The Road to Here: LomoAmigos Hello America

Hello America is an outdoor photographic storytelling platform co-created by Kristen Blanton and Matt Jozwiak. Here, Kristen describes the most recent leg of their journey while shooting with the Lomo’Instant Wide, as they traveled across the west one last time before renting a first apartment after two years on the road.

“I have driven from Colorado to California four times. This number is significant for a southern girl who hadn’t made it further than eastern Texas by road until 2014. This trip by nature was different than the others because this time I wasn’t just passing through. I was staying. When Matt and I decided to move to California, we also decided stroll there leisurely.”

Steamboat Springs, CO to Moab, Utah is 300 miles of beauty and solitude. I kept my Lomo'Instant Wide attached to my hip. We camped for five days in the drunk wind. The gloomy weather got the best of me on occasions, leaving me to sulk up a rock face on my own. But then the sun would peep through the thick clouds and I’d look down at my buddies below and remember that I’m privilege and lucky to be camping in the middle of the month, in the middle of Moab.

We rented dirt bikes for the first time. It’s the poor mans toy and we could only afford two bikes for one day so the four of us took turns riding in the frigid wind through the majestic landscape of southern Utah. We woke at 5 the next morning, drove the Jeep the furthest it could go and rode bikes to the sunrise. Matt and I said our goodbyes to our favorite friends and headed further west to Bryce Canyon.

Bryce is a spiritual canyon full of bleeding sandstone. We took instant after instant while we hiked through its walls of rock. It snowed that evening and a fresh blanket of powder welcomed us to the day. After breakfast tacos we packed up and headed to Zion.

Zion is crowded and loud with oversized tourist but that doesn’t take away from its immeasurable splendor. A few years back we hiked the narrows but it was closed due to high rains so we opted for Angles Landing, a hike not for the faint. A few blissful days rambling in Zion and then we were off to Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree is home to us. Matt was born right outside and we have felt kindred to its landscape since first stepping foot on its soil. As it happens, I got violently sick this time around. I slept for through two days and ate saltines in our tent. I saw the sun from a mesh window.

From Joshua Tree to San Diego we drove through the Mojave. God, that place screams life. We were stopped for a few hours by law enforcement. Four guys robbed a train and were running through the high desert with stolen TVs.

We arrived in San Diego on a Monday and signed a lease on a Wednesday. It was bittersweet, saying goodbye to the road for the first time in 2 and a half years.

Shooting with the Lomo'Instant Wide is like using your right eye as a blink camera. Blink, shot. It’s my go to when we are traveling. It’s a road warrior by nature – durable, totally flexible in capturing light and is instantly satisfying. There is no other camera I trust more when hiking in Goblin Valley, dirt biking across the desert or in the Cholla Gardens of Joshua Tree. Its loyalty to the owner is the kind of commitment you want in a relationship – always there, always delivers."

-Kristen Blanton

Follow the rest of the journey with Hello America at their website and Instagram.

written by Katherine Phipps on 2016-06-11 #culture #people #places #instant #showcase #instantshowcase