Journals vs. Photographs by Catharine Bramkamp

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Catharine Bramkamp as she shares with us “Journals vs. Photographs.” Enjoy!

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I have always kept a travel journal. I have spent hours first researching then just creating the perfect travel journal from notebooks to iPads. Travel journals and travel souvenirs are some of the very few things I save.

The hard copy journals have stayed consistent: pen, pages.

Over the years the electronic solutions were more challenging: dicey internet in Syria, outrageously expensive internet in Las Vegas, the hard copy was always there as a reasonable alternative.

Only recently has electronic option become stable enough that I can travel with just an iPad.

But why keep a travel journal? 

Why all that work writing down words when a photo will do the job?

Good question.

During a lunch sponsored by Overseas Adventure Travels. I asked around the table – how do you record your travel memories?

To one, the ladies answered: photographs.

I agree. Photographs are fabulous, easy and do the job.

Except when they don’t.

We spend time and money on our travels. Even though we could just scroll through photos of the same places on Instagram.

Wouldn’t that do the job? 

It doesn’t do the job. We want to feel a place.

Taste the food, drink the wine, soak in the atmosphere and feel the warmth of a foreign sun.

None of which can be photographed. Maybe the food.

During the annual August Fringe Festival, all of Edinburgh seems to be accompanied by a bagpipe sound track.

Every street features a young musician, determinedly standing in the summer rain playing a selection of bagpipe greatest hits.

Each time we exited our hotel to the streets – there was the music, as if created just to enhance our experience.

We took a photo of a musician, but the photo couldn’t capture the chill of the rain, nor the sheer delight of music floating over the traffic noise, a reminder we were in a completely different place.

Writing can alleviate the inevitable stress that attends travel.

There was no possible way to photograph how cranky I was our first morning in Kyoto.

Time in Kyoto

Our hotel was located in a busy part of town, tall buildings, crowded streets, nondescript hotel.

I huddled in a neighboring cafe (no coffee in the room – very cranky) well away from my husband and mother, morosely drinking bad coffee and bitching into my handwritten journal.

Feeling marginally better, mostly because of the coffee, I joined the rest of the tour group resigned to a crappy, ugly day.

I was completely wrong. Kyoto has beautiful, stunning gardens and temples, you just have to drive from the inexpensive hotel to reach them.

The photographs were lovely. Both my delight and relief were undetectable in the photos.  But alive in the cranky journal entry.

This is why I write.

And you can too.

The Magic of Journaling

You can express the magic of encountering street musicians in a Seville courtyard.

The nonsense of a hundred tourists in jeeps photographing a patient tiger.

Zooming in to create the illusion that they just “discovered” this Indian tiger while strolling in the wild.

Writing will fix an event and a memory more firmly than a photo can. I use my photos for triggers.

• What was the back story?
• Were there crowds?
• A talkative salesperson at an empty storefront?

Describe what cannot be seen, only felt.

The Many Kinds Of Journals

There are many ways to approach a journal.

I have created journals with taped-in pockets to hold ephemera.

I’ve used notebooks that fit in my travel purse, and armed with tape, tear and tape the napkins, coasters and brochures gathered for that day, then make notes about them.

You can take a tiny Moleskine notebook and just record a word here or there: soggy chips, marvelous martini, soaked in the bright sunshine at the cafe.

To get you started, try this idea: Brand Promise versus Lived Experience

Have you ever held up a brochure against the booked resort and wondered if you were in the same place?

I have now visited Norway twice and have yet to see that blue sky, turquoise water Fjord featured on every Instagram post and on every travel brochure I’ve ever encountered.

I’m not fooled, but it is entertaining to know how little a brochure description resembles the place described. It’s become a travel trope. And journaling has a place in this dichotomy.

What I like to do is copy out the travel itinerary with the correct spelling of cities and places and include the hopeful language. Then I just make notes about my own experience.

From the tour company’s description of our Indian safari: … we regroup for a second safari expedition.

Though it is rare, we may see the Royal Bengal tiger, usually sleeping by day in the tall grass.

The Royal Bengal Tiger

A recent census showed 26 tigers in the reserve. We also see lakes that hold crocodiles and a wide variety of water birds in season.

Here is what we did see: a Royal Bengal tiger. Her name is Arrowhead.

She posed just long enough for photos, then casually wandered just far enough to give our drivers an excuse to “follow her,” whooping and hollering and bouncing the tourist-filled jeeps over potholes the size of VWs.

Not exactly a hushed moment in nature. But it is probably better to view even an indifferent tiger from the relative safety of a crowded jeep than to face the same tiger – no matter how calm – unprotected in the wild.

(Many of the tourists were decidedly more snack sized than me.)

Pleased with the encounter, we photographed Arrowhead and happily posted her photo on Instagram, Facebook and eventually, the holiday newsletter.

Then, unlike any Facebook post you’ll ever see, my husband turned the camera around. A dozen jeeps circled Arrowhead, all crowded with at least 25 tourists each, breathless, yet still able to excitedly chatter.

Someone stepped on my hat. Not the private moment the first photo would have you believe.

From the Angkor Watt brochure:

Who knows what you might feel as you stand in the courtyard of this temple whose towers represent Mount Meru, the center of all physical and spiritual universe and the home to many gods in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies.

You will feel crowded.

Framing Photos

You’ve seen the posts. Here I am at sunrise in Angkor Watt, it’s just magical. Turn around – 1,000 tourists jockeying for the perfect Zen sunrise photo selfie sticks raised like a medieval invasion.

Enthralled with the ideal, we carefully frame our photos to match our expectations, to match what we know we should see and should experience.

That’s why the journal is indispensable. I wrote about taking that idealized photo of our brochure. I described the poorly trained local guide, the dozens of jeeps chasing an indifferent cat. I described the cold, the rain and snow that makes up the Arctic summer experience. And because I wrote it down, we know the truth behind that beautiful overhead ship photo. It’s fake.

The Path to Truth

I am a firm believer that writing is a critical step in truth. Yes, you are writing through your own lens, which makes everything you see personal and frankly, interesting. Yes, wherever we go, there we are. Photos can mislead, writing and journaling can bring us closer to the truth.

It’s Out!  
Out Loud – An Adventure in Writing for Women http://www.Catharine-Bramkamp.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach, Chief Storytelling Officer, former co-producer of Newbie Writers Podcast, and author of a dozen books including the Real Estate Diva Mysteries series, and The Future Girls series. She holds two degrees in English and is an adjunct university professor. After fracturing her wrist, she has figured out there is very little she is able to do with one hand tied behind her back. She delights in inspiring her readers.