Lemmon, South Dakota
Welcome to Lemmon, South Dakota
Catalina Highway (Arizona) - In Another Minute (289)
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The scenic Catalina Highway in Pima County, Arizona, is known by many names: General Hitchcock Highway, Sky Island Scenic Byway, the Mount Lemmon Highway and Arizona Forest Highway 39. The 27-mile road starts in Tucson and ascends over 6,000 feet by the time it ends in the small mountain town Summerhaven, near the summit of Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
It's a dead end road; so what comes up, must come down. And if you time it just right, as my friend Jess Grotfeldt and I did during week 283, your drive back to Tucson rewards you with amazing views of various shades of rock silhouettes against the colorful gradients of the sunset sky.
Along the highway, there are many pull-offs for you to take a break from the serpentine road and enjoy the mountain and valley vistas. I highly recommend this drive not only because of the experience itself but also for the refreshing opportunity to get out of the desert city of Tucson and hike along the many trails on Mount Lemmon. This is exactly what we did that week, and I'll be sharing a video from that hike in the near future...
The song in this video is Open Road by Jason Shaw of He generously made this and many other instrumental songs available via a CC BY 3.0 license. Check them out! And as always: thank you, Jason!
Other videos from my recent Arizona trip:
Blood Moon (Supermoon Lunar Eclipse) – In Another Minute (Week 283)
Tucson (Arizona) – In Another Minute (Week 284)
Desert Sunset (Arizona) – In Another Minute (285)
Saguaro National Park (Arizona) – In Another Minute (288)
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Laramie (Wyoming) - In Another Minute (Week 271)
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Today is Wyoming's 125 anniversary! On July 10, 1890, this wild west land received its statehood. What better day to publish the video I shot of the picturesque and authentic town of Laramie, Wyoming, this week? Congratulations, Wyoming!
Laramie is only about an hour north of Fort Collins, via an easy and beautiful drive up Highway 287. I enjoyed roaming and filming the downtown area so much - with its buildings dating back all the way to 1869, cowboy culture, delicious food (Jeffrey's Bistro on the corner of Ivinson and N. 2nd), authentic old-timey bars (The Old Buckhorn Bar and Parlor on Ivinson is actually on the State Register of Historic Places!), and incredibly friendly people - that I'm sure to head back up there more often. Oh, and can I just gush about the trains and train tracks? Just seeing the words Union Pacific let's my imagination roam...
Laramie is the seat of the only 4-year university of Wyoming, which may be one of the reasons why old Western culture and modern alternative culture co-exist. It has an interesting history including stories of Western heroes and villains, first women voters and jury members. More recently, it also became known internationally as the place where Matthew Shepard was murdered. While since moving to Colorado, I have learned of the theory that he was not killed because he was gay but because of dealing crystal meth, I would like to focus mostly on the fact that his tragedy was a catalyst for positive awareness and change regarding how mainstream society views and deals with LGBT culture and people. Sometimes good things come from dark events.
I sincerely hope that no one I captured in this video will be offended by being in the video. If you are, please let me know and I'll replace that shot.
Soon, I will publish a post on my personal blog with photos from Laramie, especially because I captured a lot more than could fit into this 1-minute video. But right now I'm going to put on my brand-new Get your beaver buckin' (featuring a rodeo girl riding a big beaver, oh yes) to celebrate 75 years of Jubilee Days and 125 years of Wyoming Statehood. Whee-haaaw!!!
The song in this video is called Tennessee Hayride” and was written and performed by Jason Shaw, who made this song available via the CC BY 3.0 license. Thank you, Jason, for all your excellent music!
If you want to see more of Wyoming, please check out these previous Moving Postcard episodes:
Devils Tower aka Bear Lodge (Wyoming) – In Another Minute (Week 228)
Vedauwoo, Wyoming – In Another Minute (Week 210)
Tri-State Marker (Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska) – In A Colorado Minute (Week 259)
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Late Summer Adventure Touring in WY/MT/ID
Note: Best viewed at 1440p even on a 1080p display.
My dad and I did some cruising around some fun paved and not paved roads in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
We did Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge to Cooke City, then back along Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. Both spectacular roads. Stopped to fly at Sunlight Bridge, the highest bridge in Wyoming (video coming soon).
Then spent a month in Montana where we rode up to Willow Mnt Lookout and then on into Burnt Fork Reservoir (flew there as well).
Took a day trip down to ghost town Bannock Mt, former state capital, then back up over Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway to Anaconda then over Skalkaho Pass in the dark (not ideal). Not in this video but we came back to Skalkaho falls later, and I flew there as well. Then we did a two day trip from Darby Mt down to and through the Magruder Corridor which is a narrow strip of navigable FS land through a Wilderness area coming out near Elk City ID. Next day we rode out along the South Fork of the Clearwater to Grangeville, then north on Highway 14 and 13, to Highway 12 and back home on 100 miles of twisty roads alongside the Clearwater River and the Lochsa River (Lochsa and Selway join to become the Middle Fork of the Clearwater), and over Lolo Pass.
We did a bunch more late afternoon trips which I didn't catch on video, but did fly in some more places. Hopefully will get all these flights into a video soon.
I'm riding a 2015 Triumph Tiger 800XCx and my dad a 2006 BMW R1200Gs. Yes the LEDs on my dad's bike are a bit distracting to the camera. Your eyes don't normally see the blinking (except out of the corner of your eye), but the camera causes them to appear to be strobing.
Recorded with GoPro Hero6 with Superview and stabilization On.
Yes I wish I had captured more natural bike sound, but I had to record that with my phone and sync with the GoPro video, and I recorded a lot more video than audio clips. I need a good remote microphone setup for my GoPro, but they make it super annoying ( needs a huge dongle to use any external mic).
Chicago (Illinois) - In Another Minute (Week 237)
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I've been fond of Chicago, Illinois, for a long time. One of my dearest friends from the film school days, Nick Rufca, is from around there. In 2011, I was invited to screen the Moving Postcard web series as part of a group art show at the S3 Gallery. (You can watch a 1-minute video about that experience: Scott and I spent a lovely weekend there in 2006, after filming in Illinois for our documentary All God's Children ( But the trip this week is what will seal this city in my heart forever as one of my very special happy places.
My father, Günter Westphal, a social artist and photographer from Hamburg, Germany, was nominated and then selected for a month-long art residency; and I got to join him for his first few days in the Windy City. It was absolutely amazing!
Sharing one of my favorite activities (exploring a new place with my camera and someone I love) with my dad brought me ultimate and long-lasting happiness. As neither of us could stop gushing about all that we saw and pointing our camera almost obsessively (and often at the same subjects), I knew more than ever that I'm my father's daughter.
Helping him navigate the city and American culture and language, I felt so grateful for the privilege of supporting my awesome dad. Tagging along to events where we met other fascinating artists, people from the Goethe Institute and even the German consul to 13 US states, I was overwhelmed with pride of my dad and his curiosity, thoughtfulness, social and creative work and his courage.
On a side note, I also was delirious with the buzz of being back in a real city - with all its inspiration, energy, interesting people and conversations and the opportunity to shoot lots and lots of photos and videos.
If you're in Chicago, my father will give a presentation about his social art work on Saturday, November 22, at 5pm at the Experimental Station (6100 South Blackstone Ave - Scott and I will be there as well... and maybe even Whiskey...
In this video, you can see the West Loop neighborhood, where my dad is staying, some street art, the L train looping through downtown Chicago (Loop neighborhood), my dad posing for photos in his Münzviertel shirt (the Hamburg neighborhood where he does most of his social art work) at the Randolph/Wabash train station, the Cloud Gate (if you look closely, you can see us hugging in the reflection) and a few more shots from that corner of Chicago.
Special thanks to Rebecca Beechy, a social and visual artist in Chicago, who was one of the two artists chosen for the Hamburg portion of the Chicago-Hamburg artist exchange last year, and who has been such a great host to both my dad and myself.
The music in this video is called Blues Shuffle In A One Take Improv Exercise (by Stevie's Amp Shack) and is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 3.0.
And now please check out the first few photos my dad has published from his time in Chicago on the Münzviertel Blog:
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