I love travel.

For lots of different reasons.

Maybe because my father was in the Air Force, and we travelled a lot when I was growing up.   

I like to see new places, meet new people, try new food and have new adventures.  Sometimes my travel is photography driven.  Other times not so much.  My recent trip to Kanab, Utah was photography driven. My upcoming trip to Hawaii is family driven.  

I have visited all 50 states, a dozen countries, 51 National Parks and 28 ski areas, but who is counting.  I guess I am. 

I like to share my adventures.  Usually this means traveling with my wife, Carol. She won’t admit it, but she has a pretty good eye for things.  If she says to me, “did you see…” many times I did not, and so I stop and try to capture what she saw.  It is usually worth it. I also share my adventures with friends and family, and sometimes with strangers via Facebook or this blog and website. 

On a recent  month-long trip to France I used my Nikons on two different occasions. The rest of the trip was all iPhone.  It’s been said, the best camera is the one you have with you!

I am happy to share that adventure with you, if you want to take the time you can see the album I shared with friends and family here… https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B1dJqstnBJR6XJY

Sure, the album has a lot of family snaps, and not all the images are “wall-worthy” but it also has a couple of really nice images from our trip. Two of the photos won awards at our recent Utah State Fair competition.

In a previous blog post I wrote about how I planned a trip to Kanab and Southern Utah.  Something that I did not mention but will do so here is to write about a couple of other references I use for planning.  I have a copy of “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”  around the house.  I use it as a planning reference; looking to see what may be near my planned itinerary, or as a way to direct my itinerary.  If you are that close to New York City, why would you not take the time to see the Brooklyn Bridge or the Empire State Building.   It would be awesome to see all those places in the book, but I doubt I will scratch the surface in my lifetime. It IS fun to mark the pages of the places I have been to. 

I also like to use Atlas Obscura. They have printed material, but their website is a great place to find less obvious (obscura, get it?) places.

My title of this blog is “You Should See This!" (perhaps it should have been “You should Photograph This) but “this” is different for everyone.  IF you are traveling to France, you should see the Louvre, and if you are going to the Louvre, you should see the Mona Lisa.  There are lots of other things to do in Paris, but every place you travel, there are things you should always see.  In San Francisco, you should drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Golden Gate View Point.  You won’t regret it.  You should stand at the foot of Lombard Street. You should ride the Cable Car.  

Once while I was in New Orleans for a conference.  I went into a store to buy a shirt and the woman helping me shared her favorite list of places to eat.  That became THE LIST.  My colleagues tried to visit every one of the spots on the list. Some were obvious, others well off the beaten bath, all of them memorable in their own way. 

Every place has things to see and do.  You might even try asking AI software to plan a photo itinerary for you, or plan a “sites not to be missed” list.  You might be surprised with that list.  

Thanks for stopping by.