I am honored to be invited to guest-host the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. By way of introduction my wife, Lynn and I are spending our retirement years traveling, and I’ve been journaling about the places we visit since March 2013. In conjunction with our travels, I’ve rekindled an interest in photography that was a hobby in my younger days. My rebirth to photography led me to participate in the original WordPress Photo Challenge series, which was then carried on as Amy, Ann-Christine, Patti, and Tina continued the concept as Lens-Artists some 91 posts ago.

Considering the current world situation, I decided to focus my challenge to your sharing images from your previous travels rather than asking you to go out to photograph new examples to share. If you visited a favorite place more than once, how did you approach the second trip photographically? If you’ve only been somewhere once, what would you do differently the second time around? For example, the opening image features a visit to Winslow, Arizona. It’s always fun to give a bystander a fancy Nikon camera and ask them to take a photo of us. Sometimes that doesn’t work out so well, but in this case, our bystander did just fine capturing Lynn and I as we stood by the statue of Glen Frey of the Eagles. As you can see, there is also a “…girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.”

Though we drive by Winslow at least twice a year on our travels, we’ve only stopped there once. There isn’t a lot to do in this small town, but get your photo taken at Standin’ On The Corner Park with Glen Frey’s statue. That day, we also visited La Posada Hotel and had a great breakfast in their restaurant.

The La Posada is also an Amtrak depot, one of the stops for the Southwest Chief and I have a love for trains, new or old. On my bucket list for the second time around is a trip on the Southwest Chief and it’s opportunities of desert photography along the way. An overnight stay at this restored Harvey Hotel is a “must do.”

This gentleman and his “entourage” were traveling sections of Route 66 in this 1957 De Soto Firedome. What better way would there be to travel the “Mother Road?” All I would need is a classic car to make that trip a reality.

Our first visit to Hawaii brought us to Kauai’s Na Pali Coast on a cruise ship excursion. Less than 10 miles (16 km) from where the above photo was taken, is Waimea Canyon. Known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, the magnificent canyon was also on our list of stops on that cruise.

The second time around, my interest in aviation led me to a flight lesson over Waimea Canyon and my first flight in a flexible wing aircraft. This image came from a camera mounted on the apex of the fabric wing. That’s me in the back learning the mechanics of turning the aircraft.

Near the community of Chinle, Arizona, Canyon de Chelly was created by Chinle Creek. The many viewpoints rival the views of the Grand Canyon. On our first and only trip to the area, we did not allow enough time to thoroughly explore all of the scenic stops. The view captured in the photo above is to the east as the sky transitioned into the blue hour just after sunset. The second time around, we will be sure to spend more than a day. In fact, spending a few days in the area will allow us to more thoroughly explore Monument Valley as well, some 98 miles (158 km) from Canyon de Chelly.

I conclude this post with our one and only visit to Bryce Canyon. We arrived in late October to an unforecasted snow storm that left those beautiful red rocks and hoodoos covered with white accents. Upon our arrival in the park, we learned that the heavy snow had closed most of the roads through the park. We left after only visiting the two viewpoints that were open. On our second time around, we know we will have much more of the park left to explore.

In your challenge response, please be sure to link to this post and to use the Lens-Artists TAG. I am looking forward to responding to next week’s challenge by Ann-Christine. Thanks again to the Lens-Artists Team for allowing me to share and to challenge you this week. When this pandemic is behind us, I plan to take full advantage of your tips to visit great places you featured in your challenge responses that haven’t yet occurred to me.

John Steiner