Vacation, Photography & Tourists

The wife and I just came back from a couple of weeks in France. The above shot was taken on our last day in Paris when, on a whim, we bought last minute tickets to the Louvre. We have been there many times before, so we stayed away from the popular art items and focused on a few of the million other works of art that they display.

As we walked past the Mona Lisa, we felt for all those people. If you have never seen it, having to push through those crowds in order to catch a glimpse seems an awfully high price to pay. But that is more and more the norm. The post covid world has embraced travel like never before, and from some city residents splashing tourists with water, or even the famed Louvre shutting its doors due to too many people, we are beginning to pay the price for it.

How does that affect those of us who love photography? In the digital world, this has become easy with new Post Processing capabilities that allow you to remove people.  Ten years ago, I had to wake up at 5:00am and crawl my way to the Spanish Steps in Rome to capture it without people. Today, you can show up at 7am and click a button.

But for film photographers that just is not an option. The only solutions I see is either go to places where tourists don't go or stick to street photography (this last one a bit tongue in cheek). Let me explain...

In France we spent a few days in Paris and then took the train south. We went through a bunch of small towns in the southern part of France and did not see any tourists at all. English was a no go but people were friendly and happy to see a foreigner. If you dream of shoot the sights of Paris, you have to get up very early or do it in the rain. 

This image I captured around 7:00am. No person was removed in post processing, going to prove that you can indeed find some empty space, even if just for a few minutes, but you need to get up early.

You will also notice that it was a cloudy day with rain expected to start at 08:00 so most people decided the sleep in. But you need to be ready to take advantage of those little windows of opportunity.  In this case, I had a small tripod with me just in case. 

The other option is to go with street photography.  I say this is a bit of a joke because while we love to take pictures of people on the street we want to photograph locals. Part of street photography is about capturing the people who call that city home. I have no desire to take pictures of some Florida couple, with bright shorts, white hat, and a selfie stick in tow. I want to capture the man carrying a baguette home for lunch...or a local riding a bike to work or a small wedding group...

Here is a capture so real that it looks unreal. Again this was taken far from Paris, on the streets of Arles. There was a local wedding and these were the early arrivals waiting on the rest of the guests. What caught my eye was the young lady in the white hat. You can see how she is grabbing her skirt with tight anxiety, but her look is of confidence. Again I love these images of the street as long as I get locals in them.  But tourists are not as much fun to capture. They are out of their element and it shows. These, are locals, in their element wondering why I am taking their picture!

So how do we film photographers adapt to this tourist crazy world? Adapt. Get up early, get out in the rain, and go to the small towns, the hard to reach places where you can still see a man, on his bike, with his purse carrying his groceries home.

​Adapt or get used to having a collection of photographs of Floridians traveling...