Notes from the Road is a project in experimental travel writing - it is about subjective travel; the kind of real world of random things and real people.
Notes from the Road looks at a handful of connected regions from the perspective of the outsider looking in. By road, by kayak, by seaplane and most of all on foot, I try to tackle the themes of city and country in the modern world.
Travel writing always gets a bad rap, because of 'The azure sea was undulating and the hotel was fabulous.' But travel writing can be funny, powerful and personal. Every non-fiction writer has that capacity to exaggerate; his experiences happen far away from the second opinion. After all, it makes the author look the hero. But travel writing implies honesty and research. And that's why Notes from the Road is about the unvarnished, messy truth of travel, told by a regular guy.
Notes from the Road stories are sketched on the road, with only one or two edits afterwords. I travel on tight budgets, often to ordinary places.
I started this project in December 1999 to humor and entertain my friends. Since I have moved about from place to place in whole life, I needed a way to keep in touch.
I grew up with a few unusual and useless hobbies - underwater photography, plant and animal identification, and an interest in history, archaeology and maps. This site is fueled by those useless skills.
I have always believed that travel writing, despite it forever being maligned as cheap literature, is the most wide open non-fiction template on Earth - and affords its readers and writers the chance to dance through an amazing breadth of subjects. I don't choose my subjects; I just travel, and the subject matter finds me.
Although the photographs I use are mostly blank landscape canvasses, travel is always about people, and I try to capture real people in their environment; their stories tell travel the best.
I write this website to humor, entertain, and come up with a set of ideas about the places I visit for my readers to think about.
My readers are the coolest people in the world - National Geographic photographers, ecologists, politicians, authors and painters. Write me a note, and join my newsletter.
How it's done.
I draw the maps with a Micron .005 pen, watercolors, Pantone pens, acrylics and pastel chalk crayons on bristol paper. I write my notes with a small Moleskine journal, and...I travel light. Very light. That is important because my camera system weighs forty pounds.
I photograph with a large format Toyo AX. This is an old-style traditional print film camera, which can be compared to photographing with a 500 megapixel digital camera. Because of the expense of the lenses associated with this format, I have only two lenses. Large format photography, to the dismay of many, continues to yield superior results and control than their digital counterparts.
I shoot with a 75mm Schneider f4.5. I meter with a handheld spot meter and always photograph with low-speed, low-grain film. My system is housed in a water resistant dry sack in a day pack. I use a lightweight mountaineer tripod by Gitzo with a very stable tripod head, made by Manfrotto.
Because my system is entirely mechanical, I can shoot in extremely hot or cold temperatures, any time of the day.
Themes
Some of my notes are part of larger themes, and all of them I plan to continue to pursue. Let me explain.
"The Oregon Testament" is about the native history of Oregon. After discovering a small Native American site, I try to uncover Oregon's past by traveling, talking to people, and gathering information on the road, rather than reading books.
"Travels with an Imaginary Fromagier" articles follow around the theme of traveling in pursuit of artisanal cheeses, and the histories of the people and communities that make distinctive cheese. Since cheese is produced nearly everywhere, this theme jumps from region to region.
"Rise Up Sweet Island" is my most comprehensive theme project. It is over 400 pages of travelogue, evidence, documents and research into the story of Great Guana Cay, a small island in a fight against a golf course developer in the Bahamas. The dramatic fight, documented in full only by Notes from the Road, has made a tremendous positive impact on mangrove and coral reef protection in the Bahamas. This section is unique in that I use my own photographs in collaboration with dozens of other photographers, who have helped me record this event by air, by sea and by land.
"Botanical History of the Antilles" is an ongoing theme about the history of two main segments of the Caribbean, the Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles, as if I was writing the history of the islands for a future population of plants. The Lost Sons of Afghanistan and A Musuem for Kabul are two related articles I wrote on Afghanistan in 2001. I was writing about Afghanistan before 9/11, and in a letter to the editor to the L.A. Times in May 2001, I questioned why the U.S. Administration was giving money to the taliban, when they should be supporting their opposition, as a bulwark against terrorism. In lieu of my own photographs, I was given access to the original slides of the country's first archaeologist.
Help pay for the cost of large format film and keep keep Notes from the Road alive.
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The Reviews
Reviews, press clippings, criticism and more of Notes from the Road. Reviews >>
Along the Way
Photos I took along the way, and just had to show you. Along the Way >>
Travel Sites Field Desk
A list of travel websites, science websites, outdoor websites, adventure websites, art and photography websites that have maintained an independent and unique spirit.
Field Desk >>
Special Thanks Greg for continued assistance on web issues and projects.
Cameron has contributed literally months of ingenious technical work since the creation of the site in 1999.
Steve Bohn who patiently taught me how to photograph with a large format camera. And to Chris Oldenbrook, who guided my career and turned me on to the desert.
Reidun and Georg who taught me how to travel.
Chris and Joe for their father and son insistence on logical discussion.
Teslow for teaching me composition and photography development.
Jane for being my motivation for everything, and for tirelessly listening, supporting and coping with the next project.
Mike Rendahl who taught me how to build and create.
Hans, Andre, vance and Alvin for providing invaluable editorial support and countless long hours on the road.
