Getting the first glimpse of couples celebrating their first-year anniversary in Paris or the young family laughing their way around Dumbo is amazing but it’s only when I applied what we do to my own life did I really understand and appreciate the true value of great photos.
To put the above in context, I’m not the A-typical candidate for a Travelshoot package; I’m not married, I don’t have any kids and am not on the precipice of asking that all important question – not yet!
Part of the morning work ritual is checking out new albums and about two months ago I was scrolling through an album which captured a family exploring the streets of Paris. Mum and Dad joking around in the background while two boys stole centre stage climbing over monuments and bantering away. I scrolled quickly through fifty or so of the eighty odd photos uploaded with all the different possible variables of the whole family – just the parents, just the boys and then the images of the boys with just their dad started showing and it all clicked. The whole Travelshoot value proposition became much clearer to me as there was finally that aspirational element to what we do that resonated with me.
My dad passed away a few years ago now and being the typical Aussie bloke, or at least trying to be, I tend not to talk about it too much; being as stoic as possible when it comes up and shrugging it off as part of life as best I can. But when I saw the photos of father and son and moreso the memories they represent, it made me realise very quickly I don’t have a single decent photo with my dad. I thought about the few holidays we had to the Great Barrier Reef when I was growing up and while I probably would have shrugged at the idea of getting a private photography tour being a 12-13 year old boy, those captured images would certainly be something I’d love to have today.
Now I realise that there isn’t a whole lot I can do about it now which puts me in the same category as a lot of people when it comes to getting photos, professional or not, that most people regret not capturing more.
I’d like to think my memory is better than average but when Facebook ‘memories’ pop up reminding me of great parties, old friends and overseas travels that I haven’t thought about since they happened, it becomes fairly apparent that without those visual prompts a lot of what we experience is forgotten.
The big difference today? Image quality is better than ever, travel is cheaper than ever and while the stoic, unemotional ‘Aussie Bloke’ is still very much part of our society, I think even he can admit to wanting a few special moments captured with his family.
