Writing Sights and Sounds

Some feature writers here have asked for tips on taking notes for travel and other feature stories. Anybody have any good tip sheets on this? They're not as interested in getting good quotes or taking notes during interviews as they are taking notes on scenes, sights, sounds, smells, etc.
Laurie Hertzel - Star Tribune

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Take a sensory inventory.
Out in the field, Gerald M. Carbone of The Providence Journal records sensory details in his notebook. "I will always write down 'Sight,' and I'll look around and see what I'm seeing; and I'll write down 'Sound,' and then 'Smell' or 'Scent.'"
The habit enabled him to report and write an award-winning story in three days about a dramatic mountaintop rescue that contained this evocative passage, lifted directly from his notebook.
"Below the treeline, the White Mountains in winter are a vision of heaven. Deep snow gives them the texture of whipping cream. Boulders become soft pillows. Sounds are muted by the snow. Wind in the frosted pines is a whisper, a caress."
You don't get writing like that by calling up the Weather Service.
Christopher "Chip" Scanlan - The Poynter Institute

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One key is a camera. Anyone who writes travel stories should have at the least a "point and shoot" with them. You can do long range as well as close up shots to help remember what it is that interests you along the way. Those photos become "notes" you can use when you return. Many moons ago when I did a few travel pieces, my photos were better than my notes. When I could, I would first take a photo of the placard or marker that talked about the object or place I was shooting. In my notes, I would then note something like "No. 1 (13-15)", which meant the first roll, 13th-15th frame.
I can see that same sort of trick being used on some feature stories.
As a former home and garden editor, I couldn't have written my stories as detailed without the help of the photos to look back on the details. The camera forces you to focus in on a particular part of your subject.
It's also a good training trick. I taught a class once in which I gave everyone in the class those little throw-a-way 35mm cameras. The students (trained journalists) were then instructed to go out and tell the story visually without the benefit of the written word. It gave them renewed appreciation for photographers but also had them looking beyond the obvious and toward more detail. That completed, they were then told to write the story. It helped.
Kathryn Sosbe - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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I don't have a tip sheet, but have edited a lot of feature and travel stories in my time. My first tip, when it comes to capturing scenes, sights, sounds, etc., would be to take notes and not rely on memory. My second tip would be to take notes on specifics/facts, along with impressions. As obvious as both seem, many reporters still only put quotes in their notebooks.
You might look up Don Murray's book, Writing to Deadline, and share Chapter 3 ("Reporting for Surprise") with your writers. There are several pages on using the senses, along with other good advice.
Also, several years ago, Bruce DeSilva did a wonderful program at the training editors gathering in Oakland, using photographs to help writers develop their ability to see and take notes on what they see. The exercise, I believe, was to show a series of photos (they were on slides) and have the writers jot down things they saw and how they would describe what they saw in print. You might consider some sort of a short program along those lines. If not photographs, show a movie, or tape something off TV that offers scenes or settings to describe.
Michael Roberts - Cincinnati Enquirer