Documenting Your Experience Abroad, by Amy Russell, Owens IEC
You know one of the best ways to share your experiences abroad will be through photos and video. But how can you capture everything? You can’t! But here are some tips to help you get the highlights.
You know one of the best ways to share your experiences abroad will be through photos and video. But how can you capture everything? You can’t! But here are some tips to help you get the highlights.
- Focus on the big picture. Make sure you get a big-picture photo of the whole area or building before you focus on the little details. It can be easy to miss that sometimes.
- Include a human for scale. Some places are so big and impressive that it can be hard to capture it on camera. Having a friend (or yourself!) in one photo will provide a helpful size comparison.
- Take a picture of the welcome sign. It will be easier to remember where you went if you have the correct spelling of the location and can connect each set of photos to the place where they were taken. You can also search online when you get home to make sure you remember the details correctly.
- Take notes. Notes aren’t just for classrooms! Jot down a few words about what you did, saw, and experienced each day. You can also write down names or a few notes about something you want to write about in your journal later. One recommendation is to keep a post-it note or notebook page for each day of your travels to make sure the important points (good and bad) are written down for use in journal entries, blog posts, and photo captions. Not a writer? Consider a nightly voice recording before you go to bed each night, where you can recap your thoughts and feelings about your experiences that day. You can listen back or make the audio into a slideshow narration after you get home.
- Remember to look with your eyes (and feel with your heart). It might sound cheesy, but the most important thing to remember is that not all your memories will be stored in photos. The best memories, the thoughts and feelings you have while you study abroad, can’t be captured with a camera. Make sure you take the time to look around and experience everything without always taking pictures or video.