Photos Courtesy of . . .

A word about the photos that will dot the travelogue entries.

They are not all mine.

Thanks to the invention--and luxury--of digital cameras we all were snapping pictures on this trip: Ric and Tami, Rus and Jenny, Adam and Michelle, me, Matt and Cissy, Megan and Spencer, Brock and Julie, and Cassie. That's at least 8 digital cameras that were capturing our trip and some couples had more than one camera going at a time.



Several times throughout the trip each person would take the memory card on his or her camera to Rus. Bless Rus's techie little heart, he had brought an external hard drive with tons of space where he deposited all of our pictures. And at the end of the trip, he gave us each a copy of all the photos organized by our names.




So, I've got access to everyone's photos. Which makes finding material for each post very, very easy because I've got more than 4,000 photos to choose from!




I mentioned before I'm operating under a new theory regarding picture taking and how to get a great shot. I figure I just snap as many pictures as possible in the shortest amount of time and hope that one of them turns out really well. Let's just say that while my idea is great in theory, it really didn't develop well in practice. What I ended up with was over 1,000 photos on this trip. Of the lot, I'm not sure there are many that are truly spectacular. I learned a lot though sifting through the pictures from everyone else's perspectives.




I learned that one person is really good at sitting still and waiting for the great shot to come to her, someone else is great at manipulating light and exposure for a good shot. Another person is aware enough to pull back and give an overview shot of the entire group or the most mundane activity which proves invaluable later on. Someone else sees artistry in simple things and captures details I never would have imagined. And still another person remembers to convey information with each photo and another captures clearly the beauty of the countryside.



All of that is to say that many of the photos you see are not from my camera but that of a family member. In the process of picking my favorite photos from each person and loading them into Picasa and then Flickr and then this blog, I have a hard time tracing the origins of every single shot.




So, in an effort to ease my mind just a little and still pick and choose which shots I'm going to use, I want to acknowledge each and every photographer on the trip--Ric, Tami, Rus, Jenny, Adam, Michelle, Matt, Cissy, Megan, Spencer, Brock, Julie and Cassie.

Thank you! I'm going to use your very good work with pleasure. :)