The Great Road Trip of '14: End of an Era

The most amazing road trip EVER. Excitement. Smiles and hugs. Literally ROFL! Overcoming fears of death. Pain and suffering. Sweat. Tears. An epiphany. Crossroads. New friends, old friends. Girls and boys. Great failure. Greater success. Won. Lost. DEBAUCHERY!!! Found God's great beauty caressing our feet, soaring above our heads. Lost myself. Found my inner self once again. Peace.

A selection of 8 photos (per forum rules):

Rosalinda & Darren (sp?) by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

The best way to start a road trip--with new friends, DRUNK in the wee morning. We were there to see NASCAR @ the Vegas Speedway, but I had a feeling there was not going to be much watching!

Needs by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

Who has the luxury of restraint in our short time on earth? Excess. It's the way to do. I LOVE these friends--they live their lives THEIR way. And who gives an f.

Courtney by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

And this would be my new friend of awesomeness who introduced me to this whole new world. To her I owe so much. Picture was taken in Vegas the night after the race. Wandering and wondering around, ready to party!

... and party we did!...

So, after Vegas I joined my other friends Kevin and Anthony to head off for Colorado, passing through Arizona and Utah. We had no plans, no rooms. But the itinerary eventually revealed itself as: Vail, Steamboat, Aspen/Aspen, and then finally Snomass/Aspen.

Snowboard @ Aspen Mar. 2014 #7 by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx (iPhone picture)

Aspen, Aspen was BADASS. You take a gondola up and it takes like almost a 1/2hr!!! Then you go all the way down... I've never gone so fast on a snowboard. Loved it! The pic is of my friend Anthony staring down the descent (taken on an iPhone, like all the other snowboarding pics--I fall way too much to be caring an expensive SLR with me!)

Snowboard @ Aspen Mar. 2014 #13 by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

Hung out in town after the long days of snowboarding. No wussing here--we went each day from open 'till close (and sometimes past that by accident, ha ha). This pic is of my two friends. Both from my jr. high / high school days. Some of few who stuck with me so long.

Then it was off to Arches and Canyonland National Parks!...

Radiance by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

Saw this on the way to Arches. The lat/lon reveals this to be @ Emery County, but I am still trying to find out of there is a name for it. (If anyone knows please let me know). So... my friends are NOT photographers and they were totally harassing me to get done with it so they could get to the hotel (I think many of you know how annoying it is, probably for both sides, to take pics on a trip when you are trying to play photographer and they just wanna get somewhere), so I took this one really fast. But when I got back I thought it was really special since I've never seen clouds like this before. Sometimes you just never know which pics would be the best.

And then we finally made it to Arches National Park...

Sees to East by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

We were running out of gas and it was getting late. So we made the call to leave the park to get gas at the risk of getting to the famous Delicate Arch too late to setup properly for a sunset shot. After swinging around I saw it. There are those moments that all photographers (and wannabes like me) have where you see The Shot in front of you, mesmerizing and calling to you, and you know you MUST get the shot at all costs. So, to the dismay of my friends, I turned the car around again (lucky I was the driver!) and looked for a proper parking spot. Could only find one proper location, but at least I found one, and it was FAR away. I got out and it was crazy windy. Like windy enough to blow over my tripod and camera! Got out a telephoto lens and took 2 brackets, again of 7 shots each. I would have taken more but it was cold and miserable, and I could feel my friends grinding their teeth. So, I packed up and left. ...When I finally got the chance to process these photos some were blurry! I couldn't believe it. I was using a HUGE tripod, one of the sturdiest money could buy, and even then some pictures were blurry!--that's how windy it was! Anyway, thank God one bracket was useable. My favorite shot of the trip.

And then... the main objective, The Delicate Arch:

Enclave of the Arch by Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

This pano wraps a full 360deg and is constructed out of 22 slices with 15deg rotations between each slice. Each slice is an HDR merge of 7 images, shot as a bracket from -3EV to +3EV. So, 22 * 7 = 154 images combined to make this picture. After some other this and thats, the final 33,469px * 4,952px = 165.7 MP picture was complete. It was FREEZING, my limbs were NUMB, and I had a hell of a time not slipping down the hill where I barely had enough space to perch my tripod and to stand behind it. Took about two hours or so to wait for sunset and take all the shots. I've heard stories of photographers doing far worse, but damn, it SUCKED getting these pics. Was it worth it?

For a slightly cropped version (to see more detail):
http://pics.xyclopx.co​m …arches-mar-2014/e1efe98fc

For the whole story behind this picture, please visit my blog:
http://pics.xyclopx.co​m …h-at-arches-national-park

I left a ton out due to the 8 picture rule, but you can find the entire collection here:
The Great Road Trip of '14: End of an Era @ Dean Chiang | Xyclopx

This is what I would consider to be a great road trip or vacation, where all emotions, good and what some consider to be bad, are combined with revelations and self-discovery, with elation and suffering, both physical and emotional, throughout. I did leave out pictures and descriptions of the "bad" times as they were personal, but they were there, and I didn't have time to talk much about what epiphanies there were. But these were the pics that I got, and I hope you enjoy!