WHY Do We All Take the Same Travel Photos?
What do you think?...
Does the level of internet pre-travel planning, paired with an iPhone and a Facebook account add a new layer of purpose to our vacation, in the form of a photo scavenger hunt? Do we train ourselves for photo tourism safaris after reading guidebooks and internet articles filled with lists of "10 things you must see in _______”?
And, when we are in this photo safari mindset, does our depth of experience alter or dilute because it can distract us from absorbing the time and place that we happen to be standing in?
" We're all pretty much taking the same damn photo. "
-Laura Hoffman
My confession: The mindless tourist photo safari is hard to resist.
What is it about us humans? What are the tipping moments that drive so many of us to wander among amazing places in this world, bent on a mission of mindless photo documentation of the guidebook sites? Is it somehow to prove that we were there? Or is in some way to take piece of that place back with us to enjoy it later?
I’m not a hater of the tourist photo safari habit because I’ve been there, done that, and often still continue to join that club when I travel. I’m not looking down on those clusters of tourists all vying to take that same photo from the perfect front framed view, but instead just calling it out. I'm calling out that we're all taking pretty much that same damn photo.
That lovely Buddha in the Tree photo at the top of this blog post was photographed by me on an afternoon in Ayutthaya, Thailand. But I happened to be standing behind all of these people and quickly squirmed my way forward and to snap my version of that picture. First, I love the picture that I took... the Buddha head in the tree just looks cool and funky. This is one of the iconic images of Thailand tourism... and for good reasons. it is interesting, it is easily accessible in a free public park, and it photographs well.
But, like so many other 'beauty shots' you will find on travel blogs and tourism websites, the reality is that I wasn't experiencing a serene, peaceful moment with that tree. Instead I was jockeying for position to make sure that I didn't miss out on photographing this "must see" tourist stop.
So, how many people have taken pretty much the same photo that I did?
Judging by a Google image search, it's a lot. Then judging by how many people with cameras I saw stop in a 5 minute time window, I'll expand my guess to at least 100 new photos per day at that sight, so 36,500 photos per year. Phew! That's a lot of us running around with the same damn photo.
My answer my own question posed at the beginning = YES.
I do think that the level of internet pre-travel planning, paired with an iPhone and a Facebook account add a new layer of purpose to our vacation, in the form of a photo scavenger hunt. Yes, I do think that we train ourselves for mindless photo tourism safaris after reading guidebooks and internet articles filled with lists of "10 things you must see in _______”?
But what's the impact of that? Good? Bad? Neutral? My curious mind would like to know.
CONSIDERING A TRIP TO ASIA? RESOURCES FOR YOU:
C Trip: A major travel search engine for Asia. This site was recommended to me by coworkers in China as a terrific source for finding travel arrangements, particularly hotel accommodations. First time users can get extra 10% off hotels. TripAdvisor: This is a good single resource for you to find and compare many things from flights to hotels and tour options. Huge database of customer reviews.
Expedia: One of the largest and best trusted travel booking services in the US, always a good place to check for flights, hotels, vacation rentals or things to do.