I guess to each his own. I personally like being around other photographers on a trip. You do learn something and can also learn to see something you might have missed or not thought about. I never presume to know it all or know a place, someone always has a different perspective. I can see the desire to be alone with one's thought but on something so far away I think the added benefit of prior knowledge about location and logistics is a great help. To me how you frame the image and make an image is a personal thing and whether or not someone is next to me does not really matter, I captured my moment at that time. i would think that on a trip like this you are with other people but not always shoulder to shoulder like at some popular locations. I would love to go on a trip like this but I doubt I could afford to make it there.
Just my $0.2 to the discussion.
Alan
It comes down to personality. I really don't want to know what somebody else did before me in the same place. That was one of the problems of shooting in the common calendar locations - forgetting how others had used them after you had allowed the images to indicate whether you felt the
places had possibilities... the better the other guy's picture the more difficult to erase it from your mind.
Fortunately for my sanity I seldom had to shoot whisky bottles. And imagine shooting Marlboro sans cowboys! Actually, I think I remember it was David James shot some great calendar stuff for them (Marl.) with girls (Jane Sumner)... probably before the PC brigade began to worry about girls, booze, smokes and advertising together in the same space. Lamb's Navy Rum also did girl calendars, but my memory of them is that, by comparison, they weren't very elegant. (Maybe designed with sailors in mind and Hong Kong bars.)
For me, icebergs will for ever be
Titanic.
Great days.
Rob C