Does a location being "touristy" diminish the value of photographing it?

[DREW WILEY]

Being early does help if your intended location happens to be a tour bus turnout where everyone gets promptly trampled at 10:00 AM. It also helps if you want dawn light or alpenglow. Nothing wrong with eating worms either. Millions of robins can't be wrong.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Being early does help if your intended location happens to be a tour bus turnout where everyone gets promptly trampled at 10:00 AM. It also helps if you want dawn light or alpenglow. Nothing wrong with eating worms either. Millions of robins can't be wrong.

I agree and I usually start very early every day, but I really do not like worms. Especially tape worms.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I generally avoid touristy places. But near the Golden Gate Bridge, opposite SF, there is a huge parking lot at Rodeo Beach where one can actually get a reasonable amount of solitude within a mile or so by taking trails the opposite direction from the beach. But one day I saw something I just had to shoot with my 8x10 just past the parking lot, but opposite the beach. There were two tour buses of Japanese tourists unloading right then. A bunch of them crowded around me to take cell phone pictures of me and my strange big device.

 

[removed account4]

as long as a photographer has his or her eyes open i don't think the location matters at all.
one could ask if a location you frequent on a daily basis ( or even more frequent )
... lets say one's home... would be worth photographing... someone could probably spent YEARS
photographing where they live, or a tourist town or one's kitchen or bathroom... one just needs to open one's eyes..
its not a problem but many people who use a camera love to go to exotic locations because it is more interesting
than staying local ... maybe the little things don't matter when one is far away? and everything is new an interesting ..
instead of noticing the shadow on the wall on a summer morning, or the way the trees bend or the rabbits eating the garden
or the silverware in the sink... everything uninteresting is interesting.. if one sees it ..

of course YMMV

 

[Vaughn]

to continue from jnanian...and if I see it, I do not always need to get it onto film. Some of my best photographs are images I have seen but never made, but I enjoy them all the same.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Me too, Vaughn. There have been times I've had the view camera all set up and even pre-focused, waiting on the light.... and then some of the most spectacular
sunsets or alpenglow I've ever seen in my life. But I didn't even pull the darkslide and trip the shutter because I didn't want even a moment of the experience interrupted.

 

[jtk]

"Does a location being "touristy" diminish the value of photographing it?"

Of course not. But it does diminish the value of the resulting photographs (unless one is in the digital postcard business).

 

[Theo Sulphate]

as long as a photographer has his or her eyes open i don't think the location matters at all. one could ask if a location you frequent on a daily basis ( or even more frequent )... lets say one's home... would be worth photographing... someone could probably spent YEARS photographing where they live, or a tourist town or one's kitchen ... noticing the shadow on the wall on a summer morning, or the way the trees bend or the rabbits eating the garden or the silverware in the sink... everything uninteresting is interesting.. if one sees it ..
...

That was the basis of my "Everyday Scenes" and "Too Common" themes last year. It worked out well.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

What's wrong with touristy pictures. You're a tourist.

 

[jtk]

What's wrong with touristy pictures. You're a tourist.

I think I'm more of a coutious and (hopefully) stimulating visitor...almost friend... than tourist. Tourists degrade the places they visit.

 

[eddie]

Tourists degrade the places they visit.

That's pompous crap.

 

[eddie]

There have been times I've had the view camera all set up and even pre-focused, waiting on the light.... and then some of the most spectacular
sunsets or alpenglow I've ever seen in my life. But I didn't even pull the darkslide and trip the shutter because I didn't want even a moment of the experience interrupted.

I've had this happen, though not often. Getting lost in the moment is as satisfying as getting the image.

 

[removed account4]

That's pompous crap.

+1

 

[Sirius Glass]

That's pompous crap.

+1

 

[blockend]

Tourist spots are great, the tourists are your subject.

 

[Black Dog]

I've had this happen, though not often. Getting lost in the moment is as satisfying as getting the image.

That's very true. Last weekend , I was at Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, which has become hugely popular since the publication of a little book called The Da Vinci Code. While I was wandering around, just enjoying the moment, I spotted several interesting things to photograph, not t mention the interaction between the visitors and the church. Later in the afternoon I was back in Edinburgh walking through Princes Street gardens on my way to see the Rembrandt at the Scottish National Gallery and there was a guy blowing massive bubbles right outside . Serendipity again-but chance always favours a prepared mind. You need to empty your mind of expectations, but practice, practice, practice your seeing -I don't usually do street photography, but it can be valuable to step outside your comfort zone. You always learn something doing that.

 

[cb1]

Since I'm still learning more of the technical side of photography. I got my style ok, what I like to do ok, but need work on technical stuff. So, even though it has been done a million times. I plan on going over to get a few Dallas skyline shots. And any change to get out and take pictures is great therapy.

 

[jtk]

That's pompous crap.

Eddiie, I admire all of the photos in your Media. Great stuff. Sorry you're having such a hard time.

 

[eddie]

What "hard time"?

 

[jtk]

Tourist spots are great, the tourists are your subject.

Yes, if you like shooting tourists. Different strokes.

 

[jtk]

+1

I can hear your heels clicking from here!

 

[blockend]

Yes, if you like shooting tourists. Different strokes.

When a location descends into cliché, exploit the cliché.

 

[removed account4]

That was the basis of my "Everyday Scenes" and "Too Common" themes last year. It worked out well.

excellent ..
i love everyday-day stuff

 

[ReginaldSMith]

One of my favorite photos from last summer's trip to Yellowstone in the peak tourist season (eclipse). There's always photographs to be had. No, this is not my family. It's just what happens when you arrive. You sit in bleachers. I never laughed so hard in my life.

 

[Vaughn]

as long as a photographer has his or her eyes open i don't think the location matters at all.
...

At the same time, when one has redwood state and national parks within an hour's drive both north and south, it is rather nice having a place to go to away from one's actual home on a irregular basis. There is a particular creek I have been photographing up and down since the late 70s. It is sort of my backyard, but someone else does the maintenance. I have said good-by to many incredible old maples (Big-leaf) that reached their lifespans (200 yrs) along the creek. Over a few decades, I have watched elevated forests start and flourish on top of fallen redwoods. Changes in the creek, changes in my boys as I photographed them under the redwoods as they grew up.

More tourists every year, but I tend to go less in the summers, so no matter. I prefer the redwoods whan they are wet, but I had a good hike down to the Tall Trees Grove (Redwod Nat. Park) on my birthday earlier this week with just the Rolleiflex and a couple good friends. I get a similar feeling looking around and up at these trees in this grove as I do at the bottom of the Grand Canyon looking up at the rims. Granted it was a Monday and we were early (9:30am), but we saw 6 people on the hike down (2 were coming up) and perhaps 8 people at the Tall Trees Grove (a 1.25 mile hike down from the car park). Not bad for a national park in the summer. This grove had the tallest redwood and several runners-up until recently when even taller redwoods were found.

But a few years back I moved to a small town and am beginning to explore it and the river along side of it...mostly medium format, but it will be interesting to start using the LF cameras a bit more. It is nice not needing to get in a vehicle...I'll just need a cargo bicycle to haul the 11x14 around town and river!

This Big Leaf Maple is now only half of its former self. An 8x10 carbon print. Film was Kodak Copy Film (8x10)