In what has become the ‘tradition’ of this blog, to the extent that this blog has even existed long enough to have anything approaching a tradition, and what likely has always been if not its intent but its fate, I wanted to share a random thought about a tourist attraction I visited last year. My 2019 photographic retrospective, after all, focused all too much on my portrait photography to the expense of my travel photography.

Read down below to find out more about where this is…

Not that I can seriously claim that the image above is a ‘photo’ rather than a ‘snapshot’. I’ve ever been interested in the difference between the two, and usually continue to have a mostly internal dialogue as to what constitutes one or the other.

For me, a photo is what happens (hopefully) when one sets out to create an image and engages in a generally deliberate artistic/creative process to create on such image. Generally speaking, the gear and depth of field used, and even the subject (whether it is something that has been photographed before by someone else of how frequently), has no bearing on whether an image is a snapshot or a photo.

A snapshot, on the other hand, would be defined as being spontaneous, casual.

In many ways, the image above qualifies for both definitions. Whether it is a photo or a snapshot is irrelevant to the fact that it is a great memory of a place I did not intend to go to when I went to Atlanta in May 2019.

I normally find aquariums to be almost worse than boring to be in: dark, populated by creatures I find largely uninteresting, crowded by a lot of children. This combination of factors makes them rather not conducive to photography and just pointless to visit even if they were. There’s just nothing to see there, and too many people blocking your way to enjoy it anyway.

My experience at Georgia Aquarium makes me review this pessimistic view of aquariums. Although certainly packed, I was positively surprised by the variety of species and the presentation of "exhibits”, which were both excellent. It’s just my luck, though, that I was visiting during what seemed the busiest weekend of the spring for schoolkids, but eh, nothing really is ever perfect!

I’m happy that I finally caved in to my friend’s suggestion that I visit the aquarium.

When May 2019 Where Georgia Aquarium @ Atlanta GA