To be a tourist involves following signs provided to guide us to our destinations and bring our camera to use.
We are all familiar with these signs, and as a keen traveller and explorer myself, I’ll admit I get excited when seeing these signs, because you know they will guide you to a popular tourist area which will probably hold some kind of history or just something nice to look at.
However, these signs differentiate the professional photographer from the tourist photographer, because they guide us to common areas in which there will be many more tourists gaining the exact same experience of the area and in effect taking duplicate photographs. Professional photographs strive for individuality and uniqueness in their photographs, whereas a tourist isn’t usually too bothered whether they’re photograph is particularly different, it’s more about gaining that image as proof or remembrance of their time in that particular area, hence the idea that a lot of the time tourists add themselves in the image, or have somebody else take the photograph of them with their friends or family.
Signs don’t only hold the way to a destination but some also state where is best to take the image, or where the best view point is. This is a photographers worst nightmare, something telling them how to do their job. But for tourists its certainly helpful in gaining that perfect holiday snap, however it lacks the individuality in which a photographer strives for.
