I got the shot! So...?
I’ve been to London when Big Ben was shrouded. In Milan, I discovered that you need an appointment weeks in advance to see The Last Supper. And when I visited Vienna’s Baroque masterpiece Karlskirche, scaffolding was set up, completely obscuring the famous domed ceiling — and ruining any chance of a good shot. (At least they allowed visitors to ascend via elevator to get a firsthand look at the restoration work. That was cool.)
I know I’m not alone in finding that every time I visit a city, some major landmark is somehow not going to make it onto my collection of greatest hits. Even when I finally got to Minneapolis — I mean, Minneapolis! — I discovered that Claes Oldenburg’s iconic “Spoonbridge and Cherry” was missing a tiny portion of its celebrated self. Its bright red aluminum cherry topper was, apparently, in the shop being re-painted. As it had been for weeks.
The final straw came when I visited Ryoan-ji, the Kyoto temple with the famous rock garden. This time, it wasn’t the attraction’s fault — this being Japan, the sand is dutifully raked to perfection, oh, who knows?, ten times a day. And the stones are no doubt pretty immovable. No, this time, it was my fault: I discovered that my camera was completely out of battery power. I all but slapped my head in frustration, before remembering that I could ‘trick’ the camera as I had done on other such occasions. I’d turn it on, squeeze out a shot, and fumble to power the camera back down.
A few repeats of this hapless routine, though, quickly led me to examine my rather silly motions. Here I am, I thought, in the literal temple of Zen, determinedly attached to the idea of getting a great photo. As if, I thought, ten thousand others hadn’t already captured that photo. As if the photo defined the experience.
“People take pictures of the summer, just in case someone thought they had missed it, and to proved that it really existed,” wrote Ray Davies of The Kinks. It’s true — even though I pride myself on eschewing snapshots in favor of artier photos that capture a place through its shop windows, street scenes, and empty chairs. Instead, I think I err — if it can be called that — by chastising myself to get moving so that I can see “everything,” instead of yielding to my temptation to meander. On this same trip to Kyoto, I “did” three temples in one day, thoroughly tuckered out and peeved that I hadn’t really “seen” any of them.
Sometimes a picture IS worth a 1,000 words Photos by JoAnn Greco
Not being able to tick every temple or every masterpiece off your list might rankle. And not photographically capturing the ‘decisive moment’ might be frustrating, because, well, sometimes a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. But that’s the beauty of cities, isn’t it? They offer endless varieties, not one telling sight or one must-see site. (Although, if a one-hit wonder is on your travel roster, it’s on you to thoroughly check days, hours and state of availability!)
Letting go of that photo op, or skipping one more “sight” is, I think, the beauty of being a traveler. What we encounter on the journey — the cafe, the fight on the street corner, the bookstore filled with nary an English-language title — matters a whole lot more than the destination. Getting there is just the cherry on top.
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