Photographed to death, brought to you by the Internet and the Chinese tourist

[Rob C]

I think most people who buy camera gear do so without a clue on what to do with it. So it makes sense that most folk take cues from other camera owners and mostly photograph during vacations and tourist outings.

True, but even more cruelly put than I would have dared: I may not have suggested the sheepdogs...

:-)

[JNB_Rare]

Here in Nova Scotia, tourism is a very important segment of our economy. We encourage it by providing the very best facilities and experiences. Take as many pictures as you want, so long as you continue to row and bail water. 

[OmerV]

True, but even more cruelly put than I would have dared: I may not have suggested the sheepdogs...

:-)

OK, I was uncharitable. Flickr, Smugmug, Instagram, et al, are busting at the seams with photography. The thing is, I never see those photographers on my own outings, which is often and varied. It’s a mystery then.   

[Alan Klein]

I spent 16 days visiting national parks in the American Southwest in April.  While not the height of the season, there were plenty of travelers and photographers there.  But we never found a need to go hiking to some remote spot to get a clear view of a scenic shot.  Actually we don;t hike, just stop by pull offs while driving or maybe walk from the parking lot to the viewpoint.  Whether during the day or at sunset or sunrise in some cases, "keepers" were always available without being blocked. Here's some of them. https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums/72157694819890421

The idea that photography tour operators should complain about the crowds seems anti-intuitive.  The more people visiting, the more "better" photographers would want their services.  Travelers are good for the economy.  The town of Springdale, UT, on the south side of Zion National Park, is booming because of the increase in visitors.  Restaurants, hotels, motels, restaurants, and even photography shops sprout up like I've seen in Sedona and Moab, two popular towns nearby Red Rock, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.   I did have to elbow my way in a little at Monument Valley shooting from the Hotel.  But there was actually plenty of space and you could get the same shot from our room balcony. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Arches and Yosemite crowds:

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

One of the ways to avoid crowds is to avoid sunsets, but stay for the afterglow. Tourists disappear faster than cockroaches (when you turn the kitchen lights on) the moment sun goes down. Or get up early for sunrises, though even that is not a guarantee anymore, as any Instagrammer worth its salt knows he has to be there for a sunrise selfie.

Yosemite picture: while I was shooting the scene, my daughter, then three years old, was throwing pebbles into the river to kill the time. Another photographer got very angry she was disturbing his reflections.

Grand Canyon: had to get up at 4am to make it to this spot for sunrise. Literally seconds after me another photographer showed up and asked me if I claim the spot I was standing on.

Bryce Canyon: stayed for the twilight, everybody else was gone by then.

These shots were done in 2002, on a film Hasselblad, before the selfie craze.

[Two23]

  Iceland has gotten so bad I have not done workshops there in 2018 and wondering if I will in the near future.  Places that were untouched and had small parking lots are now paved and expended for buses.  There are even waffle and coffee stands at many of them.  Platforms are being built as many people are trampling down things.  Many tourists ignore rules or just common sense.  I was shooting an iceberg on the beach in Iceland two years ago.  It was a gem and I was working on a long exposure to maximix=ze the intensity of the water around it.  I Chinese tourist and his girlfriend came running up in the middle of my exposure, climbed onto it and proceeded to take a selfie, in the middle of my exposure.  It was very obvious I was shooting it but they must have had blinders on. 

I've been to Iceland three times starting about 2004 and last time about three years ago.  It has been getting progressively more crowded, which for me dilutes interaction with locals (who mostly sound like they're from North Dakota, LOL.)   For Islanders this is all a good thing as the local fishing industry has been dying out, banking jobs took a bit hit with the money crisis, and there just aren't all that many jobs there.  So, I don't begrudge them. 

My strategy to all this is to simply switch to shooting at night.  At night I pretty much have everything to myself.  In some places, like Yellowstone, it is dangerous to wander around alone at night so I carry a pistol (I have a permit.)  Usually though it's pretty safe, and I get some really cool shots no one else thinks of.  At night it's a whole new world.  As for Island, I do plan on going back, but next time it will be in winter.  The crowds will be gone, and I'm a winter photographer at heart.  A bonus is that Iceland in the winter is far warmer for us than where we live. A cold day in Reykjavik is +26F (-3.3C), where a cold day in South Dakota is -26F! (-32C)  It will be like vacationing in Florida.


Kent in SD

Below photo:
Castle Geysor at Yellowstone NP.
(Usually crowded during the day,
had to myself at midnight.   )

[Alan Klein]

Nice shots Slobo.  I had my share of too many people like this one at Grand Canyon.   But I also had a chance to squeeze by other people to get decent shots too.  My shot of of Delicate Arch was taken from the distance as we didn't want to walk a mile.  I figures shooting someone else's photo in the display along with the real one was good enough for a record shot.  The second one with the girl went into my slide show.  I thought she was more interesting then the arch as she was busy answering questions on a little quiz pamphlet her father gave her.

[Rob C]

I spent 16 days visiting national parks in the American Southwest in April.  While not the height of the season, there were plenty of travelers and photographers there.  But we never found a need to go hiking to some remote spot to get a clear view of a scenic shot.  Actually we don;t hike, just stop by pull offs while driving or maybe walk from the parking lot to the viewpoint.  Whether during the day or at sunset or sunrise in some cases, "keepers" were always available without being blocked. Here's some of them. https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums/72157694819890421

The idea that photography tour operators should complain about the crowds seems anti-intuitive.  The more people visiting, the more "better" photographers would want their services.  Travelers are good for the economy.  The town of Springdale, UT, on the south side of Zion National Park, is booming because of the increase in visitors.  Restaurants, hotels, motels, restaurants, and even photography shops sprout up like I've seen in Sedona and Moab, two popular towns nearby Red Rock, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.   I did have to elbow my way in a little at Monument Valley shooting from the Hotel.  But there was actually plenty of space and you could get the same shot from our room balcony.

Yep, tourism brings fiscal boom, and with it?

[Alan Klein]

Yep, tourism brings fiscal boom, and with it?

Fiscal boom allows people to eat better,  take care of their families better,  get better health care,  and buy more cameras to add to the crowds shooting icons.   What's the alternative?

[RSL]

Ain't it awful?

[Rob C]

Fiscal boom allows people to eat better,  take care of their families better,  get better health care,  and buy more cameras to add to the crowds shooting icons.  What's the alternative?

That's the big question that remains unanswered.

For some, it means a return to reality, with the BMW and/or Mercedes replaced by the cart of sixty years ago. It means that foreign people who invested in property as speculation get their fingers burned; that the existing sanitation and water supplies built to suit (but ever behind) the needs of tourism become perfectly capable of supporting local, tourist-free pressures. It means that the relatively innocent farmer of the 50s who sold the farm for a couple of grand can now buy back, something he soon discovered his couple of big ones stopped letting him doing three years later.

It means that local governments, town halls and their enchufados have to stop thinking about how they can manipulate planning and licensing authority regulations to make a fortune out of corruption in those rich pastures. It means that discos and bars pushing Elvis Nites stop keeping ordinary folks awake until dawn. It means that drugs might vanish, and along with them the associated crime.

In short, I guess it means that society has to face and figure a genuine way forwad, and not one built on prostitution of the environment and all that works within it. When was the last time anybody went on holiday and believed the smile on the face of a waiter? I discount a thirteen-year-old girl, of course.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Rob, have you asked any of the locals would they return to the situation from 50 years ago?

[Alan Klein]

Without modernity, we wouldn't be able to discuss these things internationally on an internet forum. 

[Alan Klein]

That's the big question that remains unanswered.

For some, it means a return to reality, with the BMW and/or Mercedes replaced by the cart of sixty years ago. It means that foreign people who invested in property as speculation get their fingers burned; that the existing sanitation and water supplies built to suit (but ever behind) the needs of tourism become perfectly capable of supporting local, tourist-free pressures. It means that the relatively innocent farmer of the 50s who sold the farm for a couple of grand can now buy back, something he soon discovered his couple of big ones stopped letting him doing three years later.

It means that local governments, town halls and their enchufados have to stop thinking about how they can manipulate planning and licensing authority regulations to make a fortune out of corruption in those rich pastures. It means that discos and bars pushing Elvis Nites stop keeping ordinary folks awake until dawn. It means that drugs might vanish, and along with them the associated crime.

In short, I guess it means that society has to face and figure a genuine way forwad, and not one built on prostitution of the environment and all that works within it. When was the last time anybody went on holiday and believed the smile on the face of a waiter? I discount a thirteen-year-old girl, of course.

Rob you make the good point. But the issue I don't think has to do with materialism and graft but finding a place in the world where other things are more important. The expression you can't live by bread alone comes to mind.   We've lost our way spiritually where the meaning of life had been diminished. 

This brings us back to this topic. When people go to icons to witness scenes that take them out of themselves, that's the awe they want to experience that they don't get in their daily material lives.  We all need that spiritual experience so we're all chasing it with our little magic boxes to capture the scene and take it back with us so we can experience the awe again at home. Isn't that what we're trying to do when we travel with our cameras?  Doesn't everyone have the right to experience things that go beyond ourselves?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... The expression you can't live by bread alone comes to mind...

A photographic illustration of that: "No solo de pan vive el hombre" - Havana, Cuba (a little manly vanity helps too )

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... to capture the scene and take it back with us so we can experience the awe again at home...

The only "awe" the selfie generation apparently experiences is the narcissistic one.

There is a scene in a movie The Guilt Trip, with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand, where he takes his mother to fulfill her life-long desire to see Grand Canyon.

Once there, she asks:

"How long are we supposed to look at it?"

Her son responds:

"10 minutes? - "I think it is disrespectful to look at it any less"

The clip is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4TzU2xiyrM

That is how most tourists experience it. They check the box, take a selfie, and leave for the next burger joint on their trip.

[KLaban]

...When was the last time anybody went on holiday and believed the smile on the face of a waiter?

Some of our very best and most valued friends are waiters and taverna owners first met on holidays many moons ago. Tomorrow night we party with the daughter of one such family and are treated as family.

[Rob C]

Some of our very best and most valued friends are waiters and taverna owners first met on holidays many moons ago. Tomorrow night we party with the daughter of one such family and are treated as family.

As with myself, regular takes you out of the tourist category.

;-)

[Chris Kern]

It means that local governments, town halls and their enchufados

Gracias, ¡una palabra utíl!