A thousand things a picture doesn't say

So many times I have lamented that my photos don't seem capture what I see. I know there are many better photographers out there (really I'm just a tourist with a camera) but maybe there is no way to really encapsulate an experience in an image. If pictures were as good as the real thing, why would any of us be compelled to travel?

As Ben and I climbed Storsteinen mountain to overlook the island of Tromsø the views were breathtaking. It was close to noon and the sunshine was streaking across the island. I could imagine people in their homes and offices turning their faces to that long-unseen light. The mountains beyond looked like pink icing and the cloudless sky was so many shades of blue. These are things you can glimpse in the picture. But it was also the air, cold and fresh in my lungs as I climbed. It was the sound of crunching snow under our boots and the stillness of being alone on a mountainside. It was my nose, cold and tingly, and my heart, beating solidly as I pushed my self upward. And it was the exhilaration of standing at the top of a mountain, knowing that I had accomplished something both basic and profound and feeling like a world with such beauty must still be full of possibility. A thousand photos can't convey the experience, a fact that both frustrates and astounds me!