Off to Kingman and the Great Basin

I had an opportunity a great short trip out west. My plans included trips to San Francisco and Kingman, AZ. Little did I know that storms would hit the Chicago area which would delay my departure until Tuesday morning. I wasn't feeling the love from United despite being a Premier member they still bumped me off of my flight into Denver. I had a layover before I would get to SFO. As I was at the airport they told me I might get to Denver that evening, but once there they wouldn't have any idea when I might make it from Denver to San Francisco. Since I had pressing business plans and needed to be there Tuesday if I was to be there at all, I concentrated on the latter half of the trip with a flight to Vegas and then driving through the rocky dry country into Kingman, Arizona. I was all set to go with at least a little love from United in letting them bump me over to a flight to Las Vegas when a tornado warning hit the O'Hare airport. Since it was obvious that I was not flying tonight or at least any time soon and I was only a few miles from home, I opted to sleep in my own bed and see what tomorrow might bring me for flights.

Well Tuesday morning I got out of bed disgusted with O'hare swearing off ever flying from there again...that lasted a whole 3 weeks. I found a flight out of Milwaukee (MKE) to Vegas for as little as $240, but it was leaving and my bags were already checked to SFO from the night before. With nothing but a bag in hand and my computer...of course the cameras were in with the computer, I packed the important things and headed to MKE to catch the flight. All went well there. Almost all of my travel experiences go well out of Milwaukee. After landing I needed to find where the rest of my bags were. Worse thing was that with those bags was my tripod, Circular Polarizer and extra battery. Just a few of the incidentals. Midwest Airlines helped me track my bags down, but I wouldn't receive them from United until Wednesday. So I was left with few clothes, no tripod and no CP. I'm in the middle of the Great Basin without a CP and that is just asking from trouble. I won't even go into how I can't hand-hold anything anymore. I did have my trusty Fuji S5 for this trip...love those colors.

As I walked around the Vegas airport...have I said I don't gamble. Vegas to me is interested and very scary. What was really scary to me is what Carrot Top has done to himself. Well I jumped into the car and headed off to get myself a CP so I could take some pictures. I didn't know what to do about the tripod, but I would figure it out later. With the help of my dw, I found a place called Casey's. Nice Photoshop and very good prices. I picked up a Rodenstock and then was able to head out.

I found a great road to take off the beaten path. This lead me to Grapevine Canyon and a wonderful place to see Petroglyphs. Now this would have been perfect had it not been 105 and without a tripod. I did the best I could as I was wobbling from heatstroke. I had a great time...I did my research beforehand with one of my favorite photography guides. I highly recommend this Newsletter, Photograph America.

After getting back I was trying out the Silver Efex Plugin from Nik...pretty pricey, but it does a nice job. I love Control Points. Don't think I will buy it because I like the conversions almost as much from other programs.

So without further adieu, here are the pictures. Enjoy and comment...don't make comments on how much out of focus they are. I wanted my tripod there and it didn't happen.