Switching lenses

Episode 6 : Bandwagon yankee fans, New England Foliage Road Trip, Social media sucks

• Mandy Wright

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Exploring Foliage: Road Trip Adventures and Influencer Impact

In this episode of 'Switching Lenses' (Season 1, Episode 6), hosts Esteban  and Mandy  dive into their recent road trip through the scenic Northeast, focusing on Vermont and New Hampshire's stunning fall foliage. They discuss photography, the breathtaking landscapes they encountered, and an enlightening yet frustrating experience with influencer-driven travel destinations. The episode also highlights the positive and negative impacts of social media on lesser-known travel spots and the joys of capturing beautiful moments on a road trip.

00:00 Introduction and Banter
00:34 Meet the Hosts
01:03 Baseball Talk
04:59 Photography and Travel
06:29 New England Road Trip
08:36 Exploring Vermont
18:53 Discovering a Famous Barn
19:05 The Impact of Social Media on Popular Locations
20:01 Debating the Role of Social Media in Business
21:19 The Downside of Viral Fame
27:45 Exploring Scenic Drives in New England
29:26 Traffic Woes and Scenic Views
36:43 Meeting Fellow Photographers
39:03 Reflecting on the Trip and Future Plans
41:41 Wrapping Up and What's Next

Follow us on instagram : https://www.instagram.com/switchinglensespodcast/

Mandy:

Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode six.

Esteban:

This episode six of the Switching Senses podcast. I

Mandy:

say season one, episode six.

Esteban:

It was a great intro.

Mandy:

I was trying to imitate you. Hello. Hello, everybody. And welcome to episode six of Switching

Esteban:

Lenses. Episode six. We

Mandy:

should start

Esteban:

over. No, no, we're doing it live. Oh boy. No. Yes. This isn't live. We're recording it. My name is Esteban Gill, and I am joined by my co host Mandy Rong of Of What's your business name?

Mandy:

Oh. Mandy Wright.

Esteban:

Mandy Wright what?

Mandy:

Photography.

Esteban:

You're a photographer? Yes, I am. Oh, I thought it was Mandy Wright Travels. Oh.

Mandy:

Oh, well, I wear many hats.

Esteban:

Oh, that's cool. You're wearing one right now a yankee hat. Yeah, which is a bit of a disappointment Because because they just lost just lost in the world series. Yeah, but

Mandy:

I watched every game

Esteban:

You watched every game You I didn't let it be known that she did not watch a single game

Mandy:

I watched every single game. I am a diehard yankees fan. That's why I wear this hat with pride.

Esteban:

Yes That's true. Who's the greatest Yankee of all time?

Mandy:

Keith Hernandez.

Esteban:

That is actually true. Do you know that there actually is a Keith Hernandez that played for the Yankees?

Mandy:

Yes. This is why I said that.

Esteban:

What position does he play?

Mandy:

Uh, third base.

Esteban:

Yeah. You have watched, do you actually watch baseball? Wait, do you, I'm being completely serious. I never know

Mandy:

when you're serious with me or when you're messing around. No, but there really

Esteban:

was a Keith Hernandez that played third base. And he actually is the best, well not, I don't want to say the best, there's a few that I would consider a little bit better, but.

Mandy:

Like, he's the best in my eyes.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Mhmm.

Esteban:

Wait, do you actually know who Keith Hernandez is? I'm just kidding. There's no Keith Hernandez that played for the Yankees.

Mandy:

Exactly what I just said. I never know when you're for real and you're not for real.

Esteban:

Yeah, so no, no, that is just not, um, that's not. I think there was

Mandy:

and you just don't know your baseball.

Esteban:

Oh, sure.

Mandy:

We just wasted 10 minutes of our 30 minute podcast talking about fake baseball. The best

Esteban:

Yankee to have ever played. His name is They call him Big Poppy.

Mandy:

That's my nickname for you.

Esteban:

I kind of look like him too, if you really think about it. Yeah, very, very, uh, very Latino man.

Mandy:

So who did Keith play for?

Esteban:

Keith played for the Albuquerque Cucamongos.

Mandy:

You don't know. You don't even know who that is.

Esteban:

No, I don't.

Mandy:

He played for the Yankees.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

He did.

Esteban:

Yes, you're just trying to Are you gonna Google it right now?

Mandy:

Of course I'm gonna Google it because I need to school you on some baseball

Esteban:

If if there's actually a Keith Hernandez that played for the Yankees, it's the the best Yankees to have ever lived

Mandy:

Played for the Mets

Esteban:

Did not let me say That looks like my dad and is an American former major league baseball first played for the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. You just completely made that up. He literally hit one home run in his entire career.

Mandy:

He's a real person.

Esteban:

I know you just made up two names. You put two names together and the chances of somebody actually playing baseball. Are pretty high because baseball's been around for like a hundred years

Mandy:

You think I made that name up and got lucky?

Esteban:

Yes, and he happened to play for

Mandy:

a new york baseball team.

Esteban:

Yes

Mandy:

No, you're

Esteban:

probably shocked in your head right now. You're going. Holy shit. No, it actually is a keith hernandez.

Mandy:

No And people who know me really well probably know why I know that name

Esteban:

why do you know the name

Mandy:

because he He, um, makes an appearance in Seinfeld. Oh my

Esteban:

god, now I

Mandy:

Elaine dates him.

Esteban:

Okay, now, now I understand where you get this knowledge from. So you don't actually know baseball, you just know I know Seinfeld. Seinfeld. Yes. Okay, you just redeemed yourself. We're five minutes into our intro.

Mandy:

Okay, so back to photography.

Esteban:

We're not even talking about photography. Okay,

Mandy:

travel.

Esteban:

We're switching lenses.

Mandy:

Oh yeah. We are switching lenses today.

Esteban:

Yeah. So last episode we talked about What did we talk about last episode? Oh, we talked about Sal and Alyssa's shoot. Um, and we're going to switch lenses and we're going to talk about travel because it's another thing that we love.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

Uh, so yeah. So with the new format, which Should be shorter episodes. Uh, we are attempting should be key word here to, um, to separate the episode. So today we're gonna talk about some travel that we've done in the last couple weeks. Mm-Hmm. uh, which has been amazing. Yeah.'cause being in the northeast, we are experiencing all the foliage in the Northeast, which has been pretty, pretty incredible. Yeah. It's,

Mandy:

uh, even still like the trees are bare, but. The leaves are all over the ground and it's so beautiful.

Esteban:

Yeah, we were just at, uh, Noah's kids, Noah and Jewel's, uh, kids, uh, football games.

Mandy:

Mm hmm.

Esteban:

And just sitting there, just, it was very fall like, so. Even though it was chilly and windy, um, it just felt very northeast.

Mandy:

And it's November, and it's so beautiful outside.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah, we had a very, very lucky fall, weather wise, and, uh, foliage color wise. It's been really nice.

Esteban:

Yeah. And we just went, uh, trigger treating. So, and that, that was, uh, very warm. It was probably the warmest Halloween that, that I've seen in a while. So.

Mandy:

Warmest one I've ever experienced. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, uh, let's see here. The beginning of October, we took a little road trip. We'd been planning for a while. It, our plans changed a hundred times, like usual.

Esteban:

And we went to where?

Mandy:

We, where did we go? We drove from Connecticut up to Woodstock, Vermont.

Esteban:

Well, I guess the original idea was to, yeah, well we drove from Connecticut up to, Uh, I think Massachusetts and then we went to Vermont and then we ended up in New Hampshire. So I guess we, we wanted to do, our original plan was to just do a road trip of the Northeast to just kind of experience the whole foliage and the colors. We were going to do like upstate New York, we were

Mandy:

going to do the coast, we were there, we had a hundred different ideas and spots we wanted to check out and we made it to a couple.

Esteban:

Yeah. And I think it's, um, we realized just how long it was going to take and we were at a Um, and, uh, fellow photographer Julie, um, that hired us to photograph her, her son's wedding. Uh, she mentioned that we should go to Woodstock, Vermont. So it kind of veered us in the whole Vermont direction, so I have to cough, though.

Mandy:

Is that what's happening? Because I noticed your voice was slowly trailing off. Yeah, no, it's, yeah. Excuse us. We both have bronchitis. Wait,

Esteban:

why did you just diagnose me with bronchitis? If

Mandy:

one of us has bronchitis, we both have bronchitis.

Esteban:

Okay.

Mandy:

That's right?

Esteban:

I don't have bronchitis. It's just my One of us I just have a

Mandy:

cough. And one of us has accepted the diagnosis and the other one is still in denial, so We'll get to the We have not been to denial.

Esteban:

We haven't been there.

Mandy:

You are in the denial stage. One of us has been prescribed antibiotics and is part way through, so should be feeling better in a couple days, and the other one will be weeks behind. The one still coughing. Anyway, excuse our voices and our coughing.

Esteban:

Yeah, so, anyway. We, uh, went to Vermont.

Mandy:

So

Esteban:

we, we, it was recommended that we go to Vermont, to Woodstock, Vermont. So we started, like, researching what, what we should do, how we should head up. And one of the things that, as someone that has lived in Connecticut essentially their entire life, Um, I realized just how beautiful Connecticut is because I haven't really been to those parts where where there's like really scenic, uh, roads and beautiful farms and foliage and all this stuff. So we made our way up the, um, I would say the northwestern part of Connecticut, which is by Kent, Connecticut. And, and then we, we headed over towards Vermont, which

Mandy:

I don't want to cut you off before you continue on, but we were I kid you not, not even an hour into our drive and we had already pulled over multiple times taking photos of stuff and eventually, Esteban looked over at me and was like, you know, we're still in Connecticut. We haven't really got anywhere. And we were just like, Oh wow, look at this. Look at that. But I feel like the fact that we just, um, I guess took the time to appreciate everything around us. I guess it was more amazing, but I mean, obviously we've been in Connecticut. For the last month seeing the leaves change, but just didn't take the opportunity to look at what was around us until we started this drive. And then we were like, Oh, wow, this is actually Connecticut. We didn't really go anywhere. And we were like, in awe of what we were looking at. Yeah.

Esteban:

And I think that's the beauty of just taking a road trip specifically for Connecticut. The actual road trip for the, the experience of traveling rather than the destination, which obviously we, we stayed at Okemo Mountain, uh, right? Is that what we said?

Mandy:

Um, and

Esteban:

while that was beautiful, I think being photographers, I think it really just makes you appreciate how much we appreciate the overall experience of traveling to whatever destination we're going to. So, um, I mean, just. going in it with the idea of we're just going to pull over whenever we want and just take photos. And we did. Uh, we took a, I mean, something that should have taken three hours to get to our destination took us nine hours because it was just us stopping and getting photos. And sometimes I was, or we were shooting films. Sometimes we were shooting digital

Mandy:

tripod setting up is, yeah,

Esteban:

but that's the beauty of it is that we, we love that. And it makes you really not only appreciate. Uh, the, the trip, but just also appreciate the fact that you're with somebody that appreciates that as well. So it's, you're not feeling bad about like, Oh, well, let's pull over and somebody's just kind of staring at you waiting for you to get a shot. Um, so isn't

Mandy:

that beautiful that like, I never, I never once crossed my mind that I would feel like, bad or guilty for asking you to stop so I could take a photo. Yeah. That does not cross my mind.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Like you totally understand.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. It's a very, very cool, cool feeling. Um, but yeah, we, we made our way up, uh, Kent, Connecticut and we went to, um, what I, what is arguably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to is Vermont. I, I never, I mean, I've been to Vermont several times, but I never really went for specifically to take photos and. Everywhere we went was just so unbelievably beautiful.

Mandy:

Yeah, I think we got lucky. Like, the week that we hit it was just, was peak, so.

Esteban:

Um. It was like we were, we were just like, in another world. Mm hmm. It's like these long, winding roads. Um, no other cars.

Mandy:

Bright and sunny, and like, everything was, like the leaves were just starting to fall, but they were like, the brightest colors.

Esteban:

Yeah, it was, it was pretty incredible. Um, we took up for any, uh, nerds out there, we took up a bunch of different equipment. So we took up, uh, both Panasonics that we use. So the Panasonic S5 2X, uh, the Panasonic

Mandy:

S9.

Esteban:

Um, what other digital did we take at the Hasselblad 907X?

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

Um, did we take any other digital stuff?

Mandy:

Camp Snap. The Camp Snap? We never plugged it in. I don't think. Actually.

Esteban:

Oh, yeah.

Mandy:

I actually think there's a bunch of stuff in there I haven't seen yet. Yeah. Um.

Esteban:

That was all the digital that we took, right? I

Mandy:

think so.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. Other

Mandy:

than, other than the little, the little stuff. So. The 360, the Ray Bans, the drone. So we have a few other digital things that were specialty.

Esteban:

Which is really cool too because when you're taking a road trip, you don't have to worry about like what's going to fit in my carry on or what's going to fit on in my backpack. But the

Mandy:

funny thing is that we actually didn't, we didn't think about this until we were already on the road and we were like, why were we being strategic? We were living out of a car, but we actually did like, we would have brought more gear had we had thought about what we were actually doing.

Esteban:

I think we did a pretty good job at it. Yeah, we still had enough. I

Mandy:

mean, I feel like every stop, it was like, take out this one, take some shots. Now this one, we did go through the rounds. It would have taken, you would have been driving for like 50 hours if we brought any more equipment.

Esteban:

Yeah. So, that was, that was digital, uh, film. We took a Hasselblad 500CM, uh, we took the Hasselblad X Pan. Yeah.

Mandy:

I didn't really shoot film. I didn't even. Oh, yeah. I actually think

Esteban:

I shot. More film

Mandy:

you shot. I think I shot

Esteban:

maybe ten rolls.

Mandy:

We

Esteban:

just dropped off eight Yesterday a mil for photo, but I know I left one or two behind that I forgot about

Mandy:

Yeah, I don't even think we use the point and shoot film camera

Esteban:

No No, we

Mandy:

had it, but I don't think we used it.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah, so yeah ton of equipment and then we took the drone which If you've seen our Instagram we you can see we did

Mandy:

share some Yeah

Esteban:

Um, lots of equipment. We were very prepared, but also feel like we could have probably brought another 30 cameras. Yeah. Um, but I'm kind of glad we did because it really, it would have been a lot. So, uh, so we, we went up into Woodstock and we stayed at Okemo Mountain.

Mandy:

Mm hmm. Which is outside of it, like 20 minutes or something. Yeah. Which was really, really cool to be at the base of a mountain. Yeah. Um, and we did, uh, Unfortunately, the ski, or like the chairlifts and the gondolas were no longer open at that mountain but we went to a neighboring one.

Esteban:

We went to uh, Killington. Is

Mandy:

that what it was? Yeah, Killington. I couldn't remember the name. Yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah, it was Killington and it's, it was beautiful. We took the, the gondola up to the top. Yeah. Which is like 12, 500 feet in elevation. Oh my god, your memory's good. Um.

Mandy:

It was high. I don't remember.

Esteban:

Wait, no, sorry. Uh, sorry. I'm thinking of Colorado. Uh, it's 4, 200 and It's 200 feet in elevation.

Mandy:

That sounds more accurate.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

I'm thinking of, of, I don't know why I always think of 12, 000 when I think of elevation because I remember being in Colorado at 12, 000 feet and taking three steps and being out of breath. Um, but I think the, um, uh, Okimo, or at least the resort that we were staying at was 2, 000 feet in elevation and Killington was 4, 000.

Mandy:

Yeah. And, uh, so we went up to the top of that and we got to witness a wedding.

Esteban:

Oh my God. Yeah. I forgot about that.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

Yeah. We were right up top and then they were setting up for a wedding and

Mandy:

we had to watch the bride walk down the aisle and

Esteban:

it was fun. And we took photos and

Mandy:

then we were those weird people in the background and we

Esteban:

kicked the photographer off the cliff and we took over and we shot the wedding. It was beautiful.

Mandy:

But we didn't make jokes about that the whole time about like pretending to be We were part of it. Yeah. Like who's gonna stop us if we just walk up and pretend we're part of this wedding? With our full setup of gear.

Esteban:

Yeah, we had enough equipment to shoot a wedding. That's for sure Yeah,

Mandy:

we got to see snow up there too, which was cool.

Esteban:

Yeah, that was that was very interesting especially seeing how beautiful it was down below and then when you go up and you just see Snow everywhere. I'm gonna cough again Wow

Mandy:

That's all right

Esteban:

lots of coughing

Mandy:

yeah

Esteban:

Um, and I don't have bronchitis, just a slight cough.

Mandy:

Okay.

Esteban:

Yeah, so we, we went up there, we uh, we saw the wedding happening. We pretty much just explored that, that whole area for a little bit, which was absolutely stunning just seeing all the colors. Um, and Vermont was just beautiful. We went out to downtown Woodstock the day after, right? Mm hmm. Which was, was recommended by Julie, and it was So beautiful, but I still feel like I just love the drives more than the actual towns. The towns, I mean, they're great.

Mandy:

Yeah, I think in terms of, like, little towns with shops and cafes and stuff, like, there are better places to go. It seems small. Yeah. Very busy. I don't want to be negative, but there was like one coffee shop. Yeah. And the lineup was huge. Um, and that's the only place you could get coffee. So like, the one day we opted not to even get anything.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Which, so, so that part of it, I didn't love. The scenery around it was beautiful, but in terms of the, the town, it was like very small and

Esteban:

Yeah, you can definitely tell that it was, it's very much a town that That is very popular during that That part of the year

Mandy:

season. Yeah, it's yeah, I'm sure that it's not gonna be that busy

Esteban:

Yeah, and even before we went we did some research on like what what you should see And there was a bunch of places that that we saw one specifically was What was it called? The barn

Mandy:

Oh Sleepy hollow

Esteban:

farm Which is like one of the most photographed places in the United States. It's a, it's a, somebody's house. It's just a really A famous

Mandy:

person's house or a barn or something.

Esteban:

Yeah, and it's just a, a really beautiful winding road that leads up to it, so. Yeah. Um. It's like one

Mandy:

specific The calendar shot.

Esteban:

Yes, yeah. So, and, and I guess that leads to a really interesting conversation, uh, when it comes to these places. So, we went there with the intentions of going to photograph it, not really knowing how popular it is. And as we were doing more research, we realized that it became so popular through social media that the neighbors actually had a petition to the town to close it down. Um, Yeah. During foliage season.

Mandy:

Mm

Esteban:

hmm. So you could you can't get you can't get there anymore. They close it down. It's off limits We did some research on it and

Mandy:

private property. So yeah,

Esteban:

they're all private properties the people that live around there are basically just tired of I mean we were looking at stories and like new stories about it and the lines of like hundreds of cars just parked to get this one photo and And while I am very grateful for social media and I think it's helped a lot of Sort of what we do, right? Like our industry.

Mandy:

I am not so grateful for social media, but okay. But

Esteban:

we are pretty dependent on it. I mean, I feel like social media is a big part of what we do. Um, do you not agree that social media is a big part of what we do? Do you think your business would be where it is now if it wasn't for social media?

Mandy:

Um. I, I of course agree that social media is a big part of our business now because it's the way of the world, but no, I think that my business would be the same if either wasn't social media because there would just be a different way of, all businesses would be working a different way of getting word of mouth around.

Esteban:

I, I disagree. I think social media plays a huge part in what we do. Well, of

Mandy:

course it does, but if there was no social media at all, we would all be

Esteban:

I think, I don't think the industry would have I don't think, visually speaking, I don't think the photography industry or just photography as a whole would be the same without social media. Not only because it's a visual medium, but because the ability to share. things that you do, which this is a really, it's, again, I'm very grateful for because I'm able to reach so many people by just posting a single image. But on the other side of the coin here is that when you do share something and something goes viral like that barn, Now you have influencers that are going in there and going, Well, this is the most beautiful place in Woodstock. This is the most beautiful place in Vermont. And now, because they have this large following, you have these people that are now going to flock this place who's, that's actually a private property. And they're kind of, ruining it for everybody that lives there. Um, I mean, some of the stories, some guy was like, people are going to the bathroom on the side of the road, they're stepping onto like private properties, people are, and I think the combination of the whole influencer thing with social media, which is humans being just awful.

Mandy:

Disrespectful.

Esteban:

Yeah, and just disrespectful to.

Mandy:

Selfish.

Esteban:

Yeah. Um, I think that's a, that's a A pretty bad combination that leads to things like that closing down and,

Mandy:

and,

Esteban:

which rightfully so. I can't imagine me, uh, walking around and seeing people in my backyard trying to get a, a shot. I mean,

Mandy:

even one person.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Yeah.

Esteban:

So.

Mandy:

Like, but.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

So, there's just as many beautiful places that are public property. Yeah, and even

Esteban:

one of the stories were like, there's a barn right down the street that's public property. Like. Give a local business your money, like go in and purchase from them and take photos. Um, but again, I think it's just that whole craze about somebody having a large following and posting about it.

Mandy:

I mean, I, yeah. Yeah. You don't even, and it's not even just private property either. The same thing happens with, um, Um, public areas and public businesses and it still just gets out of hand and similar steps need to be taken even in those areas because safety concerns, general, like I can think of many examples of the exact same thing, but in a public, in a public setting, but people just get out of hand.

Esteban:

Yeah. And I think it's, it really goes back to the whole, like too much of something good can be. Yeah. pretty bad at times. So like you have TikToks where, where like somebody goes into a restaurant that might be struggling. Somebody with a large following says, Oh, these are the best grits I've ever had in my life. Somebody with a large social media following. And then the next day there's a line out the door and the business can't keep up with the demand. Um, and let's say the business closes down or just, there's just like that effect of like how much How much is too much? Um, and a lot of the time.

Mandy:

So. Social media kind of makes sense. You're saying it can be used for good.

Esteban:

It can be used for good, but also. Yeah. Too much of something good.

Mandy:

It also. Can be. Yeah. Not so good. This will, this will probably kind of lead us into the, the next segment. But, um. It also creates all this hype around something that might not be as good as it seems on social media. And speaking of the, the restaurant and the food type of thing, um, we went to a couple places. in Florence when I went around with my, uh, friends, Nicole and Jesse, and they had specific things they had picked out from Reels and TikToks that they were like, this is supposed to be the best Italian sandwich. And the lines were, yeah, but the lines for these places were insane. And I'm like, Oh, every, okay. Clearly either this is the world's most amazing sandwich or Um, everyone here in Florence today has seen this TikTok and wants to try this because the lines like the places that they had like bookmarked were insane. Um, and they did try a couple places and they were very like, meh. And I think after two instances like that where they were like, yeah, that was not worth the wait. They were like, okay, I think this is just exactly that. Someone with a following said this was the best and, and then now everyone's lining up for it. It makes it seem like it's, um, something worth waiting for when in fact it was not.

Esteban:

And that also not to say then that these business do this, but now lies the opportunity for a business that, that will look at an influencer and we'll look at us, these, what they look at as like more of a marketing opportunity and they'll reach out to somebody with a large following. So. I mean, I don't know if this happens, but, um, don't reach out to them and say, well, can you come to our place and make a video about how much you like this? So there's a, there's that level. I mean, that does have,

Mandy:

that is a thing. Yeah. Yeah. You can pay to have an influencer come in.

Esteban:

Yeah. They go in, they, Oh, this is the best, uh, I don't know, best, uh, pizza I've had in my life. They have enough of a following where it'll actually boost their business. So. There's that level of, uh, of, like, are you, are they being

Mandy:

Blind, trusted influencers. Yeah, yeah.

Esteban:

So, a lot of people can be bought. And I feel like that happens more than we probably think. Um, and it also leads to I mean in

Mandy:

every industry. Oh yeah. I'm immediately like, so today we want to talk about

Esteban:

I started smelling something. Uh, like even like the, the makeup industry, uh, photography, I mean anything, anything, any influencer. I think that's why it's so valuable to, uh, not valuable, but Why people place such a huge value on people with larger followings and that kind of trickles down to the whole like If somebody's just starting off and they're trying to do a certain I don't know they're doing content creating a creation They'll be They'll want to compare themselves to people with a lot larger followings and then maybe they'll go, well, I need to have a larger following. They'll go out and buy bots and Instagram followers and stuff like that to make it seem like they have this larger following. And then eventually end up thinking that they're going to get paid for that stuff. So it just creates a lot. And I think this goes back to your point where social media is not really that good because. There's a lot of greed behind it, right? Yeah, so But then to that point we after we went to Woodstock we went to What is considered something that's kind of a similar situation where it's considered one of the one of the most beautiful scenic tribes in New England, which was the You can say the name of it because I don't really feel like it Okay, I don't know how to say

Mandy:

um

Esteban:

Kakamanga. Kamakanga.

Mandy:

Let me pull it up real quick. Kakamangas.

Esteban:

Kakamanga. Kakamangas. Uh, yeah, so anyway.

Mandy:

Well, we should get the name of it. I don't think we should talk about it. Yeah, in the description.

Esteban:

What is it? Kankamaga.

Mandy:

Stop saying random words.

Esteban:

Kankamagas. Kankamangas.

Mandy:

Cancamungus?

Esteban:

Cancamungus. There's no N at the end.

Mandy:

Okay. Cancamagus. K A N C A M A G U S.

Esteban:

Right. So it's a, it's a byway that, that connects two different towns in New Hampshire. And again, I think it's one of those things where an influencer, I mean it's beautiful. It's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. We want, um And we'll have some differing opinions on this, but, um, When we got there, we were driving through some of the most beautiful, scenic, I mean, just roads that I have probably ever seen, to get to this town, which is the beginning of this highway. And we sat in traffic for almost two hours. To get on the

Mandy:

highway. So just through a little, we sat for two hours in a tiny town. Just to get on the highway. Yeah.

Esteban:

And it was incredibly frustrating and I think it kind of, I mean the, I don't want to take away from how beautiful it was, but it did kind of ruin the experience for me. Where it was like, we're sitting here in traffic, when we just drove, what was it, three and a half hours to get there? There's something around that time.

Mandy:

Yeah, I don't know, but it was a while.

Esteban:

And, we're just sitting here for two hours when we just went through like some of these beautiful roads. And, we're just sitting here doing nothing.

Mandy:

What have, yeah.

Esteban:

So, yeah, and, and it's. I didn't love

Mandy:

the traffic either. And I didn't love that we were, we were basically stuck there. Because it's, it's like both directions, so there was no escaping, like we couldn't turn around and back out, because we would just be waiting in line to go the other direction, so we were stuck. But it didn't, like that, it sucked, and, but, I also, when I, like, it wasn't that bad that it ruined the experience for me. I still enjoyed it, and I, I still even enjoyed the part of the road trip where we were stuck in the vehicle together, sitting, like. It there was a couple moments. I remember being like, ah, let's just get going But the rest of it I felt I was fine. I was entertained. We were talking no And it didn't bother me like no and

Esteban:

it didn't bother me like the overall experience of being in the car and like spending time Together and like actually driving this is obviously I enjoyed that but the overall purpose of it was to experience this road, and as a whole, the road itself, completely separating the experience of being with somebody else in the car, it was not what I expected. Um, I didn't think it was, I didn't think it was any nicer than the road that we took leading up to.

Mandy:

So I think this is where we disagree. The, the road, okay, just to paint the picture of what this highway is like for those of you who haven't driven it, The highway itself is like any other highway. Yes, that when you're actually driving on the road, it is not really any different than any other road that we took in New Hampshire. So arguably, the fact that this one was full of traffic, definitely it less enjoyable. But every, like, few miles there's a pull off with a vast landscape that you can view and take photos of and you can see super far with the mountains and all of the different colors of leaves which we did not get anywhere else. There was nowhere else that we got to pull over and We could've

Esteban:

pulled over a million times in Vermont and done this. But we pulled over in New Hampshire at this road and

Mandy:

it

Esteban:

was 15 minutes waiting for a car to leave to park And then there was 300 people taking the same photo. Well,

Mandy:

these are exaggerations

Esteban:

a little bit. Not exaggerations at all. Maybe in one of them, the main one, it was just insane. Like, there was crazy traffic getting into it. There was crazy traffic getting into the parking lot. And then you get out and there's just people all over the place taking photos. There's people getting in front of your shot. There's people behind you. There's families, there's buses. It's just, it, it was not, Enjoyable.

Mandy:

Well, and that's fine if you didn't enjoy it, but I don't think that you can say that those views were wrong. We didn't see the views that we saw on that highway. We did not see other places on the pull offs. And that's a fact. Show me one, show me one photo from somewhere else.

Esteban:

So, I, I understand that and I think the reason why we went there was because one person saw those views and a lot more people realized that you can see these views and it became more of like a, I mean, I think it's a, it's a national park. So, I mean, I mean,

Mandy:

you can read a thousand different articles from legitimate sources. If

Esteban:

we're in Vermont, You can easily do a lot of research and probably get arguably just as good of a view with a lot less traffic. I think it was just an effect of Googling what is the best road in North, in the Northeast. And that's what's going to naturally come up because that's the most popular one. So it goes into the argument of, is it the best one or is it the most popular one that Enough people have gone into.

Mandy:

I mean, yeah. It's true. But, I, I don't know. The whole, like, The whole experience I still enjoyed and I don't regret doing any of it. I don't regret doing any of it either. Well, you, you, I mean, we can re listen to the podcast, but I think like five minutes ago you said, It ruined the whole experience for me.

Esteban:

It ruined the whole experience of the road itself.

Mandy:

Well, anyway, I know every time we pulled over which was maybe like four or five times I think The last one or two it was dark and we didn't I think the last one it got dark We only took a couple photos and then I think one more we had to skip over because it was dark on our way Out of the park, but we hit all the other major stops. There might have been a few we missed You But every time we got out of the vehicle, I, I was in awe, like, I was like, Oh, wow. And I remember saying multiple times, Oh, this was worth the wait. This was worth the wait. And I still think it was

Esteban:

totally worth the wait.

Mandy:

You don't have to agree.

Esteban:

I'm agreeing with you. I, I just think that I'm more of a Vermont person. I think Vermont was much nicer.

Mandy:

That's funny. One of us has more patience than the other as well. So I could be part of it.

Esteban:

Yeah. I mean, I also drove for a total of 26 hours, and that was the end of the trip.

Mandy:

Yeah, the whole day, the whole weekend, yeah.

Esteban:

And the, the last thing I wanted to do was send traffic. It was, it was like a 50 mile stretch, and when we did some research on it, it said that you should take about two to three hours to get through it so you can stop at all the stops. We were in traffic for probably six over three hours. Oh, um, six. Oh. Think it took,

Mandy:

I think it, I think it took us six hours from arriving in the town to leaving the, the, the other town.

Esteban:

Yeah. So we were, so it was recommended the

Mandy:

drive took the three hours that it said, but it took us two hours to get on the drive from the town, which that part was unexpected.

Esteban:

Yeah. And that's why we missed the. The entire end of it, which was really dark, so.

Mandy:

Well, yeah, I don't think we missed a lot. We did miss a little bit, but.

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

There, I think we were close to the end by the time the sun set. Yeah. It also, um, the reason, one of the reasons why we didn't, See the sunset at the very end of the road was we were hung up talking to other photographers on the last stop Which was great and and well worth the experience but for sure we were about ready to head off in the vehicle and hit up the last few spots and then We and we end up finding ourselves talking to a group of photographers and Yeah. You know how that goes. Which we love. Yeah. Once you see

Esteban:

it. I think, uh, we were shooting with a, the Hasselblad 500CM and one of, it was like a group of like three or four people and they came up to us and was like, Oh, hey, we're shooting with that camera too. Or maybe they had like another,

Mandy:

yeah. I think they had like cameras. Yeah. But yeah. They were shooting film.

Esteban:

Yeah, and there's, they're like very talented and just we got to talk to them for probably what like a half hour. And that's one of the things I really love about places like that. That's definitely a positive of like being around a lot of people and like more of a not a touristy place, but somewhere where a lot of people will congregate to get photos and stuff like that. So you have a big opportunity to meet some people that are like minded and that love the same things that you love. And Once they came up to us, we got to know them a little bit and go, yeah, we have this podcast and yeah, we're, we're educators. We're, we're wedding photographers. We do fashion, we do all this stuff. And, and it was, it was a lot of fun getting to know them and

Mandy:

yeah, it was pretty

Esteban:

cool.

Mandy:

They had told us that, um, they had actually attempted this drive. Two other times before that week, um, years prior. So the first year they went, um, I think they went too late, they said, and, uh, most of the foliage had been fallen off the trees, so it, it wasn't that great. And the next year that they went, they went too early and they said everything was still very green, um, but they, they had come up from Boston, so they had a bit of a trek to get up there too. And this was the first year where they actually just hit it perfectly. And they said that although the traffic was not as bad as they've seen it before. I think is what they said. And that this is the first year that they hit it at the perfect time. Which obviously was the same week we hit it. So, we feel, I feel pretty lucky that we were able to um, to get it the week that we did.

Esteban:

I'm glad we, I'm glad we did it for sure. Um, I would still like to go back up to maybe do some, because ever since that week I feel like I've been itching to do some Milky Way stuff.

Mandy:

And some

Esteban:

long exposures. Uh, so I think I'd like to go back, maybe we can do some uh, some late night. Because the, the northern lights were showing up during that, those couple of days and we, we had some pretty cloudy weather. Yeah,

Mandy:

we didn't see them where we were because of cloud cover and I'm not sure if anyone in our area actually had a view of them. Yeah, back

Esteban:

in Connecticut everybody saw them.

Mandy:

Yeah,

Esteban:

but. Which is kind of annoying. We were up in the mountains. I stick, I stick

Mandy:

to the, I'm, I'm. I'm happy that we didn't see them.

Esteban:

Why?

Mandy:

Because I want you to see them. I want you to see them for the first time Properly.

Esteban:

That is properly.

Mandy:

I want you to see them in their full strength.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. Were they're singing and dancing?

Mandy:

Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Well, so I grew up seeing them and he has never seen them and I just feel like the the the The Northern Lights here don't do them justice, and although it's amazing that you can see them here, and I'm happy that people get to experience it, I want you to see the, I want you to see them how, how I seen them, so.

Esteban:

Yeah. Soon, hopefully.

Mandy:

So, I'd rather, I'd rather not see them in Connecticut.

Esteban:

Fair enough. Well, I'll just sneak off next time they're up, and I'll, I won't tell you, so.

Mandy:

That sounds probably exactly what you would do.

Esteban:

Okay, we're 40 minutes in. Okay. Holy moly. Is that why

Mandy:

you're looking at the time? Yes. I'm like disengaged. No. I'm getting, I'm getting the eye. It's

Esteban:

because my co host sucks. Now we're 41 minutes.

Mandy:

No, I felt like I was getting the eye. So like, alright, wrap it up. Time's up. Time's up, Mandy.

Esteban:

We did do a lot. We really enjoyed the drive. We enjoyed all the little trips that we did. It was a matter of like, what, 4 or 5 days?

Mandy:

Oh. For Vermont?

Esteban:

Yeah.

Mandy:

Um, it was like three.

Esteban:

Three days.

Mandy:

Three days.

Esteban:

Yeah. Three days. I knew that. Um, but it was beautiful. Definitely would want to go back. I think it's a really cool experience and like I said, I want to go back to do some Milky Way stuff.

Mandy:

Yeah. Yeah. We've been having our eye on doing some, some night photography. I'm really excited about that.

Esteban:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's it. That's all we got for that trip. Uh, next time we will be talking, we're going to switch lenses again and uh, talk about Yeah. Some, uh, photography stuff that we've been doing.

Mandy:

Yeah, our most recent wedding.

Esteban:

Yes. Maybe we'll, we'll touch on some other stuff equipment wise that we were discussing. Maybe

Mandy:

some controversial subjects.

Esteban:

Yes, like wearing Yankee hats when you don't know a single Yankee player. All right. Wow. Perfect. All right, well, thank you to everyone that joined and we will see you guys next. Week?

Mandy:

Yes. Maybe sooner. Or I hear you

Esteban:

guys. Maybe sooner. We'll see how it goes.

Mandy:

Thanks for listening.

Esteban:

Alright. Talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye.