I have had a love/hate relationship with the US and Americans over the years but on this trip it all crystallised for me.I really began to more fully understand the US and Americans. I realise that I had been taking a sometimes oversimplistic view of the country and the people despite many trips to the US and working for Americans and American companies. It's a very complex place and society/culture and full of contradictions and things I still do not understand-more on these later.It's almost as if it is a patchwork of separate countries as the regions are so different in terms of landscape and culture.
I travelled predominantly in Oregon and Washington State with a flight to Las Vegas to see the Grand Canyon.I drove over 1300 miles-2000kms -and enjoyed perfect weather nearly every day for 4 weeks. I met so many friendly,helpul and polite people and surely some of the most patient and courteous drivers in the world.Indeed the only person who was not friendly or polite in the whole trip was the immigation official at Los Angeles Airport on the way in.Yes I know that they are trying to keep the bad guys out but they do seem to have an attitude problem.
As always I took quite a few photos with both my Leica X1 and the X Vario and a quick selection is below.I tried to avoid tourist shots and I don't do landscapes well but I could not resist including a couple of photos of the Grand Canyon taken from inside the Canyon.
My picks of the photos below have to be the portraits - particularly the guitar player. I now just ask people outright if I can take their photo-in the US I avoid asking if I can shoot them as I could be misunderstood.I only had one refusal on the trip and of course I gave a few dollars to the young guy with the dog in Las Vegas who was obviously doing it tough but who still manged to smile for the camera.
My first take on a very sunny US trip.Thanks to all the lovely smiling people - it was a real delight.
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