How often does this happen to you?

So, there I was, taking landscape photos in the late afternoon, in a quiet rural location in New Zealand, when, all of a sudden, not one, but eleven cars pulled up beside me on a cliff-hugging road - parking on the road itself, not even to one side - and thirty to forty camera-wielding people came running out. There were all manner of cameras - everything from iPhones and point-and-shoots, to 400Ds and Nikon D5000s, to 5Ds and 1Ds. About half were flashing uselessly into the sunset - those using Nikon D700s, with the pop-up flash, being perhaps the worst offenders - most didn't have a tripod despite the long exposures involved, and there was only one other person using (non-UV) filters. Most were clicking randomly at anything and everything for a few frenzied minutes, then, as the sun set, they were gone.

Bear in mind that I had barely seen a tourist out all day. Random? Does this often happen to you? Share your stories!

Not to often with cameras, but when I was into RC aircraft it happend all the time. No one around for hundreds of meters, but the SECOND I started the engine, I had 5-6 kids right by me. Where they popped up from I havent the clue.

The more dangerous the area, the less people will bother you.


(that's what I go by for landscapes)

Nothing worse than roving packs of photographers stalking wild sunsets!

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Probably some guided tour for tourists "look what a pretty sunset" clickity clickity *lets go*

In Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I have had similar experiences.

If you are not familiar with the area let me give you a little info. Its an 11 mile loop road in a large valley, the road is one way. There are countless places to pull off, including parking areas and designated pull offs and its legal and safe to pull off any where else if you choose to do so. During the summer and fall months it gets really crowded and at times you may spend an hour sitting in the same spot because some where 2 miles up the road a deer or a bear crossed the road.

One day my girlfriend and I stopped at one of the many old cabins along the road taking some photos of it. After a moment or two several deer came out of the woods and started feeding in the grass around, and even under the cabin! For about a minute it was just her and I, then all of a sudden there were 20 or 30 people out.

The usual, lets use a point and shoot or cell phone, stand 100 feet back(dont forget to lean back while taking the shot), turn on the flash, oh thats a great shot. Ashton Kutcher.

We got some interesting shots and enjoyed the brief moment before we were over run!

Shadowblade wrote in post #10028948
... Does this often happen to you? Share your stories!

This sort of thing occurs to me fairly often, and it can be really frustrating. Last weekend my camera and I visited a falls and cascade in the mountains. Within minutes, a young couple and unleashed dog showed up, laboriously picked their way over the slippery boulders to midstream, and planted themselves almost dead center at the top of the falls. No visitor, photographer or not, could view the falls without also viewing this couple and their pet.

Since we can't order up our own private sunsets and waterfalls, the solution might be to take pictures of the tourists with their pop-up flashes and inferior techniques or of the couples and unleashed dogs atop the waterfalls.

As a side note, no doubt I've been the guy in the way of other picture-takers more times than I know about. (Of course, that's an entirely different situation, though.)

Try KAP (kite aerial photography). First you get the kite flying about 100-200 feet high, then you hook up your camera rig to the line, then you attach the camera and secure the button down for it to shoot in continuous mode. (There are actually a few more steps involved), but by the time you are finished you will have tons of onlookers and (this is the strange part) TONS of advice. I mean TONS. Everytime I try it and someone comes along they give me advice, and they've never even done it before. It takes a lot of patience not to turn and say, "go away!"

The talking and curiousity isn't rude on their part, so I put up with it and try to be friendly, but as soon as they start giving me advice I get frustrated, shut down, pack up and leave. I just can't deal with it very well.


I had a neighbor once who literally ran into my yard when I was planting and watering grass seed. He said, "no, no...not this time of day." Then he went into this speech about the proper method of planting grass seed, etc. Said I was doing it all wrong. So I felt kind of bad about continuing to work out in the yard that day, and mad that I should feel bad about it.

Unsolicited advice is just rude. So is stepping into someone else's composition.

That said, a photographer who has been in one spot a while should move on to let others enjoy the same place.

Shadowblade wrote in post #10028948
About half were flashing uselessly into the sunset - those using Nikon D700s, with the pop-up flash, being perhaps the worst offenders - most didn't have a tripod despite the long exposures involved, and there was only one other person using (non-UV) filters.

All I thought of when I read this was /facepalm. Everyone has to start somewhere but I can confidently say I never used the popup flash for anything, much less landscapes.

Not exactly photographers, but I was taking some photos of rice terraces in what I thought was a remote place in Bali. Suddenly someone started climbing a tree to fecth coconuts, then another one. Then a few kids came along and then some more people pretending to work in the fields. Our driver told us that if we take their picture we would have to give them some little money.

^^ automode will get those flash pop up every time...

try it at yellowstone park, USA. everyone there is hoping to see a bear or a moose and pulling out a tripod with a long lens will bring cars screaching to a halt and people asking "What do you see? what do you see?" I feel better when there are more photogs shooting, it's easier to look too busy to answer and let another guy do the talking. Being the first one there is just plain annoying.

birdfromboat wrote in post #10032363
try it at yellowstone park, USA. everyone there is hoping to see a bear or a moose and pulling out a tripod with a long lens will bring cars screaching to a halt and people asking "What do you see? what do you see?" I feel better when there are more photogs shooting, it's easier to look too busy to answer and let another guy do the talking. Being the first one there is just plain annoying.

In the Great Smoky Mountains one time (Cades Cove to be exact) me and a few photographers/friends were shooting a tree in the middle of a field, all of us had long lenses and tripods. Every other car would ask what we saw, the ones that didnt ask still stopped and looked for a moment or two. The greatest part about it was when some kid asked what we saw my friend points at the tree and goes "really big tree!" as if he was excited about it. The kid and his family did not find it that amusing.

I was at the Lincoln Memorial at night with my tripod and there were hundreds of people using their P&S with flash. I can't imagine how they turned out.

Never happened to me so far... interested to try to picture that though.