We admit it - we're spoiled. We carry the big cameras on vacation - usually two or three of them. Yes, this is us at the beach this year. The camera taking the photo is pretty much the same as the one over my shoulder. We refer to these as "the heavy artillery."
My middle daughter looked at some of the photos taken by someone else on her brother's student ambassador trip, someone who'd taken only a camera phone, and said, "If those were the only photos Alex had, he'd cry."
It takes more than a nice camera, though. We're all pretty good at this because we love it.
In the last decade or so, the average person has gotten much better at photography for two reasons - they're taking far more photos, and cameras are becoming more and more foolproof. My parents may have shot a dozen photos of me between birth and age eight, on cameras that are horribly limited by today's standards. The average parent today shoots almost daily photos, with cameras that don't even require a flash.
Still, we often surprise or puzzle people. My son was 16 when he went to Europe. When he showed people his scrapbook, they said things like, "Did you buy postcards and scan them?" They seemed amazed when he said, "No. I took these."
When his leader saw this one, she couldn't get over it. "You shot this from the bus? How did you manage that? Nobody gets good photos from inside the bus!" This is exactly as he shot it.
He's been surprising people for years. When he was about 11 - but admittedly looked younger - we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. In the butterfly house, we handed him the good camera, the one we use for business, with the same stipulation we always gave to our kids: Put the strap around your neck, and be careful. He quickly voiced displeasure - his dad had the new zoom lens.
He marched up to his father with vocal complaint. "You gave me the crappy lens! How am I supposed to shoot anything decent with this?" He was truly outraged. The man standing next to this scene was probably in his 40s, holding a little 4 inch wide, half inch thick point and shoot camera. He looked at my son, looked at the 6 inch long "crappy" lens, raised his eyebrows up into his hairline and slunk away.
I've taken photos that I truly love on little disposable cameras, but boy, do I love my good camera.
Traveling in a group is sometimes difficult for photographers. When my son went to Washington D.C. with his Scout troop, he spent a lot of time saying, "Wait up!" and they spent a lot of time saying, "Come ON, Alex! Are you shooting more pictures?"
Of course, once they got back home, everyone wanted copies of his photos. We burned discs to share.
As you can see, people are not his favorite subjects, and he rarely thinks to get photos of himself. I insisted, for that Scout trip, that he occasionally hand the camera to someone else and get in the photo. We have two photos with him in them, including this one (my favorite of the two).
(My kid's the good looking one in the tan uniform.)
He is not an enthusiastic model, but he is usually obedient.
Frequently, my kids get asked, "Where was this?" by people who were actually along on their trips. One girl asked so often while looking through his Europe scrapbook that I finally said, "Did you go to Europe?" "Well, yeah," she said, "but I didn't see any of this."
A year ago at Christmas, my oldest daughters went to Disneyland with a group of 20-somethings. One of their friends went in another group about the same time. When they got home, they compared photos.
"Where is this?" asked a friend who traveled with the other group.
"It's right before you head down Main Street, headed away from the castle," my daughter told her.
"I've never seen that, and I've been to Disneyland before," the girl said.
She had the same questions over and over. "Where is this? Where was that?"
Finally, she said, "Oh, well, we were only there for 3 days."
"We were only there for 3 days," my daughter said. "So not fair! I'm going with you next time!" her friend replied. (In all fairness, my daughter has lived in her current home for over 2 1/2 years, and I'm sure she knows Disneyland better than she knows her own back yard.)
Yes, we carry the big cameras through amusement parks. I want shots like these.
When we went to Oahu with my brother, a scenic and wildlife photographer, he remarked on how nice it was to travel with other photographers, people who were willing to just stop on the side of the road and wander.
We spent a couple of hours one day on a single beach, just shooting the waves as they came in.
"You're not supposed to be tourists!" someone once said to me, admonishing me to put the camera down. "Experience things."
I am experiencing them. So is my camera. So, vicariously, can everyone else.
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