Where are the CLOUDS!!!

[cyrus]

I'd find someway to make fun of the tourist...
-R

Eh, seen enough of them here in NYC already. I spent a couple of days with an SLR recording the facial reactions of women(and men) who looked directly up at the naughty-bits of a nude male statue in the Metropolitan. Good for a laugh. The guard was helping me.

Oh well, chalk this up to experience and try again sometime in Winter.

That's why I prefer going to far-flung exotic places like Iran - fewer tourists, lots of unphotographed places waiting to be discovered for even low-talent types like me.

(Hmmmm....I wonder what Zanzibar is like ... or "Tadjikistan" ... Armenia?!)

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Major tourist attractions and good photography rarely ever work out. That's why I always travel off the beaten path, hike, and four-wheel. I hate people in my photos.

[Struan Gray]

"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality,
and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."

Samuel Johnson

[paulr]

This site: http://homepage.mac.com/szetsungleong/
reminded me of this old thread. Mr. Leong's images strike me as great examples of the potential beauty of a blank, gray sky.

[cyrus]

potential beauty of a blank, gray sky.

Potential is the keyword there . . .
Anyway, these are in color. Betcha the same shots in bw would be boring boring boring

[paulr]

Well, you could say the same thing about most good color photographs. If it's equally successful in black and white, it begs the question of whether the color serves any purpose besides decoration.

I think you can find plenty of great black and white examples. Any great (unaltered) landscape from the 19th century (O'sullivan, William Henry Jackson, Carleton Watkins, etc.).

Or for a few more contemporary examples:
http://www.afterimagegallery.com/cliftdesertform.htm
http://www.afterimagegallery.com/wes...apatabeach.htm
http://www.masters-of-photography.co...ia39_full.html

[Colin Robertson]

Hey Cyrus, why doncha come here? We haven't SEEN the sky for the last five days. Just cloud, and some overcast, and a little gloom, oh and some more clouds . . .

[cyrus]

Sorry, I only go to places where they serve little drinks with little umbrellas in it . . .

[Robert Brummitt]

" Where are the CLOUDS!!!"

They're usually here in Portland, Oregon and they look great!
Actually, photographer John Wimberley has them pretty much trained to his beck and call.

[Saulius]

My wife who grew up in Rome says when it was the height of tourist season in the summer all the Romans would head out on vacation, to the beach, wherever and leave the city. So unfortunately yes, you had tons of tourists around. Maybe next time you go to Italia, and hopefully you will, you might try a less touristy time of year and/or hit the countryside away from all the typical touristy areas. During my first trip to Italia in '92 I spent a day in Venice, walking around with a friend. Unfortunately at this time I did not own a lf camera. We took a train into town and got in around 6:30am. This was during the summer, height of tourist season. Of course all the tourists sites are closed at this hour and we simply just walked into the city. We paid no attention to a map, just went where our noses took us. Those several hours of walking the back streets while the town slowly woke up was the highlight of our visit to Venice. We didn't see any tourists but saw the locals heading out to start their day. Shopkeepers began opening their stores, came across a woodworkers shop and peeked in at what they were up to, we got completely lost and loved it. We even came across a gondola repair shop. Eventually after several hours we found our way back to the main piazza and guess what? Tourists and masses of people everywhere. This doesn't help you now but it's something to think about in the future. Hope your next trip is more fruitful.