

 

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September 23, 2013

Solder Summit Utah, Gavin Seim
Solder Summit Utah, Gavin Seim

Click To Listen>> Photography Podcast. PPS #94

Direct Podcast FeediTunesPodcast Alley

Today’s Panel… Gavin Seim Bary HowellMark Teskey.

This week Gavin, Mark and Barry talk about the biggest things in photo news, take a look at some business ideas and talk about Fall color.

This episode brought to you by Power Workflow 4 and the HOT ONE award winning EXposed Workshop.

PPS #94 Forum Discussion HERE.

Main Time Indexes:

  • 00:00 Introductions.
  • 02:40 News and Stuff
  • 35:25 NOT a Photographer
  • 48:25 Showing at the Fair.
  • 51:30 The Main Crux
  • 1:05:10 The Favorite Season
  • 1:20:4- The Picks

LINKS…

Check out our SPEEDCinema Kickstarter project.

The PHOTOGRAPHICS miniseries.

Canon C100

VIDEO: Selling Photos as Fine Furniture.
Adobe Cloud exceeds 1M subscribers, stock rises.

Photoshop 14.1 – shake reduction improvements.

Updates to Canon Professional Services
D610 Nikon

Canon lens falling off

Kodak metallic inkjet paper

Photography Hall of Fame.

NOT a Photographer article.

Showing Wall Portraits at the Fair.

The Photography Teacher No One Wants.

Picks:

Barry,

Wall Sproutz Desks

Nikon WU1B Wireless unit.

Mark:

Cam Ranger

Still Motion Blog

EOS M

 

Gavin.

2TB portable drive

USB to SATA bare drive cable.

Sennheiser EW 112P

 

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August 8, 2013

A portrait of Gavin and his family by Ken Whitmire. Made while they were camped out for Wall Portrait Conference 2012. It hangs as a sixty inch print on canvas in Gavin’s living room.

A Super Campers Guide to The Galaxy!

If you’ve read stories like how we spend months on the road in a camper with our kids or seen our road trip journal, you’ll know we love Super Camping. This is about Independence exploration and taking on the world. Not loading up and heading to a resort with a pool and a waterslide. We camp in the wild for free at the most amazing places in America.

We generally do this 3-5 months a year. Traveling, exploring and working on new pictorials and films like EXposed. We usually camp off the grid in the middle of nowhere and it’s the best kind of camping. Better places, more privacy and more adventures. Here is my definition of Super Camping.

Super Camping – An independent style of camping that includes staying outside of developed campgrounds (Boondocking), usually for no cost. Super Camping generally uses a RV, tent or other rig that is prepared to function off grid with solar or battery power, food reserves, comms, medical and gear suitable for adventure, survival and mobile repairs.

Snapshot of the the crew hiking in White Sands New Mexico, March 2012.

How We Roll:

We load up everything we can fit including our kids into our 2011 Forest River 21SS that’s been tricked out as a boondocking machine. It’s pulled with a 2001 GMC 2500 Crew Cab 4×4 running a Duramax diesel. For those interested, this little trailer and all the upgrades we’ve installed in it runs up to about $27k. No chump change, but not much considering what we can do with it and truth told you could do it much cheaper with an older rig.

We’re compact but self sustaining with solar, extra batteries, and a  generator juts in case. With this we can also run sound systems and other logistics when out speaking or doing events of the liberty trail.  Combine that with water mods, good organization a rear hauling rack and the truck itself and we’re ready for the wilderness. The tanks and lines are also winter ready and we can turn on heating pads if things get chilly.

There’s nothing like finding the best places in the world to camp for free. – Boondocking in remote areas is the ticket if you want the best places. We’ve learned that sometimes you need a bit of Gypsy boldness to do this constantly. Being an activist on the side helps with that. We stay off private property without permission of course, but on public lands rules vary so you just need to learn the ropes. We research the area to which we’re going and or sometimes we just pull off on a side road and set up camp. We rarely cave to the “lets just pay for an RV park tonight” option and nearly always find a great campsite for free.

Whether it’s a photography project our out standing the line for liberty and and enhancing patriot resources, the super camper gets it done. The rest of this article is a resource that I maintain. It contains all the best resources and tools we’ve gathered over the years. From places camped to maps, gadgets and resources we use to make it go smoothly. if you want to do some Super Camping or have an RV, you’ll want to read 0n.

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August 2, 2013

These have been over 6 years in the making. Ever since Lightroom 1 I’ve been refining our ultimate presets collection. I could not be prouder of Power Workflow 4. It’s at a whole new level, taking advantage of the best Lightroom has to offer and putting more control at our fingertips. Power Workflow 3 served us well for 3 years but it’s time to move up. Behold, Power Workflow 4. It’s been a long time coming and you won’t be disappointed… Gav

Get them here.

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July 11, 2013

It’s now official. EXposed, our workshop about everything exposure and mechanics of light won the coveted HOT ONE Award from Professional Photographers of America. in the educational DVD’s category.

hot_one_winner_2013-tmp-380x400

This is super exciting for us since EXposed was a brand new direction in workshop films that is not being done much. We’re really proud of it. We worked hard for the cinematic approach in this 4+ hour series, roaming thousands of miles and visiting incredible locations to study light and discuss how we can better use it. We did just that.

EXposed has humble roots – We jumped in head first and worked hard resulting in a film that was better than we ever imagined. It got rave reviews and now this HOT ONE award on top if it all helps to reenforce that our idea was indeed a good one.

If you have not seen EXposed now is the time. It’s guaranteed to make you a better image maker. Pick up a Download or DVD copy. You won’t be disappointed and the value is better than most workshops you’ve seen.

You can even watch a series of free segments from EXposed right here.

For a short time you can get EXposed for just $49.00 – Just enter promo code: EXPOSE in your cart.

Let us know if you have questions… Gav

 

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