James,
I'm glad for your answer.
The aversion to someone posting 10 pictures at once is in general a protest against shoving at us unselected or unrelated pictures. This paralyses us since we cannot focus.
We have had 3 travelogues, AFAIK. Arctic Eskimo, Tibet and Costa Rica and one dedicated photo-essay on the coffee plantations of Nicaragua.
When we started with David Eaves and the Arctic Eskimo, I was overwhelmed at first. I wondered about the photographic quality and the overload. It's so hard to get magic pictures with snowed in streets sullied by traffic. There's not a lot of color. The skies are not spectacular. Then I recalibrated by view to that of seeing a documentary, where the series of pictures tell a story and we get the gestalt of the place over time and many images. Even if one only reads the text here and there, once has a great sense of the village, its close affinity with the whales and belief in spirits with great powers.
With Fahim's journey it was easier. Tibet is in the sky and the pictures were spectacular and the street scenes colorful. It was easier to follow.
Now with Costa Rica Robert and Anne Watcher provide interesting vignettes of Costa Rican life devoid of any pretense. One can get a sense of the openness of the society to them and share the welcome. At the same time we lean a little more each time of the nature of the society.
I have looked through it a couple of times, to see what new things have been added. I just haven't been moved enough to comment I suppose. I have never been to Costa Rica and doubt very seriously that I ever will go. For that reason I am interested in seeing the photos from the trip. It's just difficult for me to see such an overload of images and then have anything to say other than "Wow these are really nice. What a beautiful place with beautiful people." I was just going to wait until the end to make those comments.
So this is an important issue. It means we need escape valves for this. Select pictures should perhaps be elsewhere in regular threads where they will stand in comparison to other pictures of that theme and not be a major commitment for anyone to make a brief comment.
At the same time, when I do see this kind of post, all I can remember is seeing people being chastised, in a very nice way, if they happened to post 3 or 4 images at once. They were always told to just post one at a time and we could discuss each giving the amount of attention it deserved. Is this kind of posting just going by different rules because of the nature of it?
Yes, I think so. Maybe we need to have a prefix, "Travelogue:" to signify there will be a steady addition of different images and explanatory text as the photographer moves from place to place on his journey. We'd hope for general comments. Specific images could be used for C&C elsewhere in OPF where appropriate. Then we wouldn't be overwhelmed.
I myself am looking at this with an open mind and therefore welcome everyone's suggestions as to optimal approach for such full-bodied, long-term photographic essays.
Asher