Almost Done

Over the past two and a half weeks, I've spent days (literally) with the photographic memories of my trip.

I've downloaded all of them to my computer, deleted duplicates, deleted blurry or boring or tilted shots, and classified them into categories from A to Z: airports, birds, camps and Chobe, downtown Cape Town to Twyfelfontein, warthogs, wildebeest, zebras, and Zambia.

The next step was separating the good from the mediocre. Topic by topic, location by location, theme by theme, I uploaded them for my memory book. Occasionally I dipped into the mediocre pictures to tell the right story, and I requested permission to use a few pictures from other people.

I decided which photos could stand alone and which ones would make good collages. I cropped and labeled and wrote descriptions. I spent hours researching bird and antelope names that I could no longer remember. I made the font sizes consistent throughout the book and double-checked my spelling.

The whole exercise has been a great way to relive the trip. I miss the daily variety, the sights and the people, having time to read every day, the hot weather, hiking, and exercising my photographic skills. It has also lent some structure to a month's worth of jumbled memories. Almost as important, it's given me an answer to "How was Africa?"

But now the book is almost complete, the emails with the group are slowing down, and work is picking up. I'm left trying to figure out how to keep the trip alive just a little longer.