Vikings at Coney Island, (Copyright 2001, alias Touchel
Berne)
Now, I noticed the post above that asked the question of what should and what should not be photographed. I think this is especially difficult here in New York City, not just from an ethical point of view, but because everything is already in a state of being photographed practically all the time, 24/7. I'm not sure how it is in other cities, but here, if you wander out to see the Chinese New Year parade I guarantee that your biggest concern becomes trying to avoid taking photographs of crowds composed entirely of other photographers taking photographs of other photographers. This can get to be a bit of a drag to say the least. I found myself responding by making a point of not taking pictures of things that were inherently photogenic; which also got to be a bit of a drag. I think I've matured a bit, in that I no longer worry too much that my picture is going to be a nearly exact duplicate of others' pictures. It just can't be helped sometimes. The photograph above is from this year's Mermaid Parade at Coney Island, and I was aware of two other photographers breathing down my neck taking pretty much the same picture - I even noticed that all three of us were using 50mm lenses.
But here's the general question: how do you respond to finding yourselves taking pictures in hyper-photographed places or at these super-photogenic events (parades, mardi-gras, chinese new years, etc.)? I tend to go overboard trying to do things differently, and frequently end up with pictures of everything but what I went there to photograph. I know this isn't healthy.
-- Touchel Berne (touchel@excite.com), July 27, 2001
