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Author Topic: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway  (Read 8360 times)

Rajan Parrikar

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #20 on: August 07, 2017, 01:03:52 pm »

Rajan, I have fond memories of Goa from those travels 30 years ago.  Is it suffering the same fate?

Yes, it went from 'idyll to sewer' in a space of a generation. I could say more, but I have grown weary of angry Indian internet mobs.

Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #21 on: August 07, 2017, 04:33:19 pm »

We photographers travel so that the rest of the world doesn't have to. It is our bounden duty to travel and deflower pristine places. For the rest, there's YouTube.

Hi Rajan,

Having read your posts on this site, I know you will have written the comment above with your tongue placed firmly in your cheek, but unfortunately and sadly in my opinion, quite a lot of photographers do actually think in this way and what is worse, see nothing wrong in thinking this way.

It really is quite simple folks, we can't expect to find it, photograph it and then try to make a living out of running workshops to it through promoting it online and in magazines etc, without irreparably changing/damaging it to the point, it becomes something considerably less than what it was before we ever set eyes on it.

I am not saying we should stop going to photograph these places, or that we should no longer run workshops, or post images online or sell them to magazines etc, however I do think we need to stop moaning and blaming everyone else for a problem of our own making.

Dave
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davidgp

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #22 on: August 08, 2017, 03:51:33 am »

Hi Rajan,

Having read your posts on this site, I know you will have written the comment above with your tongue placed firmly in your cheek, but unfortunately and sadly in my opinion, quite a lot of photographers do actually think in this way and what is worse, see nothing wrong in thinking this way.

It really is quite simple folks, we can't expect to find it, photograph it and then try to make a living out of running workshops to it through promoting it online and in magazines etc, without irreparably changing/damaging it to the point, it becomes something considerably less than what it was before we ever set eyes on it.

I am not saying we should stop going to photograph these places, or that we should no longer run workshops, or post images online or sell them to magazines etc, however I do think we need to stop moaning and blaming everyone else for a problem of our own making.

Dave


+1

alex

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #23 on: August 08, 2017, 09:47:56 am »

What a very depressing thread - having been longing to visit for several years but unable to spare either the time or the necessary cash, I am now hoping to go there in the late spring/early summer next year. It sounds as though I need to be very selective about where I go.

Alex Ramsay
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Chris Kern

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #24 on: August 08, 2017, 07:23:25 pm »

Steptoe Butte in the Palouse used to be a solitary experience.  Here it is last week. This is about a third of the photographers present at sunrise that morning.



I really like this image.  The postures of the subjects couldn't have been better.  Perfect timing.

Jeff

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #25 on: August 09, 2017, 02:46:23 am »

Here in the UK the BBC have a news item this morning about concerns relating to  the numbers of visitors to the Isle Of Skye, Scotland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-40872328/does-the-isle-of-skye-have-too-many-tourists
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Kevin Raber

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #26 on: August 09, 2017, 07:23:52 am »

I have now returned from Iceland.  Yes, a lot of what I said on my trip article was as expected.  The city is very busy.  On the one evening, we were there a cruise ship arrived and dumped 6000 people into the town.  Our workshop tours avoid the Golden Circle area completely.  On this trip, we headed straight to the Highlands.  The hotel we use there was completely sold out.  The campgrounds filled to the brim.  We ventured out to see a number of locations and for the most part, we were more or less on our own.  People (tourists) would arrive stay 5 minutes and leave.  They were happy with their iPhone shots.  We also had some very windy and wet weather which kept down the number of people I am sure.  On one road we were driving in the Highlands it looked like rush hour in the late afternoon as all the day tourists were heading out.  We then crossed the Highlands in our large 4WD Sprinter and saw a few tourists trying to navigate a road their rental car companies would have a fit if they saw them on it.  As well as a number of buses dragging trailers.

We spent a few days in the north where we would venture out before and after the tourist visiting times. We had some of the larger waterfalls in the north practically all to ourselves.  We continued around the Island and visited places that many people don't know about.  Once we hit the south all bets were off.  The Iceberg Lagoon was jammed with buses and people.  So, we went and had dinner and came back late and very early in the morning (sunrise time if there would have been a sunrise) 4AM.

Seljalandsfoss was a joke, however. even late in the day.  When I first visited this falls there were no barriers and no people.  Daniel Bergmann and I had the place to ourselves (June time frame, many years ago).  The parking lot could only hold a few cars.  Now there were hundreds of cars and large tour buses there and throngs of people.  There is a coffee/refreshment stand and the parking lot has been extended along the road. 

In the end, I came home with some nice images.  You can see many on my BLOG - Kevinraber.com.  I am taking a year off from Iceland workshops.  The next workshops we do there will be very customized and we have some ideas how to offer a different experience there.  It will be 2019 before I return to Iceland.  I know a number of other photographers running workshops who have decided to do this too.

I love Iceland.  I feel privileged I have had the opportunity to visit it so many times and photographed it under a variety of conditions along with some fantastic people who have been on my workshops there.  It's a special country and unbelievably photographic. 

As photographers, we need to be able to work around the tourists wherever we go.  This means visiting off seasons (although those times can be crowded too).  Also, visiting off hours, which as photographers we like to do anyway.

I am off to Greenland with Art Wolfe in less than two weeks to run a workshop there.  That trip will be shipped based and should be a great visit.  If you haven't seen the Greenland Video I made you can see it here - Greenland Imensity
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Kevin Raber
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Kevin Raber

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Re: New Article - Iceland Summer Workshop Underway
« Reply #27 on: August 09, 2017, 07:37:01 am »

One more thing ...  Lofoten, Norway is getting seriously crowded too.  We did a workshop there in winter 2017 (this year) and it was crazy.  There weren't tourists just vans of photographers trying to get the same images everyone else does.  Lofoten is extremely beautiful.  But, if you have ever visited Zion and stood on the bridge there you'll experience the same thing.  While you will get your own image of the place, you'll be doing it with a flock of other photographers.  The infrastructure of this area is not set up to handle all these photographers.  There is no pull offs on the road.  If you do pull off you stand a good chance of getting stuck in the snow.  The one popular location of the red huts and mountain is a bridge and it will be shoulder to shoulder with photographers.  Resturants are hard to find and many closed for the season.  Accommodations are limited.  The locals are trying to cope and also trying to understand what all these photographers are doing.

It was great to visit the location but while we were there we ran into at least half a dozen photographers that were there scouting out trips to do there in 2018.  So, Lofoten is off our list too.  If you go make sure you go with a good workshop operator.  If it requires you to drive your own car then be very careful.  The roads can become snow covered and icy. 

I am not a doomsayer here but calling it as we saw it.  I did this workshop with Art Wolfe and Ignacio Palacios and we did get beautiful images.  But, somewhere out there there are dozens of other photographers who have the same images.  You can see a few HERE.
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