What does the Local Guides program mean to you?
For me personally, the Local Guides program is a possibility to feel myself as a citizen of the world, without any restrictions to the specific borders or countries. I love checking pictures of the various places, posted by the other Local Guides from different countries. The pictures are done from different angles, with the different lighting conditions, highlighting the details of demonstrating the general look, showing the variety of their authors and their points of view. But what is the same in the Local Guides - all of us are passionate about
- travelling and visiting new places,
- taking pictures,
- and sharing the information with all the world.
It’s a part of the process of knowledge accumulation of the humankind. And I love the feeling of being a small part of this movement. For example, I am very pleased with the fact that my contributions help to raise popularity of some places in my native country Ukraine, e.g., Ukrainian Venice - Vylkove in Odessa region, Holosiivskyi National Park in Kyiv etc.
A big component of being a Local Guide for me is also a lifelong learning. All the time I improve my photography skills, read a lot, improve my level of English. I understand this is important and influences not only me, because all of my contributions help other people to make their decisions about visiting some places. It’s important to stay objective, to show the truth. I think the Local Guides Program is one of the most truthful tools in the modern network, because Local Guides don’t sell anything, so they are not interested in changing or perverting the information.
Trying to show the maximum of truth, I even made my own lifehack of taking pictures of the restaurant food - I prefer photographing it after just starting a meal - thus the plate looks natural and not resembling a resaturant menu. For instance, a plate with the fried sardines at Le Papounet retaurant near Nice, France, was quite viewed!
An important thing, Local Guides progman for me is also an apportunity and stimulation to notice and to catch the atmosphere of the places i visit, not only to pass it to the other people, but also to preserve and to keep my memories, to remember my personal stories and adventures that I shared with my family and friends in the real life, not through the internet. One of my favourite pictures was captured in Paris, showing a sunny and floral atmosphere of Montmartre.
I also like the internationality of the participants of the global community and also the absence of the political contexts. For instance despite the conflict of Ukraine with Russia, Ukrainians and Russians in the Local Guides program stay politically independent and publish pictures and reviews about different places without any political context. In the current situation of wars and pandemic in the world, the Local Guides program is also a hope for a brighter future.
So what I like -
- being the friends of the World,
- hoping for the better,
- making the World a better place.
