I started to love exploring places when joining URAL, an extracurricular activity in my senior high school focusing on nature and environmentalist. As time goes by, I love taking photos of places I visited as well. At first, it is just to record the detail of the trip. Taking photo is much easier and quicker than writing down the information we get while we explored.
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| Traveler Episode 1 – The reason why Jun Yeol taking photos on his trip |
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| Traveler Episode 1 – Jun Yeol with his camera and guidebook |
Jun Yeol is me. A camera strap in my shoulder, maps and travel brochures in my hands and my pen and journal book in my daypack. I am ready to jump into the lively streets. When I do not have any plan or do not know what to do in the day, I just go out and take photos on my surrounding. Maybe later I can write something based on the photos.
On the other hand, my travel mates are not really into taking photos. Hana and Bre for example, they don’t have camera and never thought to buy any. They like Je Hoon in real life. When I’m busy taking photos, they are looking at their surrounding wholeheartedly.
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| Traveler Episode 7 – Jun Yeol wandered the city with his camera |
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| Traveler Episode 7 – Je Hoon decided to relax at the garden of the hostel |
On Traveler episode 7, the duo traveler decided to enjoy their afternoon on their own way. Jun Yeol left with his camera and captured photos alone on every nook and corner of Trinidad. Meanwhile Je Hoon stayed and enjoyed the relaxation of the rocking chair in the garden. Je Hoon saw a big rainbow on the rooftop of the hostel. He was really absorbed and forgot to bring his cellphone, but he said he will remember it with his heart. Jun Yeol on the other hand was attracted to the old streets and buildings that he didn’t see the rainbow.
When I’m busy taking photos, Bre will remind me to spare the time to truly enjoyed the scenery without the hassle of using camera. Yeah, even though I really like taking photos, sometime I regret why I have too fixated on capturing the scenery with my camera when my heart could capture it.
I remember my trip with Hana in South Korea when we decided to separate our ways, I wandered and took photos alone in Gyeongju historical sites when she enjoyed sipping a cup of hot chocolate in a cozy cafe. Each of us had our time differently.
Taking photos for me is like capturing the time and the moment so they will stay forever. But the real beauty of the scenery is what you saw with your own eyes. That’s why since 2017 I have Fuji X70, a small camera that is really easy to use. It fits in my pocket, light, and doesn’t have removable lens. So it will not disturb me when I’m exploring places. I regret to bring Canon 5D Mark II on my 2-months trip to Europe, maybe I have to come back there.
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| Traveler Episode 1 – Jun Yeol took a selfie with local children after playing football with them. |
Besides taking scenery photos I also like taking selfie with local people or with other travelers I met on my trip. Maybe we meet only once and never had chance to meet again. For that reason, in the end of our conversation I asked them to take a photo together. But sometime I forget when we were too immersed in our conversation.
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| From left to right: Selfie with beautiful ladies in front of Jama Mosque New Delhi, with other travelers in my sailing trip to Flores, with Mamak in Toraja village and with the Japanese students that always appear in manga I read :)) |
When I bring a pocket camera on my shoulder, I’m ready to take any photos whenever and wherever. Why don’t I use a smartphone camera? Some people find it easier than a camera cause smartphone nowadays has better technology especially for the camera. I rarely use my smartphone’s camera because of the cheapness my smartphone is. I use my pocket camera to take the better quality photos. In my trip, I use my smartphone for Google Maps’s direction and calculator for quick currency calculation. And also, using smartphone when traveling sometime made me want to open Instagram or Twitter, thereby I cannot fully feel the joy of traveling.
Taking photos when traveling become essential. It will make your experiences more joyable especially when you want to reminische them some later when you’re old. My mom collects photo books, and we love looking at them when we have family gathering.
When we missed our trips, the way to heal this feeling is by looking at our old travel photos. Because the memories stay forever in them!
