Why I Don’t Usually Share Locations

I’m quickly becoming an advocate for photographers to not automatically share locations they find.

There is hidden beach that is perfect for an elopement or very very intimate wedding. And I will only be sharing the location with those clients.
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There’s been a lot of debate about photographers sharing cool locations lately. Some are of the mindset that the world is open for everyone and that everyone should automatically share. Others are deeply invested in keeping locations protected from throngs of people due to social media.

The perfect example is Horseshoe Bend.

If you haven’t heard of it, do a simple Google search. Did you know it used to be a roadside pull off in Arizona that a few tourists would stop at daily?

Thanks to a few people and photographers posting the location on social media, there are so many people visiting this every day, it’s almost impossible to find a free place to stand at sunrise or sunset. It’s become so crowded that there was a viewing platform built. That destroyed part of the surrounding topography in the process.

As for my stance? If it’s a big place like Multnomah Falls or a National Park, and you really have no idea where that is, I’ll tell you. We’re photog friends? Then I’m happy to point you in the right direction. But if I don’t know you & if it is someplace lesser known, like this location, or a specific place in a National Park, or a gorgeous waterfall that rarely has anyone at it, I’m not going to be so free-wheeling with information.
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Lately I have lots of people messaging me where certain locations are. Most are people whom I’ve never met or heard from before. I had this location (see photo) in my IG Story just the other day and someone asked where this was. I said “Oregon”. They asked where in Oregon. I said “Southern Oregon!”. I think they finally got the hint that I wasn’t going to hold their hand. Wasn’t going to give them step by step directions. Directions to a place that took me some Google map searching, a night in an SUV, and 300 miles of driving to find.

More and more, if I post a cool location (whether it’s in the Redwoods or some national park), I have at least one person commenting or sliding into my DMs to ask where they can find that spot.

Aside from piggybacking off the researching and wrong turns I made to arrive at the location, it’s also asking for services that I provide my clients… without actually being a client. I devote time to researching, exploring, discovering, calling parks departments, and more, to provide a wealth of information to my clients. Because I found a secret spot on a no-name beach, I have a couple eloping to that beach. Specifically because they saw that I had found it and thought it was gorgeous.

Want to find a secret spot to elope? Then give me a call. Hours of research and discovering is what I do. Let me do it for you.