Well David, I wholeheartedly disagree with your statement. It's a nice troll but it nonetheless shows how utterly uniformed and out of touch you are with "real" serious photographers. And I'm glad I won't need to trip over you in Arches or any other beautiful place because I know you will be in your backyard swing shooting pictures of your swingset. And that's Mr. Mickelson to you pal.
No. I live relatively close to Zion and visit there frequently and have to say that in the fall photographers are one of the most problemmatic user groups in the park. I have seen our fellow large formatters park vehicles willy nilly along the roads damaging unprotected landscape and congesting traffic because they didn't leave enough room for two way traffic. All because it was close to the shot. This is not to say anything about people who park their tripods in the middle of traffic or have the gall to ask hikers (who spent the better part of the day climbing several thousand feet) to move so they could set up a shot. To think that we deserve special priveledges (sp?) because we are serious artists is to not understand the nature of the problem. There are numerous groups who also have legal rights to use the park for their personal interests (kayakers and rock climbers come to mind) for whom vehicular access would be highly desirable, but, the attitude that parking as close as possible to a desired location has significantly diminished the quality of our most popular national parks. When you have the experience of visiting Zion on a non-holiday weekend and the scenic drive looks more like the parking for the Michigan-Ohio State game then something has to change. For me I'm happy to hike.
I agree wholeheartedly with you Kevin. But take the amateur point and shooter out of the picture and the park gets pretty deserted. People like you, me and hopefully some of the rest of this group know better than to do stupid things to the already desecrated environment we try to capture on film. I tend to go to Zion and most places in the off season or in season I get to the shot so early that most of the amateurs are still in bed daring not to brave the cold. And yes there are millions of places away from the road and the parks and many of us shoot these places. I've gone to many places I won't name that are absolutely stunning and never seen a soul. And even in our parks if you get the hell off the road a couple hundred feet you seldom see anybody. But I ask you to always remember that there are those who cannot, for one reason or another, get too far off the road or pathway. I have met many photographers who can no longer pack a 45 and can't walk more than a few hundred paces from their car. These photographers have just as much right to photograph Half-Dome or The Great Arch as anyone else. That doesn't diminish their validity nor there images. Hopefully when you reach my age you will still be able to get out and about. These places will still be available to everyone and not just the rich or you won't have to wait a year or two to get a permit to visit. When I say serious photographer I mean someone that takes the time to be careful where they step, where they park their car, takes the shuttle when available, is courteous, doesn't leave their end tears from their 120 film pouch laying all over the place, and generally regards the environment with the respect it deserves. I've been known to get a little hostile towards folks who don't show the same respect for a place that I do. And hopefully ther rest of us will do the same. Put it out there and help protect the environment from the idiots. But just because someone wants a shot of Delicate Arch doesn't mean they deserve any disrespect from anyone. Someone doesn't want an image of something that may have been shot a million times before they were even born doesn't need to go there and take the shot. But that doesn't mean they need to spout their disrespect of anyone who wants that shot. It shows to me what they're like inside. To each his own. We've got enough self-serving stuck up people around. We don't need that attitude among "serious" photographers here at the forum. And if you"re serious, you can call me James.
I read in many responses the question "how do you get there without a car?
WALK. Has anyone read Ansel's accounts of how he used to get around in the High Sierras?
If you can not hike with your gear, I am truly sorry; and I am being sincere here. But to say that the Parks "were created for the citizens to enjoy the outdoor experience..." is a gross understatement of the reason the Parks exist.
Humans need to get it through their collective head that this planet does not belong to us. It is not our possession; and for sure not a single one of us will take even a grain of sand with us when we check out. The Parks/Public Lands exist [or should exist] to preserve in some limited way what we _know_ should be preserved to a much larger degree.
Again, the Parks are more important than our enjoyment of them. There should be NO cars in any of the Parks except public transport to the main entrances. And I agree, get ALL of the amenities out of the Parks.
Is the NPS inefficient? YES! And we should be among the most vocal groups out there telling the NPS and congress what is wrong.
By the way, I am renewing my membership in the Sierra Club today. May I please suggest that, if you love the land, you should support this most important organization.
Regards,
Jason.
Congrats Micah on asking a question which has generated a lot of discussion!
As I recall one of the major problems NPS faces is congress-beings too willing to vote for preservation of area "X" but not willing enough to vote for an NPS budget increase. They are holding things together with spit and binders twine and a lot of unpaid overtime and volunteer hours.
I couldn't agree more with Jason. What he said reminded me of what has become a very important set of words to me over the last few years.
"The Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth." -Chief Seattle, 1854
People need to stop thinking of the Earth, national parks included, as a possesion or some source of income, and start looking at it as what it really is- a living, breathing organism encompassing every plant and animal it supports. It distresses me to see so many harmful things being done to the Earth while seemingly few individuals even acknowledge that anything is even wrong. The Earth as a whole is far from healthy, there's no questioning that. What we can quesetion is how it got that way and how we can try to fix it. It is the responsibility of every person who has ever enjoyed nature in any way, shape, or form at any point in their lives to do something to preserve and promote it.
We, as large format photographers, posses an interesting capacity to capture things on film in a way that is entirely unique to large format photographers. We are able to create images with more detail by far and thereby visual impact than our smaller format brethren. So what? I say that because of this ability to impress, we have every right and responsibility to use our talents to promote conservation in any and all ways that we can. We should start focusing less on such things as where in the parks we can park our cars, and more on the things that will actually bring about a positive change in the way the Earth is treated, both inside the park system and out.
Dave, there are an enormous number of small and medium format shooters that would disagree with your statement that we LF enthusiasts have anymore uniqueness in the way our images look or convey information. And many have never bought into the Gaia concept of the earth. Just do your part for your part of the earth. And don't blame the people who go to NP's to enjoy them. Blame the NPS for their mismanagement and shortsightedness in dealing with a problem that was building long before we photographers started showing up to shoot in these wonderous places. And while you're at it talk to the governments of southeast asia who have sold off half their trees and now are swimminmg for their lives in the floods they have caused. Photographers didn't cause that. James
James,
I never blamed photographers for anything. Nor did I put any blame on any park-goers, photographers or otherwise. And how did southeast Asia factor into this? All I'm saying is that we should all do what we can. And that goes for non-photographers too. Furthermore, I never said that non LF shooters couldn't create perfectly unique images. In fact, many of my favorite landsape images were shot on 35mm and rollfilm. However, there's no denying the impact of the incredible detail from a LF image, and that's something the smaller formats just can't provide, period. Before you jump down my throat, let me just say that I don't believe that LF is any "better" than 35mm or rollfilm, but it most certainly is different. Every photographer, regardless of format, is capable of creating very unique and powerful images, but not necessarily in the same way. Large format is just a different way of doing things.
Blaming how the NPS screwed things up in the past solves absolutely nothing. Arguing like this solves even less. I think we can all agree that something needs to be done, whether the intricacies of our personal philosophies agree or not. Therefore, why not concentrate on how to change the current state of things and prevent further environmental damage? It's certainly a better option that engaging in pointless disputes such as this.
Unfortunatley, no one will ever know beyond doubt what Chief Seattle said.
http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/wslibrry.htm
Quite true. That's the problem with history- sometimes the specifics aren't as clear as we would like. However, whether or not we know what Chief Seattle said exactly on that day, it's the sentiment/philosophy behind what he said that counts. The idea that the Earth cannot be owned in the sense that one may own personal posessions is the key. And, regardless of whether people may agree with that idea or not, it is definitely something worth pondering.
Just my $0.02 for the day...
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