A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

Taking pictures of people in the countries I visit is one of my favorite travel activities. I have traveled and worked in some very poor areas of the world. One day I was getting ready for a trip and it occurred to me that many of these people probably don’t even have a family portrait together. How tragic would it be as a kid to grow up watch your parents pass away and have nothing to remember them by. It’s something we take very much for granted in our society. So I decided to bring along my Canon Selphy battery powered printer.

The first video I made while on a military deployment in Panama.  The quality isn’t that great, but there is an intense stand off between a turkey and myself, and a lot of happy people getting family photos.

On another trip to Panama this time with my fancy new HD camera the Canon VIXIA HF S200 I decided to make another video handing out photos. It was a bit difficult setting the video camera on the tripod, and trying to get the shots I wanted from both the video camera and the still camera, but I think it came out very nice.

This is a great way to get close the people of the country you visit. It’s the sort of thing you can’t stop talking about when you get home from a trip.  Friends back home will ask, “How was the beach? Did you do a canopy tour?” But spending time making friends with the locals always makes for a better story.