happyfrosh's happy place: vacation photos are like porn

I spent the afternoon in Florence, Italy. In every public square there are vendors selling picture postcard photos of the surrounding architecture and art. There are flocks of tourist taking photos of the same buildings. I wasn't alone in my goal of unique vacation shot. Nor was I alone in the types of things I tried to distinguish my photos from those off-the-shelf postcards. Then I noticed that these same strategies are used in porn.

There will be people (myself included) photographing themselves to appear part of the famous relics. (pinching to hold the roof of the taj mahal, pushing the leaning tower of Pisa, in the same pose of the David. These are fun gimmicks. They are the equivalent of pornography with titles that are puns of popular hollywood movies.

Often I will widen the frame of my vacation photos to include other tourists taking photos. It's a more realistic memory. It has the same emotional texture as a boundInPublic video.

Larger framing incorporates more of the surroundings and more context.
There is an opportunity to get more objects into the frame. This is idea behind family photos and orgies.

Smaller framing makes things about the foreground. The background will provide proof of the location that the photo was taken. In the case of porn the background is often the supporting actors.
Smaller framing will often need establishing. In porn this is done with early wide shots. In vacation photos it's done by using familiar subjects.

Candid shots and reality television and reality style porn all try to distinguish themselves from stock photography by allowing personality to show through. A candid vacation photo is a wonderful reminder of how I felt at that moment. The boundGods interviews before and after the shoot have this as a powerful benefit.

There is a matter of quality. I can try to take a better quality photo than the picture postcard. But better equipment and better timing is often past the point of diminishing returns. It's not to say that it isn't worthwhile. Kristen Bjorne has made a career of doing better lighting and makeup and art direction than his competition. A decade ago, a few of my photos of downtown Seattle were better than easily available at the time. Better equipment becomes available quickly, and us tourists can't keep up on the upgrade treadmill for long.

I like my vacation photos, and I like porn.