• Do we have duplicates - identical file content, with different names? Yes over 11,000 were found using the DAM application
• Do we have JPGS which have been created along with the RAW, but not 'attached' with it? (thousands...)
• Do we have multiple iterations of the same RAW or Scan being postprocessed time and time over. (In the old days, changes were NOT a recipe, like today and it was valuable to save these iterations.) Still counting.
• Do we have pictures identified as 2007-08-01, say, stored in the 2017 folder? 
• Have all the Folders been identified? i.e, is 2006-07-14-XX_1_a a proper way to describe its contents?
• Are all the 'worth publishing' pictures in Zenfolio? Are they properly organized, in Zenfolio? For example, Gallery 1998-09-01 Trip to Hawaii may contain images from 1999-02-09 Trip to Muskoka. 
• Is it a good time to discard the really 'bad' ones?

The DAM software gives us tools to figure out some responses to these questions. Over time, we had a tendency to focus on the folder by year organization, missing the 'overall' picture, so to speak. For example, a visit to Quebec City may have taken place between December 24th and January 6th. The by year folder makes the sorting of this trip tricky. (Maybe using the year when the trip started is a good choice?)

The DAM I selected has a few nice tools, like face recognition and GPS coordinates resolution. On a fast system, the filtering is almost instant and provides a view of your selection, no matter how complex is the search.

Do you need, as an amateur, such software? Were you so well organized over time that you have no dupes, you know where your pictures are etc.?

We did not feel such a need until we realized that we had lost pictures and videos. Suffice to say that using backups and safe storage, we are able to 'retrieve' most of the losses. The DAM became invaluable in getting us back to a semblancy of organized data.

Like any tools, there is a learning curve. Is it worth the efforts? For us it is.

Next time, I will review the steps from acquiring pictures/videos to finalizing a Zenfolio Gallery/Collection. 

in 2012, when we joined Zenfolio, the images were JPEGs with a max size of 1500 pixels. These images were mostly Out Of the Camera JPEGs, or the conversion of TIFFs (from scans). As RAW became available, with the Canon S50 for example, we started to shoot RAW and used Photoshop Elements (version 1.0) or Picassa for conversion to 1500 wide JPEGs.

We also started with Capture One (version 2.0, I believe).

In 2022, we have now version 22 of Capture One and some Artificial Intelligence based software to correct or enhanced flawed pictures.

Post processing these older images may illustrate some changes from the originals in Zenfolio.

It is worth considering those differences. These might be subtle, like noise reduction or enhanced sharpness. These examples can illustrate how the technology is helping older pictures to come better (in the eyes of the beholder). Sometimes, a change to the RAW processor may lead to better whites and this is illustrated below.

First, taken in 1992, scanned in 2015 as TIFF (Flat bed scanner and specialized scanning software) from a print, further processed in Capture One and uploaded into Zenfolio about the same year:

and processed again in Capture One from the same TIFF, with a minor White adjustment and ran through Topaz Autopilot.

Notice the colour differences, the more subtle sharpening and excellent noise suppression for the bottom picture. The original, in Zenfolio looked 'harsh' with excess sharpening and contrast. 

The objective here is NOT to make any point about this or that software, only to highlight the possibilities for improvements if so desired.

In the same album: Original in Zenfolio:

Further 'magic' as above:

In these two examples, NOISE was a real issue. Not well controlled here, in Capture One, and better managed in Topaz, making the AI processed picture more pleasant to the eyes. Is AI software making the cut?

The real question is: IS THIS WORTH IT?

It all depends. In a few galleries, the difference are stunning and worth the effort. This process takes time, but it gives you the pleasure of rediscovering valuable images lost in noise or with the wrong colour.

• We have 2 tablets, 2 cell phones and 3 cameras
• Unplanned shooting will be using cell phones
• Planned shooting may use cameras AND cell phones

To add to the confusion, we also receive images or videos from friends attending the same events.

We are running out of shoe boxes to deal with these in an orderly fashion.

Our old collections -- taken before cell phone maturity, were simpler to manage. Today, it looks like an exercise in futility as we try to 'organize' them ALL -- for easy retrieval and viewing.

Images and videos can be organized in many different ways. Up until recently, I use our RAW conversion tool to help doing so. But, with over 250,000 images and videos, this tools showed its limits.

In the near future, I will review my experience with a new Digital Asset Management (DAM) that holds some great promises to help. I will cover a proposed workflow to streamline the images storage and post processing. And how the end results flow into our Zenfolio web site.

There are many reasons to shoot a picture, as there are many tools to use to do so. As said before, we have an immense collection of missed pictures: those where we had no camera to shoot with, those were the equipment was the wrong one, etc.

The larger project referred in the title is based on:

• Why? Better pictures have a story. Why are these taken?
• Where? The location will dictate the choice of equipment. Long lens? Flash? Tripod?
• When? A long week-end with crowds, or a bleak November day (in our hemisphere), where all amenities are closed for the season?
• What? There are optimal times to shoot outside. However, ANY times can lead to amazing pictures. The colour of the whites play a critical role in getting the right effect.
• Who? Our subjects matter. There is an infinite choice, limited only by our lack of imagination. We are familiar with some and tend to stick to these, birds, people, kids, landscape. Are we missing the tiny flower while shooting majestic peaks? Or the unusual bark of a dead tree, lying low on the ground? 

Professionals are experts in these choices. Amateurs, not so. 

Shooting a picture is a learning process. Am I willing to continue learning?

To the next time.

The easiest way to find them is to email us.

The second easiest way is to use the Search functionality of our site.

Look at the extreme right of your screen for a loupe...click to open the search window. Type your search word. For example, one may be interested in photos of Hawaii. Typing and selecting the word Hawaii will return:

Clicking on the tabs will return more data:

The search function will look at all the picture “metadata”, i.e. the data about the picture. The caption, title, the picture file name, categories and sub categories.

For the search to “find” what you want, one has to assume that all the pictures have some “metadata” and that it is correct. Sometimes that may not be the case. And Search will return NOTHING. A good time to email us and ask.

Thanks for searching.

We have been shooting with cameras for over 100 years, between Louise and me. Fortunately, all the bad pictures are now lost. We prefer to think that the one we have are the good ones!

Still, between the scanning of older prints and the shooting of new images, the inventory goes up. Baby pictures, trips and landscapes, street shots, the list goes on. (I am using the word pictures to include videos, when necessary.)

Zenfolio just published a book – Zenfolio Book for Photographers which helped me to make some decisions about photo storage and organization.

Look and Feel

We are not professional photographers, but we strive to create good pictures and we hope that those friends whom we share these have a good experience and will come back to see more.

To achieve a good experience, the site that contains the pictures must reflect on vision and who we are. The look and feel of the site is really telling who we are, both in words and in pictures.

Finding Pictures

We currently have over ten thousand public pictures. Not that many, but enough to get lost looking for something that interest you, our friend.

These pictures are currently organized as:

Under each main entry, there is a hierarchy that captures additional details like:

Under the U.S. National Parks you will find Collections or Galleries like:

Note: this last screen shot is from the public web site. The preceding ones were from the management side of our Zenfolio site. The hierarchy is displayed on the menus:

When time is limited, this type of organization requires too many clicks to find pictures you may be interested in!

Invitation to see pictures

Most of the time, we invite our friends to see some recent albums we prepare from a trip. This invitation may look like:

Unless one has time, or wants to find something specific, a quick slideshow will complete the invitation. Why would one go back to the main menu… and try figuring out what to look for? If you are curious, this is the Main Menu:

FEATURED may be a good way to start as we constantly update the Galleries and Collections in this menu.

RECENTLY ADDED will show you our latest additions. You may have missed some invitation, time to catch up.

Enjoy. Thanks for watching.

Coming next: Using the Search tool.

I failed on that count.
For months, we have shot pictures, travel many kilometers, enjoyed good time with friends… and we only have shared a few galleries – well captioned by Louise. But I lacked the discipline to expand these galleries with blogs to express thoughts not conveyed in the pictures.

2013 was a year of decision

Let’s reflect on 2013. It was a successful year, with two trips up North, visiting our families in Burlington and Vancouver.

It was a successful year as our physical and financial health remained excellent. It was also a time of decision.

While we were dead against having two places to live, we now feel that it may be the best answer to putting a square peg in a round hole:

We are Canadians. Our families live in Canada (Jérôme’s brother is in France). Being in Mexico is great, but it is very far from Canada, for sure.

After thinking on our various options, we have decided to become summer birds: have a cozy chez-soi in a quiet area of Mexico, to spend the winter, and spend our summers in Canada, with Louise’s family in Québec. 

Our "Florida" room in the house in Jocotepec, Jalisco.
 

2014 a year to recharge

Since we left Canada in 2007, our lives have been chaotic, adventurous, unplanned, full of trips, travels and visitors.

With our move(s) in 2014, we already feel that we need time to settle, enjoy the song of the birds and start a slightly more organized life. A few months in Mexico, a few months in Québec, a few months traveling.

That lifestyle may support a better discipline, and lead to better pictures, and blogging more often.

All share a common quality: they remind us of events, people and places we enjoyed in the past. Of course, we are biased in our keeping those pictures that remind us good times, and discard those which are not.

I titled this blog Digital photography versus Kodachrome as I would like to make some remarks on what has changed, in my perception, since the advent of digital photography.

When we started shooting Kodachrome, as my Dad did just after World War II (all his slides have been lost, I believe), the process was simple: shoot, pray the gods of photography, send to the nearest Kodak Lab, and after a while, get 24 or 36 cardboard mounted slides with the processing year and month (not the actual date) stamped on it.

Then we would select on a light table those keepers from a roll. We knew the cost (high) and keepers were high to match; waste was expensive. Not sure that yesteryear keepers are today's selection. We would strain in selecting the good slides; 35 mm is not very large.

On long trips, a full month or even two could pass between taking the picture and seeing it on the slide. Funny how memory works, though. As we remembered then what lead to shooting the photo, we remember now the same conditions; or at least we think we do.

We would invite family and friends to watch a slide show using Carousels and a slightly more advanced projector and subject them to many pictures... too many, in retrospect!

Digital is about now!

While we are lagging our children in instant uploading pictures, we are still fast on the track of taking the shots, reviewing them on the camera screen and few hours later on a larger PC screen. Within days, the keepers are on the Web, somehow.

No light table, no cardboard, no expensive Carousels, nor Ektachrome projector and screen.  The pictures now go from camera's memory to the Web (or hard drive) in a few clicks of a mouse. They are virtual. They never exist beyond the digital language of zeros and ones.  The process is so fast and short, the actual shooting quantity is so large that one can wonder about the memory or recollection on the details surrounding the pictures.

Some of our friends still print many digital pictures to put them in cardboard albums. Weird, at first glance. Very rational, when one realizes that these physical albums are the continuation of the physical slides and prints of the past. Printing gives those pictures reality. They now exist in a physical, tactile and visual senses. Their virtual origin is lost, now being cast in paper.

Scanning is the reverse process, as we give digital life to physical slides (and paper photos) -- and this process triggers memories and sometimes the desire to go again to these places we love. We are finding that the time from slide to scanned image is long (8 minutes per slide), but, in many ways, highly rewarding as the final quality, after so many years is outstanding. With over 4,000 slides to go, we may go back and get a light table to reselect before we scan. 

A before and after Kodachrome below. Can you guess which is which?

A recent scanned of a 1977 Carousel - Enjoy.

A series of coincidences has created the beautiful, savage and hostile landscapes we now explore in National and State Parks in these four southern States.

The most interesting coincidence is the fact that the hand lifted the Plateau in one piece, and at almost exactly the rate of water erosion in the Plateau.

Zion, our last National Park visited this trip, is a great example of this coincidence. (And so is the Grand Canyon -1977.)

The tiny Virgin river and its tributaries, is responsible for carving a half-mile deep gorge in Zion National Park. As the Plateau rose an inch, the Virgin river dug an inch too... slowly gouging the rocks around to leave peaks and mesas as colourful as they are visually impressive. The water followed the cracks created by tectonic forces and the ridges of ancient dunes sculpting stunning mesas, criss-crossing them as giant checkers.

As I fiddled with the scanning parameters, trying to extract pixels, not dust nor grain, I was surprised by the quality of the outcome.  The camera was a Konica, with Automatic Metering, but manual focus and I cannot remember if I had more than the standard 50 mm lens on it on that trip.

Of all the Single Lens Reflexes (SLR) we owned (Konica, Minolta, Canon), it is the one that took the most pictures before the advent of D... SLR. Earlier Canon DSLR were very close.

Today, I feel that the Canon 7D with a 24-105mm zoom is reminiscent of that early Konica from the 70's. The Zion blue skies are always a treat. Deep blue with touches of white. When storms are roaming, the carved details fade away, leaving only shapes and forms.

The interesting part is that the passion we (Louise and I) had for landscape photography has not abated over the years. When I look at these slides, I can visualize the images that took anchor in our memory; and why we return to these landscapes over and over.

Sometimes I wonder if we made progress. Of course, we now have a trailer, instead of a tent, tablets instead of paper notepads, digital photographic equipment and many other goodies that we could not dream of in the 70's.

But are our artistic senses better? Do we look and see these unique landscapes in ways which are more refined, telling more to those who look at our pictures?

This gives me food for reflection. We are now planning a longer Western trip in 2013. These scans and how we compare what we saw in 1977 and today will serve as guideposts for what we can see and do then.

The issue is not better quality (nice to have), but conveying beauty, immensity, and the urge to go and visit personally now.

We hope you will enjoy the three galleries that you can reach by clicking on the pictures above.

National Parks have personalities. Many visitors flock the most visited, going from view point to viewpoint, with few realizing that most of the parks are a reflection of geology and climate.

Les parcs nationaux ont une personalité. Bien des visiteurs affluent dans les plus visités, passant d'un point de vue à l'autre, sans réaliser que les parcs reflètent leur géologie et leur climat. 

Thus the personalities. While Bryce Canyon is on the same Colorado Plateau as Arches or Capitol Reef, it is unique: hoodoos and deep green conifer forests make the canyon amphitheatres a continually changing and extraordinary spectacle.

Ainsi, chacun a son caractère propre. Alors que Bryce Canyon est sur le même plateau du Colorado que Arches ou Capitol Reef, il est unique : aiguilles et forêts de conifères vert foncé font des amphithéâtres du canyon un spectacle sans cesse changeant et extraordianire.

From the morning light, to the awkward noon sun and to the softer late afternoon skylight, a photographer just need to be there, imagine and shoot.

De la lumière du matin au soleil intense du midi, à la douce luminosité de fin d'après-midi, le photographe n'a qu'à être là, imaginer et prendre une photo.

Looking a bit more to the right...or to the left... or in the morning... the shapes, colours, shadows and sky reveal vastly different perspectives,  all linked in great circle extending to the horizon and detailed sculptures carved with droplets of rain, snowflakes and frost.

En regardant un  peu vers la droite... ou la gauche, les formes, les couleurs, les ombres et le ciel révèlent des perspectives infiniment différentes, toutes liées dans un grand cercle s'étendant à l'horizon et aux sculptures minutieuses taillées par des gouttes de pluie, des flocons de neige et du givre.

It is easy to feel that the pictures are repetitive. Because they are. And the beauty in Bryce Canyon, is the repetition of similar patterns with subtle differences that makes you wonder if the rain droplets chose what to carve!

On a l'impression que les images se répètent. Et c'est vrai. La beauté de Bryce Canyon est justement dans la répétition de ces motifs similaires avec des différences subtiles qui font que vous vous demandez si les gouttes de pluie ont choisi ce qu'elles ont sculptés.

We did not caption these pictures...we hope they convey some of the beauty we discovered on our second visit to this Park. (Click to see our complete two visit collection - 2012 & 2006).

If you wish to see a larger slideshow, please click here and select the Slideshow button on the right.

Nous n'avons pas commenté ces images... nous espérons qu'elles transmettent un peu de la beauté que nous avons découvert lors de notre deuxième visite à ce parc. (Cliquez ici pour voir la collection de nos deux visites 2012 et 2006).

Si vous désirez voir un diaporama plus grand, veuillez cliquer ici et choisir le bouton du "Slideshow" à droite. 

For more information on the Park's geology: Hoodoo formation in Bryce Canyon

For info on the National Park itself: NPS - Bryce Canyon

From Fruita, in Capitol Reef National Park, we travelled the very scenic Highway 12- All American Road -- it hangs between two canyons and is quite rugged with very few spots to have a coffee or a sandwich! One of the most scenic highway in the US connecting Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks. 
Ouf ! Un peu d'ombre...

Our goal is to stay a few days in Kodachrome (RIP) Basin State Park (Utah). It was the National Geographic who asked Kodak permission for using that name, as the park's colours are simply stunning.

We are still on the Colorado Plateau and therefore we can see the same geologic formations as we had in the parks in northern Utah. The colors are more subdued, with a lot of white and pale green and pink. The erosion is different, though and we can now see new formations. This is the Grand Staircase territory. 

Our children and grandchildren may not even know what Kodachrome is...was.

It rained every day. Few pictures, but a place to return and enjoy. Please follow the links for more detailed information.

De Fruita, dans le Capitol Reef National Park, nous avons voyagé sur le Highway 12 - une route typiquement américaine - se trouvant entre deux canyons. Très sauvage, avec peu d'endroit pour prendre un café ! C'est une des routes les plus pittoresques des États-Unis qui joint Capitol Reef à Bryce Canyon.

Nous sommes toujours sur le Plateau du Colorado, avec des formations géologiques semblables aux parcs du nord de l'Utah. Les couleurs sont plus tamisées : blanc, vert pâle et rose. Par contre, l'érosion est différente et nous pouvons voir de nouvelles formations. C'est le territoire du Grand Staircase.

Notre but est de passer quelques jours à Kodachrome Basin State Park. C'est le magazine National Geographic qui avait demandé à Kodak la permission d'utiliser le nom, car les couleurs du parc sont stupéfiantes.

Nos enfants et petits-enfants ne savent probablement pas ce que Kodachrome veut dire... voulait dire.

Il a plu tous les jours. Peu de photos, mais un endroit à revisiter.

More than the Park, our goal is to relax a few days in Fruita, one of our favorite campgrounds. It picks 5 stars from Trip Advisor, with only electrical service, but plenty of scenery and many options for walking, driving or simply relaxing.

A park for all tastes as one can camp in tents or in garbage truck... carefully redesigned and amenities to last a war. 

Après l'excitation et le plaisir de garder notre petite-fille qui a presque deux ans, nous avons tourné camion et roulotte vers Capitol Reef National Park. Plus que le parc lui-même, notre but est de relaxer quelques jours à Fruita, un de nos campings préférés.  Il a reçu cinq étoiles dans Trip Advisor. Pas d'électricité, mais de beaux paysages et plusieurs occasions de promenades et de détente. Un parc pour tous les goûts, que l'on campe en tente ou dans un camion d'ordures... redessiné avec soin avec tout le confort pour affronter la guerre. 

Fruita Deux options pour camper

Fruita is a romantic place, where enjoying good food while the sun sets and the hummingbirds dance around makes the whole experience unforgettable. We will be back. And continue enjoying great meals, like these excellent lamb chops with grilled mushrooms:

Fruita est un endroit romantique, où bien manger au coucher du soleil alors que les colibris dansent autour de nous, en font une expérience inoubliable. Nous reviendrons. Et continuerons à profiter de bons repas, comme ces excellentes côtelettes d'agneau avec champignons grillés :

Miam, miam... Côtes d'agneau et champignons

We have set a number of various albums depicting the week. As some of them may not be of general interest, we kept them with a password. (Please ask for it if you are interested.) Here they come!

Du 12 au 19 août, nos énergies se sont concentrées sur prendre soin de Céline, notre petite fille de presque deux ans. pendant que notre fille Julie était honorée au 20ème Congrès international USANA à Salt Lake City. Elle était aussi conférencière dans une séance d'entraînement que nous avons beaucoup aimé.

Nous avons fait des albums présentant cette semaine-là. Comme ils ne sont pas d'intérêt général, nous les gardons avec un mot de passe. (Veuillez le demander si cela vous intéresse.). Les voici qui arrivent !

Arrivée de la petite famille à Salt Lake

Adventures in babysitting

The USANA Convention had over 8,500 visitors from all over the world, Our job was to free Julie from the worries of being a mother --- at least from having a two year old wondering amongst the crowd.

Luckily, there were babysitting area in the Salt Lake City Convention Center, well organized by USANA, and also in the Energy Solutions Arena. We  took her as well to our KOA campground to enjoy the pool.

At the campground - The pool was also well used!

Aventures en garde d'enfants 

Le congrès Usana avait 8500 visiteurs du monde entier. Notre fonction était de libérer Julie de ses iquiétudes de mère --- au moins d'avoir un bébé de deux ans se promenant dans la foulle.

Heureusement, il y avait un endroit pour garder les enfants au Salt Lake City Convention Center, offert par USANA, et aussi un terrain de jeux à Energy Solutions Arena. Nous l'avons aussi amenée à notre camping pour profiter de la piscine.

On s'amuse bien au camping

Mamie prend Céline en flagrant délit de se barbouiller...

Au camping, Papy et Céline

Céline was adorable. We also took her to the convention center:

Céline a été adorable. Nous l'avons aussi amenée au centre des congrès :

Louise pousse Céline dans les grands couloirs du centre des congrès.

and to the playground of the arena: (Lifetime products, as in the folding tables we use. A Utah company!)

et au terrain de jeux du stade : (Produits Lifetime, comme dans les tables pliantes que nous avons utilisées. Une compagnie de l'Utah !)

Céline veut enlever ses chaussures Terrain de jeux à l'aréna

Julie Promotes Prospecting

We were very proud to see Julie presenting with Pat, an old business friend, a strong one hour on:

Julie fait la promotion de la prospection

Nous étions très fiers de voir Julie faire une présentation de plus d'une heure avec son amie Pat :

Titre de la présentation de Julie

The delivery was excellent and the content very useful and informative. A great sense of humour! Many were in attendance, and she was applauded heavily by the California delegates! They loved her.

L'élocution était excellente et le contenu très utile et instructif. Un bon sens de l'humour ! Il y avait beaucoup de spectateurs et elle a été longuement applaudie par les délégués de la Californie ! Ils l'ont adorée.

Julie s'apprête à donner sa conférence

Julie is recognized at the USANA Convention

Julie has been with USANA many years, however this year was her best. Not only did she achieved a Gold Directorship, but she also placed in the top 25 associates that grew their business the most!

Julie est reconnue au congrès USANA

Julie est avec USANA depuis des années. Cependant, cette année a été sa meilleure. Non seulement a-t-elle atteint le niveau Or, mais elle s'est aussi placée dans les 25 associés qui ont le plus développé leur entreprise !

Gold Directors

Growth 25

Growth 25 avec Julie et Daniel

Parting notes:

For Louise and I, the week was great, totally tiring, exhausting, but we enjoyed the people, especially, Julie's group.

Dernières réflexions :

Pour Louise et moi, ce fut une excellente semaine, totalement fatiguante, épuisante, mais nous avons aimé rencontrer les gens, surtout le groupe de Julie.

Team Game Changers International

Babysitting was easy, Céline is adorable and we were very proud of Julie's achievements.

Garder Céline était facile, elle est si adorable; nous étions aussi très fiers des réussites de Julie.

Random pictures...

Autres images...

Convention Center

  First evening registration...

 Première soirée d'inscription...

Céline fait un beau somme dans un coin tranquille de l'aréna.

Un des grands corridors de l'Arena

Louise, as all USANA distributors in attendance, received a free iPad 2. She is now taming it. 

Finally, it is a good time to rest as we are on our way to Capitol Reef National Park.

Louise, comme tous les distributeurs USANA présents, a reçu un iPad2 gratuit. Elle est en train de l'apprivoiser...

Enfin, c'est le temps de se reposer, en nous dirigeant vers Capitol Reef National Park.

Arches has many great sites and opportunities for taking pictures. The colours are quite diverse, from white (salt) to deep red (sandstone).

C'est notre seconde visite (la première en 2006) à ce parc. Pour plusieurs raisons, c'est différent cette fois-ci. Nous sommes dans les mois chauds de l'été. Et Arches manque d'ombre... La lumière est aussi différente de celle du printemps ou de l'automne. Nous sommes encore sous la magie de Canyonlands

Arches offre plusieurs sites et occasions extraordinaires de faire des photos. Les couleurs sont vraiment variées, de blanc (sel) à rouge foncé (grès).

Of course, Arches derives its name from the over 2,000 arches one can find in the Park -- http://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm

But many of them, when easy to reach, were crowded, still beautiful.

Arches tire son nom des 2000 arches et plus que l'on trouve dans le parc --  http://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm . Mais plusieurs d'entre elles, quand elles étaient accessibles, étaient remplies de monde, quand même toujours belles.

We experienced two sand storms at the camping. A bit disconcerting as we were confined to the small r-Pod (trailer) two evenings in a row. No BBQ or 5 o'clock drinks outside!

Nous avons subi deux tempêtes de sable au camping. Un peu troublant parce que nous étions confinés dans notre petite r-Pod (roulotte) deux soirs de suite. Pas de barbecue ni d'appéritif de 5 h.

La pluie menace au camping The KOA in Moab under a sand storm. The r-Pod looks really small here!

Enjoy the slideshow! (here or on the site for a larger picture)

Le KOA à Moab sous une tempête de sable. La r-Pod a l'air vraiment petite !

Visionnez le diaporama (ici ou sur le site pour une image plus grande).

The 2nd instalment are images of our stay in Canyonlands National Park. Rugged, no water, no electricity, but simply a lot (a small word to describe so much) of empty space. See more at: http://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm.

We were staying in the Island in the Sky campground. Well chosen name - Sunsets and sunrises are great, heat is also great in summer. There were many european visitors, mainly French and Germans.

Du Texas aux canyons de l'Utah, près de 3000 km... Un peu ennuyant dans les grandes plaines du Texas. 

Ce deuxième album présente les images de notre séjour dans Canyonlands National Park. Terrain hostile, pas d'eau, ni électricité, mais simplement beaucoup d'espace vide. Voir aussi http://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm.

Nous avons couché au camping Island in the Sky. Un nom approprié : Levers ecouchers de soleil, chaleur intense de l'été. Il y avait beaucoup de visiteurs européens, surtout des Français et des Allemands.

Our trip was a reason to stop en route and visit the five National Parks located in Utah:

• Arches
• Canyonland
• Capitol Reef
• Bryce Canyon
• Zion

We also made a stop at Kodachrome Basin State Park... just because we like even numbers.

We are posting today instalment #1: From Morelia, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas.

Enjoy.

Quand notre fille Julie a suggéré que nous allions au congrès de Usana à Salt Lake City... et garder notre petite-fille Céline en août 2012, nous avons accepté !

Notre voyage nous a permis de s'arrêter en route et visiter les cinq Parcs nationaux de l'Utah :

• Arches
• Canyonland
• Capitol Reef
• Bryce Canyon
• Zion

Nous avons aussi fait un arrêt à Kodachrome Basin State Park...  juste parce que nous aimons les chiffres pairs.

Bon visionnement !