Traveling Europe without a Camera
I went to France & Italy without a camera. Surprise! That is not entirely true. I did have a camera. A Sony a7r iii with a 24-70mm 2.8f G lens. Yeah. And I decided to leave it in the hotel while walking around Paris, and Rome. Here is the thing, I could take the million and one photo everyone else takes or I could enjoy the moment and take it all in. Truth is, I don’t need a photo of the places I visit. Unless it’s for a client, I have no reason to hoard photos. Traveling for photographers can be tough. In one sense we love images, love creating photos but in another sense, we create photos every day and sometimes need a rest.
The only day I took my camera out was during a walk-in Dresden, Germany. While we were “taking photos,” I now realize it was all just a ploy, my fiancé was about to propose. It happened during a beautiful sunset, the windows in buildings and metal statues shined a bright blinding gold, a string quartette played in the background, and I was the only person with a camera.
The drive from Germany to France, was impressive, to say the least. I took my camera out once and photographed the fields, a flower field, and my fiancé’s daughters near the beautiful flowers.
Here are the places I visited and did not take my camera to the Eiffel Tower, Mont Matre, Giverny, Versailles, all of Rome but especially the fountains, the Pantheon and around the streets of Rome.
I picked up the camera again during our first day in Frankfurt, Germany and ended up in a gay parade. After taking a few hundred photos, I deleted the card without thinking twice. I don’t need any more photos. Also, they weren’t my best compositions.