FILM ON THE ROAD: CALIFORNIA
DECEMBER 29 2022
So I’m jumping around in this blog now, skipping some minor events and just getting to the big stuff. Today I’m going to talk about a little road trip that my girlfriend and I took over presidents day in 2021. It was basical just a big road trip that involved some sleeping in an Airbnb and some sleeping in the car but it was really fun. We drove from SLC to Salinas California, spent some time there in a cheap Airbnb, and then drove around big sur on the Highway 1. We also spent some time in Monterey and Camel-by-The-Sea.
Deep down it was a photography trip but it was also great to get out and explore California with my girlfriend Liv.
I’m starting out with a bang on this one because that was my all-time favorite photo from the trip. I’m not sure if it will get any better than that. It's of Liv sitting in the Lovers Point Park, it was taken with the L35AF on Kodak Pro Image. The film came out very flat but had plenty of detail and was very editable… if that makes sense.
I also brought my Nikon F3 with Portra 400 and a 50mm and 28mm lens for more serious photos. And I’m just going to say it now, that was the perfect travel setup. I had the L35AF with a 35mm lens, the two 50mm and 28mm lenses for the F3 and only a couple rolls of film but with the focal lengths that I had I could pretty much shoot everything that I like to shoot. The lenses were also the Nikon Series E models, so they were both incredibly light and easy to pack away and carry.
I also brought a Canon 518-2 super 8 camera which was fun, however, I still haven’t finished that cartridge… and it’s coming up to two years since that trip… so that might not have been the best packing decision.
Oh and I also had one Coolpix which has pretty much just become an every day item for me and I scarcely count it as an extra camera.
Anyway, enough about gear, let’s get into the trip. We left SLC pretty early on February 23rd to drive to Salinas where we had an Airbnb for a few nights. The Airbnb wasn’t amazing and honestly Salinas wasn’t too amazing either, but it was the cheapest place we could find that was relatively close to the coast so for the two days that we were in Salinas we just drove Monterey and Pebble Beach to explore there.
We were only in Salinas for a few days, mostly because it wasn’t the best location, but also because we really wanted to explore more in Big Sur and Salinas was a little bit too far away to justify day trips. So, on the 26th we left Salinas to explore Big Sur for the day and try to find a place to sleep along the road.
This part of the trip was a little bit on the suspicious side because there were TONS of signs that said no sleeping in your car, but we were able to find a spot eventually after driving around for a long time in the dark.
The spot was not ideal but it did allow us to wake up for sunrise and continue exploring the next day!
The 28th was the last day of our trip and the first part of it was spent driving around taking photos and the second part was spent driving back home. It was a pretty quick trip and the plans were very loose and mostly centered around walking and exploring but it was so much fun. That’s really all I have for today so I will leave you with some of my favorites from the trip (excluding the first one which was arguably the best photo). And as always thanks so much for reading!!
