Photos, one of my precious travel souvenirs

I like to buy stuff when I travel. Sometimes there objects made only in that area, other times are fridge magnets, cups, jewellery and others.

But looking on my server and going through some of my DVD’s and photo albums, I have come to realise that photos are actually my precious travel souvenir.

I don’t take photos thinking they will be the best picture from a place. I don’t even think of how they would look on my blog. I take photos for myself; of things I like and want to keep them as alive as possible. They are moments in time captured, reminding me of beautiful places, curiosities, special moments from my travels and with my family or friends.

And sometimes, photos are all we have. Photos and our memories of people and places.

Yes, I do share some of my pictures here on the blog, as I do like to share with you tips I find in my travels and beautiful places I discover. I don’t edit photos – I think I only have a couple modified photos on this blog (added a little bit of contrast). It is true that not even photos capture the true essence of a place, and that is the whole experience that matters, but a photo can make us go back in time and remember a specific place.

I guess nowadays it is a whole lot easier to take tons of photos in our trips. I still remember being a child and only have like 24 or 32 takes on a film. Those were all the pictures we could afford to take in a trip. Today we have digital cameras and even better and better phone cameras and memory cards that allow us to take as many photos as we like. We can then select those we want to keep, put them on a hard/server etc. and then take new pictures on the same card. Easy. Accessible.

So how about you? Do you consider photos as a travel souvenir?