On Roads & Cameras (OR&C) was an idea that quite literally started on a road trip.
As we drove west in our Dodge Challenger, somewhere along the way we asked ourselves a simple question: what were we going to do with all the photographs we'd be taking?
OR&C was the answer.
Today, OR&C has grown into a website, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook page. At its heart, though, it remains what it was always intended to be: two Brits sharing their love of cameras, cars and the open road with other like-minded people.
We hope it will continue to grow and become something more in the future, but for now, we thought it would be good to look back at the road trip that started it all.
Peter and Gary outside Shiller’s Photographic on Old Route 66 in Saint Louis MO., (April 2015).
Day One: St Louis to Kansas City, with a stop at Schiller's
Our road trip officially began outside Schiller's, a local camera shop in St Louis, located on Old Route 66.
We stocked up on film and camera equipment, and even picked up a new wide-angle lens for photographing the Grand Canyon. With the shopping done, we were ready to set off on our adventure.
The car we'd chosen for the trip was a 2015 Dodge Challenger all-wheel drive, hired from Enterprise. They had worked really hard with us to find exactly the car we wanted, and it turned out to be a great choice for the journey.
The Challenger on the side of the road on one of our stop off moments. Taken using a Hasselblad 500CM.
Leaving Schiller's, we headed west along Route 66 before joining Interstate 70 towards Kansas City.
Along the way, we stopped at a Western store. For some unknown reason, I decided that I needed a pair of cowboy boots, while Peter bought a couple of Western shirts and a bright green John Deere baseball cap. We ended up wearing our new purchases for much of the trip. My boots were surprisingly comfortable, and Peter's cap certainly wasn't difficult to spot!
Larry’s Boots
Peter in his new John Deere baseball cap, (2015).
The drive after that was fairly barren, with not a great deal to see. Having set off late in the afternoon, we only made it as far as Kansas City before calling it a day. There were some pretty big storms rolling through, and it had rained for much of the journey.
We found a roadside hotel, checked in and got some rest, hoping the following day would bring better weather and a few more photographic opportunities.
Day Two: Kansas City to Boulder, Colorado
We headed out early after breakfast and a cup of tea, setting off on the highway towards Boulder, Colorado.
It didn't take long for us to get bored with the interstate, so we decided to take some of the back roads instead. That's one of the things I love about road trips: taking a turn simply because it looks interesting, without really knowing where it might lead.
This time, it led us to a small town called Park.
We stopped to refuel at an old service station called Park Oil Co., where we met Shirley. She kindly invited us inside, let us look around and take photographs, and it soon became clear that she shared our interest in photography.
Shirley had a real passion for photographing the natural world around her, and had displayed many of her pictures around the gas station for people to enjoy. We ended up spending almost two hours there, chatting with her and photographing both the inside and outside of the station and store.
Park Oil Co. Just west of Kansas. Photograph taken using a Hasselblad 500 CM on Portra 400
Shirley, the owner of Park Oil.
Meeting the people who live and work along these highways was probably the most memorable part of the entire trip. It gave us an opportunity to see a little more of everyday American life and, more importantly, to meet some wonderful people along the way.
In many ways, those encounters became more memorable than some of the sights themselves. They were the red thread that stitched the journey together and gave it meaning.
Eventually, we said goodbye to Shirley and continued west towards Boulder.
Inside Park Oil Co.
Our Challenger parked outside of Park Oil. Taken using a Canon 6D with 50mm f1.2 L Series lens.
Leaving Park, Kansas and heading west toward Boulder CO.
Much of the countryside we'd travelled through so far was fairly barren, with little more than grassland, long stretches of highway and the occasional line of telegraph poles breaking up the landscape.
But as a photographer, I find there's a certain beauty in that emptiness. There's something about those vast open spaces and seemingly endless roads that makes you want to keep driving, just to see what's around the next bend.
After the best part of eight hours on the road, we finally arrived in Boulder.
Boulder felt like a very different world from some of the places we'd passed through along the way. It had a rather different atmosphere, with a younger, more affluent feel and plenty of people who seemed to have arrived from bigger cities such as New York and California. The contrast with somewhere like Park was quite striking.
It made us think about what people mean when they talk about the real America. Was it the small towns and roadside businesses we'd been discovering, or the increasingly cosmopolitan places like Boulder? Perhaps it was a little of both.
We'd found a lovely bed and breakfast, the Bradley Boulder Inn, so we dropped off our gear and headed out to find something to eat.
By the time we sat down for dinner, we were both pretty tired. Eight hours of driving takes its toll, even when you're enjoying every minute of it. We talked about the people and places we'd encountered that day and shared a few of our photographs.
It was during that conversation that we started talking seriously about creating a website to bring all our photographs and experiences together. The idea for On Roads & Cameras began to take shape.
When we got back to the B&B, we started exploring how we might actually build it using Squarespace.
And so, somewhere in Boulder, OR&C was born.
The freedom of the open road
The following morning, over breakfast, we sat around one of the large wooden tables and spread out our map to work out where we would head next.
Much of the road trip had been planned on the fly. We'd get up in the morning, decide roughly where we wanted to go, jump into the Challenger and head off. Along the way we'd photograph the people and places we discovered, and book hotels as we went, usually finding somewhere online while we were still on the road.
There was something wonderful about travelling that way. Not really knowing where you'd end up, being able to change your plans and simply drive towards the horizon.
When you're travelling like that, it can almost feel as though time stands still. For a little while, you're able to step away from the usual day-to-day responsibilities and enjoy a different kind of freedom.
The mental space it gave us was tremendous. Time to think, time to talk, time to take photographs and, occasionally, time to do absolutely nothing at all.
If you've never taken a proper road trip, I'd thoroughly recommend it. It's food for the soul and a wonderful way to put things into perspective, leaving some of the less important things behind in your rear-view mirror.
South Park Highway heading into CO., (2015).
This was only the beginning of our journey, and there was plenty more to come.
In the next instalment, we'll pick up where we left off and share more about days three and four, travelling from Boulder to Santa Fe and then on to Flagstaff.
Thanks for reading and following On Roads & Cameras. We hope you'll join us for the next part of the journey, as well as our other stories about photography, new cameras, cars and the occasional restoration project.
And who knows? Perhaps another road trip is just around the corner.