NatureScapes.net Forums

It’s becoming a problem that is ruining many locations by giving out the coordinates of special places:

https://fstoppers.com/originals/please-stop-tagging-locations-your-outdoor-photographs-291790

https://fstoppers.com/landscapes/clear-evidence-stop-geotagging-specific-locations-your-nature-photographs-social-300970

Joe

I posted this on FB in response to a similar post.  I've pasted that post here.  I don't geotag my images but I have made the decision to be more vague on the location of where photos my photos were taken...

This is not far from where I live and I used to go there several times a year.  When I first started in the mid 1990's I could go to Horseshoe Bend (It was easy to miss the 5 car dirt parking area then), I would hike over the hill to the bend and literally be the only person there for hours on end, especially if it was during the week.  By the mid 2000's there might be 5 people there, by 2015 it was 100's.  Now the place is destroyed and there are thousands there every day.  The destruction, however, is more the fault of the NPS than it is the people as they decided to "develop" the area.  They have replaced the old trail over the hill that was too much work for about 60% of the population that eats over 3000 calories a day with a handicap accessible trail.  They have destroyed the rim with jackhammers and bulldozers and put in a platform and railings. It's a travesty.  My signature shot taken from a narrow V in the rim from the area no longer exists.  It's very upsetting to me and a travesty.  As the video said, it's not the only place like this.  All over the world this is happening.  Look at pretty much Iceland from the Snaefelsness Peninsula to Hofn.  I now go to places there in the night in summers because during the day it's a mess.  And now a similar thing is happening in the north and the east will soon follow.  There is example after example.  Partly, we photographers are to blame by posting stunning pictures of these places but the cell phone era, as the video says and things like Google Earth is even more at fault.

This thread talked a bit about it in September:

https://www.naturescapes.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=279707

Once the info is out there, a location is pretty much doomed in this day of easy travel and camera abundance. It’s really too bad for the outdoors and phoneography has multiplied the problem many fold. Bosque has been a prime example of overuse. It makes me sick to hear people complain about photographic conditions there, when  birds and wildlife should really be the only primary consideration and not photography.

Photographers may try to justify their cause by saying how much they add to the economy of the surrounding areas, but money should never even be a consideration over nature. Destroying natural areas like around Horseshoe Bend is a disgrace to nature.

Joe

E.J. Peiker wrote:I posted this on FB in response to a similar post.  I've pasted that post here.  I don't geotag my images but I have made the decision to be more vague on the location of where photos my photos were taken...

This is not far from where I live and I used to go there several times a year.  When I first started in the mid 1990's I could go to Horseshoe Bend (It was easy to miss the 5 car dirt parking area then), I would hike over the hill to the bend and literally be the only person there for hours on end, especially if it was during the week.  By the mid 2000's there might be 5 people there, by 2015 it was 100's.  Now the place is destroyed and there are thousands there every day.  The destruction, however, is more the fault of the NPS than it is the people as they decided to "develop" the area.  They have replaced the old trail over the hill that was too much work for about 60% of the population that eats over 3000 calories a day with a handicap accessible trail.  They have destroyed the rim with jackhammers and bulldozers and put in a platform and railings. It's a travesty.  My signature shot taken from a narrow V in the rim from the area no longer exists.  It's very upsetting to me and a travesty.  As the video said, it's not the only place like this.  All over the world this is happening.  Look at pretty much Iceland from the Snaefelsness Peninsula to Hofn.  I now go to places there in the night in summers because during the day it's a mess.  And now a similar thing is happening in the north and the east will soon follow.  There is example after example.  Partly, we photographers are to blame by posting stunning pictures of these places but the cell phone era, as the video says and things like Google Earth is even more at fault.

I'm glad to have lived during the time I lived in.  So many of the things I did during my life are now over crowded, no longer exist, require lottery permits, or are prohibited.  All indications are that it is not going to get better. 

Basically the same story here:

https://petapixel.com/2018/11/05/how-ge ... landmarks/

When are they going to build a skywalk there??? The numbers of visitors is staggering.

Joe

Hi,

Overcrowding and vandalism is a problem. Fortunately, my camera doesn't do geotagging, but if it did, I would turn it off.

I don't mind showing Native American ruins, pictographs, petroglyphs and other sensitive places, but I don't tell where they are if I think people will go there and damage them. We had problems last year in northern Arizona with graffiti (spray paint) damaging several places.

Crowds usually aren't a problem because of where I go, but we do make several trips to the Grand Canyon every year. The crowds used to be manageable, but now I have to go in off-season, or move well away from the main parking area to get away from large crowds.

Oh well, the 7,200,000,000 people on this dust ball have to be somewhere. I just wish it was in front of my lens.

Have Fun,
Jeff

Now there is a place with an official stand on the issue:

https://petapixel.com/2018/11/30/jackso ... locations/

Joe

New Zealand is having problems now, as well:

https://fstoppers.com/landscapes/instag ... tem-315053

Joe

A different take, but I don’t agree with it:

https://fstoppers.com/originals/are-geo ... ags-325775

Joe

It's interesting to me, almost all the glorious and wonderful photographic places in the Southeast get much lower visitation from photographers. I remember the zoo of people photographing the virgin river from that bridge, almost 15 years ago, and never run into a crowd like that anywhere in North Carolina / Tennessee / Virginia.

The story of horseshoe bend makes me quite sad - I visited once in 2004 and it was just me and a film photographer from Jackson, Wyoming who ventured out for sunrise.

There are a few semi-secret places that I know about in the west, I sure hope they remain that way next time I visit.