Back when my blog was new and no one looked at it, I did a perfect Oops post (is that an oxymoron?). I’ve pulled it out of obscurity for the Weekly Photo Challenge today under the assumption that few, if any, of you have ever seen it before.
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I’m climbing up the steep side of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park and I’m clinging for dear life to the chain in the side of the cliff. Can I let go with one hand and dig my camera out of my pocket to document this climb? It’s a thrill a minute and I’m loving it, but how can I prove how scary this is without a good video?
I round a corner in Nepal after days on the trail and there it is, my first glimpse of the mountain I’ve waited decades to see in person – Mount Everest in all her glory. Is it enough to just take it all in with my eyes, imprinting it on my brain forever, or must I document this from all angles for my scrapbook and blog later? If I don’t post this on Facebook, did I really do it?
I just read an article, “We Are a Camera” in The New Yorker magazine. It’s about the GoPro head-mounted cameras used by surfers, skiers, and others, but the question it raised for its author, Nick Paumgarten, and me is: to what extent do we need to record what we do to have it matter? As Paumgarten says, we “used to just do the thing – plan the killer trip or trick and then complete it, with panache. … Now the purpose of the trip or trick is the record of it. Life is footage.”
Much as I love taking photos and looking back at them, I find both truth and sadness in the “Life is footage” statement. Many times, I do forgo a picture when I am really enjoying a trail or a sight, consciously choosing to fully take in the experience in real time rather than on film, tape, or memory card. Only rarely have I regretted living the scene versus recording it. But today we live in a visual, media-dominated world, and it’s hard to rein in the impulse to document everything we do; I’m no exception, although I do feel a pang every now and then when I interrupt what I’m doing just to capture it through a lens other than my own eyes.
So, back to Angel’s Landing … it really was an impressive climb up there and once I did make it, I asked my husband to take a photo of my exhausted, sweaty self on the top so that, yes, I could prove that I’d succeeded. Here it is. Sometimes even the best plans for posterity don’t work out!
(And neither of those partial people is me; I am fully behind the finger. Promise!)
One Foot Out the Door 
this. is. perfect!!
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Haha – thanks! It’s probably more amusing than what a “successful” photo would have captured!
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I struggle with this as well- to take a photo to capture what I’m seeing, or just be present and take it all in. It’s also difficult not to think about taking photos for a blog or social media when it’s either your creative outlet or you want to build an audience or both. “Life is footage” is the time we live in, but I agree, it’s rare to regret just “living the scene”. Also, I LOVE the photo 🙂
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You described the conundrum perfectly and thanks for the compliment! I look good, right?
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Totally!
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I laughed. Sorry.
I’ve been making a conscious effort to take less photos and enjoy the moment. It’s so easy to get lost in documenting the future memory rather than experiencing the present.
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I laugh now, too, but I did not find it so funny when I descended and asked to see the picture! (Not the first time … my husband was taking “digital” photos long before the technology existed – haha.) I swing wildly on taking photos – I either take too many or get totally lost in the moment and take none. Working on a happy medium!
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Perfectly funny! An early Lexklein moment, I’m assuming? I guess I’m a photographer at heart, because I will always stop and take the shot. I savor the moments of course, but if there’s a shot I won’t ever not take it. Unless there’s an issue or problem, and then I feel sad. The photos for me, however, are never about “me” being there, nor proving I was. They are more like memories to savor later. One of the times I missed a shot was in Yosemite, blazing oranges and reds and purples in clouds all the way from the horizon to behind me. I didn’t have my camera with me. I was forced to simply take it in. I still remember that sky, but dang, I wish I had a photo.
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I get what you’re saying and largely agree! I do want to be able to look back and spark a memory with a great photo, and there are definitely some that got away that I wish I had. My camera is my travel companion on every trip. I’m more picking on the selfie people (I’m so inept I can’t even take one) or those who make a 5-hour trek into a 10-hour trek because they have to photograph every single rock and plant and …
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Oh yeah, the selfie people…that’s another order of dismay. I sat for half an hour (really) in front of the Hard Rock Cafe in Bali watching a whole group of people wait in line to get their turn to take a selfie in front of the sign out front of the place, most never went inside. I actually took photos of them, and movies of them! Hilarious really.
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A perfect mistake! I’m assuming the photo was taken with a point-and-shoot because it would be pretty difficult to block a DSLR lens with just one finger.
I’ll admit I am an obsessive shutterbug so I’d always want to record the moment for memory’s sake. And with a blog you feel a certain responsibility to show your readers what you saw. It’s tough to strike a balance, but sometimes you do get the chance to take photos then sit awhile and observe your surroundings, without fussing over the camera.
I don’t have a problem with GoPros but I do when they are constantly attached to a selfie stick… it just speaks to our modern-day narcissism and that desire for attention. One of my acquaintances recently wrote a blog post about “how to rock your next travel photos”, but it left me very disappointed because it was so self-centered. Her idea of travel photos meant posing in fashionable clothes at European cafes and monuments with the help of a tripod, with the aim of (and I quote) “preserving your coolness for years to come”.
It’s part of the reason why I don’t have Instagram or a Facebook page for my blog. I would hate to become obsessed with posting updates for the sake of getting likes and followers – instead of being present in that experience of a foreign place.
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Definitely a point-and-shoot because I had to carry it up there in my pocket. I agree that striking a balance is the way to go; I feel compelled to record for myself and my blog, but I don’t want the recording to ever overwhelm the absorbing!
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That photograph made me laugh 🙂 And it’s a great post bringing up a good point. For me, I only bring my camera with the sole purpose of taking photographs in particular as an extension of my creative expression.
Everything else I do or experience in life is hardly ever lived through the lens or documented in any way. I very very rarely take photos of people, only when asked. Or have photos taken of me (unless its for something specific, a project or the like)
There’s been a bit too much food documented on Facebook. In my humble view 🙂
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Oh, the food photos … (and the cats)! As part of a travel blog documenting interesting cuisine, I’m OK with food, but so that I can see people’s each and every meal? – no thanks. I’m sounding curmudgeonly about photos and don’t mean to at all; I LOVE taking photos and LOVE seeing others’ pictures. I also sometimes just like doing.
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Totally agree, on all of it. I’m constantly restraining myself not to post photos of my cat… for the same reason lol. But the truth is, I take loads!
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That is hysterical – thanks so much for re-posting. Quite the oops!!! Agree with your thoughts on just enjoying the moment sometimes, vs shooting it. So many cameras everywhere it’s diminished the fun just a bit, don’t you think?
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Thanks, Tina. I do find it quite funny now, but I was kind of cranky at the time! The good news is there is NO chance I will forget climbing up there, with or without a photo showing it!
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This is absolutely excellent ! You really made me laugh with this one, and I bet you still laugh at the memory. How a OUps photo became a legend, thanks for the captions 🙂
And for the questions in the text. In South East Asia especially, if you can’t show it on your phone library, you did not live it. The grace before eating have turned into a “click” “post” of anything on the table. It is a bit extreme I must say 😛 ANd I came to realise it when I came back to France … and was the only one doing it ! On rehab since then ..
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Happy to give you a laugh on a Monday morning! What is it about Asia that makes people so camera-happy? At the Great Wall of China, I have never seen so many people taking photos, posing for photos, asking us to get into their photos, etc! Of course, I was snapping a few of my own …
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In Japan, I even saw many “photo spot” big stickers on the ground. Asia is definitely very selfie, but when my little bro of 17 visited us last month, I couldn’t believe the time he spent clicking on his phone. Like if it was a continuation of his arm. And he would never travel without his stock of batteries. Almost scary to me 😛 I think the new generation will end up short sighted (I can hear me talking like if I were my grandma.. I really need holidays !)
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Love the photo of you! 🙂
“Now the purpose of the trip or trick is the record of it.” I disagree with this. The purpose of our travels, and yours too I’m sure, is about something other than that. I don’t take photos for memories either. I travelled for years without a camera, and rarely look at the photos of the past that I do have. Perhaps when I’m old and eighty-something I will, but somehow I doubt it. I take photos for the love of photography, just to see if I can get the shot – soooo much fun! And I take photos for the blog of course, so I can share the adventure. The blog never started as a record for me. It started because friends asked me to, and then just grew. I don’t know if I’d have done it at all without that, but way back in my twenties I did make a couple of scrap books. I still have them stuffed away in the back of our storage locker – if the moths haven’t eaten them. I guess I’m not much of a mementos person. We never save ticket stubs or anything like that. The other side to all this is I find that on the rare occasions that I do look back at early blog posts I enjoy remembering the experience, unless I’m cringing at the quality of the photography and/or writing 🙂
Alison
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Thanks – looking sharp, aren’t I?!
I agree with you and likewise disagree with that part of the quotation! The article was mainly about GoPro cameras, and my guess is he was referring more to the stunt-type photography and videography made possible by those. I would never say the purpose of a trip, for me, is to record it, but I do think there are people who go to certain places and do certain things just so they can say they did (and recording it is part of the “proof”). I don’t even condemn that; we all do things for our own reasons, and who am I to say that only I travel for the right reasons?! There is certainly no doubt that we are more media-obsessed these days and that cameras are present in all sorts of places and situations that they weren’t before – again, not necessarily a bad thing. I guess for me it’s just a balancing act between the great fun of taking photos and the enjoyment of the hands-free, equipment-free, even thought-free thing itself on occasion.
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Oh yes, of course! There are people who do things just to record it, and I agree that that’s just fine. I couldn’t condemn it either. Whatever motivates us is valid. And yes I do agree it’s a balancing act. Sometimes I’ve found I’ve missed the experience of something because I’ve been too busy photographing it. I try to be mindful to take in the experience and put the camera down half the time. It’s a bit of an inner battle sometimes 🙂
A.
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I’m so impressed that you were brave enough to climb Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park.. that something I didn’t dare doing while I was there !! As for the picture… it’s good memory, you will remember forever 🙂
When I hike a trail, I always pretend to take pictures so I can take my breath 😉
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I almost chickened out! I swore the whole way up (especially when I lost the path and had to clamber up some slanted rocks with no chains or handholds), but it was worth it in the end … as you can (NOT!) see in the photo!
I laughed at your photo stop strategy! I use that, too, or I say I need to stop to let other people/yaks/horses/bikes pass when really I need a breathing respite – haha.
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Friggin hysterical. Definitely the universe’s way of letting you know that sometimes its just better to enjoy the moment. The universe definitely has a great sense of humor sometimes. As as someone who didn’t really pick up a camera until two years ago, I sometimes (REALLY) regret not recording my life before). But then I take comfort in just how much fun I had ‘experiencing the moment’ without a camera.
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It’s definitely a trade-off. My goal is enough photos to be able to look back and enjoy the memories, but not so many as to detract from the experience itself!
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I seem to be stroking a lifetime balance – a handful of photos the first half of my life followed by a photo every 15 seconds in the second part of my life 😊
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Ha- that’s great! Better to have avoided all those awkward teenage years anyway, right?!
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Exactly…and spend my next 50 years behind my lens rather than in front of others’ 📷
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