See Yas in... October!!!

*Photo: © Stan Banos

Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart.. But that's OK. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.   -Anthony Bourdain

Haven't been on vacation since the previous Sept; originally, we were planning on Europe- Spain, Portugal, London, Paris, Berlin, The Netherlands... Some are like old friends, some I've seen bits and pieces- Portugal, I've never been. Bottom line, we just couldn't decide which to pick, and/or leave out... And with only so much time (and the thought that it may just be the last trip we'll ever afford abroad), we decided to put it on the back burner and... road trip USA, once again! Can't complain- besides, for whatever reason, always get more pictures here, than scenic Europe (though no question where ya get the better eats)!

So we're flying to NYC (gotta see the moms), then going to Philly (wife wants to see the Mutter Museum) and DC by train before we hit the road and visit my fellow Americans and Trump supporters down South, on through the Bayou and unto Texas! Yee-ha! I'll be wearing my bright red MAGA cap, well, I'll at least make sure to take my Fuck Trump button off my camera bag...

Looking forward to seeing what the South will yield photographically, culturally- my exposure being limited to those ever so brief bus trips of my youth when I would board a Greyhound for a day and a half trip to New Orleans from NYC for a one day stand to photograph Mardi Gras, then reboard the bus the very same evening for yet another joyous day and a half trip back... A four day sojourn made possible only by youth's vigor and insanity. Still remember how incredibly other worldly The Gulf's topography appeared to this NYC boy from the contours of his small bus window. Looking forward to a slightly more intimate look/see this go around...

*Got lucky on this one! Certainly, doesn't look it here, but this street corner was nothing but a hotbed of the harshest, most glaring light imaginable bouncing off that sidewalk! All I could clearly make out with my naked eye was the guy and his suitcase on the left. I could barely make out some people doing something in the middle, and a constant swirl of shadows around them. Whipped out the GR, aimed into the flaring conundrum best I could, waiting a second or two until the lights and shadows achieved some kinda "balance," and pressed the shutter. Honestly, did not expect much (technically or aesthetically)- figured nothing short of a FF sensor would have any chance surviving that gamma ray burst of a lighting scenario- and... Amazingly, instead of an instant throw away- I had something definitely worth further study. The pocket rocket somehow, some way tamed the monster highlights, I gradually coaxed as much detail from the shadows as feasible, and the composition as a whole appeared nicely in place! Not bad for a wing and a prayer coming home from work!