Last night we got back from a 2,400 mile / 4 day road trip. Took off at 5am on Wednesday morning and headed South. We reached Death Valley on Thursday night and slept in the back of the car with the dogs in a campground. The whole thing was a little impromptu – my trips kinda always are (fortunately I have an understanding wife!) – but it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Here’s the map of the route down and back.

Quick summary of trip was:
- Day 1: Seattle -> Portland (breakfast) -> Bend (lunch) -> Reno (stayed the night)
- Day 2: Reno -> Death Valley by evening
- Day 3: Badwater at sunrise (amazing place, can’t wait to get the photos back), a few shots from around Death Valley during the day then headed back (e.g. Ubehebe crater). Stayed the night in Susanville in N.California
- Day 4: Head home, stopping off in Lassen National Forest on the way back

Shot four or five rolls of film, no digital for the first time ever for me on a trip. Actually, it’s amazing how much more compact my gear was with the smaller OM Zuiko lenses and no need for charges / spare batteries. In a single bag I carried:

- Olympus OM-1, Olympus OM-4
- Olympus 21mm f/2, Olympus 55mm f/1.2, Olympus 135mm f/2.8
- Olympus E-P1 with Switar 26mm f/1.1 (which I never actually used)
- Olympus Stylus Epic film camera (fixed 35mm f/2.8 lens)
- Four rolls of Kodak Ektar, two rolls of Fuji Neopan 100 Acros, one roll of Kodak TMAX 100

If I can’t get a handful of pics from that setup, I don’t deserve to be carrying a camera! The film goes to the developer tomorrow so I’ll start posting later this week.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of completely unrelated photos from a roll of Ilford Delta 100 I recently developed. I screwed up the development this time and the film was left with a bunch of white specs (they were white post scan). Something went wrong and had to fix in post. Back to the drawing board on that. Anyway, both shot with the Olympus OM Zuiko 21mm f/2. That is fast becoming my favourite lens in 35mm format.