Photos for the City Tourism Office

[ClaremontPhoto]

I have most of the summer to come up with some new photos to be used on the web and printed on maps and stuff.

1 Do I go for the 'standard' photos of the landmarks?
2 Or a quirky take on a landmark?
3 Or a small detail that illustrates the city but it's not obvious where it is?

I prefer the third option.

What would you do?

Yesterday (18 May) I posted a photo to my images/no words blog sort of gallery. 'Along the Lane': a defocused photo of poppies on an empty site nearby.

Please, if you have the time look at my photo site (clicky in the signature below) and tell me what you would produce. Especially if you like weird stuff and one day need to do tourist-friendly stuff.

 

[RML]

Jon, why not all of the above? The first are necessary anyway, the second are nice but can't stand on their own, and the third are also very useful for publications.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Thanks. I went to their office this afternoon and they said to do whatever I want.

It was nice that they had some of my nice 'pretty' pictures on the wall in their office. And even nicer that they've invited me when my last local job was to make the city to look decaying and get the mayor into giving more money to the consevation society. The mayor that day looked angry, but the conservation society people loved the urban decay photos.

The City Hall already has 1000 photos of the castle, and of the churches and the sixteen convents (including the one which now functions as a brothel) and the fancy new swimming pool too. I fancy doing something more graphic, young, new, vibrant. I just need to get brave and do it.

 

[RJBender]

I have most of the summer to come up with some new photos to be used on the web and printed on maps and stuff.

1 Do I go for the 'standard' photos of the landmarks?
2 Or a quirky take on a landmark?
3 Or a small detail that illustrates the city but it's not obvious where it is?

I prefer the third option.

What would you do?

Yesterday (18 May) I posted a photo to my images/no words blog sort of gallery. 'Along the Lane': a defocused photo of poppies on an empty site nearby.

Please, if you have the time look at my photo site (clicky in the signature below) and tell me what you would produce. Especially if you like weird stuff and one day need to do tourist-friendly stuff.

Jon, the first 2 images on this website look interesting with the super wide angle view. http://www.portugalvirtual.pt/_tourism/plains/index.html

R.J.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Thank you RJ. The wide angle ones are edgy. But I'm looking something more outside the box. many thanks for taking some time to consider my request and for coming up with this.

Scroll down on that page and see the entry for Montemor o Novo (my town), the photo isn't even level and the top of the cross is chopped off! Inept. I'm sure we get hundreds of tourists on the strength of that image. Not.

 

[robert blu]

My impression is that people have seen and are confronted with so many standard touristic images that they do not catch their attention anymore. Going for the third option could be the right choice. Or at least having a strong part of these kind of pictures.
rob

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Yes, I'm going that way Robert.

Every city has an old castle, and 1000 pictures of it, so what? That don't make me want to visit.

Every city has a swimming pool and/or sports complex just completed. So?

I want to forget the ancient, ignore the modern and go for the look and feel and smell of the place... A plate of nicely cooked sardines, a tree full of fruit, and a shepherd with his sheep are the sort of images that would 'sell' the place.

 

[traveller]

When I'm travelling in Spain after some time every tourist office looks the same to me. Castles, Flamenco, Bullfighting pictures everywhere on the wall. When I get my map I walk to the "must have seen" places too, but I love to see the small details at places not mentioned in the tourist offices.
What I would like to see in a tourist office are pictures with small details and street scenes, labelled only with the quarter they were taken. This would help me to explore interesting parts of the town not mentioned in travel guides.

 

[lynn]

I'm shooting the photographs for a travel guide (Amsterdam), at the moment, and I'm lucky: the French publisher wants a mosaïc of images for each of the 100+ "chapters". I can approach my subject matter - off the beaten track, mostly - from far, from close, from above, and below, inside and outside, in sun, in rain, and the person responsible for the layout will make the final choices. I'm a ditherer; I would never be able to decide which to use, so I'm pleased with this arrangement...

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Sounds all good Lynn.