International Travel PHotography: What I’ve learned
Murren to Grutschalp
With another trip in the books, and the next trip in less than 2 weeks, I had to get some thoughts down about traveling…both with a camera/as a creator, and just in general.
I’ve always been very fortunate and extremely grateful to be able to travel throughout my life - as a kid from time to time, in my 20s and 30s in a punk band, and now…on photo/video trips masking as hiking trips. Or hiking trips masking as photo/video trips? Either way, I don’t take it for granted. And maybe it’s because I’m getting older (or maybe it’s something else I can’t define), but traveling does feel like it’s changing for me. Not getting better or worse, just different.
I think the first thing that I’ve been noticing is a kind of hint of homesickness seasoned with a pinch of…something else. This isn’t sleep away camp as a kid after all, that’s why I say “hint” of homesickness. But I do attribute that to how humans are, more set in our ways and routines as we get older. So when that routine goes out the window, yes even to go hiking in the Swiss Alps, it kind of messes with our head a bit.
Zurich (Lake)
The next thing I notice is an emotional and creative(and dare I say spiritual) crash when traveling. This is a weird one because it doesn’t happen to me on every trip. But I attribute this to the subconscious shock of being somewhere so visually and culturally different. I’ll be riding high and taking it all in at first, sometimes drinking from the firehose, then that high inevitably becomes a low. Not due to any specific thing…but I think it’s just because I can’t be awe inspired and blown away and full of wonder for 24 hours a day, every day, for a week or more.
And finally, the perspective shift. I don’t mean this in a metaphorical way either, I mean this literally. When you’re from a small town you can quite literally only see as far as the next line of trees, or buildings, or houses, allow you to. Maybe there’s a stretch of straight road on a hill and you can see a mile ahead of you in some cases (rolling hills and what not). But the point is, that’s kind of your world, what you can see. “I can get from here to there in a few minutes” is kind of this subconscious thought we know to be true. But when you’re somewhere as vast as the Alps (or any big landscape in the world), I think it messes with your head a bit. You get a kind of vertigo, where the landscape does and doesn’t make sense. Plus, it always forces me to think about time differently. Not to get too deep, but when I see vast mountain ranges it makes me think about our impermanence. I know it sounds very woo woo, but that’s just the way it is. These mountains existed like this long before you were here, on a timescale that is hard for our small brains to even conceptualize, and they’ll be here long after we’re gone. Crazy.
Wengen
Kleine Scheidegg
But as it relates to creating…photography, videography, and filmmaking…I think all of these aforementioned conundrums and musings about/during travel help me experience the present moment. So for this trip to Switzerland, I was at many times much more present (than past trips anywhere, or even while being at home working or just living). Although I brought my camera (always) with me on every hike, a lot of the time I just kept it strapped to me and just experienced the hike without needing to “get the shot”. I still got a lot of good clips and (decent) photos haha, but I forced myself to not feel obligated to. In that regard, it was freeing and made this trip even more enjoyable.
I guess overall I need to find more balance when traveling, and especially while shooting video and photos while traveling. And on that note, I encountered quite a few creative/camera related roadblocks on this trip, which I talk about in this video. So without getting too deep (too late), here’s a breakdown of creating while traveling and the philosophical and emotional…stuff…that comes with it. Enjoy!
