Starting today, not only some diaries and photo albums on this website provide details about my travels in the recent past, but also a few Google Photos web albums, for which I chose the common title "The World in 36 Pictures". The reason for choosing this title, and my motivation for this series to begin with, shall be explained briefly in the following.

Since I have bought my first digital camera, I take much more pictures than before (a common phenomenon, I suppose). Of course, not every picture is a really good one. So, on lots of hard drives around the world, gigabyte upon gigabyte of pictures are stored – but never again looked at. In order to avoid at least my best shots from being forgotten, I compile them after each holiday in a virtual photo album.

However, it was quite striking that even these "small" collections of good shots were usually larger than the total number of pictures I took during a whole holiday back in the "old days" (with non-digital cameras). This is why the question occured to me, which of the pictures I would indeed have taken back then? This question cannot be answered reliably, but it triggered my series "The World in 36 Pictures": I tried to compile only 36 pictures each for the regions I travelled in during the last few years. These 36 pictures should give a good overview of the most impressing sights within these regions. To my great amazement, I succeeded without much difficulty. Hence, a simple miniature film is enough for a whole holiday – if you are able to select the best motives and perfect camera settings at first go…

Of course, this is quite a feat. However, it does show that – even in times of digital cameras – it is possible to compile a short, but concise slide show for friends when telling them about one's holidays. With the following web albums, I would like to prove my point:

• United States in 36 Pictures
• Australia in 36 Pictures
• Canada in 36 Pictures
• Ireland in 36 Pictures