[m463]

That's an interesting insight.

I have another probably simplistic insight.

I've gone on vacation and taken photos of the sights. wow, look at that beach/mountain/breathtaking view, etc. Later viewing them, they are usually kind of dull.

But if you put a friend or family member in the landscape, they become 1000x more memorable. keepers. Like your advice, unposed and just in the frame can be more powerful than a posed image.

[dageshi]

I'm going to take a different view on this.

I travelled a lot circa 2008-10 in and around Asia and recently I've been uploading all those old travel photos to Google Photos simply because every day it randomly pops up pictures from a place I once visited.

Even the bad photos I took back then (I didn't have a great camera) are way better at keeping those memories alive than I would have expected, they may not be the best, but I was there and I took them.

[scarface_74]

My wife and I started traveling a lot after my younger son graduated and post Covid mid 2021 and we even did the “digital nomad” thing for a year. We still go somewhere to do something around a dozen times a year.

I blog about it. It isn’t for anyone else’s benefit but mine and I doubt I get any traffic to it. It’s more of a public journal. I pay $5 a month for MicroBlog. Our travel season is usually between March and October.

The blog is a much better way to remember trips than just static pictures.

[dageshi]

I'm sure that's true but... I know that I would never check that blog again had I written one.

Google photos pops a reminder of somewhere most days for me with a photo slideshow of somewhere I've been.

[scarface_74]

I do that too. But when I’m old and not traveling, having a journal would be nice.

[starwatch]

I've had the same experience. My new approach is to do a mental check to see if I could get the same picture from a google search. If not then I get out the camera. That in effect compels me to either enjoy the moment, or to include people in the photo to make it unique.

[genewitch]

Pictures of the Grand Canyon. You can see on Google. pictures of the grand canyon with my kid in the foreground... Pictures of a city nearby. You can find on Google pictures of the city nearby from the top of the tallest building in the city nearby. No. Out my back door if I turn left 10° more than I normally do I'll quickly arrive in a spot no human has stood in for decades. Not in a Google search.

I don't want to claim that maybe it's the surroundings that are mundane, because I don't find that true. One of my favorite films is koyanisqatsi, which is, really, just industrial film of earth. As mundane as it gets.

I suppose I cannot fathom this yardstick you describe.

[WalterBright]

> Later viewing them, they are usually kind of dull

Yah, I discovered that, too. Now I always try to get a person in the picture.