Recent Trips 2024 — Alan Spitzer Photography

I have been very deficient the past several months in updating my blog. To some extent, I fell into the laziness trap when I did not travel much for photography during the final months of 2023. So I just let my blog page wither, feeling as if I had accomplished nothing at all. In reality, I was always thinking about photography and planning what to do come 2024. Finally, I just got my act together and started planning some trips, which will keep me busy for some time.

My first trip was to California. At first, I had decided to travel around the state, but then I settled on Carmel as a nice location for a base, exploring that area, where I had not photographed much previously. It worked out well for me and I made a number of images that I was quite pleased with, since they were different from work that I had done before. Also, it gave me a chance to visit some of Carmel’s wonderful galleries, which I had not seen for some time, as well as the beautiful Point Lobos, which I had not been to for many years. Point Lobos was battered apparently from last years horrific storms in California and much of it was cordoned off and inaccessible. It may take some time for Point Lobos to recover, but it inevitably will. Mother Earth takes good care of things like this in general. It is only when man interferes that things tend to fall apart.

My second trip was in April to another old favorite of mine, Moab, Utah. I returned to some of my previosuly explored sites in Canyonlands National Park, Deadhorse Point State Park, and Arches National Park, which I first visited more than 40 years ago! I also added a few new stops. When I first weent to Arches, again in April 1982, I was basically the only person in the park! Times have changed greatly, however, and Arches is now mobbed and requires a visitor pass betrween 7 AM and 5 PM, which I was not aware of. Since I usually am up for sunrise, this was not an issue for me. The land forms were basically the same, so I felt home to a great extent, but Moab itself has greatly expanded. Again, I was fortunate in finding some scenes that were different from images that I have made in the past.

Below are some images from each of these trips.