Cliched Landscape Locations

[Guy]

The problem is, is that there are no cliche locations. I mean if I had the opportunity to visit any of those places,I'd go at the drop of a hat. If my camera points in the same direction and takes a similar shot, so be it. The point is I've never done it!

If I end up with the same subject matter in my print but the light is different does that make me cliched? Just because aspiring rock musicians copy their favourite gutarist and associated music does that make them cliched?

I feel as though its almost a right of passage to visit these locations that people like AA went to, just so that I can appreciate their vision and help myself learn how to see better.

[Sammy]

[font color=\'#000000\']Go to the cliche spots, try to shoot the location and duplicate a master's work and you will get a whole new appreciation of just how difficult some of those photos are to shoot. You'll probably learn a lot too.[/font]

[font color=\'#000000\']Hey, Bill, you speak the truth.  But you can also learn a great deal, even the same things, shooting in undiscovered locations, or even your back yard.[/font]

[MatthewCromer]

[font color=\'#000000\']Framah,

I have to admit that, true as your statement is, I much prefer to travel to the beautiful places and photograph rather than stick my tripod legs next to the local drainage ditch.

At the end of the day my photography is all about doing something that inspires me, and where I am is a key part of that.[/font]

[Khurram]

[font color=\'#000000\']i don't findi it to hard to believe anymore that the have patented or trademarked antelope.

when i came back from a trip from califronia in 98' (big sur, carmel region) i found out that the a shot of one of the trees (lone cypress tree?), had been trademarked.  at the time i couldn't belive someone could trademark a natural scene.

I just came back from my second trip through the southwest at the start of June,and once again i went back to antelope canyon.  it was WAY more crowded then it was when i was las there - and that was only 3 yrs ago (spring 2001).  and it was frustrating waiting in line and deal with the mis-management of the operators, and the pushiness of some of the tourists, but it was still an incredible sight to see.

I think it has become much harder to get decent shots there, just bcoz of the traffic in the canyon now, and pretty much impossible to get anything original. but next time i go through the region, i wouldn't be crossing antelope canyon, the wave, or bryce of my list of places to photograph, just bcoz it's been done to death.  

I always want to find a more original location, or sites that haven't been done to death - but having said that, i still want to go back to the places thta mad eme fall in love with landscape photography.[/font]

[L Smith]

* Monument Valley.
* Yosemite Valley.
* Antelope Canyon.
* The Great Plains.
* Big Sur.
* Great Smokey Mtns.
* Grand Canyon, of course!
* Bryce Canyon.

Can anybody add to the list please?

[Lisa Nikodym]

The problem isn't places that are cliched, but photographs that are cliched.   One can go to any of these places and take photographs that haven't been done to death already, and, indeed, have rarely if ever been taken before; one just must avoid following the herd and going to the same old spots and pointing the camera in the same old direction, but instead find *different* photos there, and that's easy to do if you have any creativity at all.

Lisa

P.S.  On the other hand, maybe I'd agree with you on Antelope Canyon... :laugh:

[Bobtrips]

I absolutely agree with Lisa and Guy.  There are places that we all know from the many shots of others even if we haven't been there.  The reason that we see so many shots of those places is that, for the most part, they are spectacular.

But to take yet another shot of the same place in the same way and then expect people to appreciate it for its originality makes no sense.  I might well retake the classic shot of the bridge over Bixby Creek at Big Sur.  But it would be for my own pleasure, for my personal memories.

The challenge, for me, is to also find something new, something in the same area that I haven't been shown before and photograph it or find a new way to take an 'old' photo.

And if I'm going to go out to take pictures do I want to spend my time in one of the spectacular parts of the world or do I want to seek out bland and ugly?

[Bill_Kaiser]

[font color=\'#000000\']Go to the cliche spots, try to shoot the location and duplicate a master's work and you will get a whole new appreciation of just how difficult some of those photos are to shoot. You'll probably learn a lot too.[/font]

[Sammy]

[font color=\'#000000\']I think the real problem isn't cliched locations, it's cliched photographs.  Flowers, pretty girl snapshots, that sort of thing.  Really, what the world needs is more flower close-up photos!![/font]

[Bill_Kaiser]

[font color=\'#000000\']I actually follow my own advice. Snake River Overlook, Grand Tetons comes to mind. Mine didn't look anything like Ansel's, but I learned a lot. Same result with my Yosemite shots.  I also try to shoot the unique perspective of the cliche view point. Funny thing is, sometimes when I think I have that unique perspective, I open some coffee table book and there is the same shot.[/font]

[framah]

[font color=\'#000000\']Or you should find an ugly old drainage ditch and look past the crap that's been thrown in there. I've done it a couple of times in an attempt to find beauty in the least likely places. It's amazing what is out there if you look past the same old, same old. Thus, even at those "overdone cliche places", if you look past the same old, you will still find undiscovered beauty waiting for you to find and capture. [/font]

[Jonathan Wienke]

[font color=\'#000000\']One place I try diligently to avoid photographing is the inside of my lens cap...[/font]

[andyfrazer]

[font color=\'#000000\']None of those locations would look cliche if you thought about *HOW* to  shoot them differently.  Try shooting at night, under a full moon.  I know of two locations that look cliche when taken at night, and both of them can still be shot with an original look if you make half an effort.

andy frazer

"It's not THAT the wind is blowing. It's WHAT the wind is blowing." Ron White[/font]

[howard smith]

[font color=\'#000000\']I have decided to go with Robert Price.  It is the photograph, not the location that is cliche.  And that is the photograhers' problem.  I look at "originals," and I don't see another Yosemite Valley with storm rising.  It must have been shot a few thousand times since, but never the same way with the same impact.

This topic blends very well with the Johnston article on "just another pretty sunset" and the discussion of style below on this page.

Take a photographer with good technique, imagination and subject (cliche or not) and you get another great image.[/font]

[Bobtrips]

Are you serious?

Or were you suddenly taken by a case of the 'sillies'?

[Freddy]

But to take yet another shot of the same place in the same way and then expect people to appreciate it for its originality makes no sense.  I might well retake the classic shot of the bridge over Bixby Creek at Big Sur.  But it would be for my own pleasure, for my personal memories.

The Bixby photos are usually pretty nice.  It's the Juliet Pfiffer Burns waterfall on the beach photos that make me groan.  All 10,000,000 of them.

And if I'm going to go out to take pictures do I want to spend my time in one of the spectacular parts of the world or do I want to seek out bland and ugly?

No, you should find a beautiful and unexploited part of the world.  Being off the radar screen doesn't mean being bland and ugly.

[robertprice]

[font color=\'#000000\']To me the bottom line is that there are no cliche locations.  Only cliche photographs.  I can generally find the unusual amidst the usual.[/font]

[didger]

[font color=\'#000000\']

P.S.  On the other hand, maybe I'd agree with you on Antelope Canyon...

Yeah, me too.  Last time I was there was about 5 years ago and you had to wait in line for a reasonable spot to put your tripod.  I also made the mistake of mentioning to the tour guide that I was thinking about using a picture for my next CD cover and he told me I better talk to some Nation lawyers first because that canyon is "patented"!!!  Sheee-it!!!  I wonder how the Author of the canyon feels about this kind of patenting.[/font]