Luisah

<<As fellow travelers, I am sure you will have experienced this awkward feeling. Have you? And what do you prefer?>.

I've never had the "awkward feeling." I always take photos and enjoy looking at them years after a trip and rekindling memories -- of people, places and even special meals.

I also see a lot more details in the photos than I could possibly remember in a "mental snapshot." When I'm photograhing an historic site, for example, I'm not looking at the couple hugging or holding hands and the kids playing ...

However, I do like to spend a day or two wandering without the camera after I've taken a lot of pictures.

GreenDragon

I take lots and lots of photos (6300 for 23 days in Scotland this summer). However, I have several purposes for these photos. One is to share with friends, another is to remember the places, another is to sell them at art shows. So I could take a photo of a funny sign or a breathtaking landscape for different reasons.

One advantage of selling them in art shows is that I get to relive the scene every time I talk about the photo to a customer.

When I write my trip reports, I love putting in photos that illustrate the descriptions of places I've been.

Even if I can't take photos, I'll go to a place, because, while my memory isn't great, it's certainly better than not having been a place!

TPAYT

We take many, many photos on all of our travels. It's so much fun going through them and remembering. Of course, this is now easier done with digital.

Yours are stunningly beautiful, with music to match!

danon

take only a few pictures once in a while.
Do I have to have another picture of myself in front of....???
Postcards are always better unless photography is a hobby.

The more we travel the fewer pictures we take - no one is interested in seeing them anyway.

gruezi

I'm not a picture taker. I'm sure someday I'll have some regrets.

I don't have but a few videos of my kids. I hate posing for photos too.

I just feel like the camera gets between me and what I'm enjoying be it the graduation or the scenic hike.

My husband did get me a nice camera a few months back (the last one I bought before my now 17-year-old was born!) but I haven't used it yet.

I do have a good memory for my vacations and I can conjure up scenery pretty well. I am a very visual person.

When my mind starts to go, maybe I'll take more photos.

gruezi

shellio

I traveled for years without taking many pictures and those I did take weren't very good. After a trip with a friend who's an excellent photographer I realized she "saw" things differently and I began to train my eye by taking photos. A good digital camera helped a lot.

Now I carry a camera at all times and take thousands of photos. I notice much more of the world and relive trips at will. I love it.

www.flickr.com/photos/objetsparis

quokka

I love photography and take a lot of pictures. On the other hand, I've never succeeded keeping up writing a journal over a whole trip. My photos are my journal. Seeing the pictures brings back all the memories and sentiments.

Carta_Pisana

there are days on my trips where I intentionally leave my camera at the hotel - I try to focus on being in the moment without wanting to capture it. I sometimes get so caught up in the act of photographing that it almost distracts from being there.

LSky

Thanks for sharing those.

I take lots of photos with my digital camera and the few that make it past the selection process become screen savers. , I also keep a journal but I really must learn to write legibly .

janyceh

I don't take pictures and my husband will no longer take a picture unless someone is in it. Too many times I had a camera and forgot to use it. Enjoy my trips much more not worrying about picture taking.

Jan

irishface

Shellio, I dipped into your pictures. You certainly have an eye for details. I loved looking at windows, facades, shadows, etc. thanks for sharing!

Challiman

I love taking pictures, they have enhanced my travels over the years. I travel with some women friends once a year to Europe, and with my husband often. I also take family photos for even the most mundane events. I'm not sure how old Sallygirl is, but one of the things I've learned in 60 years is that things are NOT necessarily going to be there the next time you go, and there's no guarantee you will go there again. I use a DSLR and have way too many photos, but I just store them on cd's and the computer and print and frame a few good ones, or make a few scrapbooks. I don't think there's one answer to the question, though. I have some pictures in my mind that I could never capture with a camera, but I also love going back to the photos I've got from the significant, and not so significant, events of my life. For the longest time my husband wasn't remotely interested in taking or looking at photos, but now he is so glad we have all those memories and can leave them for our kids and grandkids. And the funny thing is, now that he's interested I am actually IN a few of the pictures! We've traveled many places but you'd never know I was there for many of them. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Thanks for the beautiful pictures.

caroltis

shellio - I loved looking at your photos of Provence. We stayed in Menerbes last year for a week and believe it or not I have many of the same photo details that you captured. Wasn't it a lovely, peaceful village?

suze

Most often I travel with a couple disposable cameras. They're easy to use and no big deal if something happens.

A few times I have traveled without a camera at all, and it was quite a liberating feeling for me, actually. I do collect postcards, ticket stubs, business cards as souveniers and small reminders.

plke2000

I also loved the quote about "my heart took a picture", but, I have been taking pictures while travelling all of my life. I try not to take too many and mostly unusual things that touch my heart. I have also done a book on Shutterfly called "In my Minds Eye" and it contains the most special of my photos. Not the most "postcard" moments, but, the pictures I like to show my friends and tell the story behing the photo. THere are some moments that can only be held in your own minds eye!

TRSW

Wow, what a great question!! As an avid photographer for the past 30 years, I would say that I do both.

Yes, I can go back and look at my photos and re-live those memories. But, I have so many vivid memories of just 'being in the moment'.

I mean there are so many people whom I have met, and things I have seen that weren't photographed, that mean alot to me. And I cherish them so much!!!

That said, if you are interested, you can see my photos at

pbase.com/trsw

Tom

LoveItaly

Hello larios, I love looking at photgraphs (Tom's for example) but I quit taking photos some years ago. I do have a good memory and I can think of a scene and not only remember the visual part but the sounds, the aromas etc. So I don't need photos although I have a photobox of photos from years past. I feel liberated in that I no longer bother about taking photos.

shellio

Larios, I finally had time to look at your slideshows. They're lovely! Thanks for linking to them.

Irishface and caroltis, thanks for the nice comments. Yes, Menerbes is beautiful, isn't it?

larios

Thanks for your kind comments to my travel photo galleries and slideshows at http://www.larios.gr

Please, let me add my 2 cents worth of view...

To me capturing a travel photo, is not just taking back home a photo shouting "I have been there....". Photography is more like trying to unearth the true spirit of a place, to evoke emotions, to search behind the obvious....

(In June 2008 I also debated on this at the Digital Photographer magazine. See here about travel photography ...
http://www.larios.gr/section179838.html)

An example?
While on Venice last year, I went to the Rialto Bridge....
I found thousands of tourists (like me!) flocking there, giving a glimpse to the Grand Canal lasting probably 1 minute, taking a smiley picture of themselves and then just leaving...

Well, I was surprised! Being there just to shout "I've been here!" actually ignoring the place!
Just for a snapshot and leaving! But I chose to stay there for 2 hours. Focusing on the beauty of the place and watching Venice life as it unfolds. And watching this "arrogant attitude" of people... Coming for two seconds, shooting a snapshot, then leaving. How could you experience the true character of the place?

I came back the other day to Rialto. Another two hours. At a much better planned time of the day. With all the thousands of tourists around. But now I thought I could capture the true spirit of it much better. I did not mind about the crowd around me. The elements of magic were there for those that wanted to absorb them...

Just like this: http://www.larios.gr/photo_1725663.html
Or this in Burano island, which was also left to oblivion... http://www.larios.gr/photo_1725684.html

And this thing goes on almost everywhere... (I wrote a similar story about how people travel thousands of miles to admire the Santorini sunset, only to leave at the most glorious moment! Read it here: http://lightscript.wordpress.com/200...s-1-santorini/)

So to me, photography is actually the means that helps you unearth this true spirit of a place.

That's why (at the original posting) I made reference to these "fleeting moments" and the slideshow (http://www.larios.gr/section116382.html)

Not because photography should be mandatory! But because it can help you see each place in a way that you would normally not...

Regards,

Yannis

gard

Hi

I started out by traveling without a camera or with just a disposable one. But you can't really trust the memorie can you? SO I have started taking more and more pictures on my travels and I post the best ones (or the ones that are best suited) in my trip reports on my homepage

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures