300 Posts!

Wow! I can’t believe it. This is the 300th post on my blog.

When I started this blog 11 years ago, it was primarily to chronicle my cycling trip across Canada in the summer of 2013. At the time, I really didn’t foresee that I would continue posting for more than a decade.

In my very first post, “New Name“, I outlined the origin of the name for my blog. Basically its an intersection between a favourite old Irish blessing and a number of activities that I loved at the time. Whether running, cycling or sailing, it’s always easier when the wind is at your back!

In this post I want to recap some of my adventures over the past 11 years and share a few photos that bring back some of those memories. To recount everything would take too long (that’s what the past 299 blog posts have done!) but I have to say that I have been very fortunate to have good health, great friends and a wonderful wife – all of these have contributed to some pretty amazing adventures. Over the years, my blog has morphed somewhat from an account of my activities to more a sharing of my journey as I grow as a photographer.

In that first blog post, I reflected upon a recent marathon I ran in Huntington Beach as well as an upcoming sailing trip. I also talked about the origin of perhaps the most challenging undertaking of my life: a cycling trip across Canada.

Over the course of the summer, 2013, I participated in a 10-week cycling tour across Canada. My life for those weeks was essentially getting up, eating breakfast, cycling all day, setting up my tent, eating supper, sleeping, and repeating again the next day. In addition, most evenings, if the campground had internet access, I posted about my ride that day. My account starts with “Vancouver Bound” where I reveal that I left home for a 10-week camping trip without a sleeping bag (and had to return home to get it). After an amazing experience over the summer, my ride culminated with a ride up Signal Hill in St. John’s, NL on a very foggy morning at the end of August.

In March of 2014, a last minute trip to Palm Springs, CA (our first time visit) led to a wonderful new chapter in our lives. We fell in love with the area and by that summer we had bought a second home in the area.

Later that spring we thoroughly enjoyed a 2-week river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. While I’d loved sailing for years, we never had a desire to do an ocean cruise. But we loved the river cruise!

In the fall of 2014 we took possession of our new winter home in Southern California. In March we had driven through nearby Joshua Tree National Park and really liked it. Not long after getting settled into our home, I paid a return visit, one which started my love affair with this beautiful park. As a kid who grew up on the Alberta prairies, I’m still in awe of the beauty of the desert.

The Winter and Spring of 2015 were filled with exploration of the Coachella Valley, Salton Sea, Joshua Tree National Park, and many other areas in our vicinity. Not long after we arrived in the Fall of 2014, I joined the camera club in our community. Joining this club was really the start of my journey to improve my photography and the places visited that winter really got that journey off on the right foot.

The year continued with a visit to Boston, backpacking in the Rockies, a canoe trip on Maligne Lake and a photography workshop at Mount Assiniboine.

In mid-October I ran my 16th, and last, marathon in Chicago. While the route in Chicago was spectacular, I just found that the pounding my body took through 16 weeks of training and the 26 miles of the marathon itself just wasn’t any fun any more. After crossing the finish line, I didn’t run again for a year. When I did try a few short runs again, I just found that my love of running had “run away”.

A short time later, after returning to the desert, I went on the first of many photo trips with a group of friends from the camera club. On this trip, we spent several days exploring and photographing Zion National Park.

A highlight in early 2016 was an evening trip to Keys Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park. This was a special visit arranged for members of our camera club and was a fun chance to enjoy some late afternoon/early evening photography at this historic site.

Another highlight, a short time later, was trying my hand at some astrophotography at Joshua Tree NP.

Of course, the biggest highlight of the year was the arrival of our furbaby Alie. Here she is experiencing her first snowfall, not long before we left for our winter in California.

Early in 2017, I embarked on my first photo trip to the Big Sur Coast area of California. I have been back several times since and look forward to future trips. One of my favourite images from this trip was a night shot of Cayucos Pier. It has an almost film noire look to it, evoking thoughts of meeting up with Philip Marlowe or perhaps a Humphrey Bogart character.

One of our biggest adventures that year was spending a month in France. We visited many vineyards, even staying at one, and sampled a glass or two of wine!

2018 started off with capturing one of my favourite images of Joshua Tree NP: Sunrise at Barker Dam.

In February, 2018 we travelled to South America for a wine tour of Chile and Argentina with a wine club to which we belong. We have many fond memories of the people we met, the scenery we experienced, and the many wines we sampled. Oh, the wine!

2018 continued with a trip to Monument Valley with camera club friends, backpacking in the Rockies, another canoe trip, and a late Fall return to Southern California.

Without doubt, a highlight of 2019 was a month-long trip to northern England culminating in a 10-day narrowboating trip on some of the canals. Maneuvering a 70 foot narrowboat and dealing with locks was very different from my experiences on sailboats. However, it didn’t take long to adjust and we had a lot of fun motoring along the canals (with, naturally, the odd visit to a pub along the way).

2019 wrapped up with a 5-day trip along a portion of Route 66 from San Antonio, TX to Needles, CA.

2020 started off innocently enough, but soon descended into chaos. In early March, while on a photo trip to Death Valley with my camera club friends, we were starting to hear some serious news about something called the Corona Virus and Covid 19. Just a couple of weeks later, we were “fleeing” the US for home, facing 14 days of quarantine when we arrived.

After several months of lock down, it was nice to be able to get out photographing a local botanical park.

With continued concerns over Covid, we did not return to the US for the 2020-2021 winter. This created a reminder of why we like going south for the winter, although we did luck out with it being one of the milder winters in several years. One fun activity I experienced that winter was photographing soap bubbles as they froze. This is definitely one activity I can’t do in the desert of Southern California.

In the Fall of 2021 we could finally return to Southern California and as soon as I could, after our return, I made a trip up to Joshua Tree NP. It was still as beautiful as ever!

2022 started off with a return trip to Death Valley. This was a bit different from my last trip, just before Covid. For one thing, a lot of Covid protection measures were in place. Secondly, this trip was a photography workshop that not only changed how I saw Death Valley but also had an impact on how I approached photography. It really got me going down the road of photographing small scenes and abstracts. One of my favourite images was taken at a location pretty much obliterated by Hurricane Hillary a little over a year later.

This was followed by further photo trips including Moab, UT and another workshop in Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC.

2023 kicked off with a return (my third) visit to the Big Sur coast. In the Spring I attended a 3-day photography conference in Pincher Creek, AB which allowed me to explore a part of the province I’ve never really spent time in. Along with Pincher Creek, I spent a bit of time in Waterton Lakes National Park. I continued my exploration with a 3-day tour, with a photographer friend, of small towns in central Alberta, photographing old buildings.

Of course, the biggest highlight of the year was a month-long trip to Scotland to celebrate my wife’s and my 50th wedding anniversary. It was truly spectacular, staying for a week in each of four different locations. Scotland is truly a photographer’s paradise!

As I write this post, the rain is gently falling in the Coachella Valley, bringing a promise of Spring flowers. I will wrap this post up with an image I took in Joshua Tree earlier this month, on a blustery morning.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief reflection on the past 11 years and a repost of a few photos that bring back some of those memories. As always, I welcome any comments.

And please, if you enjoy my photography, check out my gallery site at neilmillerphotography.com – just click the “Photo Gallery” tab at the top of this page.