short trip

Last weekend I joined Frederic Larson’s meetup in Napa to photograph hot air balloons. The balloons are flying almost daily over Napa but on a nice weekend, you can have as many as 10 balloons in the air at the same time. Meetups are a great way to do things you would not otherwise think of doing. My favorite quote from Frederic is: “If you don’t change something, how could you expect different results”. My interpretation is: if you always wake up at the same time, you will always end up with the same photographs. Change you wake up time and see something different. So for this meetup, we woke up at 4:30am, in order to be in Youtville by 6:45am. From there, we carpooled to the launching spot where a fair number of balloons where already...

Antelope Canyon was on my bucket list for a long time. I first found out about Antelope Canyon when I saw Tuan’s images of it. After some research, I found out that the sunbeams can reach the bottom of the canyon about 3 weeks before the summer solstice and 3 weeks after. We decided that this year was the year we would go. From the Bay Area, there are multiple options to go to Page,AZ but the cheapest we found was to fly to Las Vegas and rent a car and drive to Page. Day 1: Las Vegas to Page, AZ We took a very early flight to Vegas, arriving at 8:30am. At that time, it was already 92F, and it was promising to get hotter. I’m a coffee junkie and I always look for local coffee shops to try. This time I went to  sunrise coffee to get my...

The Big Island is larger than all the other Hawaiian Islands combined and the only one still volcanically active. It would be a pity to get to a hotel on Big Island and to not spend some time exploring the many wonders the island has to offer. The west side of the island, or the Kona side, is the most touristic side, so this itinerary has been based on staying around Waikoloa Beach, about 1/2 hour drive North of Kona. Lodging options: Around Waikoloa Beach, you have different options to spend the night depending on your group size and budget. You can stay at one of the villa at Kolea at the Waikoloa Beach Resort. The Marriott Waikoloa is also a great option with direct access to the beach, 2 swimming pools, a sandy baby pool and a water slide. Arriving day: Your...

Death Valley National Park is far away enough from cities that it requires a three day weekend to go visit. But that’s the point, Death Valley has some of the most amazing sky you will ever see. That’s because there is no light pollution, the air is very dry, no clouds, perfect for some night photography. Our plan was simple, leave Friday night from the Bay Area and come back Monday night, lodging was also simple: we would camp. We’ve been to Death Valley once before and specifically to the Racetrack, so we had a good idea of what to expect. This time I was interested in getting deeper into Death Valley by following some of the off road trails. In order to do that and being safe, we had two 4WD cars with high clearance and we would follow each...

A few weekends ago, I went exploring Point Reyes National Seashore and its surroundings including Tomales Bay, Point Reyes Station and went all the way to Bodega Bay. It’s possible to do it in a day but we stayed overnight at a local bed and breakfast. I have included in the map all the stops where I took the images posted here, as well as all the stops we made for food and coffee. I have a saying: “no coffee no turbo” and for me, it’s really true. As for my wife, she needs her chocolate treat, so I need to find places with good chocolate cookies as well. View Bodega Bay and Point Reyes in a larger map It does not matter in which order you are doing this trip but for the sake of simplicity, I’m starting at the south-western end...