There are a lot of popular locations out there, and while they can look enticing, you sometimes get there and realize you are just creating the same images that thousands of photographers before you made. So, is there any point in investing the time, effort, and money to photograph such places? This excellent video features an experienced landscape photographer discussing the topic.
Coming to you from Mike Smith, this interesting video discusses whether it is worth photographing popular locations. I think there is nothing wrong with this as long as you understand the unique issues surrounding them and temper your expectations appropriately. If you are simply going for your own enjoyment, by all means, go and have fun. On the other hand, if you are expecting to make money through selling such images, it is important to remember that you are competing against thousands of very similar photos, and it can be hard to distinguish your work. If you want to sell your images, instead consider photographing areas you are intimately familiar with, where that familiarity gives you an advantage. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Smith.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi."
Yeah, I agree. I live in Mesa, AZ & wonder if there's any point in photographing Sedona, the Grand Canyon or even Flagstaff anymore. I live within a half-hour to one-hour drive to some great trailheads in the Tonto National Forest. This allows me to find some photogenic areas & determine what light & weather would make ideal photo opportunities & to get out there fairly fast enough when they occur.
A few years ago, I asked some people to take a photo of me with instructions, i e. keep me in the far left of the frame, etc. It took them four tries to do so. It even took a person 3 tries on my fstoppers portrait. From my experience, even standing on the same spot, two photographers won't take the same shot.
I would counter this by saying that if I were to shoot that famous arch scene when the Sun shines through and put it in an exhibition here in Winnipeg, I highly doubt that there'd be another shot at this exhibit of said arch. Now, if this was an exhibit regionally close to the arch, then another print showing up would be possible.
Further, I've been through several galleries here and have never seen a photo of the famous arch scene. And to stretch that, I used to live in New Orleans and never saw the arch in print there. Maybe my timing was bad, but......