Author Archives: Brent and Lorelle VanFossen
Taking It With You When You Go
In school we learned the basic elements for survival: food, clothing, and shelter. Deciding to take your camera on the road includes these basic elements in your plans. Food seems as easy as the local fast food joint, but sometimes you are far from town and have to plan eating around your photography and activities. […]
Packing Tips and Techniques
All our friends who travel with us rely upon Lorelle to handle the packing organization. In fact, our best buddy, Duane Hansen, explains that Lorelle can do what scientists have never accomplished: violate the laws of the three dimensional universe. Somehow, she fits it all in and there is still room to spare. Packing isn’t […]
Packing Clothing for the Road
Figuring out what to take in the way of clothing is one of the hardest decisions many people make. For men, it appears easy and simple, shirts, pants, underwear and socks, but it isn’t always. For women, it can be a nightmare as ego and etiquette get in the way of common sense. With all […]
Overstuffed Travel Plans
No matter what anyone says, you do more on a vacation that you would ever do if you stayed home and went to work like usual. There’s something about a vacation that screams “MUST SEE ALL NOW!” Like there are no second chances. We have friends who did Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and a bus […]
The Waiting Arounds
Does this sound familiar? You rush around, pack, throw everything in the vehicle, race to the ideal photographic locale and nothing happens. It’s either raining, too sunny, too cloudy when you want sunny, too dark, crowded or just plain inaccessible. No matter how hard and how well you plan your photographic adventures, there will be […]
Beeps, Buzzers and Snoozers – Procrastination and Motivation
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Bang! Silence. Beep! Beep! Beep! Smash! Silence. Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! This is not an episode of Batman. These are the sounds from our tent in the early morning. What you are hearing is the delay of the inevitable: Getting up. There’s something about a warm cozy sleeping bag that has priority over […]
Deciding Where and When to Go During the Seasons
When a photographer is planning a trip, season plays a big part in the decision-making process. There are unique photographic opportunities specifically related to weather and the seasons: fall colors, winter whites, spring flowers, summer heat. The seasons come at different times to different locations. Fall colors begin in late August and early September for […]
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough
Photographing mountains is like photographing the history of the planet. Mountains wear their history from the inside out and back again. They are great repositories of natural history, archeology, geology, and climate change. They house a good majority of the planet’s fresh water reserves, influence the weather, and determine which side gets the water and […]
Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter
The Jewish Quarter of the Old City represents the second smallest area of the Old City. The Armenian Quarter is the smallest. The word “quarter” is not meant to represent the four parts of the whole Old City, but the sleeping “quarters” of the different populations. Currently, there is the Moselm Quarter, Christain Quarter, Jewish […]
Visiting Jerusalem’s Souvenier Shops
A crowded narrow street leads from the Jaffa Gate to deep inside the Old City of Jerusalem, a cobblestone divider between the Christian, Muslim and Jewish Quarters. It descends the gentle slope of the hill toward the Via Dolorosa, the painful path and last walk of Jesus of Nazareth as he carried the cross to […]
Depth of Field and the Creative Decision
Since there are so many combinations which give a "correct" exposure, how do you decide which one is best for you? This is part of the creative decision, a decision that distinctly changes your photographs. When it comes to determining the right exposure for backgrounds, foregrounds, and the amount of depth in your image that […]
Deciding Where to Go When – Get Started
The "wanna goes" Looking through magazines, books and travel guides, we are often hit with the "wanna goes," that moment when our eyes get starry and we look up and say, "Wanna go!" Where would you go if you could, and what would you really want to do? Does this place look interesting? Does that […]
Deciding Where to Go When
“Be prepared” may be a great motto for the Scouts, but it’s the theme song for travelers. That and flexibility. You must be prepared for all types of contingencies and flexible enough to handle anything that happens. Being ready for anything will prepare you for the worst-case scenario, and anything else that happens is just […]
Other Questions About Our Life on the Road
We get a lot of different questions about our life on the road and we’ve posted them here. If you have any other questions you would like to ask us about our life on the road, please post them below in our comment section. We look forward to helping you understand what life on the […]
Questions About Our Photography
We get a lot of questions about our photography. Mostly, these focus on how we maintain our photography business while living on the road, but we also answer questions about the classes we teach, the style of photography we do, and more. If you have a question about our photography and how we work on […]