gdanmitchell
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tsinsf wrote:
To mdude85: I disagree. Some of us do discover places on our own. I, like Dan, cut my teeth visiting all the icons in the west before social media and the explosion of digitial photography ruined them. I feel very grateful to have had that experience. But times change. So our responsibilities as stewards of this planet change. I feel sad for new photographers who have to deal with all the crowding. It does suck and it is a great misfortune. But I feel more sad for our planet. My photography obsession has changed. Now I visit the same locations in the west over and over, but I avoid the "icons" and explore. And explore again. It is more difficult and time consuming than having a GPS location for a fabulous shot if you time the light correctly. But as Dan mentioned in his post, the joy of discovering your own special "place" is real and possible. So, my advice for new photographers is sure, go to the icons and tread lightly, but start exploring the areas around those icons. The Southwest, Eastern Sierra, and Death Valley, etc, are big places!. Off the beaten path. Keep going back, over and over again. You will be rewarded and eventually will not be dependent on getting that iconic shot....Show more →
The "reward" part of this is the most important part, and the thing that is most difficult to express to people who — perhaps as we once were — are focused on getting The Shot of the Famous Thing they have seen and heard about.
I confess that I understand their desire to visit and photograph those things. I have been to a number of them and I have photographed them, too, at least a few of them.
But after decades of photographing and exploring a decent-sized chunk of the western landscape I can tell you with certainty that the experiences that have made the biggest impression on me have not been at the icons. I'm not saying that they made no impression, and I'll admit that the first time I watched and photographed sunrise at Zabriskie Point (to cite one example) I was moved.
But today, when I think back over the many months (perhaps four to five in total?) that I"ve spend photographing in just that one park, the experiences that stick with me the most are not associated with icons: a recent exploratory walk up a random no-name wash by myself, a morning and evening photographing entirely alone in a sandy place not visited all that often, a few visits to a remote slot that I didn't know existed before I walked through it, poking around an abandoned and seldom-visited old mining cabin high in the mountains, being overcome by the utter silence and immense space one recent morning at a location that is no different that thousands of others in the park.
To clarify what I'm trying to say from the "experience" perspective, I don't resent anyone going to icons — you have to start somewhere. Go and enjoy them. And then I hope you can let these places get into your bones enough that you begin to understand that the real reward is not those specific locations but something much bigger and much more sustaining.
One last thing. Earlier in this thread someone suggested that my approach says that I think I'm better than "you," or that "you" are not worth. Actually, the opposite is the case. I remain enthusiastically optimistic that all of "you" are capable of finding joy and even photographic inspiration in more places than just the icons, and I remain hopeful that you will. I want to share that possibility with you.
Good luck.
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