26th
Oct
As many of you likely know, a couple months ago, I migrated my entire Lightroom Classic library to Lightroom CC for Desktop. For a little over two months, I maintained two separate workflows for my photography, one in the Lightroom CC ecosystem and one in Lightroom Classic, completely cut off from syncing with Lightroom CC. […]
22nd
Jun
One of the early enhancements we made to our Cricket was a cell signal booster. We went on 26 trips in the first year of our Cricket. That’s every other weekend plus a few longer trips (4–16 days), and we continued going out throughout the cold winter months, so having a good cell signal allowed […]
8th
Jun
It’s been a few weeks now since we installed solar on our Mantis, and so far we are loving it. Instead of plugging our Mantis in when we get home, we just turn off all the power draws (including the fridge), and let the solar panels bring the power back up and keep the batteries […]
25th
May
Now that we’ve had a few weekends to take out our Mantis camper from TAXA Outdoors, we’re finally ready for the grand tour of our new home away from home. We purchased the first generation Mantis. In fact, ours is #12, so among the first to hit the streets, so-to-speak. We love how open it […]
18th
May
I tend more towards backpacking than car camping, yet the ability to bring a basecamp—a home—with me on trips has always been appealing to me. I am lucky enough to be married to a wife who has shared that appeal, and so a little over a year ago, after watching the progression of small camping […]
10th
May
If you’ve followed our journey on the TAXA Trailer Owner’s Facebook group, you’ll probably know we’ve struggled a bit with our tow vehicle. What you probably don’t know is how painful this decision process has been. We started the search in February, well before our Mantis was delivered, so we had plenty of time. We […]
19th
Nov
Over the years, I’ve carried my fair share of heavy gear. On backpacking trips, my record is in around 14 pounds of camera gear alone. Though I know folks who’ve carried more than that. Still, my goal is not to have the heaviest load. Especially as I left my 20s, carrying a lot of stuff […]
4th
Aug
Earlier in the year, I explained the limitations of my lighter Osprey atoms 50 pack. Beyond 35 pounds, it tends to get uncomfortable, and past 40 it’s downright painful. And with 8 pounds of camera gear, it doesn’t take much to hit up against the upper limits of that pack. A recent trip had me carrying […]
21st
Jul
Thanks to my friend who works at Outdoor Research (OR), I’ve recently begun to acquire quite a few pieces from OR. Aside from my bias of knowing someone who works there (and getting the up and up on all the upcoming sales), I really like OR both for the products they put out and for […]
27th
Apr
Adobe recently released a new version of Lightroom that included two new hallmark features: HDR and Panorama. I’m still experimenting with the HDR tool and have yet to get any really good results, but the Lightroom 6 Panorama merge tool has quickly blown my mind away. Series of photos that would have taken hours to […]