Sunrise Through Nature's Window

Have you ever been to the fabled Mesa Arch, in Canyonlands National Park, Utah?

I have. And it was beautiful. But it was also crowded - so crowded that there was barely room to stand - everyone had their cameras in one line, shoulder to shoulder. I'd never seen anything like it, and didn't again until I went to Moraine Lake.

Why do so many people go to the same place and take (essentially) the same photo?

I've often heard the phrase "millions of people have taken that photo already - but I haven't," implying that photos of iconic places are like trading cards to be collected, an item on a list to cross off, even a right of passage. I think this is true for many of us.

Another reason may be that all of us think (or hope) that we will go to an iconic location and be the first person to take a unique photo there. Ours will be special. Maybe we try a different camera technique, or hope for once-in-a-lifetime weather, or plan to use a unique processing style - anything to set us apart. This appeals to our competitive side, because it's better to stand apart from ten million than a hundred, right? Regardless of whether we do create something different, it's the challenge that counts.

Let's not forget, iconic locations are iconic for a reason. Mesa Arch is incredible, the way you can look out through it into the distant valley below. Banff's Moraine Lake and Yosemite's Tunnel View are scenes better fitted to Middle-Earth than to real life. These are the jewels of our land, places that everyone should visit who can, and it would be petty to skip them just because everyone goes there. As photographers we have to capture what we see, so when we're at a place like Mesa Arch we line up and we take that photo, but is it the photography that takes us to beautiful locations, or is it the other way around - is that just the excuse we use to travel?

Everyone is different, and I can't even answer for myself (I think it's some combination of all of these reasons). If you've ever been to an iconic, over-photographed location, why did you or did you not take a photo, knowing that it had been done before?