Slobodan, you get it!
Several years back, I had a gig on-site of the Grand Canyon Skywalk to train the "photographer-guides" how to compose, expose, etc. white they were working the crowds, all lined up for their walk on the glass over Grand Canyon West. We were there in late spring during their low season. Still, from early morning sunset, hundreds, if not thousands came, mostly on busses from both the US, Asia and all over the world. Many to fulfill their bucket list in just a few hours to see the Grand Canyon.
Many puh-puhed the concept, especially the Grand Canyon purists saying it was an abomination and shouldn't be there. I looked at it as a way to fulfill the wishes of many for their 10-minutes of looking complete with at least some boots-on-the-ground experience, employment and income to the tribe that ran it and more importantly, taking this segment of visitor away from the North and especially the South Rim to shoulder some of the impact.
Many would never have experienced the Grand Canyon any other way than a few hour jaunt from Las Vegas on a tour to this attraction.
The photo of the unwashed masses of photographers with more sticks than the forest was like a trip to Yosemite also several years ago. It was Ansel's birthday in February and the middle of the waterfall glow. When I drove the valley, every turnout was filled and every view of El Capitan was filled with a forest of tripod legs. That wasn't the worse of it.
As the afternoon got later, I started my drive home, about 2-3 hours away. Ansel brought clouds this day, a fairly high overcast. No sunlight was going to come, let alone for Ansel to break the clouds above to let God shine a golden light onto the falls so that thousands and thousands would be rewarded standing and waiting for the light.
As I approached El Capitan Meadows, the road was down to one lane. Cars were double-parked and on both sides. Every nook and cranny filled. I saw my chance... a pull-into space by the picnic ground (I think). I pulled in, got my photo of the forest of human and tripod legs with cameras pointed up. Got back into my vehicle and left content in my trip to Yosemite to get the photos missed by the masses, all clamoring for the bucket-list photo that tens of thousands have taken over and over.
For me, the excitement to traveling to all the popular parks and photo spots of the west is no longer an adventure nor fulfilling. It's far more interesting to go off the beaten path for me to both obscure places here in California, Nevada and the West and to similar gems in Europe and especially Serbia and the Balkans.
Finding the invisible hidden in plain sight and a little off the beaten path still brings me excitement and wonderment. Seeing so many, especially friends and colleagues take the same photos of the same places is a bore.
Though my last two journeys to Italy were near the major tourist-traps (Venice, Pisa, Tuscany, Rome), one trip was in the middle of the masses, the other off season, there were many gems to be discovered if you went a little further, to "see" beyond the bucket lists. However, if something was a "give-me," why not indulge in a photo?
My challenge and the challenge to my friends and colleagues, document the masses by turning the camera behind you or back-off to show the chaos, find a new way to "see" or find the different, new, obscure or otherwise a new POV or the gem hidden in the open. It's tough, but it can be done.
