What will I do with six months off of work? A part of me simply can’t believe it’s even happening. Listen in for the details I have planned thus far for my sabbatical experience of 2021. This is Latitude Photography Podcast, Episode 115 for May 11, 2021 Announcements A lot of great pics are coming in for the new topic for May: #SpringFlowers Please get those in the facebook group or email them to me. Facebook changed topics to hashtags.   MAIN TOPIC Starting in mid-June I’ll be off work for my regular summer break. Being a teacher definitely has its privileges. However, I applied for and was awarded a sabbatical for fall quarter. Under normal circumstances I’d be going back into the classroom starting in late September, but this year, with my sabbatical, I’ll be returning to the classroom in January 2022. First Sabbatical: Summer of 2016. Design in Northern Europe. Went to Poland and Germany. Also went to Photokina as my conference attendance that year. This year my schedule works out where I am putting a class I normally teach on hiatus for a bit as I move it to a different quarter, and we have a lot more adjuncts that can cover classes for me, and a very supportive department chair, which means I get to take a sabbatical during the fall quarter.  However, it’s not just time off. I have to do something that furthers my teaching, so I wrote a proposal of what I’ll plan to do and it got approved. In short, I’ll be visiting a minimum of four less popular national parks. There’s a total of 63 parks in the national park system. But there’s over 400 that are managed by the national parks system. One of those is just 5 miles away from me, Whitman Mission National Historic Site. But my goal is to visit national parks. I will then camp/hike/backpack in these parks and photograph the items that make the park special. However, I also want to not focus on the icons, but rather, the back trail items that you see when you’re in the park itself for more than a few hours. Once I’ve done the photographs, I’ll then create a series of posters somewhat inspired by the historic national parks posters. If you simply do a search for historic national parks posters you’ll see a lot of what I mean. You won’t find much of the original posts, but others who are doing their own take on the idea. Of all the things I teach, custom illustration is my weakest skill, so I’ll be focusing on that once I return. I’ll use the photos as a foundation for my posters and then I’ll design the posters and host a gallery showing of the photo prints and the poster prints. Of course, I’ll cover everything here on the show as well so you can vicariously tag along and learn a few creative processes as well. Planning the journey I’ve looked at a lot of different parks, but have so far settled on Isle Royale, Theodore Roosevelt and Badlands. I may also get down to Great Basin, but my fourth park is still not completely decided yet. Additionally, I left the proposal open enough to not lock me in to national parks only. And, I can go international if travel opens up a bit as time goes on. So we’ll see on that front as well. As it is now, Croatia is taking US tourists with a negative Covid test, but you have to have your accommodations fully pre-paid before you show up which seems like an odd requirement. I suppose they want to be able to track you and know exactly where you’ll be. Anyway… let’s talk about a few of these locations I’ll be heading off to. Isle Royale, NP Book from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3eu5S24 Isle Royale Fast Facts: https://www.nationalparked.com/isle-royale Part of Michigan, even though it’s closer to Canada and Minnesota. About 45 miles long and 9 miles wide The main island and roughly 400 smaller outlying islands. Became a national park in 1931 Only 26,410 visitors in 2019 I’ll take the ferry from Grand Portage, MN.  I’ve read the book I purchased and found a great trail that is the perfect length for what I will be carrying and I have a good chance at see