The Armchair Tourist

Giving back with things you probably have around the house Text and Photos by Joy Underhill

If you’re like me, you may have found yourself wondering if there was some way to make lemonade from the lemon called COVID-19. Here I was, sitting on a mountain of photos from trips I had taken. My usual outlet – doing travelogues at local libraries – was no longer an option. But was there another way to share...?

That’s when I hit upon the idea of the Armchair Tourist. The term originated from that classic children’s book, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” where the protagonist sits in his chair reading about penguins in “National Geographic” and ends up hosting a bevy of them in his living room.

Rather than creating a video of my traditional PowerPoint slides, I decided to develop photo collages, each of which captured one aspect of the trip. For instance, in the Australia series, I covered Sydney and Melbourne for a day or two, then focused on interesting animals and plant life, hikes, and the Great Barrier Reef. Likewise, when the Armchair Tourist visited Cape Cod, I created separate collages for birds, black-and-white images, and beach time.

This was the hardest part of doing the collages: deciding on the theme of the day. I typically planned these out well in advance, using the top 100 shots from any major trip. Longer trips (two or more weeks) earned 10 collages; shorter ones, just five.

Figure 1. Join Joy as she travels the world, sharing images from her adventures!

I’m not particularly skilled at using Photoshop, so this was my chance to learn. As with anything, repetition made it oh-somuch-easier the next time around. First, I created a template containing the name of the series, a subtitle of the topic, my copyright notation, and the date. From there, it was a matter of plugging in the right photos…easier said than done! I crop based on the characteristics of the photo, not print or presentation size. That preference made for challenging layouts, but I eventually found a way to make things fit. My goal was to have the viewer’s eye travel easily from one image to another, but not in any particular pattern. I chose a color theme to distinguish one day from the next and to coordinate with the predominant colors in the collage. Lastly, I added captions for each photo and flattened the image before creating a JPG.

Share, Share, and Share Again

I initially offered nursing homes and senior centers a weekday email containing the collage of the day with a short writeup. I asked friends and family for contacts and reached out directly. I ended up sending emails to about eight locations, one as far away as Connecticut, which they would post on TVs in gathering rooms at their facilities. Figure 2. Joy uses the last day to share some of her favorite images that may not have fit into any of the

Creating the Collages

earlier themed days. later created a dedicated Facebook page just for the Armchair Tourist series. That way, people wouldn’t have to search through my other Facebook posts to find the collage of the day.

I contacted the Victor Farmington Library as well, and they began posting them on their Facebook page. Over time, the librarian asked if I would do virtual slideshows via GoToMeeting. Again, since I already had my travelogue slideshows created in PowerPoint, it was a matter of showing up and running through my presentation. We recorded all sessions for later viewing. My latest virtual travelogue to Scotland is scheduled for October 8, with registration coordinated through the Victor Farmington library website.

Lessons Learned

As with many things sent electronically, I got great feedback from some places and none at all from others. The nursing homes responded sparingly, but then, they were dealing with a pandemic! I did develop a nice following on Facebook, which only encouraged me to create and share more.

The virtual tours were sparsely attended, but I think some of that was due to Zoom overload. We did have good postpresentation discussions, where people were able to share their own travel experiences.

I very much enjoyed the process of selecting the images and making pleasing arrangements of them. The revisiting of treasured trips in a time when no one could travel was

very satisfying, and seeing the collages as a collection gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I’m considering putting them together in a photo book as a memento of this strange time.

If you’re considering doing something like this, I would advise:

Select and group your top x photos. Depending on how many collages you want to create, choose more than enough for the series. I used between four and seven images per collage, so having a “top 100” to draw upon eased the selection process when I needed to make things fit. Create a template up front and use it religiously. It makes the collage effort much easier and gives your images a cohesive and predictable brand. Build more than one collage at a time. I found that I could easily create a week’s worth of collages in short order once I was on a roll. On busier days, all I had to do was write up an intro and click Send or Post. Share collages at a predictable time of day. This makes it easy for recipients and viewers to expect and anticipate your images. Include photo captions. Otherwise, no one has a context for what they are seeing. Captions let you inject a little personality and fun too. Save your favorite images for your last collage. I often found that my best images lacked a theme, so I saved them for a final “parting shots” collage.

To see more of Joy’s Armchair Tourist collages, check out https://www.facebook. com/Armchair-Tourist-111910270557396. Figure 3. Capturing the true taste of Maine on Day 1.

Figure 4. The theme of Waterfalls is evident in this daily excursion in New Zealand.