Other people’s vacation photos

May 11, 2004

This week, Haines had its first big cruise ship of the season. Hundreds of people walk off the ship and come into town to shop, go on tours, see wildlife. I imagine they get a big kick out of it.

I was riding my bike through town to go home for lunch or something, and I noticed that I was in the background of someone’s video shot. I think he was filming the mountains. I can just imagine them looking at the video, with narration characterized by the inflection only squinting through a viewfinder can bring… “Well, here we are in Haines, Alaska” [panning slowly from the mountains down to street level] … Those were the mountains, look at them go! And those are some trees, and there’s the street. And that guy in the blue shirt, that’s a real live Alaskan!” [They shut off the camera and go look for a moose giving birth.]

I’ve often wondered how many videos and photo albums I’ve shown up in. Seriously, we must all at one time in our lives been in the background of other people’s vacation photos.