"That shot has been done to death"

[joolselliott]

Interesting discussion that seems to have gone on a while!

I take photos in order to place them into various libraries as well as magazine work. In the case of the former, it doesn't bother me too much if somewhere has been photographed to death as if I haven't done it then I'd like to add it to what I have in the libraries.

For example, in just over a week I will be photographing the far north of Scotland including Skye. How many times has this island been photographed? Countless times! How many of those people going there are actually trying to do something with their photos? The percentage is less and this is why it doesn't bother me too much.

Another example is Paris. I've been three times this year to photograph the city. A city that must be one of the most photographed in the world. However, just over a week after a took a bog standard image of the Eiffel Tower at night I'd sold it through Getty Images to MSN news

[JamesBlonde]

I tend do take pics of what I want to take pics of, and I do it for me. If a million people have taken the same scene, good for them! They haven't taken the one I have! If other people like my pics, then its a bonus, but that makes me happy!

I had a mate at work (who is a bit of a Flikrer) have complaints made against his work because they were taken from the same locations as someone else, whos work he'd never seen. Different images, vaguely similar look and feel, but then there were limited viewpoints of the Severn Bridge from below and taking a picture of this subject at sunset was always going to lead to similar images! To my mind, complaining is just churlish! You can't copyright a view! (as much as some may try or some may wish.... whatever happened to that case of someone trying to copyright the image of Parliament with a london bus from Westminster bridge I read about a few years back?) You can't completely replicate someone elses image, and to my mind, trying is flattery.