samueli wrote in post #14047371
Any ideas on spots to spend some good quality photography time at?
I've never been to Jamaica and I don't hav any suggestions for you. But for the nothing that it's worth, here's my thought on "good spots"...
EVERY spot is potentially a good spot, depending on what kinds of pictures you want. Someone suggests a great spot, you might find it a horrible spot because you're not that kind of photographer. And assuming that you are that kind of photographer, there's also this...there's a decent chance that you're going to take pictures which are only superficially different than those offered by the people giving advice.
Like...I once shot a historic church in my town, which was a popular tourist spot. I go on site, completely ignorant of any other pictures anyone else ever took. I merely know that it's a populuar spot for tourists. So I scope out the location, find the best spot, and then set up my 4x5 view camera.
Luckily, while I'm setting up my camera, a dude at the nearby flower shop comes up to me and says something like, "dude...every day I see a dozen people photographing that church from that EXACT same spot. But you're the only one I saw doing it with a camera like that. What the hell are you using?" Then I made sure to have a polite and courteous and brief chat with him. Then he left, and I was like, "holy ****. If everyone else shoots from that same spot, then I've got a problem."
Anyway, I was already at that spot, so I went ahead and shot. Then I moved.Then I looked on Google images to see location I shot, and it was just ****ing insane how much all of those pictures were nearly identical in all but superficial ways.
Anyway..."great locations to shoot" are probably going to be places where people are already shooting. So these days, I don't even ask. Not unless it's in the form of, "do you know of a swamp which isn't swarming with leeches" or "do you know of a ghetto where I can shoot at night and not get mugged?"