The Photo Journal in Action
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy” - Helmuth von Moltke, German Military Strategist
It’s been a while since my last post and that’s because life got busy with prepping for travel, going on said trip and work stuff. It’s actually funny because that concept relates pretty well to trying to Journal while life is turned (at least mildly) upside down.
I wrote last time about what tools I wanted to use for my Photo Journal and I took those thoughts and got a chance to implement them during our trip to Iceland at the end of April.
Some facts about the Photo Journal project on this trip:
I ended up not using my prime lens setup. Instead, I opted for my 2 zoom lenses - 16-28mm 2.8 and 28-70mm 2.8 - I chose these specifically because we were going to be more out in nature and more casual places and worrying about small camera footprint was less relevant. Also, considering the weather conditions in Iceland, it was a better idea to not change lenses as frequently.
I definitely did a better job of making a more cohesive body of photos that, I think, do a better job of telling a more complete story of the trip through images only. I did a significantly better job of getting shots of all the high priority things, connective photos (photos in transit, intermediate places) and photos of Lauren to place us in the environment and not just be generic photos
I focused my time and energy on color, digital photography and didn’t bring other media options (aside from some video tools, I’ll talk about those later)
I loved the photo journal but I think we missed a lot of details and feeling of the trip so I think, next time, we need to do more video and create a complete, coherent video stories of our trips.
I did bring a Canon Selfy Zink printer to do on the road physical photo journaling - this didn’t go so well. I did journaling and photo printing on day 1 but just didn’t find (or make) the time on the other days. I did, however, backfill the photo journal when I got home and I’m pleased about that. I have about 10 photos per day and accompanying text about those photos (and other stories). It’s a really neat memento from the trip.
Bullet Point 5 is the big one and relates to the quote at the top of the page. I’ve been journaling at home for about a year now and do it both to have a fun record of my life but also to practice journaling on a daily basis so that when I go on a trip, I’m not trying to shoehorn a brand new habit into an already non-standard daily routine. The hope is that with enough practice, journaling becomes as automatic as brushing my teeth and is a necessary part of my day so that I dont miss while on the road.
Ok. That didn’t happen here. And I can tell you why.
It didn’t happen because I miss journaling days on “non-standard” days at home. If the day progresses as usual, great, I spend time on my journal. But as soon as a day gets chaotic, extra busy or sort of stressful, I just dont journal. That’s something I’ll need to practice going forward.
That being said, I am REALLY happy with how coherent and complete my photo set is from this trip. I have some things to improve upon going forward but this shows a big step forward in creating the type of diaristic photography I want to make for myself.
You can find all of my projects in my Portfolio, but here is the whole, final set from Iceland. See if you agree that they tell a story in images.
