Mine is bigger than yours, speaking of cameras

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Everyone has one, in the past three years digital SLR cameras have gone mainstream. So noticeable on my travels are tourists with their Canons and Nikons, snapping away at anything and anyone. Do they think that owning a big camera makes them pro and free license to shoot indiscriminately?

Case in point is the curly-haired man I encountered at Pashupatinath, Kathmandu. It's a holy site for Hindus, a place for pilgrimage and also an auspicious place to die. We tourists, and more than a few Nepalis go there to spectate. Armed with both a video camera and a digital SLR, the curly-haired man was happy as a pig in shit, filming and shooting everything in sight. He snapped the fake Sadhus (for a fee), dying people with their feet immersed in the holy Bagmati River, wailing mourners, funeral pyres, no subject was taboo. Totally obnoxious he was, sitting cross-legged on a low terrace across the stream from the funeral parties and happily recording the scene. By this time his companions had distanced themselves to save embarrassment. What was he hoping to achieve?

Heaven is a place where people talk about their good experiences in life and holidays. Hell is a place where people talk about the same and show the photos.

Photography is an accepted part of travel. For the most part we take happy snaps of friends and family, places and sights. Most of these are trash and only of personal value. Now digital SLR cameras are a major step up in quality and price, asking us to reconsider why we take photos. Most consumers simple believe that a better camera will produce better results. Budding enthusiasts soon realise they need to start learning something about photography.

If you are happy snapping away in Auto mode, you do not need a digital SLR. If big zoom ratios are attractive you are missing most of the creativity and quality that a SLR camera system with interchangeable lenses can offer. Too many people buy digital SLRs simply because they are affordable. This reminds me of an old man with his wife at a mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia who had spent hours at a shop and still could not decide which brand to buy. I saw him sitting on a stool with all the models in front of him: Canon, Olympus, Nikon and Sony. Perhaps the best advice I ever got from a camera retailer was when a young man told me to have a look at the website DPreview.

How many of your photos would you happily publish in a book or are good enough to display in a gallery? Travel photography is a difficult subject, to include real people in a scene without drawing a reaction, without feeling guilty of exploiting them, without stage managing the whole show (as National Geographic photographers often do when taking portraits). Have a look through your recent snaps and I am sure you will find nameless faces, stares, frowns, even offensive gestures; this is travel photography at its worst. To simply wander around an exotic location pointing a big camera at strangers is disrespectful, rude and does not work .

Good travel photography is akin to shooting wildlife. It requires respect, patience and trust. Most times you should override your excitement and not even attempt to take a photo, other times you have to give up after many tries and rarely do we succeed in capturing a striking image. In contrast, the practise of lay photographers is to use a wide zoom lens and take lots of photos, for what? It is an annoying fashion that gives the locals a negative attitude towards foreigners with big cameras. Stick to happy snaps and leave the people in peace. Be considerate, don't just think about yourself.

A confession: I too own a digital SLR camera, since 2006. I have owned four lenses, at present two, and have not bothered to upgrade the body as I rarely test its limits. I would consider I myself an average enthusiast, more a technician than an artist.

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Photos

Hunter becomes hunted, Pashupatinath, Nepal.
Should his daughter(?) be annoyed, any more than the people he is filming? I guessed he is Italian, my parents suspect he is an Israeli.

What an arse! Pashupatinath, Nepal.
The curly-haired man again. Behind the viewfinder we lose awareness of our surrounds.

Objectif magnifique, Uncle Ho
This French(?) lady can shoot anything in sight without concern for composition and perspective and no need to move her legs.

If you can't take shots, take lots, Uncle Ho's Mausoleum, Ha Noi, Viet Nam
This fellow is happy with his new Nikon, snapping away in all directions. Real photographers do not casually snap, they shoot with intent and care.

Comments

[Trond Falck]

Good !!!
I'm on my tour in Asia(India now) and think the same way as you. I like your comments about this theme and have seen persons(tourists)like this man. I'm ashamed of beeing tourist when I see this bad habit. Taking photos of people(and their sermonies ..) without any thoughts and their permittion, is stealing. We are visitors. Many of my friends told me to take a lot of pictures an blog them, but I,m not. I memorize them in mee, most of the time. The thoughts, feelings... I'm not a journalist.. TrondF

[richard]

travel photos
hello stephen, i read your blog on travell photography, especially about the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, and had the exactly same experience. i too am a avid photographer, but wanted to respect the grieving and of course the alredy deceased, by not taking any photos at all, just observing and learning, it made me so depressed and sick to see people filming the burning of a body, will they ever view it again at home on their larger than life wide screen tv. i think not, i bet they'll just forget that they ever went there. i think that because of the digital age, all snap happy and all it gives the locals in whichever country a bad impression of the forgien tourist. even worse is when some gives a child 5 rupees for posing for a photo. they then go and buy some glue and sniff it in the streets of kathmandu. people should be more responsible, and let their mind do the thinking, not their digi camera. if they have one they certainly should have it dangling around their neck on full view, showing off your wealth in some of the poorest countries around. it all about respect, there seams to be less and less around these days. happy travels, richard

[Lokman]

What's goin on?
Stephan G!...Wassup?...Where are u now?....Heard u quit the company (again ..).. Let's plan a trip to Tibet ..hahaha...