Weekly Poll: What's the furthest you've travelled just to take photos?

[Nicole]

Ok, this thread has a little backstory to it...

Yesterday I went up to Masterton, a small town in New Zealand that's about 100 km from where I live. I went there for some hot air balloon events. They were supposed to have a splash & dash in the morning, but it was cancelled because of toxic algae and too much wind. So, seeing as we were meeting up with some Flickr people, we went from there another 67 km out to a beach to take some shots in the 6 hours we had to kill after lunch until the night glow event. The night glow was good, lots of balloons. As we were leaving, we heard that the road back to Wellington was closed because of an accident. Well, there are 2 roads to get back to Wellington, but to get to the other one, it's another 98 km. So, while it only took 100 km to get there, it took about 240 km to get back. All totaled, 480 km of travel yesterday for photos (and I haven't even taken them off my camera yet!). So travel distances are on my mind a bit.

So, I'd like to know: What is the furthest you've travelled just to take photos? That could be close because you don't generally travel long distances to take photos, or it could be far because you've done something like travel overseas with the primary goal of taking photos. Try not to include things where the main goal wasn't taking photos since I'm sure lots of people have been places where you've taken photos, but the main goal was just a vacation or something else equally fun. So, what's the furthest, do you have pictures to show us, and why do you go so far just to get that picture?

Ok, let's hear it!

[f_bat]

Not too far, under 100 miles also because Italy isn't too big and you can reach many good places very fast.

[ttrimm]

Drove through a state park for pics and to Westport as well...Both required a few hours of sitting and moments of picture taking!

Teresa

[embrodak]

I'm very much into nature/landscape photography and as a hugely awesome coincidence happen to live about 5 miles away from the Konza prairie. Also, being in academia means you visit loads of places for conferences and internships and whatnot, which leads to a nice dynamic range of photo opportunities, so I tend not to travel much for the sole purpose of photographing stuff.

[RexK_Cozumel]

I have actually planned an entire trip around North America with the sole purpose of taking photos so I guess it would be several thousand miles. Given I was not going for a single photo that I had in mind but still... Anyways I also visited some friends and family along the way but the main purpose of the trip was photography related.

[Nicole]

Yep, that's the kind of thing I was thinking of Rex. You don't have to have a particular shot in mind, but it's aimed primarily at photography Sounds like a great trip!

[TAWW]

Last year borrowed the family RV and spent three weeks exploring the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Yellowstone. Of course the vacation was just the beginning any only served to remind me that
a) I need to spend at least three weeks in each location.
b) I only touched on the many places to visit in that area.
c) Need to move out west so that I do not have to drive for 3 – 4 days just to get there.

[jdepould]

I put under 100 miles. I'm not counting the trip to Washington, D.C. It was for a journalism conference, and the main reason I was going was to participate in a shootout, but there was a lot of other stuff going on.

[crazzy88ss]

I would have liked an "Under 50 miles" option. I've gone about 25 miles or so a half dozen times or so.

[Liz Caldwell]

Hrmmm, I'm gonna have to google earth this one before I answer...