The "trophy shot" - a dilemma for landscape and nature photographers
As a photographer I am fortunate to be able to visit some areas in Africa more often. So are the imposing sand dunes and the dried up white clay plain of Deadvlei.
There are few photographers who visit Namibia and do not want to add this postcard destination to their portfolio. Deadvlei is therefore an iconic location and a must-have photo opportunity for almost every photographer.
Although many have never been to this place before, you can see that a lot of attention has been paid to the homework. By sifting through social media for an evening, they already know in advance which image they want to recreate. They carefully go through 3 or 4 compositions and finish their wish list in 45 minutes.
And it is precisely this imitation of images and compositions that is the purport of this article. Do you go for that “trophy shot” or do you give space to your own creativity?
A friend of mine also noticed this week that sometimes it seems like we are competing with each other. This immediately resonated with me and I couldn't help but agree with him, no matter how sad. We openly ask about the location if someone has made a nice image, photographers set up their chair at the game track on the Hoge Veluwe around 12:00 pm to have the "best" spot around 6:00 pm. If someone has posted a good image on social media, we can't resist quickly showing that we have an even better image in our portfolio.
Without passing judgement, because I also hunt for those iconic images, I often see us as the old big-game hunters. We are all busy putting together our own trophy wall with the heads of lions, buffaloes, gemsboks, dik-diks, rock badgers and gerbils. But instead of these animals, these are our images of the posbank, the high fens, the young foxes in the AWD, the sea spark near Katwijk and, a little further away, also deadvlei.
How do I deal with these iconic images? If it is the first time that I am present at a destination, I often look for that place where the dream image can be made, if only to have my own version of it. In addition, these are often the specific locations that do well at stock agencies. Not making them would therefore not be economically wise.
During my last trip to deadvlei, I wanted to recreate an acclaimed composition because of the better quality of my equipment. After using the 24-megapixel APS-C sensor in 2010 and the 36-megapixel full-frame in 2016, it was now the turn of the Pentax 645Z, a 50-megapixel medium format camera.
A beautiful image, clean lines and little to criticize. But the feeling that thousands of photographers had already made this image before me, but also the knowledge that hundreds of millions of people already knew this composition, did not give me a unique feeling.
Over the past few years I have come to the conclusion that for me personally the greatest reward often lies in running away from or avoiding the established and well-tried locations. Trophy shots that show a unique image, but are now suddenly commonplace due to the massiveness, no longer give me the kick I'm looking for.
Once you get the urge to take that trophy shot out of your system, a whole new world opens up for you. You say goodbye to the masses, a mass of photographers who are often selfish and selfish, but now suddenly have an eye for the real beauty of the place where you are.
After visiting a place once or twice, I often avoid it altogether and seek out personal, unique experiences of my own.
There really is nothing better than not having to worry about whether you will be there in time to claim your spot or whether there is enough room for your tripod in the jumble of carbon legs.
I am very curious about your opinion on this. What do you think about photographing the calibrated classics? Is there a dilemma between your desire to photograph an iconic place and your desire not to be part of the crowd?
