Photography with your eyes

A photo can be considered only as a reminder. Many of the photos you can find here are reminders for me, or my eye's portraits for you.
During my travels, since I became a fan of photography, I have always looked at things both with my "normal" and "photographer" eyes. And I should say: the photographer eyes helps you remember, even if you don't look at the photos later. I still have printed in my mind the images of my holiday in Sicily in 2005. That wouldn't happen if I went there looking at places like I used to do years ago: just look, appreciate, but without the idea "Hey this is great! What's the best spot to capture this"?
So, I am happy to not fall in that sort of sterotype like "he sees things only through the lens" (you know, the classic stereotype of the tourist with the camera stuck on his nose).
If I didn't remember my "eye-photos" that I took before the actual ones, I would feel like I'm definitely missing something.

Time

A photograph can be more than just a reminder of your travel.
The eye sees movement, the eye is dynamic. The eye is a prisoner of time.
Photography freezes time. As long as there is something moving, photography cannot be the same as reality. And when the eye looks at a photograph, it's not a prisoner of time any longer.
The photographer can't avoid to be a technician. And sometimes he can also be considered as an artist. His/her technique and his/her "third eye" can dramatically transform that static image - using the technique as a tool. But this is not necessary to give a meaning to a photo. You can see reality in a photo - it is not a painting - but it is not the reality you see with your own eyes.
Your eyes see a continuous, never stopping sequence of frames in time, they could see nothing in it, that sequence of frames could bring no communication, no particular meaning, no feeling. But if you just pick one of those frames and look at it, you may find a lot of meaning in it. Each of those frames can bring more meaning that the whole sequence.
That's why photography today has still a meaning.
Before photography existed, time has always fooled our eyes.

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Technical notes: the albums Prague 10/01 and Montreal 11/03 have been shot with a 2Mp Canon Powershot S10. The albums Coburg 10/04, Veste Coburg 10/04, Berlin 10/04, Bamberg 11/04 and Sicilia 8/05 have been shot with a 5Mp Canon PowerShot G5. All the other albums have been shot with Canon EOS 20D, 40D and 5D, plus some shots in Frankfurt with a Canon Powershot G9. Occasionally, there are guests' photos in separate folders.