JPG Magazine: Photos: "For Rachel" by Paul Lavallee

For Rachel

By Paul Lavallee

On 11 February 2008

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Rachel McKinnie is an amazing landscape photographer. We share a love of Southern Utah and this great JPG community. I post this photo as a tribute to her.

Back before the kids and the complications of mature adult life, Jason, my best friend from high school, and I went on road trips every year.

This photo was shot on our first cross country road trip in May of 1999. This trip started at Jay's apartment in Maryland (I flew there from RI) and we drove out to California and back.

Not straight, mind you. We first took off to St. Louis (where else are you gonna cross the mighty Mississipi). From there we headed across to Kansas City, up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and across I-90 to Rapid City and Mount Rushmore (I highly recommend seeing Rushmore at night, its ominous at night).

Have I not mentioned that we have not stopped to sleep yet? Only stops for gas, food, and restrooms thus far! Finally we got a motel after heading down to Cheyenne on some God-forsaken back roads that really tested our wits. Next fell Denver, Salt Lake City (and more amazing back roads), Reno, and finally Sacramento and San Francisco.

Slam down the PCH to LA. Down I-5 to San Diego with a quick stop in Tijuana. Back up to Vegas with an interesting stop at the Hoover Dam and on to The Grand Canyon where Jay nearly fell to his death.

Which finally brings me to US-160, somewhere near Kayenta, Arizona where I literaly hung out the window of Jay's Mazda MX-6 GT doing 80 mph with his Nikon N5005 and captured this red wall.

There were many other fun adventures ahead on this trip, like when we were pulled over by a Texas cop with a power tool, but that my friends is another story...

Selected photos of mine may be purchased at mylatehope.imagekind.com.

Created using my friend Jay's Nikon N5005 35mm SLR. Photo scanned with my Epson v700 Perfection scanner. No digital manipulation used!

In the story Inspirations.

18 Responses

On 11 February 2008 Chris Whitney said:
Ah, the grand landscape, my kind of image. Nice capture of the clouds and lighting.
On 11 February 2008 rory cobbe gave props:
You are right about Rachel she is one of my favourite photographers, i think you are not far off either. nice shot and story, as always my man
On 11 February 2008 |M|att |A|damik gave props:
Lovely shot! Yay to Rachel! and I think we took the same road into Cheyenne, Wy...I'll never drive a Jeep across Wyoming again...
On 11 February 2008 Daniel Go gave props:
That's awesome! Amazing composition and exposure!! Perfect!
On 11 February 2008 Rachel McKinnie gave props:
Oh PAUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are way to nice. This is a BEAUTIFUL wall, beautiful shot, beautiful sky. CRAZY trip. I think I would go insane in a car that much. Thank you :)
On 11 February 2008 Alexis Gerard gave props:
Great photo - fitting tribute! Well done Paul.
On 12 February 2008 judy fouse gave props:
Thanks for sharing your road trip. My husband and I took basically the same trip, except we went up the Oregon and Washington coast and even ferried to Victoria BC, then back down the coast into Cal and San Francisco. Then we went into Napa Valley, Chico then to Yosemite, Grand Canyon, then south toMexico. by way of Tombstone, Az. then across NM, Tx and back home to Ga. We took 4 months and slept every night. I can only imagine taking trips like that as a young adult. How excited you must have been. What age did you start doing that? I hope to go again some day.
On 12 February 2008 Paul Lavallee said:
Believe it or not, this was a 2 week trip. Jay and I are pretty insane about driving, we were 27 years old. It was 8,000+ miles in 14.5 days!!! I also forgot to mention that it was the first time I had ever driven a stick shift. I sold my car when I got back home and bought myself a 5-speed and haven't owned an automatic since. Our first road trips started while we were in high school together (short ones around New England), but really blossomed after we both got out of college.
On 18 February 2008 Bryan Jozefowicz gave props:
Excellent shot and story!!!!
On 19 March 2008 Portia Söderberg gave props:
Wow!!!! Great shot, and yes, yaay to RAchel! :)
On 31 March 2008 Daniel Martinez gave props:
Nice! Love the intense color and thanks for sharing the great road trip story!
On 4 June 2008 rory cobbe gave props:
had to be rachel. both of you have the skills
On 4 June 2008 Penny Nannini said:
Really beautiful Paul, and I loved the story.
On 5 June 2008 Laura Boston-thek gave props:
Excellent tribute to Rachel Paul!!
On 11 June 2008 Jeff Clark gave props:
Definitely reminiscent of Rachel's wonderful work. Nice job.
On 24 July 2008 Joli Buchanan gave props:
It's a wowzer & just like Rachel would have shot this; beautiful tribute Paul
On 31 July 2008 Struan Oglanby said:
Are you sure you didn't hack into Rachel's laptop?
I would love this story even I wasn't in it - hizzah!!!
On 1 August 2008 John Linton gave props:
Oh yeah! Your essay rocks!