Happy NOT Sunday! This week, Leanne Cole is guest hosting Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #307 with the theme of Tourist Attractions.

I feel like when you visit somewhere new for the first time, every building structure, even the bus stop or subway station will feel like a tourist attraction. At least, that was how I felt when I visited the largest city in the world – Tokyo – or perhaps it’s because I live in a place that’s not filled with tall 100+ floors skyscrapers and I can tell you, photographing skyscrapers is a lot different than photographing natural landscapes.

In my neck of the woods, tourist attractions often means natural landscape whether that be a waterfall or a scenic byway or a scenic backway. This is Bridal Veil Falls, about 90 minutes from my house. It was not a popular tourist attraction 2 years ago despite there was a wooden bridge built right in front of the waterfall. There was no one doing what this group of people were doing nor there was anyone trying to climb the waterfall.

It was a place that was off the beaten path, that you can’t really find the spot until you had Google Maps telling you where to turn.

Now, 2 years later, the parking lot was full, people were parking on the side of the road, and people were everywhere. This is not my definition of a daytrip to nature.

Finally, I think everyone have different ideas of what a “tourist attraction” is. To me, it’s anything that stands out to me as a tourist in a new place like the details of the Tower Bridge in London, how chaotic it is to cross the streets in Tokyo, and a random grain silo on the side of the highway in New York. It’s the little things I don’t see everyday that are jumping out at me.

To be honest, I’m not interested in seeing all the well-known touristy places when I travel. I feel those places are over-photographed and too crowded for my taste. Those places may be tourist attractions to some people, not to me.