A trip without Camera

Tripoto
Photo of A trip without Camera 1/3 by Chirag Malik

So, I was standing at ‘The Aguada fort’, Goa in a little over cast weather. It wasn’t the high season but still the fort was full of people. It was about to rain, so did not carry my camera and also I was a little tired from the trip, thus, I did not even take out my mobile to click picture. I stood at the corner and witnessed the picturesque scene from my naked eye. It was beautiful until I realized none of the person is without mobile or camera their hands. My eyes were running from one point to another just to try and find one person who was not clicking photo but just exploring, witnessing, admiring the walls, feeling the weather, enjoying the architecture, being aware of the wet grass underneath their feet, breathing deep the fresh air. But to my disappointment, I COULD FIND NO ONE.

I decided to go on short trip without the camera, just for an experience.

I don’t exactly have problem with cameras and clicking photos but I don’t understand the obsession that people have with clicking every thing they come across while they are on a trip.

Photo of A trip without Camera 2/3 by Chirag Malik

Capture the image in the mind not in the camera

When I was without the camera, I started seeing the monuments with more details, observing the people with more precision, being more in PRESENT. I was able to cover and finish the sightseeing quicker than the others. I realized that I had no intensions of taking these memories with me at home, but to cherish and enjoy ‘the moment’.

Your mind is more than a machine

Cameras can capture the moments that you would want to cherish and remember for a long time. It is indeed a great invention but don’t underestimate the power of your mind. It can interpret the experience for you, just the way you want. Mind works the best when you actually are in the moment, in present, wholeheartedly. Then only you would be able to experience and enjoy the moment fully. If you only think of capturing the moment via Camera but not via mind, you will miss the moment. You can only imagine the experience by seeing photos but you have not lived in it though.

Photo of A trip without Camera 3/3 by Chirag Malik

Photos are deceiving

How many times we come back from the trip and see all the photos and feel like going again and experience it. But have you ever asked yourself whether the same feeling you had when you were on the trip? We always smile when some one clicks our photos and after seeing them, ‘we feel that it was great’, ‘we enjoyed a lot’, ‘the place, the people, the culture was fantastic’. But did we actually loved and experience the place, the people, the culture wholeheartedly? Did we actually have the same feeling when we were on the trip? I asked myself these questions many times while seeing the photos of a trip I had, and most of the time the answer was NO. Sometimes on a trip I was too tired to appreciate the simplicity of their culture, I neglect the people on the streets, I don’t like the different type of food, I stop admiring the traditional dance, or sometimes I am occupied in my own mind – thinking about the work, missing my ex, desperate to talk in my own language. Yes, I don’t have the exact experience that I see in my own photos.

If you are a photographer or enjoy clicking photos, please don’t take me wrong. Capture the landscapes, the mountains, the rivers, the people, the culture, the life, as I have said, camera is a great tool for that.

But once in a while, just experience the life as it is, just let go off the baggage of old memories, and make some new; be in the moment, feel the life through your body and capture the picture in the mind. Because what your body can do in order to make you feel blissful, no machine has the capability to do so.

Originally published on www.anatman.in.