Obviously there must be a subjective bent at play but the result would still be instantly recognizable to any third party observer who viewed the scene when I was shooting.
I think that the recognition and familiarity with a specific scene in an art print are vastly overestimated.
Granted, certain scenes, such as Mittens or Delicate Arch are icons that most people instantly recognize and don't confuse with another scenery. Less popular scenes and macro landscapes less so. That beautiful sand dune with a lonely plant casting shadow towards a round rock may not even be there next year. The sand shifts, plants die, and even rocks move or get buried.
On the other hand, many people upon seeing your photo will exclaim that they know the scene. And they really think, they do.
Case in point. I photographed and still sell some rock and water scenes from around Georgian Bay in Ontario. For the non-Ontarians, Georgian Bay is a huge arm of Lake Huron, almost 200 miles (320km) in length. Just one area somewhere in the middle of the bay is known as 30,000 Islands (not counting millions of shoals). In total, there must be well over 100,000 islands, bays, and coves.
To cut the story short, about 15 years ago, I motored to a very remote location around French River delta (which I would have problems finding again even I wanted), and to make a point, these are places where you don't see other boats for days, and that is only during a short summer. In bad weather or for the rest of year you wouldn't want to be there. Anyway, I managed to capture a few nice panoramas with a rotational camera. So, we have a completely desolate location, distorted heavily by the rotational capture, and of course affected by the early morning light at that time. Paradoxically, half of the visitors in gallery would claim that they know the scene and that they were there. Not that I wouldn't wish them to see it, but probability of a experiencing the same scene is absolutely zero.
Not only the sands shift and rocks move, but interestingly, also the trees grow. Last summer, I attempted to revisit a small picturesque cove in another area of the big bay. The scene showed a nice rocky island with small pines and of course a lot of water. Now, this scene was heavily imprinted in my mind, since I've seen it hundreds of times on my various print pieces. I just couldn't find it with my canoe even remembering location quite well. Then it finally donned on me, that those little pines grew up into big trees which in turn totally changed the scene.
And finally! The same Georgian Bay around the Bruce Peninsula has two unique limestone formations in forms of pretty pillars called Flowerpots (google them). Not only they are very photogenic, but they had a third brother that collapsed about a hundred years ago. Lucky guy who photographed or painted all three of them! The scene changed again.
So to close my Georgian Bay reminiscence, photograph what you can today, and if you have to bend a few tree branches or carry some rocks away, be mine guest. And if there is nobody there to hold those branches for you, maybe you can do it later in Photoshop.
