"...It is bizarre watching other tourists around, how they navigate from spot to spot to get a picture in some of the most famous places on earth without ever stopping to absorb where they were..."
I took a class in photography once, taught by a famous photographer.
About half-way through the course he did a dead stop, turned to the class and said something like "The most important part of photography is learning when to put the camera down and enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it"
He then took us on a short tour of important life events he had missed out on because he was too busy trying to get the picture.
The craziest are pictures that don't contain any personal context, just snaps of architecture or scenery. The same photo has been taken a million times, a personal snap is indistinguishable from thousands available from a Google image search (a probably of lower quality).
I took a class in photography once, taught by a famous photographer.
About half-way through the course he did a dead stop, turned to the class and said something like "The most important part of photography is learning when to put the camera down and enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it"
He then took us on a short tour of important life events he had missed out on because he was too busy trying to get the picture.
It was a poignant moment, and a good lesson.