Very Important Forward
This post is a travelogue of the journey, consisting of personal work; it is NOT meant to be a showcase of paid assignments or client deliverables.
Only a handful of assignment photos are included in this post, despite shooting roughly an equal amount of content for assignment purposes and personal work.
A few highlights of the client’s deliverables are included in this post, but for a more comprehensive look at the type of Marketing and Advertising work I do, be sure to check out my Retail & Architecture Portfolio.
With that important detail made clear, enjoy some personal work I captured between assignments...
Approximate reading time: 72min
Intro / Background
Back in the Fall of 2018 I took on, not my first, but the most logistically intensive travel assignment in my career to-date. The assignment, for a PR firm, wasn’t different from a lot of the marketing work I routinely do locally, but in this case it was work on a campaign spanning multiple major markets. This project would take me from IAD to ATL to ORD to SFO to IAD all in just over a week’s time.
As this trip took me to three cities I had never been to before, in some cases I had spare time to get some exploring in on spare time after photoshoots - when work requires travel, I typically add buffer time on-site in case anything unpredictably goes wrong logistically - it’s a safety net for my clients which has come in handy on more than one occasion. And in the case of San Francisco, I even was able to add an additional 3 days onto the end of my trip for myself to really take a deep dive into my first time visiting the state of California.
This post is coming over 4 years later simply due to scope and how I prioritize my editing: paid work is always done first, and personal work, such as these travelogue photos, are edited and eventually blogged in my spare time; the client’s photos from this trip were delivered within deadline a few weeks after shooting, and sometimes these kinds of shoots necessitate same-day delivery, which I do accommodate for needs such as press release. My personal travelogue photos here took about two years for me to gradually work through editing in my free time when client work wasn’t pending, and it’s taken me over another whole year to get around to composing this blog and publishing it finally - editing and blogging even personal work of this scale takes quite a bit of time and effort. So while it seems odd that this is coming out so late, and I’ve developed a reputation among friends that my personal photos won’t be seen for a year, it all comes with good reason, and that’s because of the love and attention I devote to my clients and their photos - if you’re reading this, you surely already know the deep level of pride and perfectionism I put into my photography.
Logistical Prelude
Something that isn’t visible in this travelogue is the amount of logistical preparation that went into this trip. I was meeting three different ad teams in three different cities on three different days to photograph locations in every terminal of every airport I was flying into. This necessitated over a week of coordinating schedules with countless phone calls and a massive email thread with over a dozen people copied in to get everything lined up. Oh, and the inquiry came to me under a week before the desired shooting dates, so I was booking my multi-city flight itinerary just 36hrs before departure, AND I’d only had time to book my hotel for the first leg - I’d have to find and book hotels for the remaining cities while on the road. AND I photographed Bay and Margaret’s engagement session the day before my scheduled departure. The week of the three photoshoots was actually the SECOND completely slammed week of work that went into making this photoshoot happen.
IAD: Departure
The day of my departure I was up until around 5AM getting my photo gear ready and packed, and my clothes and so forth I’d need for work and play. My departure flight wasn’t until the evening, so I was able to sleep in and get a full-night’s sleep… sort of; I didn’t sleep soundly because I kept checking my phone for any last-minute emails from my overseas client or any of the people I was scheduled to meet in the three cities I’d be swooping into.
Waking up, feeling ready to get going, and after doing probably the 20th peek into my bags to make sure I had everything, I got my ride to the airport, got my bag checked in, and got to my gate. I have a weird good-luck tradition with the beginning of flight journeys: I grab and eat a jelly donut right before boarding. I’m not sure how it started, but it’s something I do before the first flight on any work trip.
ATL: Leg 1 • Quick Turnaround
Arrival
My first leg of the journey brought me to Atlanta, where immediately upon landing two themes began their development: 1) Airport employees were giving reciprocity to my IAD & DCA credentials, and 2) free provided hotel shuttles SUCK. I scarfed down a Whopper, the only food open at the late hour of my arrival, and after waiting, and waiting, and waiting for upwards of an hour, even after calling the hotel multiple times and being told the shuttle was “on its way” I finally gave up on it and took the sketchiest Uber ride of my life, where I had a back middle seat view of the driver (attempt to) hit on the passenger in the front seat; she wasn’t having it. The only suitable hotel I’d managed to find on such short notice wasn’t super close nor business class like I typically prioritize for working accommodations, but I was only in town overnight. Between the late arrival time, the almost 2hrs trying to get a ride just a few miles away, I was left with under a handful of hours to sleep before having to get up and go right back to the airport for the first photoshoot - after booking my hotel for tomorrow night in Chicago, I went straight to bed.
Photoshoot
Just a few short hours later, I awoke to my alarm telling me to get up, shower, and head out. The Atlanta leg of my trip was the most logistically critical, because my flight departing to my next city was at 10PM same-day; the Atlanta team I was meeting was only available on this Tuesday, and the Chicago team was only available on Wednesday, so it meant I wouldn’t be able to get any buffer time in Atlanta in case anything went wrong, or a travel day between these cities, plus Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport also had the most ad sites I needed to capture - I was quite literally on a timer and under the gun for this first leg.
Like every day of this trip, first thing I did was check my phone; I unlock it to see a string of emails, texts, voicemails, and missed calls - a completely different client than the one who initially hired me for this trip had somehow gotten wind I was in Atlanta, and wanted me to photograph some of their properties in the airport to match those I’ve photographed for them at IAD, DCA, and BWI. After a quick phonecall, making it clear their photoshoot was secondary and time-permitting only but I’d try to fit it in, I grabbed the gear I’d need, packed up everything else of mine, and went down to the lobby to check out, get some coffee, and catch the shuttle to the airport.
Upon getting to the airport to work the small annoyance of stowing my luggage and spare gear: since I was checking out of the hotel and heading straight back to the airport to work and leave town, I couldn’t leave it at the hotel. But I also couldn’t check my bag because A) I was using some gear I’d need to stow back inside it before my flight, B) you can’t check a bag more than 4 hours before your flight anyway, and C) I couldn’t stow it in my contact’s office because that’s post-security, and that would potentially violate federal aviation security protocols because I was traveling that day, even if not at that very moment. Luckily my contact at ATL let me stow my stuff in his car in the meantime.
Once that was squared away, we head airside to track down ad sites and start capturing. I have this process down to a science at this point, so the time consuming part on-site depends on the amount of travelers present vs the desired amount in images. We shot a full set of photos, moving between every terminal in Hartsfield-Jackson in several hours, but I’m including only a few below as examples.
While wrapping up the PR / ad work I was traveling for, the on-site manager for my second client (a conglomerate of luxury retail and duty free concessionaires) met me in coordination with my headquarters contact. Luckily there was plenty of time to shoot their locations as well, so I got to work capturing a full marketing package of their stores and locations in each terminal to match those I’d created for this customer at 3 other airports already. This got a little dicey at the end, simply because at that point we’d been shooting most of the day and we were getting into the afternoon bank of travelers.
Departure
Wrapping up, we went back landside to retrieve my bag, and my contact went home after a full day of running around every terminal at ATL. It was now within 4 hours of my flight, and after stowing my tripod and a flash back inside, I checked it and went right back to airside, this time to get dinner, drinks, and my flight.
Not far from my gate there was an exhibit of WWII artifacts. After a bit of perusal, I got a coffee, offloaded the day’s pictures, and got to work editing a photoshoot from Dulles the previous week that I was under deadline for. After boarding, I even edited on my flight and got all the IAD pictures finished for delivery the next morning.
Almost as quickly as I’d gotten to Atlanta, I was above the clouds and gone.
ORD: Leg 2 • The Vibrant Airport
Arrival
I always book a window seat when I can, and for cities like Chicago I even go so far as to look at flight paths to choose which side of the aircraft to sit, to anticipate what views I’m likely to see. In the case of this flight, I wasn’t able to get the side of the aircraft I’d wanted, but this worked out in my favor because the route into ORD was one I didn’t predict, and has never been repeated on any of my other subsequent flights in or out of Chicago. And as it so happens, it gave me the exact spectacle I was hoping to catch that night.
My senior year of high school I was introduced to the art film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, a cult avant-garde film directed by Godfrey Reggio in 1982, most famously scored by Philip Glass. In it, the most famous sequence is known as “The Grid” and contains nighttime aerial shots of sprawling Chicago, with visual comparisons of humankind’s natural tendencies toward order and disorder. “The Grid” is also the film’s longest sequence at 21 minutes, and is famous for Glass’ heavily synthesized, repetitious scoring throughout the movement.
This is the scene that I wanted to see with my own eyes and capture with my camera - the endless electric sprawl of Chicago below, extending to the horizon like an orange carpet of sodium lights. I was so lucky to have this opportunity to capture that and a full 360º isometric view of downtown Chicago at night.
Chicago was another late-night landing, and inside ORD even the 24hrs McDonald’s was closed, so I did some poking around the airport to see a few display pieces, and went to collect my bag and figure out food at the hotel.
I landed at O’Hare with no prior knowledge of it other than remembering having Uno’s Pizza on a layover there as a kid - doesn’t really count as familiarization. Heading to ORD’s Main Terminal to grab my bag and get food, I made my way down an escalator not unlike those leading to the walkback tunnels I am so familiar with at IAD, except I was in awe at the bottom of this one. Between Concourse B and C is Michael Hayden’s colorful “Sky’s the Limit” neon and LED installation art piece, colloquially known as The Rainbow Tunnel. This installation was originally meant to be a partnership between United Airlines and Disney, but the deal fell through, and the illuminated panels on the sides of the tunnel were installed in place of the Disney decor originally intended. The lights in the tunnel illuminate and motion in coordination with ambient music played along the underground walkway’s length. I found sections of the neon lights underneath the moving walkway to resemble the inside of a toaster, with spiraling elements overhead to warm you.
At the main terminal, I had a repeat episode of the previous night: I went to the hotel shuttle curb, waited for the shuttle that runs “every 15min,” called the hotel twice to be told “the shuttle is on it’s way!” as I watched other hotel’s shuttles repeatedly arrive, leave, and arrive once again, only to be left in the cold for over an hour before I gave up and called an Uber. This is the last time I’ve had to deal with this issue on any trip to-date at time of writing in 2022, because in subsequent trips to Chicago, which I’ve already blogged about in the past, I’ve been able to book my preferred accommodation in Chicago which ticks all my boxes of being close to the airport, business class, and has an airport shuttle that actually makes runs every 15min 24hrs (like, it really does run whether you call or not). The hotel I stayed at this trip, my first time in Chicago, was again, the only thing I could book on such short notice, and wasn’t really nearby, but I was only here for one night, so it would do.
It was once again well past midnight by time I actually got to my hotel via Uber. This time, however, since there was no food open at ORD, I was starving having eaten dinner, my only meal of the day beyond coffee, about 8hrs prior at this point, so I got on Uber Eats to see what food was available - like my Atlanta hotel, this wasn’t a business hotel that has a restaurant or cafe open 24/7; actually neither hotel had a restaurant at all. The only viable option that was popping up was McDonalds, less than a mile away. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have a problem just walking there to get it, but I saw how sketch the part of town this hotel was located in on the Uber ride over, so I said screw it, Uber Eats can deliver it. I don’t regret ordering my chicken this way for safety, but this was my first time using one of the 3rd party delivery platforms, and the experience I had this night has rung true for every subsequent time I’ve used Uber Eats, Grubhub, and others since then, even today in 2022 - it took over 30min for my food to be prepared by McDonald’s, over an hour for it to be picked up by Uber Eats, and somehow over 30min to drive it the ¾mi down the road to my hotel; over 2 total hours to be delivered some cold chicken tenders and apple pies. I used some of that time to Facetime with some friends who were excited for my whirlwind trip, but that’s really unacceptable, and it’s the experience I’ve had back home in the DC region every time using these platforms (which I try not to use anyway). Like the night before in Atlanta, I got to bed only a few hours before having to get up to go on my photoshoot at the airport I’d just come from.
Photoshoot
The next morning, I awoke quite tired, but once again wired and ready to go shoot. No emails from pre-existing clients this morning though. I grabbed my gear and head down to the hotel lobby to grab a coffee and see if the hotel shuttle was actually running - the driver said it would run for me as long as I had a tip for him (that’s not how the free shuttle is *supposed* to work, but I’d be paying more for an Uber, and I’d normally tip for handling my bags anyway, even though I had no bags this trip - not good ethics on the hotel staff, but it wasn’t a bad arrangement). Off we went, and I got to the shoot early since it wasn’t really clear where I was supposed to meet my contact.
After some delays in communication and availability (which allowed me to get a Starbucks to supplement the burnt drip I inhaled on the shuttle), I found my way down a mechanical corridor to my contact’s office, where we picked up an electric airport caddy to drive around ORD between all the ad sites we were visiting. I spotted the four-story tall Brachiosaurus I’d walked under the night before and somehow missed in the dark, and got to shooting all the various locations in every terminal of O’Hare. When we got to Terminal 3, I gasped an my jaw dropped as we whirred along dodging passengers, the breeze of our speed an odd feeling indoors; “Oh my God, it’s the Home Alone Terminal.” I knew Home Alone, and its Lost in New York sequel, were filmed in O’Hare, but I wasn’t expecting to enter this terminal when we did, or for it to look the same. “You should see it during Christmas. It’s Breast Cancer month right now.” Little did I know I’d get exactly that wish granted just two months later.
Like Atlanta above, I did capture a full set of images for my client, but I’m only sharing a few of them here for example purposes, as this post isn’t meant as a portfolio piece of my professional work such as that which I was on assignment for on this trip; if you’re curious to see more of those, head over to my Commercial Marketing Portfolio.
Downtown Exploration: Willis Tower • Skydeck
Like my photoshoot in Atlanta, we’d scheduled for the morning to have as much time to cover the vast amount of ground necessary for this assignment, but unlike Atlanta, I wasn’t leaving same-day, so I still had the benefit of a hotel to stow my gear and luggage. Once the shoot had wrapped up in the afternoon, I got on the shuttle back to the hotel - apparently the 24hr shuttle for this hotel only runs during the day. I dropped off my gear, changed clothes, and on the advice of my ORD contact, went straight back to the airport on the hotel shuttle to catch the train into downtown; this was my first time in Chicago, and I had the evening to go at least explore a little bit.
Before leaving the hotel, I quickly looked at what options I had for notable things to do and see that are quintessentially Chicagoan; if I only had a few hours in the city, I wanted to see or do something that represented the city as a whole, because who knew when I’d be back to see it again (spoiler: the answer would be two months later, but I didn’t know that yet). I already knew I was going to get a deep dish pizza for dinner - you have to. I booked a sunset ticket atop Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower).
After a long subway ride reminiscent of the DC Metro into DC from all the way out on the Silver Line, I came up to street level at dusk and immediately came across Alexander Calder’s “Flamingo” sculpture in the Kluczynski Federal Building’s plaza. I made my way over to Willis Tower’s Skydeck entrance and waited my turn for the elevator to the 103rd floor 1,353 feet above ground level.
By time I got to the top, the sun had already dipped below the horizon, but I was glad to see anything at all since the weather had been rainy all day until I departed ORD for downtown. The size of the storm system moving out of the region was easily visible on the outskirts of the city lights beginning to twinkle below, and raindrops speckled the windows, but not so much the view was disrupted. I shot as many pictures as I could on every side of the building; enough to stitch some panoramas, and also plenty of details of the city below. There’s no limit to the time you can spend at the top, until closing time.
The Skydeck’s main attraction are the all-glass skyboxes which give a truly panoramic view of the city, including straight downward through its laminated glass floor. Many people are fearful to step into these boxes, or look down, but I don’t have a problem with heights as long as there’s fall protection, and a solid enclosure certainly qualifies, so I stepped in without hesitation. I asked an older couple to take some pictures of me on my phone after I took theirs - I told the man to move his finger, which I could see was clearly in front of the camera, to please move his finger out of the way so it wouldn’t block the picture; “no it’s fine!” It was not fine; I was left with useless pictures of blurry flesh with a grainy corner of the city visible. By this time a line had formed for the unmanned skybox, and I was worried I wouldn’t get any photos of myself except the branded “Ledge” photo. Luckily, when I went over to the attendant staffing the official Ledge camera setup, I didn’t even have to ask for them to take some pictures on my camera - they saw what I was shooting with and were very eager to give it a try. I handed over my 1D X, with the settings already dialed in, and they went to town shooting above and beyond what I was going to ask for - they even posed me. After that, they took the official picture with the overhead remote camera, which I happily purchased in the lobby after taking the last elevator down for the night at the Skydeck’s closing time.
Downtown Exploration: Cloud Gate: “The Bean”
Willis Tower was great, but it wasn’t even on my radar until I did a quick Google before leaving my hotel. Despite my reservations for Anish Kapoor, “Cloud Gate,” more commonly and informally called “The Bean,” was always my primary goal to go see in person. Just a few blocks away from Willis Tower, I head toward Millennium Park to go see the stainless steel sculpture for myself.
Walking up, the bean was even more perfectly reflective than I could have imagined for a manmade object, and despite the imperfect sky, AT&T Plaza was almost entirely vacant, so I had the park to myself to photograph without intrusion of people in frame - truly a rare opportunity for such a celebrated tourist attraction. Nearby skyscrapers reflected in each bezier of the stainless steel structure, giving a fisheye view of the surrounding skyline. I walked under and all around Cloud Gate - nobody had vandalized it with Pinkest Pink.
At this point, I’d still gone the entire day without eating anything except coffee (a habit I’m guilty of even to this day), so it was definitely time for dinner. Just a few blocks away was a Giordano's pizza, and it was open late, so it was the obvious choice - even though my ORD contact had said they like Lou Malnati's Pizza better, Giordano’s is still a Chicago staple, and won on a Chicago pizza poll I had on my Instagram story. I walked through Wrigley Square and ordered a beer an appetizer while I waited for my pizza to bake.
The deep dish was so good. Today having had Lou Malnati's Pizza on a later trip to Chicago, I can agree with my ORD contact that I think they have a slight edge over Giordano’s, but only by a hair - they’re both fantastic pizzas. After relaxing in Giordano’s for a bit over an hour, I was starting to get a headache and didn’t want to deal with the train back to the hotel; I called an Uber and captured a few sights on the way over to the pickup location, and found a coffee shop I’d like to visit sometime I’m back in Chicago.
Back at the hotel I desperately took two precious Midrin (the only medication I’ve found to help me with migraines, which was sadly discontinued that year), and attempted to sleep - unfortunately sleep was scarce thanks to the headache, but I at least got some before having to get up for my flight out of Chicago.
Departure
The next morning I was exhausted, but I didn’t care - my headache had passed, and I was just in the post-migraine haze I get the day after a migraine. Thanks to the migraine however, I hadn’t packed anything up the night before, as I usually would, and I was already running late for my flight. With a quick shower, throwing my clothes and tripod from the day before in my luggage, and my essential camera gear in my Tumi bag, I ran down to the lobby to catch the airport shuttle back to ORD; by this time the shuttle driver knew me, knew I was doing work at the airport, and also probably thought I was crazy.
Getting through security I rushed to my gate to catch my flight only to get there and… find the holdroom packed; the plane wasn’t even there yet. As I’d later learn, our inbound aircraft ended up being diverted due to inflight damage (likely a birdstrike) which left my flight out of Chicago in limbo. The flight status didn’t even update to Delayed until I’d already gotten to the gate past boarding time - I left and grabbed my usual large iced Americano from Starbucks to sit down and begin searching for a hotel in my next city. That’s right; I still hadn’t had time to find where I’d be going when I landed.
After several hours, I’d found and booked a hotel near my next airport - again, not quite what I’d normally be looking for, but the proximity was the best so far (they even offered rooms overlooking the airfield), and they did have a restaurant in the lobby, even if it wasn’t open 24hrs; truly a great find considering my needs and for booking a same-day stay. By this time, the airline had pulled a spare aircraft out of storage and fueled it up to fly us away. I normally fly with United, but since I booked my itinerary so last-minute due to my client booking me last-minute, I would be flying on Alaskan for the first time the remainder of my journey. Much to my delight, the aircraft they pulled out of the hangar was still branded Virgin America, so I got to experience their product even after they’d been bought by Alaskan. Also due to the late booking, this was my only leg of the trip I wouldn’t get a window seat, and none had opened up to switch to the day of either. Soon after takeoff I fell asleep despite trying not to, and got a nap on the flight to San Francisco.
SFO: Leg 3 • The Golden State
Arrival
I woke up around 30min before landing and became more and more excited watching the aircraft icon cross the border into California and eventually cover San Francisco on the IFE map as we got over the city. This travel day I was flying casual and wearing my Nikon Z mirrorless system shirt from the Z7 release event I was invited to by Nikon the month prior; much to my dismay, I’ve retired that longtime favorite shirt of mine due to the totally unrelated, and very unpredictable 4 years ago, but extremely similar in appearance Russian usurping of the letter Z in white symbolizing their unprovoked attacks on Ukraine and its people.
Exiting my gate to be greeted by Janet Echelman’s “Every Beating Second” art installation, and began my routine of scoping out some of my ad sites for my photoshoot the next morning while on my way to get my bag and try the hotel shuttle routine again. Walking outside to the curb to catch my shuttle the sun was glaring but welcomingly warm, and I was still extremely exhausted even after napping the entire flight. Looking at the time I realized this was also my first partial case of jetlag - my flight was over 4 hours, but I was standing outside in a new city only two hours after I left, and it wasn’t even noon yet here. I snapped a few photos while waiting on the shuttle, including a Lufthansa A380, but mostly tried to not fall asleep standing on the curb.
Getting to the hotel, I unpacked a few basics and scoped out the food situation - my plan was to eat and pass out. There was a sub joint about a half mile away, so I decided to walk there, pick up a salad and sandwich, and bring it back. I’d debated booking this hotel for the photoshoot and then moving to a nicer one the next day to enjoy for my fun, but decided against that for simplicity and since I figured I wouldn’t be spending much time in my room except to sleep anyway. After eating that’s exactly what I did - I closed the blackout curtains, put the Do Not Disturb sign on my door, made sure my phone was on silent, and went to sleep with no alarm.
I woke up about 6 hours later, and was surprised it was still light out when I peeked out the curtains. The sun was just setting below the mountain outside my window, and I was happy I woke up when I did so I got to see my first California sunset on my first night in the state. I Uber Eatsed some sushi for dinner and relaxed and fully unpacked the rest of the evening.
Photoshoot
The next morning was just like the previous two photoshoot mornings, except I was fully rested, was at a hotel with a reliably running hotel shuttle, and was at my final airport which happened to also have the fewest ad sites to capture. In my work and all things I do, I prefer to get the harder and more complicated stuff out of the way first; this trip only worked out in this order by chance.
Arriving at SFO, I was issued a temporary credential - SFO was the only airport that didn’t give reciprocity to my existing IAD and DCA credentials; ATL and ORD repeatedly saw those badges and let me airside as I do working back home. My contact at SFO gave me lots of recommendations of places to visit and food to eat while in town as we moved from site to site and rode their AirTrain to the International G Gates for another set of images. This was another interesting, albeit niche, spot, because SFO’s G Gates were shown in the 2011 film Contagion.
San Francisco International Airport was the most spaciously designed airport of the four I would find myself in on this journey. With large, tall, open spaces featuring lots of skylights and windows to bring the sun indoors, SFO was consistently bright, and luckily for me there were no sun spots to contend with during shooting. As with the previous airports, I’m including a few sample images from the full set I captured and delivered for my client; for more professional images of my marketing, products, services, and architecture photography, visit my Commercial Portfolio here.
Freedom: Pacifica Beach • Celebratory Dinner
With the fewest ad sites, SFO only took a few hours to cover, half of which was traversing the airport - for comparison, SFO, for the entire airport, had the same number of ad sites to capture as ATL had in just 2 of its 7 terminals. Once I was done shooting, and had spent an extra half hour getting more suggestions of things to do and see in San Francisco, I booked a rental car from a company I’d never heard of before, but I liked their rental model and their rental location was under ¼mi from my hotel - I hopped on their rental car shuttle and picked up my wheels for the next 4 days: a Hyundai Tuscon with Apple CarPlay.
After a quick stop at my hotel room to drop off my tripod, change, and offload the day’s critical pictures, I head out to a place I’d wanted to eat for a very, very long time:
Animal style was SO GOOD. I made a stop at Target to buy some running shorts and a few other things I’d forgotten to bring or needed to resupply, grab a Starbucks, and I decided since the day was mostly over I wanted to burn my last hours of sunlight at the beach. I decided on Pacifica, and head over to their beach to dip my toes in the (surprisingly cold) Pacific Ocean water for the first time, and watch my first ever sunset on the ocean. I didn’t bring my camera on this outing; all these pictures are from my iPhone X I bought days before this trip. As I approached the sand, a lady stopped to ask if I was playing Pokémon GO; I had noticed a sign on the beach for their local Pokémon GO group, and she invited me to join. I’ve played Pokémon GO since the first day it released, but wasn’t even thinking about it on this trip. I dipped my toes in the water and was absolutely shocked at how cold the water was - there would be no wading tonight, just some casual sunsetspotting.
Once the sun went down, I walked over to the pier and walked to the end to see what that view was like.
It was dinner time; I wanted to celebrate a successful trip and decided to restaurant hop close to my hotel - a New York Strip, cocktails between several different nearby restaurant bars, and I had to abide my own rule when I saw the dessert menu: if crème brulée is on the dessert menu, you must order crème brulée.
Day 1 - Downtown: Lombard Street • Ghirardelli Square • Fisherman’s Wharf • Twin Peaks
The next day was a Saturday, and my first of three fully free days to explore San Francisco and the surrounding area. I was still pretty wiped out and got a later start than I’d hoped, but I made the short trek downtown toward the general direction of the Fisherman’s Wharf, because I had been recommended to visit it, and of course the seafood there would be killer.
Just a few blocks shy of where I’d planned on parking, I drove through an intersection and did a triple take - I just passed Lombard Street! I’d planned on dropping by, but I didn’t realize I was going to be so near it that day, or that it was open to vehicular traffic, but sure enough, cars were coming down at a crawl. I quickly took a few turns and made it to the top of Lombard, and sure enough, there was a short line of cars waiting to turn down the famous curvy drive. After a few minutes sitting in utter shock I’d simply driven up to Lombard Street by accident, it was my turn:
After turning off Lombard I drove the few blocks to the parking garage by The Fisherman’s Wharf where I’d been advised to visit for dinner. Dropping off my car, I walked back up to Lombard to go check it out on foot like I’d originally intended to. As it turns out, Lombard Street legally is closed to non-resident traffic, it’s just not enforced. Inexplicably, by time I’d returned on foot there was now a security guard directing traffic down Lombard in an orderly fashion, despite the No Turns sign I didn’t notice in my touristy fanboying.
Moving along after exploring the gardens on both sides of Lombard Street and taking in the panoramic view from the top, I starting exploring the streets on the way back toward The Fisherman’s Wharf, taking in the colorful rowhouses San Francisco is famous for, and stumbling upon the Chamber of Secrets door, another entry in Atlas Obscura, and not one, but two brick-and-mortar camera stores; I did poke my head in, but didn’t actually stop because I didn’t need anything - I was just impressed even one existed, and in that location of all places.
The sun was on its way down, and I wanted to get some sunset shots of the bay while I had the chance. I made my way over to the Aquatic Cove Pier, passing Ghirardelli Square from across the Maritime Museum; I’d been told by several people to “eat at Ghiradelli’s,” misleading me to believe the entire building is a chocolate factory headquarters with fine restaurant - I now know Ghirardelli Square is an upscale shopping and dining destination with multiple options not associated with the confectionary brand - I should have trusted my instincts and known better not to trust information from people who aren’t even getting the brand name correct - it’s not plural, folks! I had spotted what I now realize was the McCormick & Kuleto's (AKA McCormick & Schmick’s, which we have several of here in the DC region, including one in Reston Town Center which was still open at the time of this journey); I was underdressed for it anyway.
Arriving at the pier entrance I found it was temporarily closed, at least per the sign - gates were installed, but the locks had been broken and people were out on the pier anyway. So, I decided to YOLO and proceeded in. This is where it got a little sketch, because the sun was quickly setting, I was going to capture the sunset on the bay, and I was one of the few people on this pier that wasn’t likely homeless or possibly an opportunistic local. I made my way to the end of the pier, and captured Alcatraz at sunset and San Francisco under the dusk sky, before quickly walking back and slipping through the entrance.
It was dinner time. I went on the hunt for a seafood restaurant that was both open and not just a grab-n-go vendor - this somehow proved impossible, and I eventually ended up at a TexMex place with a selection of San Francisco local beers on tap. But not before I saw (and heard) the seals.
After exploring a bit more, it was getting late, and I still had one more stop in mind. I picked up my car from the garage and navigated across town; this spot was listed as open 24hrs, which surprised me about many of San Francisco’s parks, but I expected at around midnight it would be a somewhat unsafe expedition like the Aquatic Cove Pier, but after twisting the roads and into fog atop Twin Peaks, I parked and joined the throng of people just chilling under Sutro Tower and looking out at the panoramic view of the city. To my absolute surprise, it was nothing like the Cove Pier at all - the crowd seemed mostly college age, large enough there was a low murmur - apparently this is a young peeps’ spot late-night, because everyone seemed like a local and it wasn’t all one big group - it was just a bunch of handfuls of friends. I hadn’t brought my tripod with me on this leg, so these were all handheld or braced long exposures.
It had been a long day, and with my plans for tomorrow only narrowed down to the region and not the specifics, I head back to the hotel for the night.
Day 2 - Napa Valley: Robert Mondavi Winery • Cosentino Winery • Downtown Napa • Golden Gate Bridge
The next day I got a later start than I’d hoped for, and I didn’t even oversleep. I’d wanted to visit Napa for years, and today I had only one day to do it. I needed to plan this out a little bit, at least to get a good starting point. My Googling ended up taking much longer than expected, because as it turns out, most Napa wineries are not like Virginia’s, and many require reservations (which were of course already full), or were simply not open on Sundays (an odd move if you ask me). Giving in, I finally decided Robert Mondavi Winery would be my first stop, even though I’d never had a wine from this very large winemaker that I’d liked. With at least some plan, I got moving for the over hour drive to Napa, with a quick lunch break along the way.
If you’re even slightly into wine, you’ve surely heard of and likely drank something from Robert Mondavi. One of the largest winemakers in Napa, and the US for that matter, you can find Robert Mondavi wines in practically every grocery store and aircraft minibar that stocks wine - this is the wine that most people, including myself, have had, and associate with the Robert Mondavi wine label. It’s very common in the wine world for wineries to produce multiple lines of different tier wines, and likewise for vineyards to utilize the same grapes for different brands of wines - for winemakers as large as Robert Mondavi, it’s practically standard practice, so I arrived at Robert Mondavi Winery under the assumption that none of the bland bargain budget wines from the winemaker I’d had from catered and volume sale past would be present at my visit; my assumption was very correct.
After doing a quick 180 to get a pic at the famous Napa Valley sign, I pulled in to Robert Mondavi Winery and was immediately calmed, surrounded by the vines bearing grapes in the sun. I was far behind schedule, but I’d arrived in the happiest of my wine aficionado happy place.
Inside I was offered the option to book a vineyard tour that included tastings of Robert Mondavi Winery’s reserve wines, however winery exclusive wines were still those being served in the standard tasting room; I chose to skip the tour and its associated wait time and double cost, and enjoyed a tasting immediately and at my leisure, to be followed by a flight (because I’m a geek and wine journaled the flight). The tour would have been interesting, particularly since Robert Mondavi rose to be a worldwide influential powerhouse, pioneering techniques and solidifying the importance of appellations in new world wines we take for granted today, but I didn’t want to spend my entire day at his winery, even though I did enjoy the wines. After choosing a wine from my flight and enjoying a glass in the magical feeling California sun, I plotted a course to my next stop.
This is where my plans for Napa fell shorter than my hopes; practically all wineries nearby I could find online were already closed, or would be closing within the hour at this point, and it wasn’t even 4PM yet. On the way to Robert Mondavi Winery, I had spotted a cute little tasting room covered in ivy, and no results for it showed up online, but it was clearly an open vineyard when I’d driven past a few hours earlier; it was a few miles away, so I decided to just go and check it out. This was a good call, because they were still open for several hours, and were happy to have me without a reservation. I’d arrived at Cosentino Winery.
Sitting outside in the shade, I ordered a flight (tastings were finished for the day) and chose a wine to order a glass of and enjoy the golden hour creeping up. Cosentino is (as of this writing) just over 40 years old, but I don’t know much more history about the vineyard than that. I also simply enjoyed the wine and scenery here, and ended up striking up a conversation with the man at the table across from mine; as chance would have it, he lived in Reston, and ended up talking about baseball, restaurants, and wineries in Virginia and California until it was Cosentino’s closing time.
The sun was setting soon, and I was starving. While at Cosentino I’d lamented to my server that all the wineries in Napa closed so early; he found it odd too, but said it’s the way it’s always been - Napa tradition I suppose? I’m still surprised there isn’t enough demand to at stay open past 4, or in Cosentino’s case, 6PM. During this conversation I had asked about any local restaurant recommendations, and was suggested a Michelin Starred restaurant next door, but I instead decided to go explore downtown Napa and find something to eat there.
Downtown Napa was expectedly quaint, and I assume is where the Napa Wine Train, which I didn’t even know existed until I saw it on my drive to Robert Mondavi Winery, typically begins its journey. Where I landed wasn’t Michelin listed, but it was delicious. I walked into Oxbow Public Market, a space with numerous vendors inside, and I sat down at Hog Island Oyster Co and got dinner started with a round of oysters and glass of Sauvignon Blanc, my go-to white varietal (though this time from Napa, not Marlborough). This also made me feel a bit of nostalgia, because my first time trying raw oysters was at an oyster bar with a glass of (predictably) Sauvignon Blanc, with my friends Alyssa, Eddie, and Loreal; this was after Alyssa and I attended my friends Imran and Hina’s wedding that Eddie photographed - a bit of a small afterparty, and ever since I’ve loved raw oysters. Once my oyster appetizer and wine were finished, I sank my teeth into a fried oyster poboy paired with a Napa Chardonnay (not my favorite varietal, but Napa and nearby Sonoma are famous for it, so it was a must).
Before leaving Oxbow Public Market I picked up a few treats to take home (and a milkshake treat for right then), then proceeded to wander downtown Napa a bit. At this hour it was late enough I wouldn’t have expected anything except bars to be open in a normal city, and certainly not the wine bars downtown Napa is freckled with. A few restaurants were still open, but otherwise I joined the other visitors aimlessly window shopping after a meal and day of enjoying “bottled poetry.”
The beginning of this day was my first time driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, and I’d be ending it by driving back across it returning to my hotel. But tonight fit into part of my loosely scheduled checklist of photos I wanted to capture while I had the chance, one large item of which was photographing the Golden Gate Bridge both at night and during the day; this would fulfill the night portion of that desire. I’d checked earlier where good viewpoints of the Golden Gate Bridge from the North side of the bridge and how accessible they were before even leaving the hotel at the start of my day; to my surprise, like so many other parks in the area, the grounds were open 24/7.
Although these spots were open to the public at all hours, it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily safe at all hours. Pulling off the 101 after the Robin Williams Tunnel, I went up the switchbacks into the Golden Gate Recreation Area, which was very dark. I had several spots in mind, and it was clear from the couple cars parked at the trailhead that I wasn’t going to be alone even past midnight. First up was Battery Spencer, one of the numerous abandoned artillery batteries constructed at the turn of the century to defend the strategically valuable San Francisco Bay Area. I made the short hike in complete darkness and as reasonable silence so as not to attract any unwanted attention should I encounter it; I passed two people quickly walking back toward the parking lot, seemingly with the same strategy although one was using a light. After tripping a few times with nothing but moonlight to barely keep me on the dirt trail, the brightly illuminated Golden Gate Bridge unfolded in front of me with the city of San Francisco twinkling majestically behind her.
This time I’d brought my tripod along. I set it up for some easier long exposures than at Twin Peaks the night before, moving to several spots along this stretch of mountain. The ropes the NPS has set up at these peaks really are on the edge - just a few feet away really do drop off, and if one isn’t careful you could easily lose your tripod or your life depending upon how careless they’re being. I didn’t descend into Battery Spencer; looking beyond the railing nothing was visible except a pitch black abyss - I will occasionally take reasonably calculated risks for photos, but not blatantly unwise ones.
The battery also gave me a great view of the crescent moon low on the horizon; Point Diablo Light glistens and could be heard gently calling through the fog leading into the Pacific.
Day 3 - Redwoods: Muir Woods National Monument • Golden Gate Bridge
For my final full day in San Francisco, I made sure to see the redwoods the West coast is famous for. San Francisco is surrounded by nature and great hiking; you could live there for years and still barely scratch the surface. Even before boarding my first flight I’d planned on devoting a full day to Napa and another full day to hiking the redwood forests.
This day was very simple and required no prior planning on my part - go to Muir Woods National Monument and get lost in nature (figuratively of course, and since it’s likely the most popular hiking area for visitors to San Francisco, it’s also nearly impossible to get lost with how well the NPS has marked and delineated the park’s trails.
The drive to the Muir Woods trailhead and visitor center is something to behold in its own right. Between the spirited hairpin switchbacks and sudden oceanview vistas, the journey was part of the fun - amazingly after all that driving up mountains, you still had lots of mountain left to hike upward on foot once parked. Inside the gate there are numerous signage and maps of the park to lay out your exploration options and the park’s history, including a pewter topographical diorama displaying trail routes along the park’s terrain, a polished cutaway of a redwood showing its rings and associated points in history, and plaques about the ecology at different levels of the forest, and about the park’s naturalist namesake, John Muir.
Once past the visitor’s center, the main trail is very built up; it’s mostly a boardwalk through the forest, with trailheads shooting off leading you to more serious hiking - I’d be choosing to explore several of these, although the park is so large it wouldn’t be feasible to hit every trail available and take in the sights.
The redwoods themselves are a sight to behold. Redwoods and sequoias are frequently confused; the two species are closely related, but not the same. While sequoias are the largest trees in the world by volume (hence the trees tunneled through large enough to drive cars through in Sequoia National Park), redwoods are the tallest trees in the world.
This height of the trees’ trunks and altitude of their canopy largely account for why the redwood forest is so notably quiet - to my ears, compared to a standard forest, the redwoods offer a muffled attenuation to any sound similar to fresh snowfall. With a canopy around 258ft overhead, the redwoods’ tall canopy block much of the breeze, and keep the sound of rustling leaves several hundred feet away from earshot on the ground. For reference, the original Saarinen ATCT at Washington Dulles International Airport stands at 193ft.
Once a bit further into the park you get away from always having someone in sight or the occasional guided group tours. Once onto the offshoot trails, you’re completely secluded and might only see another hiker every 10-15min.
At one spot a fallen redwood has been turned into a pedestrian bridge; it’s a fun feature, and offers a great view of Redwood Creek below. Although the redwoods are not wide enough to drive a car through, they are more than large enough to stand in if nature has carved out an opening.
There were several trails on my radar, and one thing I knew was I wanted to go up, up, up. The Panoramic Trail, leading up to the Panoramic Highway above the park, was one of the shorter options, but I landed on it not knowing the true difficulty of the other options, not wanting to risk a trek too long to return before the park closed. As it would turn out, I probably could have done some of the longer trails with time to spare, but hiking up to the Panoramic Trail’s top still worked in my favor.
It was fascinating how as you climbed you could see and hear the layers of the forest change, including the wildlife. Climbing the mountain and rising into the the redwoods’ canopy, you could hear more rustling of leaves, chirping of birds, and on the ground find less wetlands life like the toads along Redwood Creek and more arid reptilians including snakes and lizards.
At the upper trailhead, while orienting myself and taking in the view, I noticed something lurking in the greenery across the road, maybe 50 feet away from me. It crept forward and I was a bit shocked and slightly alarmed realizing I had no meaningful cover if I needed it: a bobcat was eyeing its next move. A few moments later it made its move, sprinting across the road and back into safety. It had no interest in me; I’m not sure it even saw me. From above, I could see it casually walking along the dirt trail I had just hiked up (and I soon needed to hike back down); that’s when it turned around and looked over its shoulder at me, as if to say, “whatcha gonna do about it?”
Since I had the high ground, I could see all of the trail up to where it entered the shade of the canopy, and right on queue two hikers appeared walking up the trail toward me, and the bobcat, totally unaware of the potential danger. I shouted to warn them of the danger and to have some situational awareness; they heard me but couldn’t understand me. Between this and their clamoring up the remainder of the trail, the bobcat had slipped off somewhere out of sight and presumably moved along. Once they got to the top and joined me, I explained what they narrowly missed, showed them the pictures, and then we all took photos of each other on the nearby rocks as souvenirs from the short summit.
It’s funny, when I’d initially reached the top of this trail (which was sadly not even the top of this mountain), I’d looked at the view laid out before me and it took a solid minute for me to comprehend that the shimmery / foggy odd flatness in the distance was the ocean. This sounds really dumb in retrospect, but my mind’s eye played a trick on me at first, like it was a uniquely flat continuation of the forest below that I couldn’t quite comprehend. Perhaps it’s my East Coast mind, where ocean is associated with beach; this is the only time I’ve ever viewed ocean from a forest.
Looking North, I spotted the observatory I’d truly wished to visit; this would have been an all-day endeavor by foot however. If I were to return again, a spot to not miss is Trojan Point. It is hikeable from the main Muir Woods visitor center, but if you don’t want an all-day excursion or can’t get a park reservation, the summit well above San Francisco’s signature fog is accessible by car, and appears as though you’re on an island floating in the clouds - I cannot believe I missed visiting this spot.
Making my way down the mountain I was able to switch to a different trail and see some different perspectives of the forest than my way up. As the sun was dropping in the sky the light filtering through the red trunks became warmer in glow, a welcome sight to match the muffled quiet descending back to the forest floor. In a grove of trees my phone surprisingly buzzed - I hadn’t had signal almost the entire time I was in Muir Woods. My contact at SFO was calling me; it turns out we hadn’t captured all the locations required to capture for my project - my calm quickly became panic.
Stopped for about a half hour on this narrow dirt slope with the sun speckling at my feet, we sorted through the issue: the client had requested pictures of additional ad sites that are managed by a different ad agency than the agency I’d been interfacing with, and their PR firm wasn’t aware of the multiple ad agencies involved when contacting me - most airports have only one ad agency contracted, but this wasn’t the case at SFO. Since these additional ad sites were under the purview of another agency, my contact couldn’t help me with access, and didn’t even know the exact locations.
Standing in the forest I was able to get in touch with a representative for the other ad agency at SFO, but there wasn’t enough time to get the necessary paperwork submitted to get me access, and one of the ads in question even she didn’t know the exact location of either, even though it was through her agency. The best solution we came up with was I’d arrive early for my flight the next day and try to find and access the ad spaces on my own, as she wasn’t even in the city to come assist me. I also touched base with the client’s PR Firm to update them, and luckily was advised that the ad sites I’d already captured were the most important, and there was very little information on the additional sites (preaching to the choir here), so anything I was able to capture would be helpful, because they had basically nothing (in the ad world this is helpful for reporting proof and evaluating of campaign effectiveness, so in other words they had no metrics or baseline information on the sites in question).
So after making my heart race and panic in an otherwise peaceful slice of heaven on Earth, I was able to resume hiking with at least a plan in my head… though with some lingering nerves that wouldn’t calm until I was back at the airport and had something, anything additional for my client on my camera’s memory card.
Reaching the base of the forest, I made sure to stop at the souvenir store and picked up a few items for some family and friends. The catch is I knew I didn’t have space in my luggage for much extra, and I had two crystal wine glasses from the wineries the day prior that would be impossible to fly home myself; I’d brought them along today and my next stop was the nearest FedEx or UPS shipping center I could find.
The road out of the park and toward Tiburon took me back up the mountains, so I stopped for some quick golden hour photos before beginning my pre-departure errands. One thing that struck me on my hike, and was reinforced during my scenic overlook stop, is how dry the grass, ground, and foliage is in California - it’s no wonder they suffer so many wildfires.
After filling my rental car up with gas, I met the most stereotypical surfer dude working at the UPS Store, who couldn’t get my name or address right to save his life, not even going letter by letter or by reading directly off my driver’s license. “Aw man, not again. Sorry dude.” About ten tries later with at least my address right (my name was still wrong but hey, close enough, at least it will get there), I handed over all my items for them to package it so I wouldn’t even have to deal with it… I just hoped clueless surfer dude would at least get all my stuff in the right box and not send it all to someone else. While inside, I found it quite telling that the store specifically stocked wine shipping cases. In the parking lot outside there were several classic cars; I don’t know if there was a show or if it was simply by chance - they all seemed to be just driven and parked like regular shopping center traffic.
My last stop of the day before dinner was again the Golden Gate Bridge, but this time from the South side at sunset. This time I’d be visiting several batteries for multiple perspectives, and since I wasn’t hiking this, I had my tripod in the car to get this one last chance for dusk colors right.
I had two perspectives in mind, though without any on-the-ground knowledge of this park beyond glancing at Google Maps, I wasn’t sure how easy getting both would be. Parking by Battery Godfrey, the sun was quickly dropping over the Pacific.
After a few quick photos of the batteries, I shifted my attention to the coastline and bridge before the sun completely set. With a bit of walking it became evident getting my two angles would be no problem at all.
As the sun finally set, the sky quickly shifted colors as dusk fell, allowing me the chance to capture a few more vibrant variations from this vantage point.
Once dusk crept toward night, I began making my way back to the car to hunt down dinner, but not before a few final captures, and the silhouette of a lone man practicing yoga.
I’d heard for years San Francisco is supposed to have some amazing sushi. Specifically, San Francisco is known for the “sushirito,” which quite frankly does not appeal in the slightest, even though I love sushi and love burritos. I knew I had to get everything packed up at the hotel tonight, so didn’t want to pull a late night downtown just for dinner. I found a very high rated, but also nearby and easy to get into (as a solo diner), and after a few minutes waiting took a seat at my preferred spot in any sushi restaurant, at the sushi bar. I chowed down and got some of my favorite rolls and nigiri. I enjoyed my dinner, as I always enjoy any sushi, but I honestly can’t say San Francisco’s sushi was any different or of better or worse quality than sushi I’ve had on the East Coast; maybe it’s because I skipped the sushirito. During my entire dinner, a group of people were loudly playing Pokémon GO, with several even playing on two phones at the same time - the lady from Pacifica Beach wasn’t kidding when she said Pokémon GO was huge in that city.
Getting back to my hotel room the first time before midnight on any night this entire trip, I began my nightly routine of offloading the day’s photos while recharging batteries and organizing gear. This time I’d be organizing to fly home, not to another photoshoot. On Instagram (I’d been documenting every step of this trip to Instagram Stories, which you can still see a Highlight Story of on my @DavidBuerkPhoto Instagram Profile), I’d been asked about the gear I packed and used for such a trip.
Below, on the left, you can see all the camera gear I brought on this trip, which includes primary and backup camera bodies and lenses, tripod, flash and trigger for remote firing, and several microphones and light modifiers; I frequently am asked to capture video in addition to stills of ad sites in order to demonstrate a video record of pedestrian traffic, or ad impressions.
On the right, you can see the gear I actually used; only my Canon EOS 1D X, EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM, and remote triggering system on my tripod - I try to travel light, and unless absolutely necessary, I leave backup gear at the hotel, which is inconvenient in the event of a failure, but won’t ruin a shoot by not having it available to me if I’d simply not had a backup.
On the topic of why it’s so important to have backup equipment on hand, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II you see packed as a backup body completely died in transit between SFO and my arrival back home at IAD - it turned on and worked just fine when I took this picture and packed it in my checked bag to fly home, but was totally inoperable upon unpacking at home. This can happen to any gear at any time, and is why when traveling I keep a barebones mission critical set of gear with me as my carry-on - this typically means my laptop (which I usually work on inflight anyway), my primary camera, and an allrounder lens - the 24-105 isn’t my favorite or most expressive lens I own, but it’s hands down my most used, especially commercially.
Photoshoot: Part II
I didn’t get much sleep because I knew I needed to get to the airport as early as possible to go hunting for the elusive ad sites I had practically no info on. I managed to get a few hours, and I woke up to an email giving me a friendly notification that my flight to DAL (I had tried to book the direct SFO - IAD flight I planned during quoting, but it was unavailable when actually booking my itinerary, so was forced into SFO - DAL - DCA with a 30min layover) was already delayed by over an hour, before the aircraft had even departed its origin (when this occurs it’s typically due to staffing or weather). I bolted awake. In other words, I woke up to a friendly email telling me I was about to get stranded in Dallas. Fantastic.
The thing is, I knew the SFO - IAD non-stop flight for the same time was still scheduled, and wasn’t full, so I knew my only hope was to hopefully get moved over to that one. I know it’s not a popular “DCish” thing to say, but flying into Dulles is easier and preferable to me.
My bag was already packed and ready to go by the door; this is the only time I’ve been headed to an airport with a little voice telling me, “stay; just don’t leave here.” I truly was sad - San Francisco is to-date the only place I have ever been that I did not want to leave. California feels like warm magic, it felt like home, and I’d barely scratched the surface.
Duty called, and I drove off to return my rental car and, first things first, get my travel plans sorted out; there was no way in hell I was allowing myself to get stranded in Dallas - by time I got to SFO the DAL - DCA flight was over two hours delayed, meaning when I landed at DAL I’d have missed my connecting flight by over 1.5hrs. Big nope.
Luckily I was able to explain my predicament to an Alaska Airlines ticket agent and get moved onto the non-stop SFO - IAD flight I’d originally planned for and wanted… but not before she tried to send me to DCA because “it’s better because it’s closer to the city,” and she didn’t believe me when I said Dulles is closer and I work there (not that I don’t do work at DCA too, but it wouldn’t have helped my point with her to mention this). It wasn’t until I quite literally handed her my IAD credential that she actually realized I knew what I was talking about.
So I was on the direct flight I wanted, and was even able to specify a window seat. Crisis one averted. Now to go through security and avert crisis number two; the missing ad spaces.
The limited information I had after the previous day’s flurry of frantic phone calls and emails indicated there was at least one, but unclear of the exact number, of ads for my client in a jet bridge (which, if true, would be completely inaccessible unless it happened to be my flight’s jet bridge, and even then, not so photogenic if boarding a flight), and also on an unknown number of digital sites in unspecified airline lounges (which I wasn’t a member of, or possibly even flying those airlines). So I knew, and had made everyone involved in the project the day prior while sorting this out in the middle of Muir Woods, that I’d need some luck to capture anything worthwhile on this endeavor. I’d been assured that if I was unable to find and document anything it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but don’t like missing things.
I started with what was easy; walk the concourse and look at each and every ad site to see if there was something obvious on the ground but not communicated very well - my contacts at the PR firm are all in the EU, so they can only go on the information relayed to them, which isn’t always complete or accurate, of no fault of their own. As chance would have it, I did manage to find one ad site for the client at the entrance to a jetbridge, however it was of a different campaign that nobody was aware of still running. This was as close as I would find in relation to ads and jetbridges, so with that I shifted my focus to the unspecified airline lounge sites.
Looking up a map of SFO’s terminals, I looked up the lounges accessible from my post-security position and head to the furthest domestic carrier lounge first, to work my way back and end my search near my flight’s gate. Based on some intel I’d been given the day before by my contact SFO, he told me which air carriers had previously contracted digital ad sites before they changed hands, but because they weren’t under his ad agency anymore, like I explained in the Muir Woods segment above, he was now unable to confirm that they were still present or what would be running on them.
The first lounge I visited was a bust - they didn’t have ad spaces, but I wasn’t concerned yet, because this wasn’t the lounge I had the tip on. I moved on to the next lounge, and while they had an ad space, it was not being utilized. At my last lounge to visit, I walked in and introduced myself, explaining who I was working with and what I was hoping to find in their lounge (mind you, I had to talk my way in to each of these lounges - my boarding pass wasn’t even with these airlines), and started my look around this final airline lounge; this last lounge was the one was my last chance, but also the one I’d been tipped off about. Sure enough, a small monitor was cycling ads near the dining area. I rapidly snagged the photos I needed from two different angles before causing any more confusion than I may already have, and excused myself with much thanks to the lounge manager who’d pointed me in the right direction.
Sweet relief. I’d exhausted all leads I had, and all access I could muster.
Here are the two locations I documented, handheld mind you (my tripod was checked at this point); I captured multiple angles of each site, but this is also a fair demonstration of why it’s important to have a barebones set of gear available: on a commercial assignment like this, even if my extra / backup gear gets lost or damaged, by having the primary gear with me, I can still get the assignment completed even if it’s not in the most ideal or easy conditions.
Departure
Too much stress for one morning; I need a drink.
It was about lunchtime by now. I still had several hours before my flight even boarded, so I could really relax now - I got a burger as a main course, and then realized I could finally do something I’d always wanted to do, but normally never could.
At my home airports I’m always working, and therefore badged, and it’s against regulations to even be seated at a bar area, let alone drink any alcohol while wearing your airport credentials which you must always be displaying. Here, however, I was a passenger, meaning I could for once in my life finally partake in the alcoholic lawlessness that is airport bars open at all hours of the day.
Obviously, given my mini-trip to Napa, I’ve always had a love of wine, and I’ve always been attracted to Vino Volo in all my time shooting marketing photos at some of their locations back home - it’s an airport wine bar: of course I’m into them. I’d noticed when I first landed at SFO the Vino Volo by my gate had a Stranger Things red wine flight, which immediately had my attention. This was October, so was playing up the spoopy vibes, however 2018 was the gap year between Stranger Things seasons 2 and 3. The choice was obvious.
Stowing my IDs so there would be no question, I saddled up to Vino Volo and took a seat at the bar. With the Stranger Things soundtrack playing softly overhead, I snacked on a charcuterie board paired with my Stranger Things flight. Finally relaxed. Although I didn’t want to return home, if I had to, this is the way to do it.
It was time to board. The flight was almost full when I’d managed my lucky swap several hours earlier, so I expected to be crammed into the window after two people, but the cabin door closed and I had just one seatmate, and we happily split the middle seat for storage. With one last look at the tower, we were up in the air in the Virgin America moodlit cabin.
As we quickly gained altitude for the five hour flight the sprawl and marked dryness became even more evident from above as the curves of suburbia neighborhoods branched light electric current finding the least resistive path in an arid terrain the color of dried straw.
Fast approaching the Sierra Nevada mountains became more jagged in the Earth below, with more and more snow on the tops pushing East; an odd sight at the beginning of Fall with Summer temperatures, flying toward Las Vegas. Huge windmill farms appeared as power generation for ants, despite their blades dwarfing the wingspan of my air chariot’s.
Perched in my window seat to spectate the beautiful World below, Mono Lake felt almost alien with its eerily calm water surrounded by rusty red land. But the dryness was driven home by the smoke from a wildfire rising up from behind a mountain just on the opposite side of the lake. A trail of haze spread West as far as visible; The Owens Fire burned for over 4 months across 338 acres of land. That’s a large mass of land, but a drop in the bucket compared to the record and heart breaking Camp Fire which would start three weeks later.
The sun quickly set, flying into the night, and I settled in to sort and edit the next batch of pictures, even downloading my pictures from that day inflight.
Two of the cabin crew had taken notice I was working with pictures, a lot with airports, and had seen my badge and were wondering what exactly my job was that I was flying around to take pictures of airports (not even airports we were flying from or to - they recognized ORD and ATL from my previous legs). Each time they passed by between tasks they would stop to find out more about my work, becoming even more intrigued with each snippet, until they finally said, “come hang out with us in the back.” So I followed the duo to the tail and we chatted for over a half hour, sharing about how crazy my schedule was from the past week, talking each of our most and least favorite airports, and things to do in each city. They were both based in California, but had heard Virginia had a wine region, so they started asking me all the questions about it and for recommendations of where to visit between their flights - I of course asked if they were hoping to see any of the vineyards the next day while they were in town, but they were flying the return flight route, so would only be in town for the night - gathering intel for a future, longer, turnover 😭
Since none of us would be visiting any wineries together, they decided we should toast to travel from a Western wine region to an Eastern one; pouring sips of wine for three, we quietly toasted before they began their next sweep attending to the cabin. They topped off my glass, handing me a cheese board to pair it with, and we exited the tail, me slipping into my seat with a bit of entertained side-eye from my seatmate, and them continuing to the front to begin their next sweep. From this point just exchanging a wink would suffice so as not to raise any more eyebrows higher than they already were.
At this point there wasn’t much distance left to travel, and not long after finishing my airborne wine and cheese to celebrate the finale of my crazy, hectic, exciting, successful trip, we were wheels down on Dulles’ familiar airfield. The same tinge of sadness from standing at my hotel room door before departing San Francisco: I was no longer in California.
Conclusion
A Word About This Post
At this point it’s safe to say this is the longest blog entry I’ve ever composed and quantity of pictures I’ve posted at once to-date, but what a fitting topic to earn that distinction; this journey was the largest logistical undertaking of any project I’ve worked on, and largest distance and combined number of destinations in such a short timeframe I’ve ever undertaken in any capacity. What a thrill.
Make no mistake, although this post appears as a vacation, it was anything but, and even my 3 spare days in San Francisco involved working with deliverables and coordinating with clients, and not just for this assignment, but for other projects for other clients upcoming or already in progress. There’s a good reason I barely got any sleep and was still a tense ball of stress even while I was “relaxing.”
Only a small sliver of the photos and videos I captured on assignment were included above even though I captured about equal parts of photos for Assignment and Personal - this post was created to highlight every detail of my personal photos from my over a week long journey in the travelogue you’ve just enjoyed, not showcase the assignment itself, as most of my readers will find those photos less interesting than those above. However, if you’d like to see more of my corporate work, similar to that which I worked on for this assignment, you can see more in my Retail & Architecture Portfolio.
As I mentioned in the first paragraphs, in post-production I prioritize edits for assignments before touching personal work. Due to scale, this often means my own vacation photos, such as trips to Rhode Island, often take me a year to edit and post, or modeling collaborations with friends have taken up to a half year. (ALSO: I’m a perfectionist.) In the case of this post’s pictures, it took me over two years to edit, and over another year to compose just the text you’re reading now (alongside arranging the photos for blog format as I write).
The photos I’ve shared with you today I’m incredibly proud of, just as I am incredibly proud of working with the PR Firm and multiple Ad Agency teams on the ground in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. This trip would be the first of multiple projects working with some of these folks, some of which can be found in previous posts from trips I documented much more timely than this.
The Three Cities
Whirlwind is a perfect word for this trip; if you can think of a better descriptor, let me know. Atlanta was such a whirlwind I didn’t even get to see anything except the airport, and that was for two clients! The Windy City swept me off my feet for a few hours downtown after a full day seeing and photographing every corner of ORD. But the city that truly took my heart was San Francisco, and it remains that way to this very day, as I write this four years later.
The journey above still remains my only visit to The Golden State. San Francisco enchanted me, and I can’t help but continue to wonder if the entire California Republic would hold the same magic to me; I imagine it will. California simply felt magical, and I feel that way still just looking at the pictures I shot there four years ago, and looking up all the places and rich history I haven’t gotten to witness in person yet. The weather was perfect, everything you see is beautiful, and every vibe I encountered was relaxed - all a stark difference from the city of power trips, ego-stroking, and self-righteous entitlement I hail from (and admittedly suffer from to some degree - sadly to survive you have to here… although there are times I enjoy DC’s BDE).
If you even slightly know me, you know I love the outdoors; a bucket list item for me is to visit every National Park. A difficult task for most, and one I’m not likely to achieve, and yet California is home to more on my top ten list than anywhere else; Yosemite, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and Sequoia (note: Muir Woods, although maintained by the National Park Service, is a National Recreation Area, not a National Park; Redwood National Park is at the northernmost part of the state, well out of reach of this trip’s logistics). Others I’d especially like to visit outside of California include Yellowstone, Arches, and Denali.
Los Angelos has a scale I think I’m going to have to see to believe, and maybe even then still not quite believe it. LA has a reputation for personalities that rival the attitudes I dislike here in DC, however I’d like to judge for myself, plus the city has a ton of museums and trails I’d like to see, not to mention it’s just two hours from Joshua Tree National Park.
Flying over California and seeing how the landscape shifts from ocean oasis to dense forest to snowy mountaintops to arid desert, all coexisting at the same time, it just feels as though the Earth was kissed in California. Sightseeing on Google Maps just goes to show how much beauty the state has to offer, like the tranquility at Mono Lake I few over.
That magic at every turn is why, to-date, California is the only place I’ve been where I felt more at home than when I was at home, and the drive to never leave. Perhaps one day I’ll visit a place that feels even more welcoming, likely somewhere in Europe if I had to guess. Until then, San Francisco has my heart, and will always hold a special place for me for the impact it made on me.
Thank you, San Francisco; I didn’t leave my heart there, but you stole it anyway.
Compilation Video
In case you didn’t take in the video clips above, you can enjoy them in compilation form below.
Note, this video does not contain any of the video captured for client assignment.
