We travel for the experiences. We travel for the memories. And one way to capture memories is with photographic evidence.

But perhaps we should consider more of a catch-and-release approach. Or maybe “immerse and absorb” is more appropriate.

Flem04 is planning an African safari trip during which he plans to do some “hunting” with his camera and wants to know how many memory cards he should bring. According to many of the responses, it’s a fair question, but there are other, better, questions that should be asked, such as:

• How many cameras should you take?
• At what size should you take the photos?
• Have you even considered video?

And then MmePerdu joins the conversation with this thoughtful perspective:

I’ve traveled for much of the last decade and feel I’ve benefitted greatly from all the pictures I’ve decided not to take with the camera but have stored in my own memory. It’s a wonderful thing to have the pictures but after looking at things through a camera lens for years, I’m finding I like the view better without it. I still take pictures but far fewer. Sometimes now I even forget to take them and consider it personal progress.

To be sure, MmePerdu’s perspective is a lonely voice in the thread, but it serves once again to highlight our love/hate relationship with trip pictures. As I have written about previously, we have come a long way from bringing rolls of film home to be developed to determining how many thousands of photos we need to take on a weeklong adventure. Not to mention the olden days when people used to throw dinner parties after a trip and break out the slideshow.

Do you find yourself taking more or fewer photos the more you travel?