1

I've got a pic as you can see, but really it's hardly worth it - even the enlarged version of the profile pic on here is still pretty tiny. Doesn't show too much... just as well really - I would probably be banned if everyone could see the suspension forks (oops!!.....)

2

A lot of us appear on travelling two's website. Or you can see me in my photoblog at the link of the bottom. But the reason why i don't post a picture here is cause i am on the lazy side. And anyway i like being anonymous.

3

Look at me.

4

Like a lot of people here I joined before the invention of avatars so just never bothered. But now that you're on my case... behold my avatar.

BTW Newislander I just looked at your photoblog and you appear to be a grey question mark. Not at all what I expected. I thought you were a real person.

5

Yes well you have to look at a few of pictures on my blog to find some of me. Ha! I am there. And i don't look like a question mark! I used to have a nice avatar on taht site but they changed everything i never got around to uploading another one.

6

I can't be bothered, but if you really want to know what I look like, there's a link to one of my bike blogs - few pics of me there.

7

I like my grey legs.

If anyone is interested in my touring bikes, I do have pics of my off-road tourer just before its maiden journey here, and my light road tourer here.. Oh, and pics of the brazen little hussy which has distracted me from my touring bikes here.

8

I don't have a camera!

9

Really simon!. why not? And how do you find it, travelling without taking pictures. As i am sure you have travelled with one at some point in your life, how do you find it not travelling with one. Can you remember much of your travels? I must say i love having my pictures on the internet too look back on. Much better than albums but i still haven't finished up loading them all.

I hope no one minds the thread jack but i think this is an interesting topic to explore. ie travelling without a camera, although perhaps simon is the only person who can give much insight into the other side.

10

#9, I used to just travel with (at most) a small disposable camera.

The origin of this is that I was once quite keen on photography, and back in the 1990's I went on a science trip to the desert borders of China and Mongolia, an area at the time closed to regular tourists. I invested in various camera parts I couldn't really afford and took what I thought would be some pretty amazing pictures. Unfortunately, each one was wiped by the X-ray machine at a provincial Chinese airport. I simply couldn't pick up a camera for a few years after that.

Its only fairly recently, now that digital is so cheap and good quality that I've started taking pictures again. Actually, the main incentive for me is that its now so easy to share pics online - I never really saw the point of taking lots of pictures, then storing them in a box somewhere gathering dust, occasionally brought out to show to bored relatives.

11

I think that its because were so damn handsome and pictures will make the other branch bloggers jelous of our ravishing good looks.
Or not.
Mudy (sizezero)

12

To reply to New at No 9: Sorry, I lied, I do have a camera - in fact quite a few, but they are old 35mm ones so what I meant is that I dont have a downloadable digital camera.

Nonetheless, I don't take a camera with me on my trips anymore!! Shock horror!! I use my eyes instead.

When I first started travelling many years ago, I took slides. They were great quality, but expensive and each shot was chosen carefully. I now have boxes of them stored in my house.

When I gave up work to enjoy myself more, I decided to take cheaper prints. These were duly taken, catalogued and now sit on my bookcase, mainly unlooked at.

As time went by, I found that I was taking fewer and fewer pictures. A combination of : having to stop; getting camera out of bag; getting camera out of protective wrappings; and after a while many things that are notable were becoming commonplace to me - how many rice terraces, elephants, colourful locals, etc do I need to photograph?

After returning from a trip to NZ with 4 shots and SE Asia with about the same, it just didn't seem worth taking a camera, so I didn't and don't miss it. In fact I find it liberating as I don't have to think about taking photos.

I keep meaning to buy a cheap digital - but am not sure I would use it much.

I have never spent much time looking back at my trips - I am normally planning the next one as soon as I get home. I also have a good memory and rarely use photos to remind me of my trips.

Finally, in grumpy mode, digital cameras can really pee me off. People click at everything with no thought for anything (composition, lighting, cultural sensitivity, etc). For example, on a recent visit to Bagan in Burma there was a steady stream of people whose idea of seeing a sight was just to point, click and move on, without really seeing anything. Usually walking in front of me to get their all important shot(s). Then there is the nightly task of editing, which seems to have taken over from the art of conversation at many a restaurant or bar table.

This does not mean that I don't like photos and long may you all continue to take them and post them on the net.

13

Thanks Simon. I went for a period without taking pictures much and also found it liberating. But then i got into again.

I quite like the way photography makes you look closer and at different things as well.

I dont think people's behaviour has changed significantly between film and digital. they always did those things you say annoy you. The average snapper isn't sensitive and doesn't think too much about what htey are taking pictures of. Its just the way it is. It takes a lot of picture taking to realise what is not worth photographing. ie, the turtle you just spotted in the creek.

From time to time i wonder about whether i should just leave my camera behind but i'm not ready to do it yet.

I found on my first trip with my digital slr that editing at night after each session is a very bad idea. Its better to edit them when you get home. I still haven't been able to properly confront and process the pictures from that trip. But now that i leave the editing until i get home, i enjoy it and my pictures much more. If only i could solve the problem of how to en masse convert all my raw pictures to jpg in one brief move, the whole job would be much much easier but i just can't figure it out. I think there's something wrong with my program. Or my computer. I know i am supposed to be able to do it and have been given instructions but can't make it go. Oh well.

So my plan these days is to put up all of them at are ok enough to look on my photoblog. And when that's all done, i will go back and pick out the best to make a short story of my trip. And those i'll put on my facebook page. So then i have two lots and neither will be lost and they are sharable with others quite easily.

Unfortunatley, its taken me a while to work this all out and in the meantime i've lost some pics somewhere from the trips while i was working this out.