#canada2k19 The Drive from Dallas to Canada

Thanks for following us still through this epic journey! To start, I will share a map of the route we took again so we can all be on the same page if you missed out on the last blog. We drove our 2018 4Runner loaded with everything we needed. We averaged about 300 miles on a full tank. I mention this so you can take into account fuel and rest stops. We did pack extra fuel in case (7 gallons in 2x 3.5gallon rotorpax, link-https://amzn.to/32636a4 ), as keep in mind not all gas stations are 24/7. I will do a future post about the 4Runner setup for this trip.

I would like to say before we started this trip, we couldn’t find much info about this trip posted for people driving. The trick from the research we gathered was to try to leave after your local rush hour and try to gain as much ground through the night as there is very limited traffic, the other benefit of this is after all that driving and getting tired the sun will come up and give you a boost. This trick indeed worked on this trip as we were gaining time driving west.

So we started our drive Thursday evening at 6pm August 1st out of Frisco, Texas. I was glad to hit the road as it was hot as hell here and the 50 degree weather in Canada was calling my name! We got to Wichita Falls and stopped for fuel, as the next big city was Amarillo. We stopped in Amarillo and stretched then hit the road for Denver. We didn’t quite make it to Denver before Laena’s energy drink wore off so we stopped at Pueblo, Colorado to get gas and swap drivers. By Friday morning at 7am we made it into Denver and stopped for Breakfast.

Photo from my potato in Pueblo, Colorado

We ate at Snooze so that we could wait out some of the traffic, so we ended up hitting the road about an hour later. Next stop was in Cheyenne, Wyoming and we switched drivers again. We stopped at Casper, Wyoming and this is when we started hitting a little more traffic. Turns out Sturgis (motorcycle rally) was happening the upcoming weekend, it was neat to see all the bikes with plates from everywhere in the states converging to Sturgis,South Dakota for this event. Definitely made the drive less boring.

Photo from my potato in Wyoming

We stopped at Sheridan, Wyoming next and swapped drivers as we were both getting very exhausted. After grabbing more snacks and drinks we made our way to Billings, Wyoming next and stopped for fuel and to stretch. We were getting SO close to that border at this point. Next stop was Great Falls, Montana and we would be about 1.5 hours away from the Sweet Grass border crossing. Things took a turn for us as we neared Great Falls…

A rough storm system came in bringing rain and strong winds. We had the tent on top of the 4Runner and it acted as a kite so we were getting tossed all over the road. Laena white-knuckled it through the storm but after that we decided to grab a hotel in Great Falls to get rest and wait out the rest of the storm. The next morning We made it to the Sweet Grass border crossing and headed towards Calgary.

So some tips that I would recommend!

• Drive at night if possible, you will gain the most ground due to no traffic and if you time it just right, the sun will wake you up as you get tired

• If you’re fortunate enough to drive with another person, swap driving every few hours and nap when you’re not driving

• When you get gas or stop anywhere STRETCH!! Don’t just use the restroom, fill up and hop back in. STRETCH! My chiropractor Dr. Kent Lee has shared this with me and it helps keep you alert.

• If you are driving at night and have the means, carry extra fuel. A lot of the smaller gas stations close overnight and we ran into an instance where one ran out of fuel!

Personal thoughts on the drive

The drive was indeed long and exhausting. No offense to my Wyoming and Montana people but that was probably one of the worst parts of the drive. Amarillo wasn’t very amusing either, but it was neat seeing Cadillac Ranch on the way back as the sun went down. Colorado will definitely keep you awake with the elevation, twisties and lack of guardrails leading into the abyss with one wrong turn. We stopped a lot more frequently than we would’ve liked, but I feel like resting in Great Falls was perfect as we didn’t realize how exhausted we truly were until we checked into the hotel.

In the next post we’ll talk about our stay in Calgary!

Check out what I shoot with! https://dhophoto.com/blog/my-essentials

#canada2k19- Dallas to Canada

Hope you all are well! Its been scorching hot here in Texas! Makes me miss Canada much more. Oh wait, you didn’t hear? We went to Canada… for 2.5 weeks… and we drove… 5400 miles… I don’t know what’s more exhausting, telling you guys about this Epic trip or the drive! We called this trip #canada2k19

Let me tell you about it…

This idea spawned on us over a year ago. Laena and I had been trying to figure out where our next big trip would be; the only criteria being somewhere that required a passport! We thought about going to Europe, New Zealand, etc but since we had never been overseas we thought Canada would be a great introductory out-of-country trip. Needless to say the idea paid off- Canada, to put it simply, was breathtaking! We were huge fans of many YouTube personalities in the Canada area such as Peter McKinnon, Becki and Chris, Chris Hau etc. We would catch small glimpses in each of these videos of this illustrious wonderland called Banff. I was for sure that the blue in the water and landscape were all lies and PHOTO SHOPPED! Well one night we were eating dinner and we see a few shots of the famous Lake Louise pop up on the telly and I tell Laena, “THERE!, I want to go there next!”. We start planning out our trip with the goal to see the famous Lake Louise and beautiful Canada landscape.

Don’t want to spoil much but it was images like this that inspired the wanderlust to see Banff and Canada

One of the things we love doing is camping and exploring and as we research Banff more, the more motivated and crazy we got with ideas. So with diligent research it seemed the normal travel plans on the internet are people will fly into Calgary, rent a car, drive to Banff and stay at a hotel in the town. BORING!! We wanted to drive there and camp in the gorgeous parks so that we aren’t restricted by anything. Also, we got spoiled by using a roof top tent to camp with and we definitely wanted to be able to camp to really get the experience. After some research on Banff we decided to add Jasper to the mix as well. A few weeks more of research passed and we decided since we are driving let’s just check everything in west Canada out (or at least as much as we can). So our plan was to leave Frisco, TX, drive to Calgary, Jasper, Banff, Vancouver, then Seattle, Portland and head back to Texas. In the end we decided to skip out on Portland due to time. Feel free to play with and check out our route we drove on the map below!

First leg of the trip had us crossing the border in Montana to Canada and exiting Canada from Vancouver at the Peace Arch crossing to Washington. We decided after visiting Calgary it was best to leave for Jasper as it was further north and the drive to Vancouver required us going south towards Banff anyways.

So maybe my eyes are naive but this trip looked easy according to google maps. Everyone said that even a month isn’t long enough to visit Banff and Jasper and that couldn’t have been more true! We planned 2.5 weeks for our trip since it was the longest Laena could get off work. I will tell you right now that wasn’t enough time as we had so many things along the way that we would’ve loved to see and missed out on due to our timeline for the trip.

So…. Did we actually drive there? Where did we stay? What did we do on the trip? All great questions but I don’t want to bore everyone with a long blog post.

Catch us in the next blog posts and we will fill you in! We will have all the tips and tricks in case you’re crazy enough to take this challenge on.

As always, thank you everyone for the support and ideas for keeping this blog awesome!

Check out what I shoot with! https://dhophoto.com/blog/my-essentials

My Essential Photo Gear

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A lot of people ask me what my everyday gear is and I would love to hear what you guys use! I’ll drop links for everything below for those who are curious. This is my current everyday kit; it has taken me quite a bit to narrow things down to these essentials. I have spent a lot of time and effort in researching and trying out different gear. One problem I had, that I think is easy for anyone to run into, is excess spending on stuff I never needed or used which eventually just turns into dead weight to carry around. This is my bare minimums kit. Keep in mind we do a lot of traveling and spend lots of time outside so I hate carrying a bunch of extra items with me so this setup keeps me well rounded. I occasionally take a gimbal or drone but this is the ESSENTIALS.

Camera

I currently shoot all my photos and videos on the Sony A7RII. This is a fantastic full frame camera, I always joke with people that I can hand this camera off to a random person and they can start shooting for Vogue! This camera makes it that easy! The 42.4MP is great for when you need to crop photos, make those Instagram bangers, or to get rid of unwanted content. The NPFZ100 batteries last forever, I only carry two if I’m doing Hybrid shooting and usually 4 if I’m doing just video. I could go into all the technical specs of this but maybe at a later date. Don’t want to scare you guys away already!

Lenses

These may get long, oh boy… I got rid of a majority of my primes to make way for zoom lens to cut down on weight and of course costs. Sorry Sigma, your art lenses are gorgeous but they are bulky and too heavy to be lugging everywhere. I currently use the Tamron 17-28 F2.8, Tamron 28-75 F2.8 and the mother of them all… The G master 70-200 F2.8. Why do I use Tamron lens and carry the G master? The Tamron lenses have great focal lengths but the weight savings of these compared to the 16-35 F2.8 and 24-70 F2.8 G master are night and day! Not to mention they leave your wallet intact to splurge on other gear.

I do have some complaints about the Tamron though, but they are rather petty things that I have just gotten used to. I hate that the focus ring (rear of the lens) and the zoom ring (front of the lens) are inverted so it takes some getting used to. With the zoom ring being in the front, I find at times when you have the lens hood stored on the lens it interferes with full articulation of the zoom ring. Lastly I hate the cheesy lens cover, BUT the image quality makes me forget about all of these.

The G master 70-200 F2.8 is one of my favorite lenses I have used from Sony. I wouldn’t say by any means it’s a good run-and-gun lens, but it is a good all purpose portrait/travel lens. It does weight a lot, not just the lens but the price too! If I ever need a little extra reach I just switch to crop sensor shooting.

Memory Cards

I use a mix of the Sandisk Extreme Pro and Sony SF-G cards (not cheap at all!). No matter what I use 64gbs and some people think I’m crazy for it. Well let me tell you why- I have a paranoia of shooting too much content on a larger card and losing everything whereas if I use a 64gb in place of a 128gb I can recover half of my photos. Sony’s dual slot system puts this at ease as you can write to both cards. The Sony cards I try to use mainly for video due to write speeds but some of my friends say the speed vs cost isn’t worth it to them.

Strap

I love me some Peak Design, so I use the Slide Lite strap. Love it and the quick release anchor system. I seriously put these on everything. There’s even one on Joby! Get you one of these straps and change your life.

Hand Held Tripod

I use the Joby 3K Gorillapod for just walking around with or to make the camera more ergonomical. This is one of my fiance’s favorite items as we named “Joby” Joby naturally. I don’t use this as an actual tripod as I don’t trust it not send my camera plunging towards the ground.

Flash

I don’t use this guy much but when I do it saves my butt every time. I carry the Sony HVL-F43M and the only reason I have this is because I got it for a steal or else I would’ve grabbed a couple of Godox Flashes.

Lighting

I LOVE THIS GUY! I use the Aputure Amaran AL-M9 often. My friends and clients are blown away with the results this little guy can produce. You can use it to take some shadows off a subject or my favorite, use the gels included to add some flair to your nighttime photos.

Microphone

Nothing fancy here, I used the Rode VideoMicro. Its cheap, light and doesn’t use extra batteries. I’ve had rain destroy a couple of these already but I never hesitate to pick up another one

UV FIlters- I use the Hoya HD3 or NXTplus UV filters. I’ll go into filters and polarizers more at a later date!

These are my main essentials, I will get into backpacks (my favorite) at a later date. I’d love to hear what you guys are using or if you end up using any of this what your thoughts are!

Gear links-

Sony A7RIII- https://amzn.to/31SBt4u

Tamron 17-28 F2.8- https://amzn.to/2HfJYyi

Tamron 28-75 F2.8- https://amzn.to/2Zhm3c8

Sony 70-200 F2.8 G master- https://amzn.to/2NeZH4N

Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb- https://amzn.to/31RKvyx

Sony SF-G 64gb- https://amzn.to/33JUA2b

Peak Design Slide Lite- https://amzn.to/2ZhdjPc

Joby 3k Gorillapod- https://amzn.to/2Z58k91

Sony HVL-F43M Flash- https://amzn.to/2YY7NWm

Aputure Amaran AL-M9- https://amzn.to/2Zcgl7r

Rode VideoMicro- https://amzn.to/2NiiA6M

77mm Hoya HD3 UV filter- https://amzn.to/2ZfXFDQ

67mm Hoya NXT plus- https://amzn.to/2Hdggu8

Introduction →

Hello and thanks for dropping in! For months friends and family have been telling me to share my photos and experiences with the world. After taking a 2 week trip my fiance and I decided to take the dive in and do so. As most of my friends know, I love to dabble in EVERYTHING! That makes for some interesting content over time.

Oh yea, the introduction… My name is Dennis Ho, but most people call me DHo for short. I guess I need to post the obligatory logo and intro photo. If you couldn’t tell, I’m on the left and my lovely fiance Laena is on the right.