12 Responses to “Loved to Death”

1. Leann Greene
   April 10th, 2010 @ 9:28 am

   Do you remember in the Ken Burns Natl Park series how people at first would totally trash the areas they were staying at? I think sometimes people just need to be reminded to keep some places “special” and that they’re not in their own backyards. It is such a delicate line keeping places available and inviting while keeping it intact also. Are there no ranger type employees at the gardens?

2. Richard
   April 10th, 2010 @ 11:30 pm

   Hey Leann. Yeah that part about Yosemite was pretty crazy. There didn’t seem to be anybody monitoring the gardens really aside from the gift shops and the train rides. It is not a problem so much in the tulip and rose garden but the Japanese garden for some reason seemed much more unruly than elsewhere.

3. Steve Sieren
   April 11th, 2010 @ 10:31 am

   My mom loves this place, we haven’t seen it like this though, I should really take her. Thanks for sharing the place in it’s most beautiful moment.

4. Mark
   April 11th, 2010 @ 1:31 pm

   Looks like a pretty place Richard, and unfortunate some people are disrespectful of the obvious hard work that goes into keeping it that way. Too bad tasers cannot be deployed more often.

5. latoga
   April 11th, 2010 @ 2:15 pm

   Richard,

   So there didn’t appear to be anyone monitoring the gardens, but what did you do or say during your 1.5 hours of standing in that spot? It’s not the responsibility of just the ‘employees’ of a place to keep civic order, but for the society as a whole. This is the root of the observation you made between gardens in the US and in Canada.

   I’ll bet that during those early days of Yosemite, the abuse of the landscape was slowed initially by concerned visitors who reminded their fellow visitors to respect mother nature. A few years ago I was up at Tuolumne Meadows and saw a tourist step right over the 1 foot high rope fence (and sign saying please use path) to start walking across the meadow. I courteously called out to him and reminded him to use the path and explained why. He quickly retraced his steps, apologized, read the sign he didn’t see (or ignored) earlier, and then headed down the path. I like to think that I not only helped to protect the meadow by my action, but also educate a Yosemite visitor who perhaps got more out of his visit afterwards than before.

   I guess as I get older I see more and more examples around me daily of citizens expecting “the officials” to take care of problems because they do not want to take any civic responsibility themselves or feel that they shouldn’t. When done in a polite and courteous manner peer policing of bad behavior is usually quite affective. Our American culture has swung too much to the individual and away from the collective in my opinion.

   If you don’t stand up to correct the bad behaviors yourself, then do you have the right to complain about the affect of those behaviors later?

   (Please just consider all that social commentary and nothing personal Richard…getting off my soap box now… ).

6. Richard Wong
   April 11th, 2010 @ 4:29 pm

   Thanks for the comments, guys.

   Greg – I’m not a particularly vocal person and don’t feel it is my job to police people otherwise I would just apply for a job there instead of shoot photos. It really wouldn’t make a difference anyway since the people kept coming and going like a conveyor belt.

7. Richard Wong
   April 11th, 2010 @ 4:33 pm

   But yes, your thoughts are right on the spot. Those who go out of their way to educate people are to be commended.

8. David Leland Hyde
   April 12th, 2010 @ 11:17 am

   Hi Richard, that you keep doing your photography AND take time to share and discuss sensitive issues, is the best of both worlds. You are doing good just by reminding all of us here to be respectful. I think most of it begins in childhood where children are taught a sense of wonder about the natural world and how delicate it is, or they aren’t. I think you mentioning the children’s behavior brings this point home. Beautiful photograph too.

9. Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images
   April 12th, 2010 @ 1:40 pm

   Richard: I can so feel your frustration. AS for the comment about what “we” should do or say to others… I almost got in a fight in front of my kids when I made a comment to some jerk tourist thowing his chicken bones into the Grand Canyon like it was a big trash pit. Sometimes the best approach is to bite the tongue and just relay it up the ladder and hope the proper people do the proper thing.

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11. Richard Wong
    April 12th, 2010 @ 9:29 pm

    Thanks David and Gary.

    Gary – I started laughing at that chicken bone story but that is so ridiculous that I never would expect to see something like that! True about the fighting. You never know about what kind of whack jobs are out there.

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