Do you live in a "highly photographic" area?

George Papantoniou · Aug 18, 2013

I live in Athens (not Georgia) and although there are more than 3mil. inhabitants, the analog photographers are really very few... I know some of them, although I know they don't shoot that often...

It's nearly impossible to stumble on someone shooting film on the street...

But during our vacations, when we visit touristic places around Greece we sometimes meet tourists (from around Europe) still shooting film. This summer on the island of Folegandros I saw a 14-year old French boy using an old Pentax SLR and asked him how comes he used film and he said that the camera was his fathers and he wanted to try it and see what it would give (as a result)... his father, mother and siblings were nearby but didn't seem to bother that much with the member of the family that was going luddite... a few years ago on the island of Amorgos I met a Berliner who used a Nikon SLR and said that he felt that film was more "real" than digital imaging and a French guy shooting the clouds with a 16-mm movie camera !! And of course there's me, that goes around sometimes with a Rolleiflex, other times with LF cameras and people are looking at me and surely have stories to tell when they go back home... hahahaha

Darkroom317 said:
This is sadly true. I live in Arkansas. The southern US is a photographic vacuum.

I am sure that someone that has not been used to the type of landscapes in that area will be able to find photographic interest there... it's just that you've been living there for a long time and don't see the interesting things anymore...

benjiboy · Aug 18, 2013

I live in a place where if the World had to have an enema, it's where they would stick the tube

Paul Goutiere · Aug 18, 2013

I live in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta Canada.
I look out our front window I see the famous Three Sisters mountains.
I drive for 10 minutes I'm in the Banff Park.
I drive for an hour or so I'm at Lake Louise.
Another ten minutes or so, from there, I'm on the Banff Jasper Highway.......

Bill Burk · Aug 18, 2013

Paul Goutiere said:
I live in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta Canada.
I look out our front window I see the famous Three Sisters mountains.
I drive for 10 minutes I'm in the Banff Park.
I drive for an hour or so I'm at Lake Louise.
Another ten minutes or so, from there, I'm on the Banff Jasper Highway.......

I've been there once in my life, for our honeymoon...

Richard S. (rich815) · Aug 18, 2013

Paul Goutiere said:
I live in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta Canada.
I look out our front window I see the famous Three Sisters mountains.
I drive for 10 minutes I'm in the Banff Park.
I drive for an hour or so I'm at Lake Louise.
Another ten minutes or so, from there, I'm on the Banff Jasper Highway.......

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. But this makes me jealous!

darkosaric · Aug 18, 2013

I live in Hamburg, Germany - it is highly photographic area if you like architecture. For street photography not so much - I like east and south parts of Europe more.

George Papantoniou · Aug 19, 2013

Paul Goutiere said:
I live in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta Canada.
I look out our front window I see the famous Three Sisters mountains.
I drive for 10 minutes I'm in the Banff Park.
I drive for an hour or so I'm at Lake Louise.
Another ten minutes or so, from there, I'm on the Banff Jasper Highway.......

Sounds like the perfect place to live... if you're into Mountain Biking !! Hahaha (I am, and it's too hot for us to ride during the summer around here !!)

Paul Goutiere · Aug 19, 2013

George Papantoniou said:
Sounds like the perfect place to live... if you're into Mountain Biking !! Hahaha (I am, and it's too hot for us to ride during the summer around here !!)

There are a lot of mountain bikers around here. Trails wind through the woods and a dedicated bike trail, called the "Legacy Trail" pretty much connects Canmore to Banff. I understand Europe generally
has much better biking trails. We might not be there yet.

removed account4 · Aug 20, 2013

im in ri but not in the capital where risd and brown are. i am on the coast but minutes from dense forest / woodlands
and 15minutes from rural, run-down rust/textile-belt mills. and providence has some of the most beautiful varied and
inspiring 19th century architecture ( and street patterns ). it isn't important ( for me at least ) to go anyplace exotic to expose film or paper
there is always something interesting within footsteps from where you may be, you just have to see it i guess ...
while i know of a few of photographers ( even appuggers ! ) who live near me, i haven't ever seen another photographer
( even anyone using their cellphone ) when i am out and about, and when people see me with a camera they either smile + keep going,
or stop and ask the usuals ( you can get film for that, what is that a movie camera &c ) ... but not many people with cameras.
i am sure if i didn't live in the "suburbs" and was in providence i might see more ... risd students, teachers graduates, people involved with
as220, or the artist "colonies" that have sprung up ... but i am not usually in the city...

blansky · Aug 20, 2013

A great way to meet other like minded photographers.....join a herd.

pbromaghin · Aug 20, 2013

Iluvmycam said:
seamy underside?

Where are the pix??

You have to seek it out, which I do not. But I do talk to cops. They can show you all you want.

blansky · Aug 20, 2013

Paul Goutiere said:
I live in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta Canada.
I look out our front window I see the famous Three Sisters mountains.
I drive for 10 minutes I'm in the Banff Park.
I drive for an hour or so I'm at Lake Louise.
Another ten minutes or so, from there, I'm on the Banff Jasper Highway.......

Sucks to be you. WAAAYYYYY too much pressure to shoot.

Beauty overload. Been there so many times I know the elk by name without looking at their tags.

kb3lms · Aug 20, 2013

This is sadly true. I live in Arkansas. The southern US is a photographic vacuum.

The rural part of Pennsylvania where I live is also a photographic vacuum. Since messing with photography since the mid 70's, the only other person I have seen taking pictures besides my dad anywhere near where I live (say 20 mile radius) was my Grandmother with her Instamatic. There hasn't been a camera shop anywhere in our area since the late 1980's and that wasn't a very good one. Other than drugstore and Walmart type films (Kodacolor and Fujicolor) it has been mail-order for a looong time. (The employee store at Kodak was like a culture shock!)

DaveT: Where is that old iron works?

DWThomas · Aug 20, 2013

kb3lms said:
[...]

DaveT: Where is that old iron works?

Assuming you're talking of Lock Ridge Furnace, it's in the thriving metropolis of Alburtis (pop. 2361), a ways east of Route 222, a few miles below the Route 100 intersection at Macungie. Interesting how photos are sometimes described as "a moment in time." I shot a B&W series in October 2008 including a shot of the furnace foundation with a sort of flying buttress half arch against it. last summer, a friend from western PA was here and we stopped there to discover the "flying buttress" was gone, along with a few other things. The site apparently made a transition from municipal park to a Lehigh County historical site, so perhaps they were concerned about liability issues (or maybe it collapsed in a winter snow storm!)

Another site presumably closer to you is that series I have of Armorcast, that's on the downriver side of northbound Route 345, just before it crosses the Schuylkill River at Birdsboro. There's not much left there any more except the four tall brick stacks. They seem like a candidate for an implosion but I've heard no rumors. There is a road called Armorcast Drive that leaves 345 opposite the Turkey Hill gas station, passing between a brick office building and the Rita's Water Ice on the east side. There's a new bridge happening across the Schuylkill there and it's currently a bit of a mess.

Hope that answers your question -- there's lots of delicious old rust in the Schuylkill and Lehigh river corridors.

cliveh · Aug 20, 2013

blansky said:
A great way to meet other like minded photographers.....join a herd.

View attachment 73200

View attachment 73201

I think it was Robert Doisneau who once said "where ever you see a lot of photographers taking pictures, you can be sure there is nothing worth photographing".

kb3lms · Aug 22, 2013

Hope that answers your question -- there's lots of delicious old rust in the Schuylkill and Lehigh river corridors

Thanks, Dave! Neither site is particularly far from where I live, well under a half-hour's drive.

slackercrurster · Oct 4, 2018

OP...not currently. I used to live in L.A. which was good. But it got too $$ for me to live there. I wanted to move to NYC, but could not afford it either. So I moved as close as I could to NYC and still afford to live and that put me a few hours away. I find things to shoot where I live, but don't do that much. I prefer to shoot in NYC. NYC spoils you for street work.

jim10219 · Oct 4, 2018

I live in Oklahoma. The most photogenic thing going on here is the clouds. And no, that's not an exaggeration. And to be fair, we do have some really pretty sunrises and sunsets due to those clouds.

In the east, we have small hills covered in the nastiest shrubs and trees you've ever seen. You can't even walk through our overgrown forests because we have no forest management to speak of. The lakes are all man made and dirty and from the red earth. In the east is flat fields of wheat, if you're lucky. The two big cities have some of the ugliest architecture you've ever seen, outside of a handful of buildings and churches. Nobody walks here, so there is no street photography opportunities, unless you want to shoot homeless people, because we have plenty of them. But that's a risky move, especially with a valuable camera. Unlike most other cities, there won't be a lot of other people around to deter crime. There are also paranoid hicks with guns everywhere who go crazy when they see a camera, thinking you're working for the government and following them. Which is so weird, because no one bats and eye when you take a picture with a camera phone. And if you thinking of doing lots of portraits of beautiful people, we have one of the most overweight populations in the world. And while we have lots of ghost towns and abandoned buildings, we also have lot of small town sheriffs who are corrupt as hell and have no problem arresting an outsider on fake charges. And it's not like the small town judge is save you.

Still, a good photographer can take a good photograph anywhere. So it's not so much of an excuse as it is a challenge. But I wouldn't recommend moving here for the photographic opportunities alone.

Kino · Oct 4, 2018

jim10219 said:

I live in Oklahoma. The most photogenic thing going on here is the clouds. And no, that's not an exaggeration. And to be fair, we do have some really pretty sunrises and sunsets due to those clouds.

In the east, we have small hills covered in the nastiest shrubs and trees you've ever seen. You can't even walk through our overgrown forests because we have no forest management to speak of. The lakes are all man made and dirty and from the red earth. In the east is flat fields of wheat, if you're lucky. The two big cities have some of the ugliest architecture you've ever seen, outside of a handful of buildings and churches. Nobody walks here, so there is no street photography opportunities, unless you want to shoot homeless people, because we have plenty of them. But that's a risky move, especially with a valuable camera. Unlike most other cities, there won't be a lot of other people around to deter crime. There are also paranoid hicks with guns everywhere who go crazy when they see a camera, thinking you're working for the government and following them. Which is so weird, because no one bats and eye when you take a picture with a camera phone. And if you thinking of doing lots of portraits of beautiful people, we have one of the most overweight populations in the world. And while we have lots of ghost towns and abandoned buildings, we also have lot of small town sheriffs who are corrupt as hell and have no problem arresting an outsider on fake charges. And it's not like the small town judge is save you.

Still, a good photographer can take a good photograph anywhere. So it's not so much of an excuse as it is a challenge. But I wouldn't recommend moving here for the photographic opportunities alone.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I grew up there, so I know in general of what you speak, but I think you need to travel around a bit more; especially to the East and South East of the State, but don't neglect the panhandle...
- Ouachita Mountains: Skyline Drive and Lake Tenkiller
- Illinois River directly South of Tenkiller
- Great Salt Plains State Park (in panhandle)
- Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, located in Osage County
- The Kiamichi River
- Any older section of just about any town in the Southern Half of Oklahoma; not much has changed...

Ces1um · Oct 4, 2018

tron_ said:
A friend of mine and I talk quite a bit about how passionate we are about our hobbies. He's a really talented guitar player and I'm a really uhh....well I'm a photographer . But I also have a huge passion for motorsports. You get the idea.
This makes me think, do you guys live in a place with lots of photographers? What do you say to them if your paths cross? Just a fun thread I guess, I wasn't sure where else to put it.

-Tron

I have run into photographers in some of the most remote areas I can think of. I've been a 45 minute hike into the woods in a national park (Kejimkujik in Nova Scotia) in October when attendance at the park is at its lowest and come across a digital shooter. I've been to Peggy's Cove during the work week in the winter when NOBODY is there and run into a guy who makes his own glass plates with his large format camera just finishing taking photos of the buildings. I've noticed people subtley shooting their k1000's in downtown Halifax (he had the camera in his pocket, the lens sticking out the opening and would just stick his hand in and press the shutter. Wondered if he got anything useful that way. Obviously I've run into film shooters at the lab- people dropping off and picking up.

Andrew O'Neill · Oct 4, 2018

Sadly the places I like to photograph are hours away by car... or airplane. Thompson area (4 hrs away by car), Prairies (couple of days), Japan...In Japan it's the back streets of certain cities, a couple of bamboo forests, abandoned coal mines of Omuta...

Sirius Glass · Oct 4, 2018

Yes there are many unmentioned photographic subjects in Los Angeles, one merely needs to make an effort and look.

Arklatexian · Oct 4, 2018

Kino said:
Yeah, I grew up there, so I know in general of what you speak, but I think you need to travel around a bit more; especially to the East and South East of the State, but don't neglect the panhandle...

Ouachita Mountains: Skyline Drive and Lake Tenkiller

Illinois River directly South of Tenkiller

Great Salt Plains State Park (in panhandle)

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, located in Osage County

The Kiamichi River

Any older section of just about any town in the Southern Half of Oklahoma; not much has changed...

I live on a wide river plain. Flat, flat, flat, If we want to see mountains, especially in the Fall, the closest place we can go is S.E. Oklahoma near Broken Bow and just north of there is a beautiful lake and a fast-running small river. While, like most places, not photogenic to a resident, us non-residents find it worth the trip. There are a few photogenic places where I live (lakes with Cypress Trees and Spanish Moss), the truly photogenic part of Louisiana is in South Louisiana. I made our camera club upset once by saying:"all the good pictures are 100 miles from home, whereever home may be".. I still stand by that statement........Regards!

benveniste · Oct 4, 2018

I live about 20 miles North of Boston in what was once a farming town and has been transitioning into a suburb for a few decades now. This time of year, the entire area is both highly photographic and highly photographed. At other times, the "action" moves to the coast and the city.

Kino · Oct 5, 2018

Arklatexian said:
.... I made our camera club upset once by saying:"all the good pictures are 100 miles from home, whereever home may be".. I still stand by that statement........Regards!

LOL That's the living truth! We all become jaded to our local environment and it takes extra effort to see what others can see instantly...

Do you live in a "highly photographic" area?

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