South West USA (pic heavy)

[ukaskew]

Me and the other half have just returned from a nice big tour of California, Arizona and Nevada. Took 2000 pics and have barely scratched the surface yet, but picked out a few of my favourites below.

Nowhere near 'New York standard' pics, but as we go there every year I can afford to play around when I'm there. These are very much snapshots as we packed a in a huge amount (2500 miles in 14 days), but the idea was to find places we want to return to in more depth one day soon, so I will be going back for more pics!

Sea Lions on the beach in Monterey

Monterey Aquarium

Heading out onto Route 66

Monster Cactus somewhere in the middle of nowhere

Enjoying the view of the Grand Canyon

A more traditional view of what he was looking at...

Sin City

The incredible Bellagio Fountain Display, stood here for 2hrs watching!

Fremont Street Experience

 

[ukaskew]

Yosemite National Park

The view over Yosemite

Universal Studios Tour

Scene from War of the Worlds

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz, extremely eerie place

The 'can't quite believe it until you see it' bendy road in San Francisco

You can find plenty more here: http://chrisharrison.smugmug.com/Travel/USA2010

 

[Andy.]

Wow. Cracking shots as ever, with a couple of good desktop/ postcard/ wall print images thrown in!

What lenses were you using out of interest?

 

[ukaskew]

Nikon 12-24 f4 and Sigma 50-150 2.8 for this trip. Took a Sigma 30mm 1.4 as well but only used it a couple of times (interior shots in Alcatraz, the only lens that could happily go sub ISO800)

 

[Greeny.]

These sorts of photos make me hate the Uk even more!

 

[dunganick]

Top pics Chris, looks like yet another photogenic place. (most of the places you go look photogenic once you have photographed them lol)

 

[Rhino172]

what did you think of San Fran? I loved it there, that bendy road is bonkers lol

you're right about alcatraz beeing eerie too. did they open and close the cell doors for you? they opened 12 for us at once and the noise it made was amazing, very atmospheric.

cool pics too, i only had my tiny compact point and shoot job when i went. would love to go back with the dslr.

 

[Revels]

Awesome mate!

What's this?

 

[ukaskew]

what did you think of San Fran? I loved it there, that bendy road is bonkers lol

you're right about alcatraz beeing eerie too. did they open and close the cell doors for you? they opened 12 for us at once and the noise it made was amazing, very atmospheric.

cool pics too, i only had my tiny compact point and shoot job when i went. would love to go back with the dslr.

Loved SF, polar opposite to New York in the way everything is soooo laid back. Felt really safe there as well, went to the cinema a couple times and took a long walk back to the hotel late in the evening.

A tough choice between SF and Las Vegas though, I felt like our trip had really began once we left LA and headed out into nothingness, I've always wanted to see 'real America' as I call it, and Arizona and Nevada didn't disappoint, they were stunning in their emptiness. Some of the little towns we stopped in were brilliant, proper small-town feel full of people you felt had probably never left the state let alone the country.

They did indeed open and close the doors, first heard it just as we walked in, properly atmospheric place. I couldn't believe how much of it they have left to decay naturally, I guess I assumed they would have spent a lot of money making it look like it did 'back in the day', painting it up etc, but it's all the better for it how it is anyway, a bit of urban exploration without the risk of being arrested!

Awesome mate!

What's this?

That's the ceiling of the Bellagio lobby, hundreds of glass flowers. Pretty amazing.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Pretty average photos TBH





I want to 'do' the States...

LOVE the sqwerls. The close up one is now my wallpaper

 

[Paul_G]

Great selection of shots Chris and certainly no 'snaps'. Really like the Route 66 sign and the Vegas night shots are great to boot.

Which areas do you think you're going to return to in the future...?

 

[172boost]

Yosemite looks feckin awesome!

I'd like to know more about your trip.

 

[Magic Johnson]

That looks absolutely awesome!

 

[SharkyUK]

Great photos mate, thanks for sharing them.

 

[172boost]

That's the ceiling of the Bellagio lobby, hundreds of glass flowers. Pretty amazing.

I can't wait to see this when I stay there in January. This photo ^^^ really shows how good yours is.

 

[FlameR]

Awesome pictures, I wish I had the equipment and skills to take pictures like that!

been to yosemite (did you see any mountain lions?), san francisco and vegas. Loved all of them (although I was only 7 for yosemite and san fran).

I want to go back to Vegas a work colleague is going on Friday, bast*rd

 

[Dip]

Some epic photo's in there. Especially the Alcatraz ones. Depth is excellent.

(Bit off topic...do smugmug offer a decent service/charges? I've finally dumped MobileMe yesterday, and want something like your gallery)

 

[clairemae]

amazing photos, looks like im doing a very similar trip to yours next month, can't wait!

 

[ukaskew]

Great selection of shots Chris and certainly no 'snaps'. Really like the Route 66 sign and the Vegas night shots are great to boot.

Which areas do you think you're going to return to in the future...?

Route 66 sign is my favourite, really pleased with it as it was in a horrible cluttered spot to get a clean shot, that was pretty much the only angle I could get with just sign and sky.

Will definitely return to Vegas as there is still loads to see, but also it's a pretty good base to do some exploring from as there are so many different excursions you can book on. We squeezed in as much as possible in the 3 days (7am starts were amusing, it was like a ghost town, really cool) but I think a week is needed really. If you can control your spending it's an extremely cheap place to visit, hotel rates are superb and really good food/drink can be found at silly prices. Just as a small example, buy a large drink (Coke, Sprite, whatever) in our hotel for $3 and you could keep the cup for your whole stay and have it refilled for free unlimited times.

been to yosemite (did you see any mountain lions?), san francisco and vegas. Loved all of them (although I was only 7 for yosemite and san fran).

No lions, August isn't a great time for wildlife spotting. Countless birds of prey and a few deer (a group spent about an hour watching a bear just before we arrived!) but such a stunning place, couldn't believe it when we pulled into the valley, the view in every direction is breathtaking.

(Bit off topic...do smugmug offer a decent service/charges? I've finally dumped MobileMe yesterday, and want something like your gallery)

I can't fault them, reliability and service is superb. I've been with them 7 years and can only remember downtime for an evening that affected me a bit once during that whole time. Great thing is the yearly charge is locked to your initial payment, so I've been paying the 2003 rates ever since I signed up, fantastic idea to keep customers and reward loyalty.

 

[Gaz.]

Wow, there's a whole load of crackers there.

 

[Rob]

You can't half take a picture! (not that you need telling)

Very impressive shots.

 

[Paul.]

fantastic pics!