mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

I am happy you where able to see the locations you mentioned. Yes they are beautiful.
Mundy

b top gun

There was a time when I shot flowers more than half the time. Several years back I focused on milkweed pods in the Fall, have not chased those since. When I shot flowers, my favorite location was CBG (Chicago Botanic Gardens), I have a membership. Over the years I have seen a steady decline in the photo ops there; something has changed and there are not nearly the amount of flowers as there were in years past.

I get it, avoid the herds of tourists and try to find new angles or get off the beaten path. That is all well and good when you have the resources and time to dawdle. It takes me a minimum of three and a quarter hours from wheels up to wheels down to Phoenix, then drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Have made a few trips to the Pac North Wet and for whatever reason everything in Oregon especially is farther than it should compute out to be. I swear a mile in Oregon is way more than 5280 feet!!!

I totally envy those who can get to Yellowstone in a couple of hours.

To the point, I am probably bored with the sameness of the pics posted of places like Yosemite and Monument Valley. I think it would be cool to visit the Navajo Bridge and walk across the Colorado River on the old bridge which is now for bike and foot traffic only. Horseshoe Bend is in that area and that is another place that is overphotographed, in my opinion.

My second trip to Petrified Forest Natl Park, I made it a point to walk some of the lesser traveled trails and get up close and personal that way. I was the only park visitor on some of those trails that day. PERFECT!!!

Mount St Helens looks different from the Boundary Trail, from the Hummock Trail and from the Loowit trailhead and especially from Windy Ridge where you drive through a main blast zone to get there. Mount St Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount Hood all have their own moods depending upon when you view them. Mount St Helens especially can be very moody when the valleys are shrouded in pockets of patchy fog and low lying clouds.

I am no longer a fan of totally clear blue skies, nor those days when the clouds are just one blah blanket with no contrast. I want/need contrast and being a minimalist, I want nothing to do with replacing the sky in any of my shots.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

You don't need to take pictures of the same old - same old scenery. Visit. Enjoy. But take pictures of wildflowers or whatever eclectic thing catches your eye. Heck, you don't really even need to take pictures!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I believe the spirit and approach that Curmudgeon has expressed here is a key element that is missing from many photographs (and perhaps photographers). If you don't have passion for what you are shooting, the void will be obvious. Even simple photographs of our families and loved ones can (and usually do) carry this passion. I've mentioned that I do not care to photograph birds in flight. Because of this, I shouldn't do it. But the very obvious passion for the endeavor from those who really are devoted to doing it almost always shines right through the screen or the paper. BillNikon's images are beautiful and technically so near perfect that the difference doesn't matter. But what I see in his images is his love for the birds. I am passionate about railroads. I've not posted rail shots here, because my artistic skills were not well developed when I was doing a lot of it. Now I m interested in getting out and catching up, even though the subjects are less varied and harder to catch nowadays. I'm guessing that probably 98% of you don't have a passion like that. It would be unfair to ask you to spend a day with me "chasing trains," even if you are great photographers otherwise.

I really began to realize this when I participated in my two night sky workshops in 2018 and 2019. So many of the folks there were there just for the technical feeding. They were focused on their cameras and tripods and what their exposures were going to be. They missed the wonder of just sitting and watching and seeing day turn to night and being in awe of all the stars that most of them hadn't seen for 50 years. And their results ended up showing that, in a lot of cases. They seemed mostly to be checking off another box for another genre of photography.

There are some places that attempts to photograph shouldn't even be considered until that initial awe subsides, at least a little. But I believe that if the reverence subsides, it becomes much more difficult to capture a meaningful photograph.

A number of years ago, there was a large group of outstanding young musicians. They were widely covered on television and in newspapers. They were universally technically perfect, or nearly so. But there was no passion evident when they performed, and listening quickly became uninteresting and eventually could be quite a chore. There was no evidence that "they had the music in them" (to borrow from Kiki Dee and Thelma Houston).

So yes...I believe that if you don't enjoy being where you are and seeing what you are seeing, then you may need to consider whether to photograph it at all, maybe beyond a quick snapshot.

DHooch

You won't regret visiting any of the National Parks, even if you don't take your camera. When we went to the Grand Canyon, the first thought was that photos do not do it justice. Go! Take your camera! Document your trip with photos! Don't regret that you didn't go. Enjoy!

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Your comment about the participants in the night sky work shop who missed experiencing the night sky brings to mind Walt Whitman's poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

When I heard the learn'd astonomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astonomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room,
How soon unaccountable I became sick and tired,
Till rising and gliding out, I wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

While I do not discount the importance of the technical side of photography, I do think a little more "Whitman" would help elevate the photographic efforts of many of us, myself included.
improve

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
- Marcel Proust

HistoryLover Loc: Landenberg,Pa.

I agree with the others who have said, you can see all the pictures in the world, but when you see something in person, aka, the Grand Canyon, or Tunnel View, or Grand Prismatic Spring, you will be amazed! If you do the Grand Canyon,make sure you walk at least a mile down the Bright Angel Trail. The quiet is simply amazing!

b top gun

And remember, for every step you walk down the Bright Angel Trail, that is one more step you have to take to get back to the rim of the Grand Canyon. Ahhhhhhhh, to be young again!!!

Genessi Loc: SoCal

Yosemite was amazing. I went to Yosemite for the first time ever this March. It was simply marvelous, Not so crowded and the drive was wonderful. Breath taking views!! We stayed at the magnificent Ahwahnee.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I had the same experience upon viewing the Taj Mahal. I had seen many photos, but seeing it in person was a whole other experience.

Real Nikon Lover Loc: Simi Valley, CA

Sounds like you may have more than photography burnout. I don't mean to sound sarcastic or bring drama to the table. Whenever I get a travel opportunity I get high strung and actually resist traveling. Have gotten angry over it. Pisses off my wife. You see I commute 120 miles a day so traveling is something I do EVERY day. Once I am at the destination I calm down and glad I brought my camera. The only other nerve is worrying TSA or some idiot will screw up my equipment or try and steal it. Medication can work wonders for traveling jitters and in some cases, creativity. BTW Yosemite and Grand Canyon can be seen off season and makes for great winter photos. Take the Grand Canyon Railroad Ride... enjoy a "Woo Woo" drink in the bar car. If you get to Yosemite jump over Tioga Pass and hit US Hwy 395 and drop in on Bodi Ghost Town. Its haunting! :)

Judy795

Clyde Butcher still sits for hours in his walker to get the right light

olddutch Loc: Beloit, Wisconsin

In 2004, I went to Alaska and took 2000 Pics.. I can go thru them now and they do not do Justice at all of what I remember seeing while I was there.. I do enjoy all of the pictures from far away that I see on this Forum but I know that to visit the location and see them with a pair of Mark-100 Eyeballs would be better than the pics that I see There was a recent post of Pictures from Canyon Land that is a great picture but to be there in person and see that with your own eyes, Gives you a picture that cannot be duplicated.. I do appreciate the pictures furnished by all of the Hoggers of places around the world as a lot of those I know I will never get to, But the Pictures make me want to go there.. thank you all

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Thirty years ago, my wife and I were part of a very large group that spent two weeks in Germany and Austria. I took what was, for me, a large number of photographs. When we came home, and I got them printed, it was clear that most of them simply weren't very good. They were technically fine, but many of them showed that I hadn't given them enough thoughr, others showed that I just didn't have the proper lens for the shot. So I signed up for some classes and started saving for a couple of additional lenses.

About eight years later, I was in northern Arizona with a bunch of model railroaders at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, again with a camera. Again I was disappointed with my results. But this time, I was really fine with not only my technical tesults, but also with my composition choices. The problem was that everything was too big. I had been really connected to my experience at the canyon, and what I experienced was simply too big to capture on film. That challenge is still not solved. I'm still working on it. I've got a couple of friends who are extremely knowledgeable artists helping me. I'm not giving up, even though there may not be a solution, we are having a ton of fun working on it.

So maybe the solution is to accept these disappointments as a challenge instead. Easier said than done, perhaps, but maybe worth a try.