Do You Shoot Key Landmarks?

[Ed Rooney]

Do you shoot landmarks and other top subjects, or do you give them a pass because you figure they are overdone with too many images in the Alamy collection?  

 

Ed

[Jill Morgan]

When in Toronto, I did take a couple of the CN Tower, uploading one of them. Figured there are thousands, so wasting my time while in the city photographing stuff that already is saturated, didn't seem a wise way to go.

[Bill Brooks]

I shoot key landmarks in the standard postcard way, and then in a unusual way.

 

After that I only re shoot them in different seasons, different light, or when there have been physical changes and they need to be updated.

 

Jill your images of the CN tower should be more likely to sell than older ones. This year they put an obvious safety railing around the outside for the skywalk experience. This means everything else is dated, and tourist bureaus etc will opt for the most up to date image. In fact I would wait to photograph until a tour group is out on the skywalk.

 

Landmarks and top subjects are used a lot, so Ed you might as well be represented. I use to travel to ONLY photograph landmarks and top subjects, but not today.

[Robert M Estall]

Well there was a time when I used to advise new stock shooters to go directly to "Niagara Falls, Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower, Neuschwanstein Castle, whichever was handiest" and get stuck in. Because there was a market! So they all did exactly that (even without my sage advice) so now that most of the stock sources are piled high in a few conglomerates, things have changed. I reckon now, the better advice is, don't ignore the landmark sites, but don't even get the camera out of the bag unless you have cracking light, perfect conditions like timely foliage or attractive people drifting by. Just walk away! 

 

If it's Alamy or G or C, there is going to be so much cracking stuff presented on the first pages of a search that something "not-too-bad" is never going to be seen, and almost certainly never bought.

 

But hey, maybe you like a challenge!