What has become of us all?

[pbromaghin]

Not mine, but one of many of Paris taken by a good friend, Jean-François Cléroux.
Somewhat ironically, it is rather on-topic for this thread!
Borrowed from his currently work in progress website, found here: https://www.cleroux.com/

View attachment 419873

Which reminds me - I need to phone Francois to talk to him about his latest website tweaks.

What a wonderful print.

 

[MattKing]

What a wonderful print.

I'll mention your comment to him.
He is mostly working with digital now - like that one- but he did buy my old 6x7 Beseler enlarger because his Beseler 4x5 enlargers were too big for his place ....

 

[loccdor]

On a very nice afternoon, golden hour, I was walking through the streets in the village of Chamonix, when I see this bridge with a beautiful railing and a gorgeous landscape, just behind it. I had to stop and take a picture.

But there was this girl and her boyfriend, right in the middle of the frame I wanted to shoot. She was posing like a model and he was taking pictures of her. She would go and look into the phone every two or three clicks. Then she would try a different pose. Then without the jacket. Then with a hat. And another pose… I was just patiently waiting for around 15 minutes. And they wouldn’t quit.

I've been in similar situations where I had to abandon my choice of photograph, but the truth is they have as much right to be taking pictures there as you do. If it's a small number of people and they move around enough, taking two images and compositing them can be a solution.

All of modern photography was built on snapshot photography with cheap cameras and film processing to encourage film sales. This migrated to vacation slides, slide shows, and Polaroids.

For nearly a century, everyman capturing the days of their lives photographically was a staple that built Kodak, especially, into the monster they were.

Cell phones are just the latest instrument in an unbroken chain that started with Brownies and ended with SLRs.

It is an idealized fiction that the Good Old Days were better and that people on holidays were more engaged with the environment. Then-, as now, it depends a whole lot on the person and the venue.

The only thing that is almost unarguably worse today, is the larger society's lack of decorum, politeness, and mannered behaviour which is really what underlies the obnoxious habits noted in this thread...

Yes I very much agree with what you wrote. A few other things have changed - easier ability to include yourself in a photo without carrying a tripod, cheaper and more disposable clothing and outfits for those that wish to be the model, faster and wider sharing of what you have made. Plus the lower cost of air travel, and the fact that a much lower percentage of the world is in material poverty than in the past.

 

[fdonadio]

I’ll take the bitching every time over the patronizing, sickly-sweet all-sidesing goo.

I forgot to mention I do bitch a whole effing lot…

 

[fdonadio]

I've been in similar situations where I had to abandon my choice of photograph, but the truth is they have as much right to be taking pictures there as you do.

What I’m talking about here is the lack of respect. They [should] know that place is desirable for other tourists. They are not entitled to stay there for half an hour (or more, as they were already there when I got there), getting in the way of other people that want to take a picture there.

 

[Tel]

Not mine, but one of many of Paris taken by a good friend, Jean-François Cléroux.
Somewhat ironically, it is rather on-topic for this thread!
Borrowed from his currently work in progress website, found here: https://www.cleroux.com/

View attachment 419873

Which reminds me - I need to phone Francois to talk to him about his latest website tweaks.

Some wonderful street photography in his portfolio. It amounts to a nice commentary on Parisian life. I like what he's done with the Eiffel Tower shot: by choosing a long exposure he's turned the tourists who would have been obstructing his shot into semi-transparent ghosts who just add texture and focus to the real subject.

Edit: every time I see a photo of the Eiffel Tower it reminds me of the De Maupassant quote

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I am prepared to die.

View attachment 419872

You're lucky. I like the shot.

 

[snusmumriken]

I am prepared to die.

View attachment 419872

That's wonderful! Lingerie is a French word, after all.

I expect to be slaughtered too:

 

[jeffreyg]

On a trip to Italy some time ago while we did go to see the "David" which was packed with people photographing it, I happened to spot this in a dimly lit hallway and found it more interesting although a challenge to photograph ( Bronica S2A with 75 mm lens and Tri-x 400). I braced myself against the opposite wall and hand held wide open at pr0bably a 1/15th and hoped for the best. It was only film and I probably wasn't supposed to be in the hallway any ways. Always good to get lucky. It made a very nice pt/pd print from an enlarged negative. I never bothered to photograph David.

Unfinished Pieta attributed to Michelangelo or possibly one of his contemporaries.

@snusmumriken. I'll join you at the slaughter house life's too short not to have fun at least at my age

 

[Vaughn]

Pre-smart phones, there were many people who experienced their vacations looking through the viewfinder of their Instamatic or other point and shoot… Or even with the top 35mm. It is easier now…no one leaves their ‘camera’ behind.

Many iPhone vacationers have family and friends who expect images daily…to the point where WiFi at resorts can be slow all evening as visitors start sending images off into the void…think of all the words saved!!

There has always been bad actors…even if things stay the same otherwise, double the population and you double the number of assholes. And it takes only one to stand out in the crowd and sour a day.

But I got one of my favorite images with the help of two hikers who lingered along the trail to watch a waterfall. The wonderful light just kept getting better and better as I waited with the 5x7 set up 30 meters away. The enforced patience paid off.

 

[Pieter12]

Pre-smart phones, there were many people who experienced their vacations looking through the viewfinder of their Instamatic or other point and shoot… Or even with the top 35mm. It is easier now…no one leaves their ‘camera’ behind.

Many iPhone vacationers have family and friends who expect images daily…to the point where WiFi at resorts can be slow all evening as visitors start sending images off into the void…think of all the words saved!!

There has always been bad actors…even if things stay the same otherwise, double the population and you double the number of assholes. And it takes only one to stand out in the crowd and sour a day.

But I got one of my favorite images with the help of two hikers who lingered along the trail to watch a waterfall. The wonderful light just kept getting better and better as I waited with the 5x7 set up 30 meters away. The enforced patience paid off.

At least in the day of Instamatics, you were limited by the number of exposures on a roll and how much film you would carry. Today, There is no limit plus there's video. But the silliest thing I think I have seen on vacation was a tour group wearing VR headsets instead of looking at the real thing they were in front of.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Great photo!

 

[koraks]

But the silliest thing I think I have seen on vacation was a tour group wearing VR headsets instead of looking at the real thing they were in front of.

That does look silly. At the same time, I think the concept is likely to take off in the next few years. Not with VR glasses, but simply using one's phone to view augmented-reality overlays. Seems really promising to me.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Without photographers taking photos of people on vacation, there would be no Martin Parr.

 

[Tel]

Maybe twenty years ago I was involved in a panel discussion of new cinematic technology at a film conference. There was an academic guy there who was showing off his new idea of having VR headsets with a virtual Paul Robeson giving guided tours of Harlem with images of old Harlem superimposed over the pesent-day cityscape. One of the panelists asked the obvious question, which ended the discussion: "So you've got a guy wearing funny glasses walking around the streets of New York talking to someone who's not there; how long do you think he's going to live?"

 

[CMoore]

Without photographers taking photos of people on vacation, there would be no Martin Parr.

Was he that accomplished.?
Seems like he took pictures of......

Donuts
Broken shoe laces
Tacos
A scooter with a flat tire
An ambulance driver, in sunglasses, with a smile
Random items at flea markets. Hats and napkin holders for example

 

[loccdor]

Maybe the level of tourists will go down when the most popular tourist locations can be simulated from home with VR headsets. And we can do the photography without crowds again.

 

[photogear]

Maybe the level of tourists will go down when the most popular tourist locations can be simulated from home with VR headsets. And we can do the photography without crowds again.

That would not be surprinsing. This phenomenon took place in cinema, somehow, when people used to go to theatre and now they used the streaming. And IA might as well be another player in those transformations. This is sad for someone into analog tools.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Maybe twenty years ago I was involved in a panel discussion of new cinematic technology at a film conference. There was an academic guy there who was showing off his new idea of having VR headsets with a virtual Paul Robeson giving guided tours of Harlem with images of old Harlem superimposed over the pesent-day cityscape. One of the panelists asked the obvious question, which ended the discussion: "So you've got a guy wearing funny glasses walking around the streets of New York talking to someone who's not there; how long do you think he's going to live?"

I'm a New Yorker. Actually, if you see a guy talking to himself, you cross over the street and continue on your way.

 

[loccdor]

Unless you're trapped in a subway car with him, or the street is 20 lanes wide.

 

[Tel]

Unless you're trapped in a subway car with him, or the street is 20 lanes wide.

The guy who made the comment had a fallback fail-safe scenario: hit by a bus.

 

[loccdor]

True, that does solve everything.

 

[Don_ih]

Seems like he took pictures of......

It seems like he took a million pictures (he claims that in Utterly Stupid and Inattentive) and thousands ended up in books or magazines (includes over 140 of his own published photo books). That seems like an accomplishment. He's not well known for no reason.

 

[Pieter12]

Without photographers taking photos of people on vacation, there would be no Martin Parr.

He didn’t take thousands of selfies.

 

[gbroadbridge]

He didn’t take thousands of selfies.

I'm sure a book will be published with 10001 selfies and make someone famous.