The digital camera, which enables travelers to take hundreds – if not thousands – of photographs without using precious permanent space on an actual roll of film, is both a blessing and a curse.
The advantages of digital photography are obvious: you can tell immediately whether someone’s eyes are closed, a stranger has stepped into your frame, or the lighting is bad. If a picture doesn’t look the way you want it to look, you can delete it on the spot and try again. A typical roll of film allowed you to take 24 photos before having to stop and change the roll; with digital photography, you can take tens or hundreds of times more photos before needing to clear your SD card.
But how many photos are too many? The modern impulse to document every aspect of our lives only intensifies when we travel. Suddenly there are new, awe-inspiring sights, exciting new foods, and good times with new friends. We want the pictures not only for ourselves, to help us remember our travels, but for our family and friends back home, to show them the wonders that we have seen, and, increasingly, the world at large through Twitter, Instagram, or our own blogs.
At what point does our endeavor to document our experiences begin to take away from the experiences themselves? Recently, I found myself sitting on a beach on South Africa’s Garden Route, arguably among the world’s best beaches, looking at the Indian Ocean through the viewfinder on my iPhone. I kept taking shots, trying to capture the waves crashing in the most picturesque way so as to make the most impressive Instagram post. Suddenly, I realized that I was cheating myself of the experience of actually being on the beach. I wasn’t enjoying the sand between my toes, the ocean spray on my face, or the smell of salt in the air.
Here are some tricks to help you avoid making the same mistake:
Stop and think before you snap.
What are you about to take a photograph of? Is it something that will really either enhance your memory of the trip or be interesting to your friends, family, or followers – or are you just taking a photo because snapping photos has become second nature?
Pause between pictures.
Although that sunset is getting incrementally more beautiful every second and you may be tempted to keep taking better and better photographs, force yourself to stop and actually enjoy what you’re seeing. Chances are, the photographs will never do justice to the real-life image.
Enlist your traveling companions to keep you accountable.
Tell your traveling companions that you are striving to remain more present, and ask them to call you out when you become a slave to camera. Offer to do the same for them, and you may find that all of you enjoy your travels that much more.
Image credit: micadew