Vacation Photos- with a twist…

Sticking with the summer theme, lets talk vacation. And what is something almost all of us do on vacation? Take pictures. In the age of digital photography, this translates to taking LOTS of pictures. “capturing the moment” if you are not careful can lead to missing the moment, or maybe if you are lucky, capturing the moment you are missing. Its a delicate balance between  being present for the experience that is right in front of you and  documenting the moment for the future. I think at the end of the day, what most of us want is to look back at our photos and remember the feeling that we had being in that place.

The staff here at Makeroom (me) would like to help you navigate the tight rope between these worlds with some advice: pick a few subjects to consistently photograph across destinations. Makeroom would love to take credit for this brilliant idea (that will be explained shortly), but alas, credit must go where credit is due. My dear friend Dena Bliss introduced this  to me after her trip to Vietnam. Dena, as the imminently organized and artistic person that she is, hosted a slide show of her trip. During the slide show she causally mentioned that no matter where she went in the world there were  a few things she always took pictures of: laundry, brooms, and doorways. It was like a fourth of July firework display went off in my brain. What brilliance!!!! What simplicity!! What an easy way to capture the essence or feeling of a vacation or place. Sure, still take pictures of the sites, the family you visit, the friends you make, but maybe you also pick a few more personal items or topics to photograph along the way as well.

This past spring I took a lovely trip to England and Paris. I resolved before I left to try out Dena’s concept. For whatever reasons,  the following subject matters made themselves known to me: graffiti, signage/advertisements, dogs, and shoes. Looking for these things to photograph was a fun and interesting kind of travel version of”Where’s Waldo”, it also gave me a lens so to speak to look at the places I visited through. As I put this blog post together, I looked at a lot of photos from my trip. Many being traditional touristy photos, or people I visited. And while these are great and bring back memories, I have to say, that the  thematic photos I  took evoke the most feeling of the places I visited. For your viewing pleasure I have put together some of my favorite  photos I brought home with me. I hope you enjoy them and that on your next trip, be it a day trip to a museum, or a month long stay in the Swiss Alps, you make a little room for yourself to capture the moment to savor long after the luggage has been put away and the credit card has been paid off.