“The shadow of our thoughts touches the world around us. Our actions, like a stone cast into the water with ripples reaching the distant shores. Our reflection returns to us. Let it come back with wisdom and light.”     – Maria Lehtman

Do you travel with information or first-impression?

I was never the type to spend hours exploring guide books about the destinations I was going to visit. For some reason, I always preferred to gain my first impression in person. In many cases, tourist guides give us a detailed record of a city or a country, but they cannot transfer the athmosphere of the location.

I made a habit of looking at postcards as soon as I arrived on the site. They very often share the best points of interest and insight to the lighting and angles to succeed in photography.

When I arrive at the scene, I tend to vary times and angles of taking photos. Even if I miss the best window of opportunity, I’ve never been disappointed following a postcard lead.

In the digitalized world we face a similar dilemma on a daily basis. We have an overflowing amount of data available, yet, it is getting harder to understand the motives, impressions and characteristic behind the information.

It is even more challenging in the future given that artificial intelligence (AI) is taking a larger role in providing services.

We still need our personal impression and a handful of ‘postcards’ to select the best.

Learning from the ‘Sun Salutation’

Two years ago in Zadar, I saw a beautiful postcard depicting the Sparkling Solar ‘Sun Salutation’ installation in the setting sun. When we finally managed to arrange a time to visit it at sunset, I realized there was a mass of tourists around it. I nearly turned back. I thought I would never get a decent shot.

The trick in any photography is to use the circumstances in your favor. You may not get what you expected, but you may find something else just as interesting. I came back happy with 20+ shots of silhouetted people on the solar panel.

The same method works on traveling in the digital world. We learn to let intuition guide us to our new destinations.

3 ways to navigate in digital traveling

Here are a few learnings I apply in my digital travels:

• You will never have enough time for everything. Choose a few topics most critical and exciting to you.
• Follow people who you can look up to and learn more from. Let them guide you to their ecosystems. Learn from them and show gratitude when they open their networks to you.
• Always give something back. You cannot do that to everyone all the time, but you can select meaningful messages, quotes, images introductions that provide inspiration to many at the same time.

Your digital footprint is a reflection of your thoughts and intentions.

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How do you navigate to your photographic destinations? I would be interested in learning if you have found great web sites, people or methods to apply.

Safe travels!

Hitchcock is quoted as saying: “The sunset of Zadar is the world’s most beautiful and incomparably better than in Key West, Florida”.  Source: Travel Destination Bucket List.

Ref. Weekly Photo-Challenge by Daily Post:Reflecting