Candid Cameras and Tourist Traps

After checking out the Flickr photo set by Siu Tung, a fellow Hong Kong blogger who is currently living outside the city (or so it looks), and thinking back to my favourite photos, I started thinking about what makes tourism photography worthwhile.

If you go back a couple posts, you see a happy family posing in front of landmarks, and obviously staged photos of local women - who may or may not have been paid for their images, I can't help but think of the photos from my past trips.

When I was a kid, while I never enjoyed being photographed, I always managed to find myself in front of the Empire State Building, or at a baseball game, or something like that. The images hold up over time, basically as an artifact not of the trip, but me growing up alongside my family.

However, when I travelled alone, I loathed asking to get my photo taken. I always tried to take candid shots of locals, shots of beautiful scenery, lush greenery or frosty mountains - and I often found myself passing on tourist photos of landmarks, except for anything Gaudi-related (Flickr link). I find that, in retrospect, looking at the random photos of other people's everyday lives and beautiful vistas that I have explored stand up much more over the smiley, happy photos of yesteryear.

This just makes me want to go buy myself a nice digital camera. Something with some weight, at least 5 or 6 megapixels, interchangable lenses, and the like. Basically, a normal camera, minus the film. Suggestions are appreciated, and I'll update you on the search...