Will Visiting Honeypot Photography Locations Make You a Better Photographer?
Living in North Wales, i’m fortunate to be surrounded by so many iconic, photogenic places. These are what we refer to as ‘honeypot’ locations, locations where there are often well-photographed subjects or areas of photographic interest. I’ve visited a number of these locations over the years, often visiting them numerous times to fully explore their photographic potential.
But do these locations help us improve as landscape photographers? Will photographing the same composition as countless other photographers before you improve your skills? Or is it the photography equivalent of a cheat code?
As you can see in the gallery above, i’ve visited a number of honeypot locations all over the UK, and whilst some locations have a very clear focal point that only really works from a certain perspective, such as the Lone Tree, at Llyn Padarn where the shot relies on placing the trunk of the tree between the v shape created by the distant mountains, many locations do provide opportunities to explore and create your own compositions.
For me this is where I find the real joy in photography, I love finding a composition that feels very new to me. As all photographers should, I constantly look at photos created by others and find the work of other photographers really inspiring, and I think there’s a lot we can learn from observing how other photographers interpret a scene, especially if it’s a scene we know well. That being said, these days, I don’t want to copy another photographer’s composition, I don’t want to visit these ‘honeypot’ locations with another photographer’s perspective in my mind.
Now, I completely understand that if photography is your hobby and you don’t have a lot of time to practice your hobby because of work and family commitments then going to a location where you’re guaranteed a good photo and solid composition is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It allows you to enjoy your time outdoors with your camera and you’ll arrive home with a pleasing image that you can edit and maybe put your own stamp on. But how engaged are you in creating that image? How much have you had to work a scene compositionally to find balance and harmony between elements? How much have you had to pre-visualise the end result and grappled with what focal length to use to best capture the scene? I would argue that if you have a reference photo that you’re working from then a lot of that work has been done for you, and therefore you’re not giving yourself opportunity to develop those skills that are critical when finding unique compositions within the landscape.
I’m far more inclined these days to avoid honeypots for that reason, and if I do visit a popular location, I’ll avoid the obvious composition and try and find something else that will allow me to practice all of these critical skills. The limitation of this approach is that you’re never guaranteed an image. For the casual photographer, this may not provide sufficient photos to make the pursuit of photography worthwhile, which I, again, completely understand. Speaking for myself, I find enjoyment in the planning and I relish the unknown, the anticipation of what you may find and, yes, there are plenty of times where i’ve ventured out with my camera and come back with nothing, but when it all comes together and I capture a photo that hasn’t been influenced by another photographer - there’s rarely a more rewarding feeling in Landscape photography.
But I don’t want to knock honeypot locations altogether because I do feel like they can be valuable to new photographers who are just getting into photographing the landscape. I say this because I feel, at the beginning, it’s important for budding photographers to get started with something that provides them opportunity to see a finished result. Seeing a photoshoot through from taking the photo, editing the photo and then being able to see the final edited image will provide a wealth of experience and knowledge that you can then implement the next time you go out with your camera. These locations and these iconic compositions can teach you a lot about what makes a good composition, they provide opportunities for new photographers to get to know their cameras and get used to the shooting experience. They also provide the potential of capturing a decent image that can then be used to explore the possibilities in post production, where you can learn about editing and fully examine the photo in detail to further learn about the composition and the elements within the frame.
There will come that point though, and every photographer experiences this, where the obvious, iconic composition doesn’t interest them anymore. They’ve built sufficient knowledge of composition and the technical aspects of taking a photo that they’ll just want to spread their wings a little bit and go exploring for themselves - I feel that’s where the real learning truly begins.
