I forgot to add...we are retired and travel for the experience, not as a vacation (I don't take vacations when retired!).

Jim

I go one step further, skip the camera and buy post cards. So many destinations are crowded with people, thus keeping me from taking a good picture. Post cards are easier. I don't need pictures with us in them. We know what we look like and we don't need proof that we've really visited a place.

I was in Italy for three weeks in October. I took hundreds of pictures and I can't even tell what half of them are. One medieval hilltop town looks like the other. Cathedrals, Duomos, etc, -- sheesh. There is no way my camera could capture the grandeur of some of the views. The photos I enjoyed were the ones with people in them, or that told a story. For instance I have one pic of a police officer confiscating the goods of illegals selling bogus stuff on a bridge in Rome. We also ran across a convention of Harley motorcycle owners who were a bunch of characters. I enjoyed the pics of local people and our local guides. Post cards are good, too, because the shots are so well done, it says the location on the back and you can jot down the date and your thoughts.

All the pics of famous sights and art can be found on the internet. Just take a shot of the outside of the museum or cathedral and then look for them on the internet.

I do enjoy the group shots of our travel companions.

I also wish I had spent more time composing my shots rather than just snapping away.

"I also wish I had spent more time composing my shots rather than just snapping away."

I was in Italy on a tour in June. I did try to take pictures of plaques and signs, but there are still many things I can't put a name to. But, I decided not to care. it was the over all experience of being there that was most important to me.

When you are on a tour, there is a feeling that you need to be moving along, probably not really true, but it feels that way. So, hard to compose pictures the way you would like.

My dad used to collect postcards and create albums when he got home.

Just before and later after DH passed away, we went thru a ton of slides and pictures we and DH & Brother had taken on trips. Some were just mountains, trees etc, nothing unusual, some with historical buildings, some with people that neither one of could remember who they were. Some got tossed and others we saved. He and his brother traveled every year all over the world and those did mean something to him, but not me. I did save some of those, because we marked on the back where they were taken. Some had people, and/or one of DH or brother , kept those because it was something unusual or historical. I have noticed that some beautiful scenic pictures do show up on the internet when put in sequence, such as winter scenes, country times, barns, seashores, etc. For this reason I do see a need to keep pictures. Even magazines like Country, Farm Life, Reminisce, will publish scenic pictures fitting certain seasons. I also collected post cards when we traveled all over the US and Canada, because I could not get the photographs I wanted at that time.
Many do bring back memories
,

If I retire, I'm going to NEED vacations! A mixture of all, but fewest with the photographer. Some contests require your mug with an identifiable landmark. People are good, sometimes sparking a memory of exactly where you were at that moment. A building is so-so, unless you can make the shot special. True to a point, the internet lets us see most anything. I'll add that no matter how spectacular a photo, nothing can compare to being there with your own eyes. I have had people use a personal photo album as a "bragging point" .....look where we've been.

My brother and SIL travel extensively, world wide. They send great volumes of photos via email which are stiflingly tedious to go through. I do skim through them, though, just on the wee chance that they captured something interesting or lovely.

Their pictures never or rarely include themselves.

I take few pictures of my husband or myself, but if I do I make sure there is plenty of background so we can remember where we were. I took 1200 pictures in The Netherlands. I think I can count on one hand how often I handed my camera to my mother and asked her to take a picture of me just so that people could see I really was there. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: My Holland Vacation on Flickr

This post was edited by debby_ab on Sat, Nov 29, 14 at 20:03

We used to take travel photos with only scenery or landmarks, no people. As time passes I can find plenty of pictures of those places online and the online photos are way better than my own. The only pictures that still have meaning to me are the pictures that have people in them, particularly photos of my husband and me or photos of my family or friends.

So now I tend to be more like your SIL and her husband -mostly photos of us. I try to get a landmark or scenic view in the background. I find I like photos of people much better than photos of scenery. But to each his own. I know many people enjoy travel photos that have only scenery or landmarks, and the important thing is that you enjoy your travel photos however you choose to compose them.

We generally take some photos of one or the other of us doing something interesting or fun- eating a delicious meal, doing a fun activity etc, but most of our photos are of interesting things we saw. Then when showing them to family and friends it's more of a jog to our memories, "Oh, this is at ---------- when we (did something). The (whatever) were really amazing/horrible/interesting/boring. Something funny/unusual/remarkable that happened was --------------."

I used to take a lot of pictures on trips..but do not anymore....we decided to keep those "photos" in our memories instead of sticking them in a box and never looking at them...and none of the kids are interested in looking at them.

We have a program that takes 100 photos, adds music and makes a DVD video. I watch them when I'm on the treadmill. We have about a dozen of those...a lot of the pics are of local people or people we traveled with.....not us.

We do take photos of each other when shooting underwater. It helps to gauge the size of objects....

(we used to travel with a woman who was VERY pretty and she constantly wanted us to take her picture. We thought she was annoying.)

My grandmother & I had this conversation years ago. She said they went "kodaking"......taking pictures of each other. It was something fun to do.

Debby,
I love the food album. I should try that. Oops, my doctor wants me to lose weight, looking at photos of food is not good for me.
Jim

I take more scenery shots than people shots. But on bike tours with Mel I take a daily picture of him :)

In my local coffee shop - I am amazed at how many tourists sit there and take a picture of the coffee cup they are just about to drink ! I realized that the coffee shop is advertised in the airline magazine, that the tourists must see on their way here !

I think some people are obsessed with taking pictures, they forget to focus on what they are actually seeing. I guess we all want to capture the moment.

When camera film was something one needed to buy in advance and carry along on a trip or the day's excursion, and when (at the same time) processing exposed film cost a nontrivial amount of money, people were more discriminating about what they took shots of and how many they took. By reviewing them after the fact, the amateur photographer learned which kind of shots were not of lasting interest or value to him/herself and his/her family. By being careful about showing them to others (never too many at one time), one learned what kind of shots others wanted to see.

Few people go through those steps anymore. Digital images are essentially free to take and to store. Most people take WAAY too many shots and rarely spend the time afterwards discarding those which need not be kept.

Thanks for the offer but no, I don't need to see YOUR photos of the Forbidden City or Chichen Itza. Or of Amsterdam or the Munich Oktoberfefst or the Eiffel Tower (all of which I promise I've been to many more times than you have). If you don't know which church is which or which town square is which in your photo collection, then you took too many photos. Unless you're the type of person who spends a significant part of each day looking in a mirror, then you also have no need for photos of yourself in all the places you went to but don't remember. No one else cares about those either.

Less is more.

Wow, Snidely, I didn't know there were rules for taking pictures. I shouldn't take more than what? One shot a day when I travel, and I should hide all my pictures from you because you don't want to see them? I don't care if you've traveled more than I have, but when I do travel, I love to cherish those memories in photographs.

I take pictures of my cup of coffee (which in The Netherlands, I thought it was awesome that you got a free cookie with your coffee. Here you pay for it. *If* the coffee shop has some), and landscapes, and buildings, clouds, straight roads that lead to mountains......... Even before digital, I was a photo hound. I have boxes upon boxes of pictures that my family enjoys going through and reminiscing. Birthday parties, camping, day trips, other family in town, or from out of town visiting. My flower beds. Good times, and bad. Sometimes we forget things, and a picture will remind us of a good time that we had. I used to go to my husbands mothers house and sit for hours looking through all of her photo albums.

It appears we are on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to photography. I enjoy taking pictures. Of everything and anything. I love looking at everyone else's pictures as it gives me incentive to improve on my own photography. Not that I'm good, but I love what I do. And I do aim to only press the shutter one time when I take a picture. No "spray and pray" for me. If I can't get it right the first time, I may try a second time. But probably not a third. And the "delete" button works really good on my camera as well as my computer. :) As for the photos on my Flickr page, ask me where I took them. I can probably tell you. :)

I don't take an abundance of pictures but enough to remember where and what I was doing.

I prefer having or seeing pictures with family and friends in them. Not as interested in seeing tons of pictures of buildings or scenery if you are not posed in at least some of them.

People seem to enjoy seeing my iPhone pictures. Not too many and i usually have an amusing story that might go along with some of them.

The ability to take thousands of images and 'bank' them on a computer has spawned tons of forgetable images saved.

I miss having a few actual photos of something that was worth printing.

I long ago stopped trying to capture everything on film. I decided to just enjoy what I was experiencing. One or two pictures are enough to remind you of a time, place, or experience if you have *lived* it, and IT is 'saved to memory'.

We take a lot of photos, especially when we travel. I TRY to remember to download to the computer daily in seperate
files in one folder titled with the trip, or occasion. I also try to remember to keep a journal in the computer of the trip, inserting a few photos per day, just to jog the memory. We take lots of landscape shots, and try to remember to take a photo of a sign at the entrance to a park or whatever. I have a short memory, and we pack a lot of travel in a short time. DH learned a long time ago how to use the timer feature on our cameras, and we often take a photo of the two of us with a nice view as a back ground, beside a sign, ect.

I don't take photos for the enjoyment of others, I take them for us. If someone wants to see them, I am happy to share them. If I post photos here, and you don't want to see them, don't open my post, as I usually have photo somewhere in the subject line when I do post them.

I do take more than one of those that I really want. If I accidentally move and blur the photo, chances are I won't the next time. Or someone blinks in a group shot.....

Jim, was it you who asked for places to visit a while back? I thought of a place in Michigan that we stopped at in October that you might find interesting. It was in Shelby, MI, and was a gem factory! Yes, they MAKE gems there! There is a small area that has exhibits with explanations about the processes, and a sales area. It was very interesting.

Tami

On our first trip to Alaska, I realized after we got home that there wasn't one single photo of me. Now we always take a photo of each other, and usually have someone take a pic of us both.
I figure our grandkids will cherish these someday.
And I take a lot of pics of my husband, he will be 80 in January and someday I might have just pics and memories. Or he could have just those. I particularly love pictures of him in silhouette against a sunset, with a rod and reel in his hand. Or driving the boat. Or doing something with one of my grands that he loves like his own.
I try to always take the best pictures I can, and they make me happy. I have a digital photo frame, and we love to see the memories go by. Photos evoke many emotions and I am so grateful I found digital photography.