Yelapa, Mexico.

This week, Cheri Lucas Rowlands challenges us with the single word, Face. Reading the challenge reminded me of our trip through the Panama Canal and the one photobomb we encountered on the trip. You can read the entire challenge post here. The photo above was taken by a nice lady we asked to help by taking our picture in Yelapa. I gave her my camera (the fancy Nikon with the big lens and all the buttons) and told her not to be surprised that it takes three photos when you press the shutter. No doubt unsure of how the big fancy camera works, I’m sure she never noticed the guy behind us who was ready to photobomb our shot. We didn’t discover the “bomb” until I was going through photos back at home.  I don’t know if he was even with our tour group, but he was having a laugh at our expense, no doubt.

Initially upset that this guy “ruined” our shot, I decided to have a little fun and share the photobomb on my Facebook page. Then playing with Photoshop Elements one day, I faked up another of our couples photos and put our friend the photobomber in it as well, commenting on how this guy seems to be everywhere. 

This is a good time to share our souvenir collection with you. In 2002, my wife, Lynn, and I went to Albuquerque to a family reunion and took a hot air balloon ride. While souvenir shopping, we saw this goofy photo frame, realized it was perfect for the photo taken of us on our balloon ride. That started our collection of crazy photo frames and a tradition that chronicles our travels.

The tradition makes souvenir shopping easy for us. Whenever we go someplace new, we go looking for the crazy photo frame that documents something about the area. If it has the name of the location in the frame, so much the better. The souvenir adds little weight to our travel load and, wrapped carefully, has always arrived home safely with us. We always ask someone to take our picture before we leave, knowing that it will go into our frame. Our only disappointment about the hobby is that some locations simply are too “classy” to have a crazy frame collection, or the ones they have are generic and clearly don’t relate in any way to the location. I close this challenge entry with a shot of one of the bookcases we have filled with memories of our travels.

John Steiner

P.S. I didn’t get a model release from the gentleman who photobombed us. He obviously wanted to be published or he wouldn’t have stuck his face in our picture. (grin.)