October 9, 2011

A Bon Voyage





As a person with no memory, I’m always obsessed with documenting my trips. I come home, and I blog about them doggedly. I work with the thousands of photos….this time out of focus photos. Photoshop is not my friend after a long trip and many thousands of images. Sometimes I spend eight or more muscle tight hours a day at my computer creating pages of words and images.

Then I make albums. The blog and the albums become my memories.

The albums differ from the blogs in that they are pages of pictures artistically arranged, graphically successful real photos combined with prints from my Canon printer all interspersed with some description on Photoshopped backgrounds. I’ve gotten really good at this.

Does anyone look at the albums? No. Once they are artistically complete and the books are bound, they go on a shelf and wait for the next generation to glance at them.

I’m not going to make that giant effort to follow up anymore. I had a ball on the trip, I have the finished travel blog, and I have only so much time left. I held together on this trip really well, but I am aware that my body is wearing out. Statistically, even with a new hip, I have maybe 15 more years left.

Remember when you were fifteen and thought you would live forever?

I don’t want to cut into that time making a photo album that no one will look at again, yet I still want to create a physical record of the journey. I thought that I’d buy a few 8x10’s of the good photos from my photohost and combine these with a printed copy of the blog straight off my blog site.

It’s a gorgeous day outside today, so I’ll not hang around here at the computer. The weather report shows rain moving down the coast. Perhaps later this week when the world outside is chill and wet, I’ll attempt a new way of saving my travels.

6 comments:

  1. I think your are wise. I have reels and reels of slides upstairs that will fade away into oblivion and no one will care. Not even me. On the other hand, do share your lovely photos with me on your blog. I love looking at them. You are so talented. Dianne

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  2. 15 years to go? how long or short will that be? keep enjoying life to the fullest, I say!

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  3. I love having all my albums saved electronically -- but I agree it's not the same as having a nice album to share.
    It's a gorgeous day here today, too. In the 80s w/ low humidity. We call this "San Diego weather!" :)

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  4. I can relate to how you feel. And I am so grateful to be reading your journal.

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  5. I love your photos and the explanations that go along with them. Sharing them on your blog gives a lot of us so much pleasure. Much easier than putting them artistically into an album that sits on a shelf and collects dust until you decide to rearrange the room again.
    Take it easier on yourself and enjoy your time.

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  6. Thank you for all your work and sharing, I absolutely love your photos and writing. You sound tired. Enjoy your time outside and I hope you can relax and recharge. I find myself spending more and more time recharging and maintaining the body the cost of an accumulation of years. Would I have taken better care of my body if I'd understood the value? Not sure that's possible.

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