I wouldn’t consider fishing to be “gadgets” - like cameras (if photography enhances the experience), they are tools to an end, and they don’t intrude on others’ experience. (Now, if you brought “fish radar” like I’ve seen used in boats, I might accuse you of cheating. ) Additional activities can actually enhance the experience and the connection.

The beginner groups I help lead usually generate a couple of hundred photos on each trip. I usually look at them, once. To me, photos seem, well, one-dimensional; the memories I have of the trip are definitely multi-dimensional and vivid. When I find my memories of a place fading, it means I need to go back there. (I’m really the only one in my family who enjoys the backcountry, so going through albums doesn’t resonate with them. I’m not sure how I failed them, but I can’t help feeling like I did.) I can understand how my feelings about photos are in the minority, though.

I really do think that much of my feelings are created by the fact that I have to concentrate so hard to connect to the natural world, to block out the intrusions of the man-world that tries so hard to impinge.