With so many beautiful possibilities and a limited time budget, how do I plan this trip? First, it was clear that I should work from south to north so that I was working the warmest state in the coldest months. Second, I want to see alpine wildflowers in Oregon. That locked in the middle months of March, April, and May for Oregon. Allowing three months per state put Washington complete in August.
The choice between coast and crest has a lot to do with the weather. I was able to see Mt Laguna east of San Diego because of zero snow and temps no lower than 30° F. We have had El Nina weather in Los Angeles area which means rain in December. That also means snow in the mountains. It’s easy to see that happening with weather radar and snow coverage apps on you smartphone.
While I would like to see Mt Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states, the temperature and road conditions prevent me. I’m working the coast in California from Point Conception north until a January thaw happens.
The remainder of my planning is done with paper state maps, Google Maps, and AllTrails app. The AllTrails app as well as Google Maps will show me terrestrial photographs of the area. I was surprised to learn that Google even shot Streetview images along the beaches I’m looking for structure of the topography, interesting geology, lighthouses, wildflowers, and natural scenery without man’s improvement (wilderness).
Scene choices take into consideration my personal watercolor painting goals:
- ‘See” colors in a scene – get it right
- Compose on site as much as possible
- Get good at watercolor wash – small and big
- Get good at gradients
- ‘Place’ colors adjacent correctly
- Build scene to show structure of earth
- Discover new ways to show texture
- Capture the ‘character’ of land, sea, sky
- Find ‘transformative’ scenes like wildflowers
- Photograph during ‘magic hour’
- Look for dominant shadow and light
- Build compositions purposefully
- Use transparent colors and overlays