As I noted earlier, I’m planning a weeklong photography trip to Corsica in November. Well, let’s amend that, I’m planning a weeklong trip with a good friend who’s also a hobby photographer. Probably much more of a photographer than I am. Regardless, we’ve done such trips before, and know we’ll have a good time together.
He lives a life unburdened by commitments to children and family, as I am, so perhaps his deeper focus on his hobbies is only natural. Or perhaps he’s just not spending as much time online. Either way, he’s doing the majority of the planning, especially for photography.
Of course, this particular time in history is a bit awkward with LLMs, and we’re both huge nerds: he enlisted four AIs (one local, two payed, one free) to collaborate on a vacation plan. I find this a bit awkward, as vacations are the one time where I’m free to things on my own schedule, which I relish.
So we compromised on extruding a list of options for various contingencies (places, weather, times), but leaving the choice up to us meatbags.
Naturally, that document has grown quite out of hand, and vaguely fills me with dread from the sheer complexity of it all. But I keep reminding myself that no plan survives contact with the enemy. The plan invariably turns out next to useless, but the planning is indispensable.
My greatest worry is that we’ll spend too much time driving; still a good old time with a good friend; but not as enjoyable as, say, hiking. But we’ll see, a trip such as this is necessarily a compromise. (My lack of exercise will undoubtedly curb my hiking enthusiasm before too long anyway)
This time I’m planning to swallow my pride a bit, and learn some landscape photography from him. My natural habitat in photography is documentary and life-integrated, so dedicated sitting-down with a composition does not come naturally to me, nor frequent in opportunity. But he’s very good at it, so there’s much to learn. I’ll even bring a tripod, which I normally hate. Meanwhile, he’s endeavoring to become a bit more spontaneous, and vowed to stick mostly to primes this time, so as to better capture the spur of a moment.
I’m sure it’ll be a great time! I hope our combined mixture of a rigorous plan on his end, and my adventurous trust in serendipity, will satisfy! If all else fails, we’ll still be two good friends in a beautiful place, what could possibly go wrong!
