Last week I happened upon an improbable projected image of Bamburgh Castle at dusk. Images of this castle must be one of the most reproduced or emulated ever, especially for the front cover of photography magazines.

Indeed, I blogged about the very phenomenon of a sea of tripods nestled in the rocks at Budle point back in September.

I had marvelled in daylight as to the small pools that had been worn into the slabs of rock presumably by the combined action of stones and waves but another photographer pointed out to me that they were more than likely caused by the feet of countless tripods erected there to capture the same image as countless predecessors.

Tourist traps have always gathered gaggles (or whatever the collective noun is) of photographers all eager to record something memorable to look at when they get home. Obviously these days, the immediacy of digital photography gives more or less instant feedback on site so no need for a 1200 mile round trip to re-shoot when you find the film has not come out well enough.

I am as guilty as the next man in having in the past made images that other people have made countless times previously.

Whilst I was up in Northumberland last Autumn I spent much of my time walking and looking and trying to see another way of seeing through the traps and I wondered at the concrete tank traps still on display guarding the perfectly flat shores from the potential invasion from the East in WW11. A tourist trap indeed.