Travelogue vs Fond Memories scrapbook

Between my high school Junior and Senior years, I was able to participate in an educational bus trip which made a round trip from central Utah through the southern states to Florida, up the coast to upstate New York and then approximating the Mormon Trail west back to Utah. I just finished scanning the slides I took on that trip and was I ever disappointed. There were 80 pictures in the collection of which maybe half of which are properly exposed and focused. Of those half are of buildings, monuments, cityscapes, etc. with nothing to distinguish them from commercial photos of the same thing except that they have no artistic value, aren't straight shots, or are cluttered with unnecessary junk. So maybe 20 of the pictures I took have any value at all - not a very good batting average.

Now, granted, I was using the family camera and probably hadn't taken all that many pictures before. I could have used a roll of film to practice on. Cameras that we could afford in the early 60's weren't automatic in focusing or light metering. But the biggest problem with the pictures is the selection of the subject and composition of the picture. And these depend on the purpose of the picture series. If it is to be a travelogue you take pictures of monuments, streets, buildings, etc. and leave out familiar people (strangers are okay). If it is to be for remembrance you should get lots of familiar people in the photos. And try to catch them doing things representative of daily life such as eating, goofing off, sleeping, etc.

Even though it might be perfectly focused and exposed, a picture of the beach at Miami isn't any different from 100's of similar pictures. It has virtually zero value.

Add a couple of fellow travelers and it suddenly becomes a treasure.

A photo of colonial Williamsburg such as this might be interesting to compare to how it is now

but a photo of me and a friend in the stocks there is much more interesting.

And finally a series of shots at the end of our journey show what we really looked like, hair curlers & all and

how we held morning devotionals right by the bus.

The scenery, the monuments, the beaches can be photographed by anybody but a picture of the peoople can only be caught by someone there at the moment.

I certainly wish now that all 80 of these pictures had been taken of my fellow bus travelers 46 years ago. Oh, and by the way, as usual if you click on any of the pictures you'll be able to see an enlarged version and maybe even be able to tell which one of the group is me.