For many years I’ve carried a small handheld voice recorder for notes, observations, reminders, and interesting sounds. Many of my BPL stories started as short audio snippets. After a trip, I’ll spend hours transcribing and expanding, both reliving the journey and starting story first drafts.
Like Ryan’s back pocket notebook, accessibility is critical for me. The recorder lives in a front shorts pocket, shoulder pocket, or even on a lanyard around my neck. I can take it out, press a button, record, stop, and put it back, without breaking stride or looking away from the trail. And I mostly stay in the moment, which is important, too.
My goals are to capture ideas and notes, not to document a trip. Some of my ideas span a dozen short recordings over hours or days.
I’ve tried taking lots of pictures while backpacking. But the process of photography – thinking about composition, lighting, angles, would it look better up ahead, etc. – disrupts my hiking flow too much. I should practice Ryan’s suggestion of quick, imperfect pictures not intended for publication.
And yet … I’ll probably shoot smartphone videos on future trips. For me, videography and production can be both very fulfilling and very frustrating. We’ll see.
Thanks for the inspiring podcast.
— Rex
.
