h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just read a blog post someone had written about a trip to Westminster Abbey, while in London.

It contained a recipe for pancakes, a photo of the pancakes, a photo of a nice smoothie found in Waitrose, a photo of the table in the cafe where they had lunch, a photo of their lunch, and a photo of their dinner.

And that's it. Not a single photo of anything to do with the building itself.

Now, I like reading about food, and I like getting recipe ideas, but is that really the most interesting thing you could find to say about a day visiting Westminster Abbey? No interesting history, no intriguing architecture, just a diary of what you had to eat that day?

I just don't get that. I'm constantly perplexed by the way some people view the world.

I think that's rather admirable. It shows initiative and creativity. You can find a bazillion pictures of Westminster Abbey plastered all over teh internetz, as well as articles about its history and its construction, and video clips of it on YouTube, even entire documentaries.

But can you find a picture of one of the tables at the local Kardomah, or a blended beverage/dessert from a nearby supermarket? I think not

More power to their elbow

That's one way of looking at it!

An interesting challenge when you go to one of these tourist traps is to try and get a really unique snap that won't be a carbon copy of five billion others on Google image search. It takes a bit of thought and time in the composition!

I'm pretty sure I could get you half a dozen images of blackpool that will never show up in a tourism leaflet

That's an interesting observation on why we take pictures now, and what we do with them. Before the www we really only took photographs for our own (and probably a handful of friends and family) viewing pleasure, and to keep as a memento of a visit, a journey, a holiday. And since phones didn't have cameras (or even leave the house), we probably didn't take as many, unless we were a professional or hobbyist photographer, or made a living travelling to various parts of the globe and then giving slide shows at village halls around the country.

Photos were generally a private affair.

Now, though, cameraphones are ubiquitous (and are getting better by the day), digital photography makes it a lot easier because we don't have to get the snaps developed, and photos are for sharing with the entire world, not just a few people we know.

You can store so many on one memory card that you often take far too many, too. I usually have to be quite ruthless in deleting them. I still haven't got around to sorting out all the photos I took in Berlin two or three years ago.

Selfies are another modern craze I don't take part in. The last thing the world needs is to see my ugly mug plastered all over the web.

Same here, on both counts.

I got into photography in a small way several years ago - early 80s I think - when I bought a camera off a bloke in a pub. No, really It was a Russian Zenit, with the 1980 Olympic logo on it, and it was supposedly one of the only SLR cameras with a built-in light meter that would work after the holocaust because the meter was powered by the light itself (solar powered I guess) rather than a battery.

Very handy for taking pictures of the nuclear winter.

I still have the negatives of every photo I ever took with it, although not all the prints, and my interest vanished after the camera was nicked, which was probably karma (not that I believe in it) because it was almost certainly bent as a nine-bob note when I bought it

That reminds me of one time in Cologne, when a guy grabbed the camera out of my hand and ran. But it was one of those single use disposable cameras, and he came back a couple of minutes later to give it back to me after he realised that. I couldn't believe the chutzpah.

I have a couple of old Russian and East German SLR cameras, but it's really hard (and very expensive!) to find film for them now and to get the film developed.

Regular 35mm film? Or do they use a different format? That's what my one used, although I seem to remember it had an unusual lens mount - either bayonet when most others were screw, or the other way round. I had a few lenses for it though - a 24mm fisheye, a standard (50mm?) lens and a 100 - 1000mm zoom, plus some macro rings. It took a damn good picture, although the clip that held the back of the camera shut wasn't so good and would sometimes open up, ruining one or two shots

I took it with me to all five days of the 1981 test against Australia at The Oval (you'd have to be in the upper income tax bracket to do that these days ), so I have some pictures (somewhere) of Lillee, Botham, Boycott, Alderman, Willis etc And I was working at a place in London which had a stairway up to the roof, so I got some fine shots of both sunrise and sunset over, er, East Ham and environs

What a muppet, stealing a disposable camera And the way he brought it back sounds like the way certain waiters will throw the coins back at you if they consider the tip unworthy

They're all 35mm standard film, yeah, except one, which uses a kind of "cassette" of film. I don't even know if they still make the film for it. I bought it in a junk shop for a couple of pounds, because I liked the weight and feel and look of it.

I have a Zenit that I bought at a car boot sale - a russian made one for the Russian market. Every now and again I think I should get a film and try it out. then I forget.

You should - they're built like a tank and almost never wear out, even if they were already pretty much obsolete (by western standards) as they rolled off the assembly line. As reliable as an old Lada, but a lot nicer-looking

This reminds me of poignant scene in the 1989 Jim Jarmusch film, Mystery Train. Two young Japanese tourists are sitting in a cheap Memphis hotel room.

The girl, Mitzuko, asks her boyfriend, Jun, "Why do you only take pictures of the rooms we stay in and never what we see outside while we travel?"

Jun replies, "Those other things are in my memory. The hotel rooms and the airports are things I'll forget."

I have a good memory for hotel rooms, though, especially in cheap hotels. The rooms are always either madly designed, or mad things always seem to happen in them.

My husband has been taking photos since the late 60s. He always used to wait ages for people to get out of the shot. So he has tens of thousands of these generic pictures. Not a single human being in sight to give a sense of perspective, nor one of any travelling companions to prove that they were actually there. That's how you did it in those days.

Now I've started making photo books of our trips, I've had to tell him to take pictures of people. (a) Those looking at the books want to see pictures of themselves and people they know, within the context of where the holiday was taking place (b) pictures of the Eiffel tower or Brighton Pier are easily available on the internet and not news to anyone. As has been said.

Food, however, is only there for a short time. The may have put a lot of work into presenting the food. The meal may be particularly memorable for other reasons, and that can be summed up by remembering what you were tasting at the time. That won't be there in a score of years' time, whereas Chartres Cathedral or the Grand Canyon will.

Similarly, in the flowers thread, I also mentioned that in a church, I will photograph the flowers, as they, too, won't be there for long.

In the case of the OP, though, I really think they could have included even just the silliest selfie with the Cathedral in the background. Perhaps they bought postcards to remember it by.

By the way, all my husbands photos - at least from 1971 onwards - are slides, which may well have faded by now, making them even less useful. We'll start working our way through them when he retires this summer.

Fair enough, if there's anything remarkable or interesting about the food, but when it's a bog-standard toasted pancake or cheese toastie...

I've amassed a collection of very old local photographs. One thing I like to do is pick one of them, and go out to take the same pic from the same vantage point nowadays. Bookbinding is another thing wot I have dabbled in, so ultimately the aim is to bind them all into a lovely big leather-bound book. But it's one of those things you never really get around to.

Perhaps, and, what springs into my mind, its in terms of the OP, because a lot of people are interested in food....... and that grabs them in?; Although, following that lodgic, one would then expect to still find actual photos, and writings, etc., once 'hooked in', about the actual* thing they were visiting... - unless this is some odd 'food' thing, only, really, and the 'main attraction', is really just an excuss, to go to a given location to eat the food

In relation to later posts; Peoples memories work in differnt ways.... I can clearly remember meals I've eaten out, that were particularly good, ten, or more years ago, err, actually some twenty years ago plus (just recalled a particularly fabulus meal in a nearby pub, circa 2002 ), - in relation to which; Taking photos of one's meal, in a resturant, might, for some people, be such a huge triggger of all the memories belonging to a particular trip, event, etc., that it is a better way to help recall those memories, than, say having the generic photo of th 'big tourist attraction', at the location; the pic of the plate of gorgeous food, at the nearby cafe, being both a much more personal reminder, of the time spent whereever it is, and just, more powerful... I've also a simular memory in some ways, for beer.... If I 'draw up', in my mind, the 'taste' of the 'double expresso stout', at the Sherringham beer fest, Circa err... many many years ago then from that... bang... all the memories of teh heat of that day... the trip there, the people we were with... the very amusing train ride back (beer festvil, end of evening, very small train; one toilet! ) bang...

...and that is why beer should be available on the NHS. It combats memory loss!

...Or promotes memory loss, I can't remember which.

I'm sure I used to know which... but since I overdosed on chocolate frogs/freddo's my mind has been playing up... err... or playing dub... I forget which

social media and pictures - well you have to find something that people are interested in and can relate to, and then run with it.

If only someone had ever though, for example, to blog about public transport seat covers...