I was on a little road trip driving through Kansas, it was about time to stop when I noticed a sign for the Wyldewood Winery. I was thinking, “Well I still have about 3 hours left of driving, should I really stop for a wine tasting? Eh, well really how good could wine be in Kansas?” Of course that thought came from my old stomping grounds in the Bay Area of California. There we were swarmed by great wine being so close to Wine Country. Then I thought, “Well it couldn’t hurt to try it after all I have never had wine from Kansas.”
I walked into the winery and was over come by the amazing amount of wine surrounding me. I knew I came to the right place! I did a tasting of several (5 or so) wines, they have over 50 so it would be extremely difficult to taste them all in one trip! I must admit, my mind had been flooded with wine from Wine Country turning me into a sort of wine snob toward anything but. However, this Kansas made wine was incredible! Every tasting I did left me yearning for an entire bottle. That is a rare occasion for me as I tend to be pretty picky about my wine! After talking to Merry for a bit, one of the owners, she informed me that they take home Gold medals from California rather frequently for their wines.
After the tasting I went in the “back yard” of the winery and had a field day with my camera. If you are ever in the area of a Wyldewood Tasting Room, I highly suggest you stop and taste several you will not be disappointed! You can also call them and have wine shipped to your home. The Spiced Wine is incredible, order it now and get it in time for the upcoming Autumn festivities!
Photo Tips For Road Trips:
- Stopping frequently while on road trips is a must, I try to stop every 150 miles max! I use my camera as an excuse to get out and stretch the old legs. There is usually something interesting to photograph every where you go, even Kansas, this gem of a winery is the perfect example!
- Research ahead of time. I always research where I am going before I go. Simply type the name of the place that you are going in either Google Image Search or Flickr. If something cool catches your eye find out where it was shot and write down the address before you go. You can do this for the location you will be ending up in as well as major stopping areas along the way.
- Space is critical! I ensure I travel with at least 2 8 GB memory cards and a device to place my shots on along the way. This is usually a laptop that I can dump the days images into a folder before I go to sleep so I can wake up with a fresh memory card for the morning. I rarely use both 8 GB cards, but that gives me the presence of mind to known that I can shoot to my hearts content. On my wife and I’s honeymoon I think I shot over 3000 photos. Only about 15 made it past the chopping block but at least I had a wealth to work from!
- The most important thing to do is get out and shoot. There have been plenty of times that I said to myself, I really don’t feel like doing anything tonight. However, I pulled my happy butt off the hotel couch and went out and shot the area. You may never be in this place again, go record it! You may find something awesome that made you glad you did!
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
