More than six months ago we sold our home and cars. We bid farewell to friends and family and set off on our world adventure.
We have been on the road for over 200 days.
I have chronicled religiously through my photos every single day of our travels. We started our photographic diary once we started our journey.
My first plan
Before leaving for our travels around the world, I had in mind to post “One Picture a day” of our adventures on social media.
As the days went by and the adventures grew, my daily posts became more than one a day. Each post was populated with more than one photo too! It got harder and harder to pin it down to only one. It didn’t feel right to limit myself. Why limit what you want to share when there is so much that needs to be shown?
Every night I sit at my computer for a few hours and pick the best photos of the day. I revisit the adventures we just had all over again! My purpose is to share what best conveys what we experienced that day. It is a must for me to do this each day. Just like many will write their diary every night.
I will postpone everything else (booking parts of our trip, writing the blog, taking care of some bills), because my daily posts come first. This is how our Facebook and Instagram are largely growing in content.
The challenges of making it happen daily
In the first month it was pretty easy to keep posting because we had great WIFI connection everywhere.
Once we arrived in Australia it became a real challenge. Some places had very slow WIFI, limited amount or simply non at all! It would make it really complicated to upload photos. Therefore I would write the posts and edit the photos at night. In the morning we would sit outside a cafe or grocery store (most had great connection) to do the uploads . Everything had to be done super quick because our kids had limited amount of patience for just sitting around.
In New Zealand I decided to pay the extra international fee (pretty steep) on my phone plan, so I would have the connection available everywhere at anytime. Also in this case though it was a process. First edit, then transfer to the phone and then write the post.
Throughout all this, I was able to never miss a day!
Why do I feel the need to do this?
When we left on our adventure, we wanted first to enjoy the world and all it had to offer. However, we also wanted to share some of what we experienced with friends, family, as well as people we didn’t know. We wanted to share the world with the people who were not traveling. Our hope was to inspire them in taking the leap and travel more, also if for a short time.
As the weeks went by, I realized that these daily posts had become a way for us to keep track of what we were seeing and doing too.
It had become our travel photography diary.
How we keep our memories alive
When you travel full-time, you are thrown in such a variety of experiences, cultures, emotional leaps, cultural shocks. It is not surprising that you might lose track of what you did, where you did it and when. Every time we change country we immerse ourselves completely in it.
What we experienced in the previous country isn’t forgotten just safely stored in another compartment of our brain. As soon as we talk about it or see a photo of that moment we are immediately taken back there.
Emma the other day told me that she could not really remember much of what we did in New Zealand. When we were there she loved it and was fascinated by all the different things we did and saw. However now we are in India, inevitably now our time in New Zealand feels so far away! If you add to this that these countries are so different from one another; it is no wonder that she can’t keep everything 100% fresh in our minds!
I started reminding her of the many things we saw. Luckily I could also pull out our Instagram account and quickly help her get back to New Zealand through our photos.
When we left we asked our kids to write a journal about their daily adventures. But as I scroll through our daily posts, I feel that this is our true journal. We all might have different feelings about that moment in time. However we all shared that moment and we have a photo to remind us forever. Sometimes words don’t seem enough to describe it as well!
Memories worth capturing
The Bengal tiger that crossed our path in Rathambore National Park, was impossible to describe just in words.
Walking in a pitch black forest to see the glow worms in New Zealand, was impossible to describe just in words (hard in photos too since it was pitch black!).
The bath that Cosimo and Mass gave the Elephant in Thailand, was impossible to describe just in words.
Swimming with a turtle on the Gilli Island, was impossible to describe just in words.
Swimming with the whale shark in Australia, was impossible to describe just in words.
Hiking up to the Tiger Nest in Bhutan and being speechless all the way up because of the amazing views, was impossible to describe just in words.
All these moments and many more are now well documented and forever unforgettable to us.
Is it hard to be always on the other side of the camera?
I promise you I am part of all these adventures too! The fact that I take all these pictures doesn’t mean that I don’t participate in the activity. I just add to our travel photography diary by taking a moment to capture more.
At times we are lucky to have guides that of course LOVE to use my camera! So I jump in a family photo.
Other times my kids love take pictures of my husband and I. My husband as well makes sure that whatever I try, for example slack lining in Thailand or Bhutan gets captured too!
So although I am the official photographer of our trip, we all are ready to pitch in to capture our moments. It a shared effort to create our photographic journal. Plus now Emma is getting inspired and started taking lots of photos as well!
My two cents about chronicling your travels
Photography has the power to stop time. It has to power to bring you to that place and those emotions every time you look at it. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to capture these moments. You don’t need a professional camera to make your photos look perfect.
Your photos are your memories of that place and time in your life. They can be captured with a fancy camera as well as a phone. On my lazy days I don’t pick up my camera, I just use my phone. However I make sure to do it every time I see something special happening in front of me, it will be a keepsake for the years to come….
Enjoy your travels, your daily life, your special moments, but make sure you capture them!
