cliche in landscape photography

[Terence McDonagh]

I have to agree with Kevin. I love hiking the National Parks, and I love photography. Some things cry out to be photographed because they're just so damn beautiful. Anyone on this site who can look at the Tetons and not take a picture of them is a better man than I am (no offense to the ladies).

But what about when you do it by accident? I'm an engineer and a do a lot of preservation work. I love old bridges, factories, mills, etc. For a long time I thought I was the only loony photographing older and abandoned steel mills (my girlfriend still claims this to be true), but then I found an entire book by David Plowden on the subject. And it came out when I was a wee lad. Same for steam- powered equipment. And bridges. I have found at least a dozen photos where I, unknowingly, had to have been standing within feet of where he took his photos, some 20 and 30 years prior. Do I just give up and say Mr. Plowden did this better (which he did), or do I keep doing what I enjoy? The same can be said of Berndt and Hilla Becher, and a few others. Bless the internet for letting me show my friends that I'm not the only nut case out there shooting photos of chemical plants and rusty bridges. Luckily NYC has plenty of rusty things to shoot.

[Jim Galli]

"- but can you make a photograph of that site which is DIFFERENT?" With apologies to Tony, I think a picture of Cathedral Rock done at night with fire in firepans making beautiful orange light would be imaginative as hell. Maybe get a sunset exposure first, then wait for it to get good and dark, then make your fires for that beautiful warm orange glow, and do a second exposure on the same frame. I can pre-visualize it and it's gorgeous! You guys are just pissy beacause you didn't think of it first.

[james mickelson]

Ok! Where is that big morsel with the hook in it!? If you don't like to look at iconic images, then don't. Half Dome looks exciting and powerful from very few vantage points. So does Delicate Arch. And Cathedral Rock. So if you don't like overly saturated colorful images of them, don't look. Simple. Me, I'll look every time.

[Steve Gangi]

Why this big to-do about being consciously different? Look, most of us are amateurs. If I see something I like, I try to do it justice in my photograph. I do not stop to wonder if some famous person already did it. I do not agonize over how that person did it. I shoot what I like, how I like with no apologies. If we all had to constantly avoid what maybe was already done, we would be paralyzed. Landscapes have been done, portraits have been done, etc etc etc. I've done some wonderful pictures, and also a lot of garbage pictures. Just go with what you see and what you feel. To stir the pot, why is it that after the initial hoopla about some avant garde and original and courageous rule breaking "new superstar", this same sort of person usually does NOT stand the test of time, but instead looks hopelessly dated and ridiculous a few years later? Remember that famous painter who made big bucks off a painting of a Campbells soup can? I thought it was dumb then as a teenager, and I still do. Just being different is not enough, it is too much like flash with no substance, "all show and no go".

[tim atherton]

"Remember that famous painter who made big bucks off a painting of a Campbells soup can? I thought it was dumb then as a teenager, and I still do. Just being different is not enough, it is too much like flash with no substance, "all show and no go"." Except that he influenced a generation or 3, provided in icon of the 20th century, and if you came across an original tucked in your garage, it would sell for more than you are likely to make in a lifetime. That image already has, and will undoubtedly pass the test of time

tim a

[Matt_1193]

Andy W. was the greatest Hack (Huckster) of the 20th century! Nothing but a pretentious, 3-card Monty, Swatch peddler.

[Brian Ellis]

This is an obvious troll, but the basic point has been seriously made by many people - if it's been done before, why do it again? Of course if anyone can find something that hasn't been done before, please let me know. I promise not to do it again, but considering the billions and billions of photographs that have been made since Niepce looked out a window and made a photograph, it would be very difficult to find anything that hasn't been photographed many many times already. On the theory of this post and many others like it, we wouldn't be able to make any photographs because in photography everything that can be done has been done over and over already. Adams wasn't exactly the first person to photograph the western landscape. It isn't what you photograph, it's how you photograph it, what you bring to the picture, that's important.

[Noshir Patel]

Personally, I think if you're going to criticize modern photographers for taking these pictures, you should criticize Ansel Adams as well. The viewpoints for many of his famous Yosemite pictures are so obvious that I don't think we should give him any credit for choosing them. I have much more admiration for Moonrise, Hernandez, NM. I consider that to be an artist defining photograph.

There are only so many sites that are truly splendid in their own right. They deserve to be photographed and seen. To take these photographs is to show reverence for nature's creations. They are not going to define who you are as an artist, but viewers will enjoy them. Most non-photographers haven't seen these views nearly as many times as we have.

[Jonathan Bujndick]

Ernie Gec,

You have said it better than I have read anywhere before. All should read it once more, as it states why many of us do photography, and are so frustrated by our results.

Thank you sir!

Jonathan

[Ansul]

Listen you guys, you all have it wrong. It matters not what you shoot as long as you shoot. Forget about copy my work, I was not that good, shit if you guys shot half as much as I did you would wind up with hundreds of great images. I was a great darkroom wizard, and at best an average photographer.

Now listen, check out Mark Klett, now he is one hell of a great photographer. That boy has some imagination, style, soul, whatever. Look at my boy Sexton....not much imagination but sure learned the craft from a great teacher. Take Art Wolfe...please! Sorry I could not help it.

The bottom line is "START CREATING BEAUTY, STOP STEALING IT!"

Now, everyone go out and have some fun.

Ansel