To photo or not to photo?

We’ve all experienced them – the person who misses the real thing because they’re so busy trying to photo something or even the thing itself.  And holiday for me is holiday without technology, but mainly internet/email.  But when you land unexpectedly into a huge beach festival in Spain (Noche de San Juan), I just wanted to have a camera to capture a flavour of the incredible experience.

Walking back at 2.30am along the beachfront, I was still feeling warm in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops.  We’d just spent the last 4-5 hours on the beach with some local families that we’d met on a church summer team during previous years.  Chilling out round bonfires; singing local chants and songs; waves crashing in; tasting local cuisine, and all as 3 generations of families happily together.  Sadly this was the best that my “brick” phone could capture after brightening it up a bit on my laptop:

Perhaps they didn’t know how to build bonfires as much as some of the Northern Irish do, but the “craic” was mightier and more friendly than any festival I’ve ever been to.  Laughter without a drop of alcohol in sight and not any police for miles despite the thousands all crammed onto the beach and the huge bonfires interspersed between everyone.  This (although Malaga is less scenic) would have been a more appropriate photo:

So it remains: the question of whether to photo or not to photo?

And I’ll guess we’ll all have our differences on that.