Travel Photos: Where do you draw the line?
 

I'm sitting here surrounded by box after box of travel-related photos. We sure did our best to keep Kodak in business! Lots of good memories. Boy, how time flys.

I'm also amazed at just how many shots we took and also have to chuckle at some odd/poor choices we made on light conditions and subjects in our "early years". What were we thinking? Who are those people? Why no heads? What the heck was so cool about that scence?

But some things never change: LW still wants multiple shots of everything, my son wants people in every shot and I want to hold out for only really remarkable shots! Of course they all say I'm really cheap and don't want to pay for film and developing.

Sometimes I'm tempted to just buy postcards and leave the camera at home, but could I ever really adopt that practice? I always love to search for just the right light conditions and "perfect" angle - seems like I "see" so much more of a city when I'm armed with a camera.

Is anybody in the same boat as us? I'd love to hear how you organize your photos and capture the spirit and energy of your trips.

We purchase one of those small albums and make one up IMMEDIATELY after each trip. Selections are made through an editing process and if there are several that are good, you can share them with others who might be interested.

Having a box of photos with multiple duplicate shots and/or a lot of rejects is a great way to make sure they will very rarely be viewed. When you get your pictures back, get a trash can and pitch the ones that you have no earthly reason to keep.

I'm with you as far as photo composition in that I'm looking for light, angles and lines of force. I like some "people" shots, but not necessarily OUR people. I've found that I take less shots now than I did in the past because good photography can be work. I'm looking for things that tell a story or help me to recall something; not just documenting everything that I run across. Some pictures are best left in my head.

Degas - sounds like you are the perfect candidate for going digital. You can shoot as much as you want and then only print the ones you want. You can please everyone. And once you get the camera and media, then it doesn't cost you anything - actually saves you lots of money over buying film and developing. If anyone ever gave a good reason for using digital you did when you said "LW still wants multiple shots of everything, my son wants people in every shot and I want to hold out for only really remarkable shots! Of course they all say I'm really cheap and don't want to pay for film and developing." and especially when you said " I always love to search for just the right light conditions and "perfect" angle - seems like I "see" so much more of a city when I'm armed with a camera."

I'm a pretty good photographer and subscribe to the 'National Geographic Method' of shooting. Basically, assume that 99% of your shots are throw aways. If in doubt, take the picture.

Yes, this can result in a lot of wasted pics (and money), but in the long run it's usually a small cost in relationship to the trip itself.

This is also a great arguement for going digital. Now that I've switched, I have no qualms shooting 20 shots of the same scene from different angles, with different lenses, shutter speeds, etc. I can always delete the 'losers'.

Another great thing about digital is that you can create slide shows in about 10 minutes to allow friends/family to quickly view your trip and worry about prints and albums later (if ever).

Go digital. My wife hates digital, but I keep reminding her of that huge box down in the basement with all the photos in it that nobody looks at, and the cost of $6-7 per pack.

I make a back-up CD of all my photos and put them on my computer as part of my screen saver.

I take a CD to the drug store and print the photos I want to keep/send to people and I've had a chance to crop them. ((b))

Degas, we write a journal and take photos as we travel. When we get home, we select the best photos and make up an album. We use phrases from the journal as captions for the photographs. When someone looks at the album, they see a short, illustrated version of our journal.

I'd say one in ten of our photos makes the cut for the album. While I can't quite make myself throw out the rejects, we never look at them again, so perhaps I should be more disciplined.

We use both film and digital cameras. We carry an iBook with us when we travel. We write the journal on the computer and download the digital images from the camera to the iBook every evening. Every couple of days we burn the digital images onto CDs as back-up.

It may appear that we carry a lot of gear, but we have gradually learned to pack very lightly, so it's really not that bad.

Anselm

Hi degas,

I also suggest a digital camera.

You can also record sound, which allows you to identify the pix.

I had this same issue going back about 25-years ago with family, friend, summer holiday photos and earlier vacations - all sitting in boxes, though well marked and with their negatives. That's when I "created a project for myself."

I purchased photo albums and did one for family, friends, vacations - this took a few months to get done, but once they were I was able to toss those negatives, and was set to go for future accumulations of photos.

Returning from a holiday, wedding, or whatever, I added to the albums I already had. And for a new vacation, had a album for that only.

I must be very well organized, as the first thing I do when returning from vacation, after emptying the suitcase and sending off the laundry - the photos get taken care of. After the photos are done, I write up my Trip Journal.

Over the years, I've put together albums for all trip, and this past winter, which kept us indoors often, I scanned all photos onto my computer and created photo albums for each vacation, which are not kept online on the 'puter, rather with AOL. You can use may other services as well. Photos do take up so much storage on your computer so best to get rid of them as soon after if someone else will store them for you.

Haven't gone digital yet, still not convinced. Personally, I don't want to have anything to do with printing these or maintaining them; don't want to store disks anymore then I wanted those negatives. So would suggest you create a project for yourself for the photos from years gone by. And to go forward, either do albums immediately if you continue using 35mm and film; or go digital.

I've got agree on the digital route if you travel often and like taking numerous shots. The quality of the camera's and their cost have come way down. We recently upgraded to a 5-mexapixel and I honestly can't tell the difference between those photos and the one's we used to take on our Nikon 35mm.

You can delete the photos you don't like, print the one's you do, and then have the photos stored on a CD for future posterity.

Compared to the cost of getting there and staying there, film and developing are cheap. If you think you might want the picture, take it. And bracket the exposures.
Haven't gone digital yet, but we have downsized a bit. When we first started traveling, the camera bag weighed 26 pounds. And everything in it got used.

degas, professional photographers typically come in two camps: those who throw away and those who don't. Every master will tell you he/she does one or the other but most lean towards saving everything (you just never know when you'll need that lousy exposure for something).

I inherited my mother's clean-freak gene so I edit and edit fiercely. I also have many years of corporate editing experience from my early days in the business. This means: I'm good at zeroing in on the money shots, I can spot an artistic or commercially strong composition a mile away, I can identify and articulate where and why one exposure calculation will work over another, and I believe I know what is too ugly, too useless, too nothing, to archive and take up valuable storage space.

The amateur world is a bit less perplexing. After all, your images aren't paying the mortgage on your mobile home. :S- Also, one man's cut off head is another's submission to MOMA. It helps to have a sense of how to define art, even from a trailer park sensibility.

The decision to keep or not to keep is a personal one and unless all members of the family agree, a contentious situation could develop. Perhaps a round-table edit session with LW et al can be fun and fruitful. Not only will you get to relive some great memories with those you love, you may actually throw away a truly useless picture or two.

PS Pro digital photographers don't have it any easier. In fact, the retouching community tells you to save everything. "Cut and Paste" is the new bible. Of course it's easier to store every image on a hard drive but you'll need to keep track of the numbers and afford the storage growth. Pro's typically back images up three times, using three resources. That's three times work for each image saved. Enjoy your edit.

Flyboy has pretty accurately described it for me. And for the past three years NO ONE has been shown my album of pictures from each annual trip. We do get them out from time to time and look through them, enjoying the memories. And I often go back and refer to them when we are trying to remember something about a trip.

I'm convinced digital is not for me. I would probably throw out the disc after printing what I liked and put in an album. Looking at them on a computer isn't going to happen for the two of us. I do theatre and for each play I'm given a disc of all the photo shots from that play. I guess they're all in a drawer now, but I've never looked at them. But I do keep out a few of the actual photos that other people in the casts have given me copies of -- they're easy to put my hands on and I look at them from time to time. I'm sure it would be the same with travel photos, but maybe that's just me.

Each year for a major trip I tend to do about 400 pictures. Cheap film at Costco and cheap development at Walgreen's. I'm not concerned about professional quality, as they are only memories for us. So each year costs maybe $125, and I probably throw away about a dozen or so bad shots. That's fine with me. So some pictures don't come out great and others do.

I often offer to take pics of others when traveling and they are starting to drive me nuts. After taking a picture of the couple in front of Notre Dame, they want to look at in on digital, then have me redo it a little farther back so I get the tower, then do it again because they weren't smiling in that one. I love travel but don't like becoming obsessed with the picture taking, redoing pictures at each spot until I get the perfect photo. All I want is a book of memories.

Maybe one of you organized folks can come and sort out the TRUNK of loose photos I haven't even looked in for years!

My latest method (which doesn't solve the trunk issue but is going to serve me for the future!) is to simply make a 4x6 index card with the country name and year on it and rubberband the photos together behind it. So I have neat little packets that then reside in shoebox size baskets.

This method deals with a greater volume of photos in a small space. I can't imagine if I tried to go with albums... ooh la la I'd need to quit my job to do the project & get a bigger apartment to store them all.

Oh yes, and a comment about post cards. Recently I've been leaving the camera at "home" on some travel days and just buying post cards here and there. And of course, I buy a few postcards of church interiors, etc., where I can't take pictures. I used to put those in a box, which as flyboy says guarantees they won't be looked at. But now I freely mix them in the album with my own pictures. Who cares that I didn't take them? All I want them for is to remember that day.

You don't have to go digital. Using small, inexpensive albums and editing your shots down to a few dozen "keepers" is the best way to share photos with guests & friends, or share memories w/ the LW.

Having said that, going digital is a good thing, for all the reasons cited previously. Post your shots onto your own web page or open a Webshots account, and you can share your pix w/ anyone & everyone who has an internet connection.

These days, we do both.

BTW, looking back at the shots from our first Italy trip (13 years ago), I am amazed at how well we did considering we didn't know what we were doing! I'll have to get Ms_Go to scan & post those shots someday soon.

"You are tempted to just buy postcards?" - I thought I was the only one who did that! :D Since I always travel solo, I figure my picture taking is really for others - those people who I want to share my experiences. Personally, I don't need to take a lot of pictures. Those really breathtaking, important shots that one HAS TO HAVE (the epitome of where you have been - i.e. The London Bridge) There is no way I can get the perfect shot ... I mean, the photographers for postcards go up in helicopters etc. for such shots! So, I buy the postcard!! :D

Sure, I take pictures of my own. I think if you are a tourist and you DON'T take any pictures, you have to pay a $100 fine or something ;) ... I just never thought it necessary to take rolls and rolls. I take the pictures of things that I need help explaining when I get home (i.e. the art exhibit in front of the post office in Brugge ... it was a jail. You put money in it, the (cage) door opens and you are jailed inside for 5mins while a video camera tapes you!!) NOW THAT I HAD TO TAKE A PICTURE OF!!! :D (I never did see anyone go inside ;)

My first trip out of country, I did the whole scrapbook thing -but since I keep going back to the same places, I don't bother with that anymore ;)

We use both a 35mm and a digital. The success to having your photos viewed by you or others is to have them out! For a number of years I've kept continuous photo albums. In the front cover I write the locations or events found in that particular photo album and on the outside I write the dates the album covers. The hard part is training yourself to put your photos in as soon as you get them. But once you get used to doing so - it becomes a habit! Obsessive - I know.

I'm with a previous poster - memories are why I take photos - so I want to see them once in awhile.

Everyone does things different - have fun with whatever you decide.

Wow - thanks for all the feedback and great ideas. I can see a digital camera in my future.

Getting a trip album or website addition done RIGHT after the trip seems to be a key action - all too often I'm off on some new project and never seem to go back and get that one done.

Being able to record sound and identify the picture and what you were
thinking would also be very helpful.

Well, back to sorting the photos, who knows, maybe there is a "money shot" or two in there somewhere!

I buy post cards to supplement my atrocious photography. I've also discovered teh beauty of cropping! Maybe digital is next, but not yet. I've seen too many people have too many problems with them. My phtographer friend's advice to me was "take a lot of pictures, keep the best and throw the rest away." It works.

Oh, please folks, spare us buying a digital video with sound! If I stand one more place and hear people around me talking to their cameras saying "well, here we are on top the Eiffel Tower. Down below is Paris. We had breakfast right over there this morning. If you look out there you can see. . ." It's getting as bad as people talking to themselves on their hidden cell phones!

I'm glad to hear that other people buy post cards, too! I've been doing that for years but wondered if it was tacky. I put the post cards in my photo albums right along with the photos. That way I know for sure that I have beautiful pictures of the places we have visited. And, as someone else already mentioned, often you are not allowed to photograph interiors of churches, so I definitely buy post cards of those. Such as the interior of St. Mary's Church in Krakow, which is absolutely stunning!

I love digital with respect to storing and organizing. The digital images never fade. I can organize and annotate to my heart's content on my pc at no cost, other than my time. I do usually print a book from each destination, so there is something to show people who don't have computers. I even save the pictures that are less than perfect (except for those when someone forgot to take off the lens cap), as there is no cost involved.

This reminds me. Despite our best efforts at keeping notes, we have been unable to identify one of our favorite pictures, which I am almost certain is from the Louvre. What's frustrating is that the title placard is in the picture, but the resolution is just not good enough to read. I have put it on a web page at

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/wbrown...nt/photos.html

If anyone knows this piece, please identify it for me.

Patrick, you may have a good point, but is it that bad?

Have not run into that issue yet - I try to give myself plenty of elbow room when taking pictures. LW always gets pissed with me trying to "wait forever" until cars or just a few more people have left the frame!

I don't "draw the line" - I'm one of those people who just cannot bear to throw away photos I've taken, especially from my precious trips to the U.K., so I usually end up keeping virtually all of them, even the not-so-great shots. I enjoy taking the pictures, and just can't seem to make myself let go of any as my hand trembles over the trash can. What if I never see that place again in my life, I want to mae sure my visit is well documented. My advice is, don't leave the photos you've already taken in boxes, that is the kiss of death and such a waste of the time, effort and expense you've already invested. Take the time to put them into photo albums, but make sure it's the acid-free type with slip-in pockets. DO NOT use those albums with the sticky "magnetic" pages as the glue will destroy the color pigments in your prints over time. I also take the time to label my photos as soon as possible after a trip, using my travel journal, brochures and travel guides to refresh my memory, so when I look at the pictures next year - and I will - I can remember exactly which castle or famous person's birthplace that was. However having said that, for future traveling, I agree with the others here that digital is the way to go. If you don't have a printer or aren't satisfied with the qaulity of the prints you get from printing out your "best of" digital shots, there are lots of websites where you can upload your digital images and order prints & enlargements at very reasonable prices. I've used Snapfish and have been very happy with the prints they did for me.

Oh, and as for buying postcards as you mentioned as a possible alternative - I buy them also, mainly to have photos of places they don't let you take pictures at - like inside many buildings - and the big images that were taken from helicopters or such, but they can't replace the real photos we take and certainly can't replace the precious photos of oneself in front of the special place you are visiting.

That's why I switched to digital. I can shoot to my heart's content and then just cull the bad shots that night or crop to the good parts when I get home. Then I store them on a disk and an online site for friends to see. No more shoe boxes of photos or albums with no titles. Keep taking those photos; you never know when one of your gems might win you a prize from a travel contest!

I personally can never take enough photos. I'm a bit of a camera junky. Now I bring a SLR and digital on vacation. If it's a beach trip, I even have an inexpensive underwater that I bring along. I also put my photos in an album as soon as possible so I don't forget where the photos were taken (expecially if a multi-location trip), I try to make notes of where the photos were taken, etc. Now I have my 2 children into taking photos too, so many times they are in charge of the cameras (and each tend to take photos of the same things!). If I can take photos, I may pick up a postcard or 2 and in museums I frequently buy a book of their collections.

With the digital photos, I upload them to one of the printing sites and invite family and friends to view. If they don't care to look at them, they don't have to, but most of them actually do. As for my albums, we don't look at them all that often but I still like to have them.

I also get rid of the poor shots or extra similar shots.

<b>WARNING!</b> Back up your digital images to more than one medium.

It is quite certain that some CDs and DVDs do not last long enough to archive photographs for any significant length of time. In general, you get what you pay for, but suffice it to say that some disks deteriorate within a very few years, and you can't tell by looking at them which ones they are. Since digital media have been around for such a short time, no one knows for certain how long the ones that have lasted five years so far are going to last into the future.

I keep all of mine on the hard drive and back them up to a fresh DVD when I have added a recent vacation to the collection.

(While I've got the floor, I might as well remind you to <i>verify that you can read the copy</i> before you erase your camera's memory.)

I think it's such a personal thing. I personally believe that film is relatively cheap, and I don't buy a lot of souveniers on vacation, my pictures are my souveniers and reminders of the trip. I have a digital, but it just doesn't always do the things I want/need it to do!! You'll laugh, but 99% of the time, we get off the plane and drop the film off before we even get home. After an hour, I put the pictures in an album, and then over the next few month I make a scrapbook with all the pictures and postcards (yes, me too!), and other things I have collected along the journey. Mostly it's so I can relive my travels, but I hope that someday my kids and grandkids will get a kick out of it, and know exactly where we went if they ever return to those places. I got such a kick when I was in Germany to try to find the places and objects my father took pictures of 20 years before.
After I finish the scrapbook, I get rid of the excess, though I do save the negatives. But I have also gone back and had prints made later.

Just my thoughts.....

Patrick, I just heard a comedian commenting on the epidemic of the lack of civil in our civilisation and he specifically talked about people on their cell phones. He said now when someone starts screaming into their cell phone, he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a small tape recorder and points it at them. Shuts them up everytime! :) I guess they don't care if we hear but they don't want us to listen. I think I will start giving them advice to share with the person on the other end. &quot;She didn't like her hair? Have her try my hairdresser, his name is Mac and ...&quot;

I now return you to your normal discussion.

Diane

Guess you heard about the guy who stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom. He went into the stall and the guy in the next stall said, &quot;Hi. How are you?&quot; &quot;OK&quot; the startled man said. &quot;Everything going all right?&quot; asked the voice. &quot;Well, yea.&quot; the man answered. At that point the man in the next stall was heard to say, &quot;Hold on a minute will you Blanche. Some fool in the next stall keeps talking to me.&quot;

Love that tape recorder idea edhodge.

A couple weeks ago in the Admiral's Club in Dallas, I was amazed at a businessman who was actually conducting a business interview on his hands free phone. He didn't merely sit in a chair to do this, he paced all about the lounge filled with people. His voice was booming and we were all treated to his questions about job experience, goals, blah, blah, blah. It was simply amazing that anyone could be that oblivious to the rights of others.

Sorry, guess I'm way off topic from the original post now.

I switched to digital a couple of years ago. I find I take more pictures because they don't cost me anything until I want to print the good ones.

And now it's so easy to get professional prints. Sams Club has the best prices I've found so far ($.18 per 4x6 print.)

I just read an article a couple of days ago stating that the new x-ray machines for checked luggage are using technology that will ruin exposed film. It was suggested that since so many people are going digital it wouldn't be a major problem, as long as people are aware. Sorry I can't recall the newspaper, most likely the NY Times or SF Chronicle.

Fltboy- me too! I put together a photo album with pictures, ticket stubs maps,and use my journmal notes to caption. I have one shelf where they all go, and any time I want a 5 minute vacation, I take one down. I have not switched to digital - I love that National Geographic throw aways description. I don't want to view the shots I want to take it and worry about sorting them out later, say on my living room floor. Sure I have my &quot;Legend of Sleepy Hollow&quot; phases (scary, headless pictures) but some great surprises of how on-target, and in-the-moment I often was. I think the hardest thing was when the photo shop gave me double prints of my entire Grand Canyon visit. It's not like you can really send your amateur shots to people. I used as many as I could. It took me a long time to finally throw out many of hte little 3X4 duplicates. How do you throw away The Grand Canyon?

I read an article or something on TV about how some historians were lamenting the digital age because people are discarding &quot;imperfect&quot; pictures when some of those are the ones they like the best later or end up historically significant. The Smithonian has a bunch of them and are sorry that they may be no more in the future.

In other words...don't be in a hurry to throw out those pictures you don't like ...

Joelle

I agree. Having just upgraded my computer and scanner, I'm looking forward to going back over decades' worth of duds (all the black and white negatives from my teenage years!) to see what can be retrieved by judicious cropping and adjustment - the wonders of digital imaging, eh?

When cropping and enhancing my digital photos (or old photos I've scanned) I always do a &quot;save as&quot; and keep the originals intact. I burn the originals to a CD so I always have them.

You never know when that old pic of Grandpa that you cropped and enhanced to get a nice face shot will prove more interesting later when you want some of the background included. :)

If only my software had a &quot;slimming&quot; function when I pretty up a picture.

Well, I haven't gone digital yet, but since Canon is now coming out with a new digital SLR I am planning on it soon. As for shooting film, I don't find the cost of film expensive at all, even for pro film, since I buy from B&amp;H, but processing is another story.

I am one who believes wholeheartedly in really working a subject. I will always try to get some type of shot of important travel sights, even if the conditions are not all that great (e.g., mid-day sun or overcast), but I have learned what to expect enough that I will not waste film if the conditions are not right as to subject, lighting, etc.). If the conditions are right, I like to use multiple lenses with important subjects and try all kinds of compositions. I am a lot more likely to get just the right shot that way. As for things that can't be worked in this way, I have some &quot;rules&quot; that I go by. For example, I will likely be more pleased with a closeup of a person if I shoot vertically.

I buy postcards as a habit (kind of a collection I suppose), especially of subjects where I can't shoot or don't have the right equipment or conditions to do a good job. Honestly, they rarely match my own shots though because they don't capture my experience.

Where I fall down on the job is capturing the traveling aspects of the trip (e.g., hopping on the train). With young kids traveling along, it is enough of a job to handle all the luggage, tickets, and the kids to keep me from pulling out the camera. I am also so tired in the evenings that I rarely pull out the camera in the hotel room.

For the most part, I feel that photography greatly enhances my experience (although lately, I have been picking up the camera a little less to just take in the environment). I notice things like beautiful light a lot more when I am trying to find a good subject to photograph, and it makes me slow down and see everything around me.

AnselmAdorne, we're like you in that we bring an iBook laptop with us when we travel. We've found it greatly enhances our trip experience every night to download the photos from the digital camera on to the computer and run a little iPhoto slide show of what we did each day. Often we travel with a few friends, and this is a nice way to relive the memories together and comment on the day.

When we're home, we have a computer set up where we can see the trip photos as a continuous slide show / screen saver. Again, it is so much fun to be able to relive the trip and remember how it felt to be sipping wine in that sidewalk cafe or viewing a magnificent landscape or cathedral.

We have gradually moved away from film altogether. It's so easy to get prints of any pictures you want, but our photos are much more part of our lives when they're easily accessible on the computer.

Also, of course, it's great to share digital photos with friends and family. You can just post them on the web and if they want to see them, fine, but if they aren't interested, that's okay too.