[Northern Soul]

If you had £500 / $800US / whatever that is in your currency and a week off to spend taking pictures, starting at your house, where would you go, and what would you shoot?

I think I'd go to Scotland.

Fuel - £250
Camping fees (you can camp wild, but I like showers) £70

That leaves £180 for food, drink and getting in to places - although I think I'd spend the whole week in Scourie and get the ferry across to Handa a few times to see the seabirds, when I wasn't exploring the breathtaking scenery.

What would you do with a bonus photo-week and £500 in your part of the world? Would you just enjoy yourself, or would you seek out pictures you could sell? Would you go far, or stay near home? Would you spend most of the money on gear or getting around?

[TaoMaas]

I would stay relatively close to home. I often quote Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz"... "if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard." I used to take photo trips, but changed many years ago and decided to focus on what I know. (There's a story that goes with that, but I'll spare you the details. ) Oh, I still take vacations to far away places...I just don't make photography the primary purpose of those trips.

[RioRico]

US$800 should get me to and from Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon) in Chihuahua Mexico for a week. I'd route through Bisbee / Naco and Nuevo Casas Grandes / Mata Oritiz and Hidalgo de Parral, skip around Ciudad Chihuahua itself, and foray from Creel. Or maybe I'd bus to Guatemala and poke around the central highlands some more. I haven't done that since I got good photo gear. It'll take more than a week but it'll be cheap and photogenic.

[blackcloudbrew]

For that amount, I would head back to Death Valley, California (in the early spring!) and spend a another week there wandering around. I get inspired photographically there like no other place. It is amazing.

[Docrwm]

This might sound corny but I'd go to Chattanooga and explore. Great revitalized downtown, river, good parks, Train Museum (both model and steam with a GREAT station and real working turntable and repair yard), Kids Museum, super Aquarium, Minor League baseball in a VERY nice park, Lookout Mountain, Rock City, and other touristy places. Nice little town.

[magkelly]

Well, let's see for a couple hundred I could get a nice Mom and Pop hotel room around here for a week. Then I could take another $150 and hit the zoo and maybe go on safari at the local theme park. The rest of the week I could spend photographing on the beaches and at several gorgeous local gardens, no money hardly needed there, so budget $150 for that, transit and some food and I'd have $300 left to spend on a new 55-300 AF lens to take with me. Actually I probably wouldn't even bother with the room. I'd stay at home, do day trips, and spend half that maybe on gas and just get another lens, lol.

[Gareth.Ig]

I'd take a week off, stay in St. John's and buy a new lens (by-by $800). Use the week to put it through its paces. Start at Signal Hill and work my way down to the waterfront.

[Nomad]

I would use it for boat gas and bait and spend the week exploring Casco Bay a bit!!

I might even learn to not blow out the sky behind my dad (or other charters!!)

[jimr-pdx]

I'd buy a $700 lens & go backpacking in the Sierra. I think I can make it there & back on $100 in gas.. maybe a $600 lens?

[mysticcowboy]

While a new lens and local shooting is tempting, I can always shoot close to home. That just takes making a commitment, which I've already done. Check my blog. There's just something about going somewhere different that gives us fresh eyes.

Still $800 won't buy a big trip. I'd pick somewhere 5-12 hours away by auto and combine camping with cheap motels. That would get me the North Cascades, the Oregon coast, the B.C. coast, Vancouver Island, or the Palouse. Hard to choose. If I lived in England, Scotland or the islands in the Irish sea would be hard to resist.

[mattb123]

I'd probably either go backpacking here (Central Colorado) with a new lens (da70?) or head to Utah and spend some time around somewhere like Bryce Canyon. Camping is usually pretty cheap, kind of like me.

[jbinpg]

I would head out for a camping trip in the Rockies, taking the Jasper-Banff Icefields Highway. Then swing around through Rogers Pass and meet my oldest grade school friend (Grade 1 !!!) in Golden for some beers and good times. She is an oil painter so I always like to see what she has on the easel. Then down to the coast to see Mom for a few days before returning home.

[Pixley]

I would buy the 77mm I want and go on day trips (or night trips) into the city, to the zoo, to the beach, to the Dandenongs etc - all quite close to home and have my lovely new lens to use and hopefully (as the kids will be on another trip) no-one saying "MUm, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum............) all day long!

Cheers

[Wombat]

I would buy the 77mm I want and go on day trips (or night trips) into the city, to the zoo, to the beach, to the Dandenongs etc - all quite close to home and have my lovely new lens to use and hopefully (as the kids will be on another trip) no-one saying "MUm, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum............) all day long!

Cheers

Where can you buy a 77 Limited for under $800 in Oz? Don't keep it to yourself!

I'd probably head to the Flinders ranges or the Birdsville Track and soak up some Outback isolation. Stunning ghost towns, rock formations, desert scenes, old dead 1940s trucks, birdlife, Outback pubs, wrinkled old stockmen, Aboriginal rock art...
Now where did I put the keys?

[RioRico]

Responses almost break down into poll-able sets:

1) go someplace else
2) buy gear, stay home
3) some combo of 1 & 2