How a Few Photos Will Frame the Story of Your Travels
You know the saying… a picture is worth a thousand words. How you integrate a few key photos into your post-trip conversations can be critical towards charting your saga.
The amazing experience of an overseas trip can quickly start to evaporate much like a dream as quickly as the next morning. How are you supposed to lock in all of those great memories and then share them with your family and friends?
Sure, it’s probably not too difficult to relay the major headlines, but what about all of the moments that made your little adventure your own?
I believe that quickly sharing a few photos (and videos) you captured is the best way to lock it all in and help provide the details of your story.
Don’t wait a month to go through your pics and figure out the best ones to share. That’s way too long. People are interested in knowing what just happened to you. Yesterday’s story is old news.
(Yes, even for you)
I say you’ve got a week… max, before your travel photos lose much of their impact in helping you tell your story.
And for those of you who may not be natural storytellers in front of a crowd, your photos can do a lot of the heavy lifting. From there, all you’ve got to do is provide a little more color with your own words…
Seven Days in Thirteen Images
Let’s do a little exercise together to demonstrate how using a little photographic tech can quickly bring your trip to life and easily frame your experience for others…
A week ago, I returned from my trip to Davos, Switzerland. I snapped pictures with my new Panasonic DMC-LX10 ‘premium’ compact camera
and my old iPhone 6 Plus.
Those Swiss Alps are really beautiful.
The train ride from Zurich was a bit surreal.
Davos is a super cute town.
Some of the local residents don’t lean heavily on modern tech.
It was wicked cold.
(Like 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning)
I sampled some of the local cuisine. I made a point to have some Weiner Schnitzel and try the fondue. I really enjoyed muesli yogurt for breakfast.
The tiramisu rocked.
(We also ate some great pizza, which I wouldn’t expect to find in Switzerland.)
Some of the tech was kind of the same.
Other tech elements were expectedly different.
They still have smoking lounges?!
(Zurich Airport)
We passed by a closed bakery at 2am and spotted a mustached man in front of a wood-fired oven making bread for the next morning. He spotted us and sold us a hot loaf for three Swiss francs.
(Yum)
Show the Action!
…And after the end of a busy week on the job, we might have squeezed out a few moments to go tobogganing from the top of a mountain.
(Thanks to my friend Ichiro for capturing the GoPro footage.)
When to Know When
After these thirteen images, don’t you now have a decent sense of my experience?
One last piece of advice:
You’ve got to be deliberate when finding these ‘peak moments’ to capture. And be willing to endure a bit of blowback from others around you, who might be moving through these moments at a slightly quicker rate than you are.
That said, it’s always a balancing act.
There’s a time to take your camera out. And the times to put it away.
It’s always nice to capture a memory, but never forget to enjoy the moment!
At Home with Tech 