When we’re on vacation, we want to savor every last minute and experience. From eating an incredible meal, to watching the sun set and seeing historical sites, we want to remember these moments forever…and share them with friends and family. It’s that desire that fuels us to take vacation photos.
We think capturing the moment in a photo will give us the opportunity to relive and remember it when we’re feeling nostalgic. Or we want to be able to show these pictures to friends, family and social media followers to visually tell them know how great the trip was.
However, it’s possible that taking all of those photos may hinder your vacation.
Picture this: you’re sitting on a beach next to your loved one watching the sun set. Instead of actually watching the sun set, you have your camera or phone out trying to capture the moment at just the right angle.
Or you’re sitting down to a gourmet meal. Your beautiful plate of food is brought out and set down in front of you. Your camera comes back out. Instead of taking in the aroma, you’re trying to adjust the flash to take the most flattering photo of your plate as possible. You even delay trying your food to take a picture.
Maybe you’re at a world-renowned museum standing in front of a famous painting. And, once again, you’re taking a photo. In fact, you’re probably surrounded by people all doing the exact same thing.
The pattern here is not that you’re taking photos; the pattern is that you’re not living in the moment. You’re not truly absorbing the sights, sounds, smells and emotions of the moment your attention is focused on your camera and snapping the best angle, using the best filter, viewing the picture and maybe even re-taking it.
All of this adds up to you actually missing the moment or, perhaps, ruining it.
Spending so much time trying to grab the best photos may also leave you with an artificial memory. Remember that one day you were on the beach and it was a little gray out? The photo you took that day with a filter on it made it look like spectacular, sunny day on a crisp beach. Looking back at that photo, will you remember it as it was or how the photo presents it?
Doing this may lead you to save only the “best parts” of your trip when, in reality and on the other side of the lens, the best parts of life exist because of the worst parts. Can you enjoy sweet without sour?
The whole point of a vacation is to relax, rejuvenate, have fun and live a little. You may not reap all of those benefits holding a camera in front of your face.
On your next vacation, would you consider leaving your camera behind? Or resisting the urge to snap and post on Instagram?
Try it. It might just make that vacation the one you’ll always remember.
Photo from Huffington Post.
