New Collaboration for 2020: Dave and Matt Camper vans
New Collaboration for 2020: Dave and Matt Camper vans
It’s been a dream of mine to build or own a camper van, and many of my favorite photographers or YouTubers who are adventure photographers also own a van or at least spend their weekends in some type of mobile office. I had been searching through the entire state of Colorado for a camper van company that would be a good partnership until I came across Dave and Matt vans based in Gypsum, Colorado. I reached out to them and reciprocate by providing me with one of their van rentals for a winter trip to Moab, Utah and also adding me to their Dave and Matt Van-Ambassador team.
Why was I searching for this partnership?
I don’t have the funds to purchase a campervan yet but someday I hope to build out a van of my very own… this collaboration or partnership is giving the ability to discover what I love about a camper van, what I feel is essential in a van build-out and also things I don’t need or want inside my own van. I am really drawn to how affordable the Dave & Matt van build-outs are and really liked driving one of the ProMaster Vans also from taking it on my first trip I noticed a few things I would change, add or would be an important part of my own build-out. The van is also giving me the ability to have a mobile workspace/mobile office space to continue editing, writing on the road and also be parked right outside some of the most beautiful locations imaginable. There are many assets to this partnership and I look forward to seeing where I can take this and how many trips we’re able to collaborate on
Below is my full blog post I provided to Dave and Matt vans from our trip to Utah using one of their rental vans, this was such a cool experience for me… basically a dream come true! This took a lot fo work to put together but I couldn’t be more excited with how the project turned out in the end along with creating some breathtaking images for my own freelance page and Instagram as well.
WINTER CAMPER VAN TRIP TO MOAB, UTAH
(In partnership with Dave and Matt Camper vans)
Our winter Utah trip was beyond epic - what a unique experience it was to partner up with Dave and Matt Vans for this incredible adventure. A little bit about me I am a traveling adventure photographer who is based in Denver Colorado and often, I find myself out on the weekends deep in our beautiful national parks. I’ve been looking around at different campervan companies and was very excited when I found Dave and Matt Campervans - after connecting with the guys I knew it was time to plan an epic trip to test out the capabilities of their custom ProMaster van builds. In the past, when I would take a photography trip like this, usually, we find ourselves sleeping in the car or searching for the cheapest hotel possible because most of our time is spent out on the road or in one of Utah’s national or state parks. With a campervan on our side, we felt rather unstoppable as we started to build our itinerary for the first adventure road trip over to Utah. Our target location for the first day and night was to spend time exploring the Green river valley area just outside of Goblin Valley State Park. We did some scouting on a few locations and select an area that looked reminiscent of the Grand Canyon — because we picked up the van around 930am the majority of our first day was spent in commute over to our first location in Utah. As we were approaching our first location the sun steadily approached the horizon as we scrambled to set up our drones and camera gear to capture an epic evening of golden Utah light. We shot photos and flew our drones until our hands were numb and on the brink of frostbite — we wouldn’t have it any other way. What an epic way to finish the first day with our Dave & Matt Campervan... after the sun went down we stood around outside the van watching the wolf moon rise. I set my camera up for a few long exposure images and watched the full moonlight fill up the canyons below. We woke up the next day maybe due to the temperatures outside and maybe due to the excitement in all of us to watch the sunrise over the canyons that we were parked next to all night long. We all split up for sunrise each picking our own unique compositions and selecting different perspectives to capture the sunrise..
It felt incredible to watch the sun come up over the rim of this legendary Canyon edge with the van parked just behind us. We were all very thankful for the sunrise that morning... it warmed up our cold hands and partially numb feet, I did a series of jumping jacks while standing next to my camera as I captured some of my favorite landscape photography ever. We took the morning to boil water, make a coffee and breakfast while peeking out the van door at the breathtaking views just outside our mobile kitchen. After eating and settling into a new day we took out our drones and captured some more video footage of the incredible Dave & Matt Campervan driving above our scenic location from the night before.. This is a location we won’t soon forget, we packed up all of our gear and made our plan on a map for the rest of the day as we headed in the direction of Goblin Valley State Park. Just outside the state park, we found a snow-covered Butte, where we position the van and slowly watched the day fade away. I set up one camera to create a time-lapse as the clouds moved overhead above this massive red rock feature. We drove up and down a partially snow-covered road to check out different vantage points and to explore the surrounding area before deciding on a place the park the van to capture the sunset.
VAN PROVIDED BY DAVE & MATT CAMPERVANS FROM GYPSUM, COLORADO
We witnessed yet again incredible golden Utah sunset as the light hit the snow which was a sharp contrast to the red rock which lay underneath all the snow coverage. With an incoming snowstorm, we made our way to Moab, Utah to park the van for the night so that we could enter one of the national parks in the morning with hopes of capturing a fresh blanket of snow among some of Utah’s iconic arches. To our surprise, we woke up to about 3 in of fresh snow, made a quick breakfast and prepared the van to drive into Arches National Park for our last sunrise in Utah. when we first arrived our chances at a beautiful sunrise seemed pretty slim as the horizon was covered in a pretty dense cloud line, we parked the van at the windows area parking lot and made our way into the national park for a short Sunrise hike. Once again we got lucky with another exceptional sunrise, we finished shooting around the Windows area and jumped back in the van to warm up, make some coffee and check out the rest of the viewpoints throughout Arches National Park. We parked the van and made breakfast with a view of the La Sal Mountain range out the back door of the ProMaster van, speechless over the conditions that lay in front of us. Part of what made this trip so exceptional was being able to be as close as we needed to our viewpoints, to state parks and also to the entrance of national parks...without the camper van we would not have been able to create this incredible imagery and our experience would have been much different. Having the van gave us the ability to escape the elements for a moment and warm-up, along with a comfortable bed and a perfect space for lounging and cooking small meals on the go. We were super fortunate for this opportunity and look forward to collaborating on future adventures. We highly recommend checking out their rental vans, The perfect opportunity to test out a van before you build-out one of your very own.
Thank-you again Dave and Matt and we hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures out in Utah, until the next trip stay stoked out there.
-Frankie ( @fr33water) Spontelli
