TRAVEL STORIES · THOUGHTS FROM THE ROAD
The Camera Guilt Dilemma: A Wrecking Ball to Vacations
Damn that camera! When does the fun hobby and joy of getting the best camera equipment suddenly become the most irritating chore and a guilt-ridden personal conflict?
Soon after you buy all that fancy stuff, actually…
By Rob Wheatley – Program Director & traveler
Originally published 2 June 2020
Camera guilt is that nagging feeling that expensive photography equipment must earn its place on every holiday. I know it well: the packing debate, the beach-security duty, and the camera left in the hotel safe. This is how I made peace with travelling lighter—and actually came home with more photographs.
What can that brand-new camera do to your vacation?
Unless you are a professional photographer or a wannabe pro, you may find that all that camera equipment you bought in St Thomas or some other duty-free port is proving somewhat redundant. It probably stares back at you accusingly each time you are about to embark on a trip. It boldly demands inclusion in any vacation plans.
Sure, there are those of you who have mastered your SLR equipment and I certainly say “respect”. But for me and many others, the camera became a newfound anxiety.
Camera equipment is loaded with guilt
If you’re anything like me, chances are you will be having a silent debate with the video camera and fancy Nikon along with its cousin appendages of telephoto lenses, filters, etc.
Should you take it? You’re going to Italy after all – just imagine the fantastic scenery and seascapes you could capture… Then again, the deadweight of the carry-on luggage is already sky high with the electronics.
You finish the debate with a massive sense of guilt and end up hauling a load of stuff you probably will not use once on vacation.
It ends up in the hotel safe for the whole vacation.
No hand-holding romance in the waves
Hey, I know that feeling. I go to the beach – won’t take the equipment – I reason it could get wet or sand will get in. Okay, so the first day I take it anyway. I find that I have to have my lady or me stand security while the other goes for a swim. No hand-holding romance in the waves for us. A couple of lonely shots of my loved one looking seriously pissed off jumping waves solo.
Going on a boat ride – won’t take the equipment – it could get wet and, again, who will watch the stuff when we go swimming? Going on public transportation…ooooh…a bit risky taking the stuff… Won’t take it.
Dinner, with a side order of aperture
Going out for dinner – won’t take the equipment. My lovely girlfriend will give me that look that goes with the fearsome feminine molten-lava words “fine” or “really” as I break the moment to reach into my camera bag for a mad grab of camera and set-up. Fussing over finding the right lens, the right light, the correct aperture.
If I manage to take three shots in three weeks, it’s a lot – most of them taken from the hotel room patio.
So all that lugging equipment around was for nought. And I get home and now have new guilt – about how I never used the camera. Blah!
Making peace with the smartphone
Those days are gone…smartphones are becoming…eh, smarter. These days you can quickly find out how to take great photographs with a smartphone.
It is good to know that I can now accept that I will not be the next Ansel Adams or Robert Capa. That’s OK. I’m good with it.
Now I can sell my equipment to some deserving soul who probably has the same illusions of grandeur I once had of being some superstar photographer in the making. I can now simply reach for the smartphone, guilt-free, snap away without grandstanding with all that camera assembly and focus and a ton of lost moments.
You know, since I started just snapping away with the smartphone camera, I have more of my own pictures from one vacation than I have collected in all the years of travelling.
And they’re pretty good, even if I say so myself.
A smaller bag is a good start
Of course, I can still make a production out of a smartphone if I try hard enough. Twenty attempts at the same sunset, followed by half an hour choosing which one to post, would rather defeat the purpose.
My suggestion? Take the picture, then give the moment a little time without a screen between you and it. If you enjoy photography enough to spend the afternoon setting up a shot, wonderful. If you’d rather swim, eat or wander, your equipment does not get a vote.
For a little help using what you already own, iPhone users can consult Apple’s camera tools guide. A few familiar controls are a better travelling companion than a bag full of equipment you feel obliged to use.
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
— Dorothea Lange · Quotation source
I like that thought. Once the photograph is taken, there is still a whole holiday happening around it.
And if my camera spends the day in the hotel safe? It can sulk. I’m going swimming.
Keep the holiday in the picture
For more on noticing a place while you’re actually there, read Mindful Travel. Or join me for another unexpected encounter in A Backpacker Rendezvous in Monte Carlo, where a photograph changed my mind about its photographer.
Does your camera come with a guilty conscience?
Have you ever hauled equipment across the world and barely used it? Or does photography make the holiday for you? I’d love to hear which camp you’re in. Tell me in the comments below.
2 Responses
I have to say, as a professional photographer I can totally disagree with you. But, hah…what you say here about those people who have limited knowledge in photography, your assessment is accurate!
Exactly tht happened to me. I bought all my stuff and found I never used it on vacation. I did end up having two lenses stolen from my hotel room. It was too stressful having all that equipment on the road.