El Segundo

It all began in El Segundo.

My wife and I had landed in LAX around 2pm and got to our hotel in El Segundo about an hour later.  We had not a clue what was going to be on the path of the future we were starting to walk.

This was our first time in the USA and the appreciation of what we were about to embark on was not upon us yet.  We had quit our jobs, sold up our house and decided to hit the road for a once in a lifetime journey.  Over three months of travelling and exploring as much of the United States of America as we could.

The adventure we had was amazing, the people we met sit in the mind with the fondest of memories and the sights and sounds blew us away.

This was our first night. 

We fell asleep in the hotel room quickly, it had been an 11 hour plane ride from London preceded by an early, early start in Northern Ireland to go from Belfast to Heathrow and we were exhausted from the restriction of movement.  

We woke again about 6pm and took a walk around the local area trying to get something to eat.  I had my camera with me to try and document every second of the journey and came across the sight of the classic American fire hydrant. 

It is such an iconic shape and has such reverence to any avid film watcher that I had to grab an image of it.  Rather than the classic red it was a bright yellow which contrasted harshly against the concrete and tarmac of the street.  To me it seemed like a classic black and white image as soon as I saw it.

It looked to me that the arms appeared like street sign markers, pointing in all directions.  This struck me well as we were at the start of a dream adventure where anything was possible and all roads were open in front of us.

So I present to you this, my first image to start this series, a document of a major piece of my life and a significant turning point in my psyche.  

This is my document of our time…

…On American Soil