Framing It Up

"You can take pictures of landscapes to show your mom everywhere you´ve been..."

Have you ever used a computer that was not your own and even though you are a pretty good typer normally the keyboard just makes you look stupid? Like maybe the backspace key is only half the size it should be, maybe the keys don´t rebound as much as normal or maybe half the keys stick, because it´s just an overall crappy keyboard...well, that´s what´s happening right now so maybe excuse any typos that might come up. Well, aside from the fact that every European country´s keyboard is slightly different (or in France´s case - VERY different) from the English/American (yes, Canadians fit in this category), this week´s topic is:

PHOTOGRAPHY

So over the past week I´ve been hopping around a great deal, and the distance I covered in Portugal over about two weeks was covered in one long over night bus from Sevilla, Spain to Barcelona and two just two days later into the mountain state/nation/principality - country of Andorra. If you´ve never heard of Andorra, don´t worry too much. It´s a country of about 450 sq km and is only home to 76 000 people. If you want more information you´d best ask wikipedia or something because this post is about taking pictures, not about small principalities that are renouned for skiing, hiking and shopping and sub-European prices because of many tax and duty exemptions they are allowed because of their small status in the EU.
Andorra

So anyway, in a big tourist city, like Barcelona (for a recent example), you see tourist snapping pictures of this and that (that is, if they didn´t get it robbed walking around), some with really nice cameras, some with little ones, some with big ones, some with disposable (which is something I just don´t get seeing as how for the price of a disposable camera and developing and then having to buy another one next week, you could have just bought yourself a loosable digital one...and that´s not disrespecting film either, because with film cameras you can still take much better pictures than you could with some crappy little disposable thing), and then the thing is that you know some are taking really nice ones and some are just taking photos of things they think you should take photos of.
I often get made fun of for "going Japanese" and taking pictures of everything I see (which is also funny because for those of you who had no idea, I´m half...I know, it probably comes as a surprise). But anyway, even in the midst of flashing the flash (inadvertant use of the word flash twice in one sentence) of my own camera (which was graciously given to me before my big trip), I realised that photographs, though many people take pictures of the same things at the same with the same thing in mind, will never be duplicated (sort of like no two snowflakes being the same). But snow was the last thing on my mind as I walked through the streets of Barcelona.

Morocco

So many people with their little cameras (and sometimes I´m guilty of this as well) try to get all artsy with their photos and take shots of close-up flowers or bugs or whatever and blur the background and are really proud of it. Unfortunately, until this trip, most of my travel pictures were all of landscapes, which were nice (not that I´m an expert photographer, but I consider blowing up many photos I take), but once I realised that just like any good party, it´s who you´re with when you´re on the road as much as it is where you were (though a good venue is always good as well), so I´ve tried to get that "human aspect" in it these days too. (That´s one thing that make action shots so fun.) A professional photographer reaffirmed those thoughts for me a couple days ago, just after he almost had his 10000€ worth of equipment stolen while he was eating lunch at a cafe in Barcelona. But, he said, the most important part is a healthy balance.
Spanish Mediterranean Beach

Anyway, seeing everyone snap at this and that always makes me wonder what their pictures end up looking like on the big screen and it´s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to see how other people have seen the world. It´s funny how you can stand right next to someone while they take a picture and though you can capture the scene, it will envoke different memories in everyone when they flip back through downd the road. Do you ever read a book, or rather a page from a book and when you get to the end realise that you were not paying attention at all, and then have to reread the entire page? Well, people take pictures so that when they go on through their lives and forget something, they won´t have to redo the entire trip over again just to see something for a second, third, etc, time...because that could become expensive.
Central Northern Spain

Anyway, this photographer guy wanted to make it clear that, in fact, `Photography is art, too.´ So there you go. By the way, everyone always talks about how beautiful the city is and so on, so going into Barcelona I was kind of skeptical, pessimistic, almost. And let me tell you. It really IS beautiful. Unfortunately for those who have not been there, my pictures did not accurately capture its entire beauty.