Superfluous

I can remember my 11th Birthday. My father insisted on getting me a "practical gift", my mother and older brother insisted on getting me something I would enjoy. So I received two gifts, A cassette album of Poison - Open up and Say Ah; and drawing instruments with a Ladybird book "How to Draw".
Looking back now it probably was my best birthday gift ever, inspiration, guidance and materials. And though I have long forgotten any of that Poison album, I can still remember the first few lines in the Ladybird book. The first line read "Drawing is the only true way looking at anything".
de Botton covers this in his book easily through his explanations of Ruskin. I have very much believed that everyone should learn how to draw or sketch. But I feel I have only believed so because I believe if I can do it anyone can do it. Ruskin's reasons are far more noble.
Their thoughts of travel and places very much resonated with me; though I feel to really get a feel for any destination you need at least three weeks. One must balance the good and bad to truly appreciate any place. But to capture it, to possess what you love about any one one place has been one of my life dreams. I have always aimed to do this with people; believing that the world is beautiful but nothing without people to have an emotional connection.
I have never been able to capture things with a camera. It always seemed Superfluous as Ruskin said . If "Art is to be in praise of something you love"; to possess it's beauty and to forever have a connection to the emotion you feel when  you went there, then the snap of a camera to me does sometimes feel far too cheap an option.
Yet my sketching skills has always felt to hard an investment, because if it is something I love then I never feel it is up to the standard of what I see or how I feel. Somewhere in the detail of a brick or the mass of the entire building makes me feel that I cannot transfer the emotion on.
Maybe the truth is it is in a lack of skill. Or maybe I see beauty in too many things. But when I see something and fall in love with its image, I draw it and really seem to see it. But somehow the illusion on paper can never measure up to the physical object or place.
Do I see more than is really there or is it I cannot put everything I see on paper?