As cheesy as it sounds, I just love life. I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my friends. I love people. I LOVE.
Solar Photographers
The Happy Family Movement
Blog
Happy Soul (Tumblr)
Vagabond Posts
dang, that’s a lot of links, sorry :)
if you were a vespa, what color would you be…in a hexadecimal code?
#00ABBD (it’s the blue from the Happy Family Movement & it makes me happy)
on a road trip, are most of your clothes in suitcase, a moving box, or a laundry basket?
suitcases plural. when I’m traveling, it’s always with either my wife, or my wife and 3 kiddos. They need lots of stuff. But we do have buckets for all our snacks, and a sweet cooler that plugs into the cigarette lighter :)
describe your nearest “getaway spot?”
Wherever I can ride my bike to. I put on my ipod, hit shuffle and ride and ride until my legs hurt.
swim suit or skinny dip?
depends on if Jenny is with me…I’ll let you figure out whether we’re skinny dipping or not.
one place in the world where you haven’t been, but you MUST go.
Australia. We have this “Dream Big” board in our room where we have pictures or drawings of all the things we (my family) want to do together in this life. A month or two in Australia is on there. Just rent a car and drive with no plan. Get lost in the outback for a while…it would be incredible!
the longest road trip you’ve taken … solo or with a road trip buddy?
Our Route 66 road trip we took in May of 2010. It was a total of 22 days by the time we drove the whole thing, hung out, then drove home. It was a turning point in how us Solars want to live our lives for sure.
when visiting a new city, what intangible items are you aiming to capture?
Wherever the fun is. It seems that my family lives & breathes for fun & memorable experiences. We try and find those in the places we visit.
what is your favorite junk food when traveling?
Ice Cream…but that’s my favorite junk food anytime/anywhere. We try and find local ice cream shops in the places we visit. Ice cream is always better there.
tell a story about a memorable, intriguing person you met while exploring who you never saw again.
Gary Turner. We met him in Paris Springs Junction, MO on our Route 66 trip. He told us plenty of stories about the history of the Gay Purita Gas Station that he rebuilt after it burned to the ground. He’s also a wealth of info on Route 66 in general. So much so that we chatted with him for a couple of hours…and probably would have stayed longer if the kiddos didn’t get antsy. He’s a rad dude.
describe your favorite local hang-out.
Oklahoma Joe’s. Men’s Health ranked it as one of the 13 places you need to eat before you die…in the whole world. Not bad for a little BBQ shop in Kansas City that’s inside a gas station. The Z-Man is incredible :)
describe how you feel when you’re alone with your camera and in a new location …
I’m hardly ever alone anywhere with my camera. What I love about photography is the people that I capture in the places I’m visiting. Usually it’s my wife and kids, but for whatever reason, I come alive when photographing people.
what inspires you to take the next step and photograph, write about, or compose a song about the area you’ve viewing.
Just the desire to document where I’ve been. I traveled a lot when I was younger, but I don’t have many pictures to go back and look at to re-live those times in my life. I love to see my kids faces light up when they get to re-live the memories of our travels by looking at all the posts on our family blog. For example, Max was 4 when he climbed up the steps of 7 Falls in Colorado Springs with me. I’ll never forget his face and how proud he was when we got to the top. For my kids to be able to have pictures of moments like that for the rest of their lives, that’s what inspires me to keep on clicking.
