People often ask me, why do I take so many photos. They often criticize me for this. Some suggest you are losing a great deal of an experience this way. I could agree with the last statement. I perfectly realize it when taking a photo. I often say that this is a choice. If I stay somewhere longer I take less photos or not take them at all. If I am in a rush, I do the opposite. There is some rule in it as you can see. To fully experience the place, you need more time and if you do not have it and you realize it that you might not come back again so soon, you simply feel like saving as much as you can on photos to have a chance to continue with the experience in a different place and time.
For me photos are very important. I like to come back to the moments I captured, to plunge in them like in a dream. They always remind me that the world is beautiful out there and that I want to experience more of it. I want to travel more. I want to see more. I want to experience more than I capture. I still believe it will be possible one day. Maybe next week. Maybe once in a month. Once maybe every day. The photos are just an evidence – an ever calling exclemation mark.
Besides they are an important source of information for me – a sort of external visual memory without which I could not remember all the new things I experience, because there is just so much going on every day, so much to remember, so much to do, some things are just erased to make space for new. Especially if you do not work in the field you are most passionate about. I would possibly have forgotten about some interesting plant, animal or phenomena I was shown on the way by the guide or I found myself, if I have not taken a shot.
I do a lot of writing. I have a visual memory – I find it easier to remember new names, information and places with images. I developed skills in many foreign languages in just this way. Photos help me to put things in order, organize thoughts, fill in the gaps. I often follow the photos to restore the line of events. I often discover that I would have forgotten many interesting things without a photo taken. Some would say here that if I forgot about it, it means it is not important and my brain does not need it. But I look at it here and now and I still find it amazing, so how can you say it is not important?! I believe you need time to understand the sense of many things. Sometimes you are just not able to grasp it here and now, because you just have not enough experience and knowledge. It may happen that in some time you will look back at the same things in a totally different way. "Now I see," you will say.