If you could go anywhere...

[Sparrow]

Pictures of the Silk Road sounds like the title of something. I would love to see it while I can still get over the passes

 

[Magnus]

Trans Siberia Express definately. I have done this once and if again I will take more time doing it. This was the most miraculous journey I'v ever done .... And as for all expensess paid, it's not expensive, it's far from anything comfortable or luxurious but a very interesting ride.
And now my photography has actually changed one can just dream of the amount of great shots that can be taken

 

[oftheherd]

I would like to go back to Sealion Island off the Falklands. About 2 years after I came back I was asked to do a presentaion and I took all my best slides. The carousel was locked safely away at the end of the evening for collection the next day while we went to get something to eat. When I went back the next day, all that was there was the smouldering ruin of the building. I still have the prints from those slides but it is not the same.

Kim

I can relate to that and I feel your pain. How terrrible.

 

[Ash]

If I could go anywhere, I would go everywhere.

But less of a smart-ass reply, I'm going to Asia next year hopefully, so I'll want to save to see all the sights in China and Thailand, Japan etc etc.

I'd love to go to Peru and take photo's of there, travel all around that part of America. Maybe go back to Greece and take real time in photo'ing there, and finally see Crete. I'm a bit of a sucker for ancient civilisations and their ruins.

I don't think I would want to go somewhere like Iran, or somewhere currently quite hostile, photographers can always be a target.

 

[stet]

That's awful, Kim. That's great that you had a chance to show them there, but I'm sorry for the loss.

Out of anywhere I've been or could think of, just for photography, it would be Hong Kong for the 24-hour street life and just its plain everyday living. Which is weird, considering that maybe given the all-expenses-paid trip, many would want to go as far away as possible. I've got myself part-way there, and HK was already on the itinerary. To me, it's like being in Philadelphia again, where it's easy to get out to a number of big cities. Other than that, I'm dying to go to Mauritius, but a trip there would include a lot more than shooting.

I am nearly always where I want to be. When I lived in Okinawa, I found it fascinating. When in Denver, the same. Albuquerque, ditto. Now that I'm in North Carolina, once again I find the important bits - mostly here or very near here.

I just tried to search for a radio program I heard last year related to this. The gist was that the writer lived somewhere in the central US, and his father had always talked about how great it is in NYC, how better it is, even though he'd never been there. When they finally moved, Dad hated it. They named a theory about that, about how the enjoyability of every place is the same, it's just what you make of it.

 

[bmattock]

They named a theory about that, about how the enjoyability of every place is the same, it's just what you make of it.

There is a very old saying here that "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." By this, we mean that we humans tend to think others have it better than we do, while they think the same of us.

I find the concept that a person can shoot better photographs if only he or she could travel to X very much akin to the idea that a person will become a better photographer if only they have lens Y or camera Z.

This is not to say that good equipment is not important - or that having a good basic location isn't important.

What I am saying is that I find I have not even begun to scratch the surface of what is available to photograph right here in my own yard. If I fail to find what is worthy to photograph, that's my fault.

Do I like to travel? Oh my yes. But I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking that the reason my photographs suck is because I don't live in the south of France, where the light is always perfect and everything is beautiful. My photographs suck because I am not a better photographer.

So that's way I say I'll stay right here and take photos.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Beniliam]

If I could make a trip with the all expenses paid, first I go to the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) because its my language (portuguese not, but is very similiar) and I do not know many places . When I discover the places where I have been born I think in see other places, like Europe, America, Asia... that I always saw in the distant.


One sentence of Konstantin Kavafis:

The city will always go in you.
You will return to the same streets.
And in the same suburbs your oldness will arrive;
in the same house your hair will turn grey.
Then always the city is the same.

 

[Richard Black]

I just returned from a trip to the ancient cliff dwellings of the ancesteral Puebolan peoples in s.w. Colorado. The quiet beauty is a relief from modern times. My wife and I will go back for a third time, I'm sure. Other than that, we have a passion for the pyramids. I have learned that carrying 5 cameras and lenses is a bit too much. 2-3 with 2 lenses each is enough for this 60 year old and to hike for miles.

 

[RML]

Steamer, when will you be in Mongolia? I'll be there from 16 August. 🙂

My "trip" would be to Mongolia. I still have tons to shoot there and the two or three projects I have in mind, on top of the one I'm already working on, also need to get going. And one day I want to "walk" all over Mongolia: east to west, north to south.

But until this summer I'll just walk around Holland. After reading up on Koudelka, I'm inspired to walk my home country and see what's to see there. Quit cheap project but tiring, so at the end of the day I'll take the train or bus back to home. 🙂

The biggest challenge would be to take a year or so off and walk to Mongolia. Not so much to follow the Silk Road, which has been done to death almost, but through eastern Europe, along the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas, over the Altai Mountains and on to my home in UB. I may cheat a few miles by hitchhiking. Might be a good moment to learn to ride horse, really.

 

[steamer]

Hi Remy
Right now it looks like I'll be there at the end of July or so. But I still have to get my work all straightened out first. It would be nice to hook up in UB, but I will probably be there before you. I'll keep you posted.
Steamer

 

[c.poulton]

Bill

You are absolutely right - I used to think that I could really only take 'good' photographs abroad, since my 'own backyard' had nothing to offer me anymore.

Recently, I have totally changed my view on this. Partly this has been due to seeing other peoples work (both on this site and elsewhere) - taken in London, which took me by surprise since I had forgotton how interesting and diverse London can be. I have been left thinking this thought - why haven't I seen these 'shots' before? It's like I have been going around with my eyes shut these past few years.

This has all changed for me recently - I try to go out at least once a week with a camera in hand and just walk around my local area looking for things to photograph. I do not worry about the weather, I just go out and see if theres anything out there for me. Sometimes I am lucky, sometimes not, BUT I have realised that there is as much out there to shoot in my local area as there would be abroad.

Of course, going abroad is great, everything is new and you do get caught up in the excitment of being in a new place. However I find that with everything being new, you do miss a great deal. Wondering around my own neighbourhood, re-walking routes I have walked a hundred times, I am amazed that I see things that I never noticed before!

As always Bill, you seem to hit the nail right on the head 🙂

 

[kvanderlaag]

I've only been out of this country once, and never off of this continent. I think there are a few places I'd really like to go shooting, but I'm thinking primarily either London or New York for street shooting, and interestingly, the land surrounding either isn't so unattractive.

Prague is a close runner-up.

 

[bmattock]

As always Bill, you seem to hit the nail right on the head

Thank you for the kind words, and I'd like to elaborate on that theme you opened up, if I may...

I *have* gotten burned out, from time to time, on doing the same drive-by, scouting the same locations, looking for the same photos. Sometimes I get to where it feels like "been there, done that." That's when I start thinking that greener pastures await me in other towns and cities, perhaps even different countries.

But I found something recently that opened my eyes a bit, so to speak.

My photography club has been invited by the local Arts Council to put on an exhibition that will run the entire month of July. The club is based in Goldsboro, but the Arts Council is in Wilson (about 20 miles from each other, both towns of about 40,000 people). There is some competition, and believe it or not, there was some political wrangling about 'letting' a 'foreign' photo club set up an exhibition here. But Wilson has no photography club and two of the Goldsboro club's members are from Wilson, so it is KIND OF a local club.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided that in order to smooth the waters a bit, and also because I'm heading off in new directions photographically and not sure how my experiments would go over in a public art exhibit in a small town in the south (I said I'd do Mapplethorpe-esque photos as a joke, and they said "who?"), I chose to do an 'Iconic Wilson' series. Just photos that locals would recognize, things that would bring back memories, hopefully put everyone at ease that this was a 'local boy' even if I'm a recent transplant.

Well, I quickly found out I could do a book - hell, books, just on Wilson and the iconography of this town. I started making a shot list - stopped when I got to a hundred or so. This town is steeped in history, and everywhere I looked, I realized I could be shooting scenes that people would appreciate and enjoy. Now I'm thinking of doing a Lulu book and selling it. Seriously.

And that opened my mind up to other possibilities. You know, there are several fire stations in town. Anybody ever do a one-on-one photo documentary on them? Law enforcement? Local government? Local merchants? Local events? The several local retirement homes and their residents' stories and faces? We have a school for the deaf here - would that not be a suitable subject for a book about Wilson? We have a school for the mentally disadvantaged, how about them? Special Olympics? We have about eleventy-dozen fraternal organizations in town - what stories there? We have signs of our segregated past that persist - a 'white' American Legion and a 'black' American Legion - same with the Freemasons here in town. Not worthy of photo documentation?

From portraits to buildings to infrastructure, and so on and so on - I think I could shoot IN THIS SMALL TOWN for the rest of my life and not run out of interesting subjects.

That's not to say that I will do that - just to say that the mind boggles with the possibilities. I hope I will never again say "There is nothing interesting to take photographs of around here." And 'here' is relative to where you are, of course.

Here are some of my shots that I'm framing today. The antique trains are not local to Wilson - everything else is. And these are not my best work, but rather, work I think will please locals. We'll see...

http://www.mattocksphotography.com/wilson_arts_council/

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[FrankS]

"Fresh eyes" can be achieved by travel to a new location, or by mind shift.

 

[peter_n]

La Bombonera, the home of Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires. Awesome supporters. Football is my passion and last year I had one of the most exciting days ever watching Real Madrid play in the Santiago Bernabéu, another cathedral of the game. A religious experience I would love to repeat.

 

[Matthew Runkel]

India, with time enough for some lesser-known parts. Photography would center on the human environment.

 

[GeneW]

All expenses paid, I'd spend a year in Paris. Enjoying the food, the language, the culture, the museums and art galleries and the photogenic streets.

Gene

 

[bobomoon]

North Korea. Even with a lot of dough, unlikely. So maybe the Jilin province on the other side of the northern border in China.

 

[robert blu]

I like the superb light in the nordic areas. Scandinavia, Alaska, Faroe Island, somewhere toward north.

 

[c.poulton]

"Fresh eyes" can be achieved by travel to a new location, or by mind shift.

Frank

Well put!