Finger on the shutter...

[alexpgp]

Taking what may be considered "postcard photographs" is something that, at its core, really doesn't make sense (unless you are a photographer who sells images to postcard companies). As a tourist, you really have no control over the weather or the presence of other tourists, and you must rely on your own skill and work within the capabilities of your own equipment. A postcard would almost always be the better choice of souvenir, it would seem.

That said, it'd be hard to find a camera-toting tourist who hasn't snapped something along the lines of the following, which is a view of Guanajuato as taken from the outlook in front of the statue of El Pípila (the statue is behind yours truly):


I suspect that part of the drive to take such pictures is that little extra something that goes off in one's head when the image is viewed—a little fanfare accompanied by a sotto voce "I took this picture!"—that simply doesn't happen, or happen to the same extent, I think, when one looks at a purchased postcard.

Photos that include family members, fellow travelers, and a similar class of people fall into a completely different category, naturally, but as both Galina and I area generally loathe to feature ourselves in our travel photos, the impetus to take such photographs (past the obvious one of having an image that indisputably shouts "Kilroy was We were here!") is not really something to which I've given much thought.

Cheers...

Comments

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I have taken to purchasing postcards of the places I visit for the first time, just because of these limitations. I don't show them to anyone else though unless I take my own with the same views, only look at them myself sometimes, because they are an idealized image of what I've seen that I fear says nothing to someone who did not see it.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

If I were inclined to do something like that, I'd probably look for images on the web. I actually searched for picture postcards in Guanajuato, and only found a rack of them (with a very limited selection of cards) at the bus station, as we were headed to the airport to go home!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Postcards are also a tangible souvenir saying "I have been there", even though it's true that it its difficult to find good ones in smaller places.