My First Road Trip

Todays Post by Jamie Zartman

Four years ago, in May of 2012, Google hosted their first and only G+ Photography conference in San Francisco. On a whim, I decided to drive there from Grand Junction, Colorado making this event my first photography road trip, driving 1100 miles to San Francisco, and crossing the Great Basin with stops at Mono Lake and Yosemite along the way.

I was hoping the experience would provide an opportunity to become better acquainted with my recently purchased Sony NEX-7 mirrorless camera, Sony 18-200 telephoto lens, and the superb little Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 wide angle. I have long regretted that Google only held this event one time, as it gave me a chance to meet photographers, such as Scott Kelby, Peter Hurley, Scott Bourne, and to participate in my first PhotoWalk with Karen Hutton and Trey Ratcliff.

At the time I knew very little about post-processing, composition, my camera or even shooting RAW vs. JPEG. Recently, I revisited some of the photos taken during the event, which made for both happy memories and an opportunity to improve some of the images.

If you ever have an opportunity to photograph with experts or go on a PhotoWalk, my advice is to take it. You’ll be a better photographer for it, and as your post-processing skills improve, you should take a look at some of those old photos from a new perspective.