Back Page - Tourism and Photography

Have you ever been here?

Have you ever noticed that tourists take pictures of the same spot, over and over?

Here for instance are three photographs of Balancing Rock near Colorado Springs, Colorado. They are from three different estate sales and unrelated in any other way except they are black and white photographs. They are taken from almost identical camera angles.

It's probably because the spot is an easy one to access, to get the family in the picture and the light is right for the time of day.

There are photographs of this rock from many angles, but this one is repeated often.

This is called Balancing Rock. It's a popular tourist shot with or without the guy holding it up.

This one at the left looks similar, but it is probably shot from the opposite direction.

Another popular tourist snap is the sign at state borders. Texas is seen often.

Umbrella Rock in Tennessee is another popular tourist destination. There are many photographs from the early days of photography, cabinet cards and real photo post cards taken by a professional photographer at the site. The photographs show the formation almost always from the same angle.

There are even post cards from that era showing the scene. The rock is fenced off now as being too dangerous.

Here are two different tourist snapshots of the same place.

Palace Ruins

but I don't know where.

This looks like the "Aztec Ruins" in western New Mexico but that is just a guess.

It is a misnomer of course. The Native American settlement is not connected with the Aztec tribe of Mexico at all.

Watch this space. There's more to come.

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The most popular photographs An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

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Square America
Tattered and Lost
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The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.
And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use.
All rights reserved.

THE KIDS It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"

The Tourist Camera - Balanced Rock, Colorado

Another snapshot of Balancing Rock in Colorado turned up recently so LOST GALLERY is reviewing an old page where this tourist attraction and others were featured.

Collectors of old photographs know that while it would be unusual to find the same people in photographs found in different shops and different states, it is much more common to find photographs of the same places in the snap shots. Pikes Peak in Colorado and Umbrella Rock in Tennessee are good examples.

Here are some pictures of Balancing Rock in Colorado's Garden of the Gods found in otherwise completely unrelated snapshots. As is often (but not always) true of these tourist mementos, the photographs are taken from exactly the same point.

Can't get enough? Here is a look at the previous LOST GALLERY page:
The Tourist Camera

Now here are some related old shots from around the net from various unrelated sources just for comparison purposes. Note these are probably all the same rock, just different angles with the camera.

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 8,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

Bassingbourn 1944 Discovered! Long lost negatives taken during the winter of 1944-45 at Bassingbourn AAF base in England.

Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
POSTCARDY
And see what's going on over at
Sepia Saturday!

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS
It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

"What are they doing?"