Say It Isn't So--Fake Travel Photography!

The untouched beauty of New Zealand

With the phrase "fake news" becoming popular I was intrigued by an article I ran across that showed fake places in the world. Smarter Travel once again got my attention with several pictures that had been photo shopped by some industrious people and presented as actual places to visit. The article is Incredible Places That Don't Exist And Where To Go Instead.

Now I admit that I do spruce up the pictures that I post here. I add a little more color or fix the brightness or tint or crop it to make it more interesting. I do not however take a picture from one place in the world merge it with another picture from somewhere else and then claim it is a unique place in the world to visit. Why would I want to when there are so many amazing places to see that stand on their own?

That made me think about how so many brochures are produced to advertise places to visit and stay. Of course they all want you to see them at their very best so they wait for the best sunny day, hire great looking people to pretend they are enjoying their vacation there and then do the best they can to fix anything that looks distracting in the picture to make it appear to be a little piece of heaven. So what's a traveler who's planning a trip to do?

One of the places I've found to sort out the real from the photo shopped is TripAdvisor. If you search their site for the places you want to stay and/or visit, you can usually find that people have posted some of their own pictures with their reviews. Those are the unprofessional but more realistic representation of what you might expect.

Just remember, the sun doesn't always shine even in "paradise" no matter how the brochures may present it.