A lit tent beneath a too-bright milky way. A headlamp beaming into the starry night sky. Feet hanging out of an open tent, or dangling over Horse Shoe Bend. An individual in a bright jacket at the end of a long cliff, staring off into oblivion. Maybe even a whole camp setup just feet from a water source. We’ve all seen these images. We know them by heart by now. But where did these scenes come from and how did they become so ubiquitous? Why is every photographer, from amateur to the well established, creating the same imagery over and over? And why now?

To discuss how these cliche images came to be so prevalent, why they continue to be replicated by pros and amateurs alike, and what we can do to avoid making redundant imagery ourselves, we recently gathered three key individuals in the outdoor space together for a panel workshop. Hosted at the Navarro, CA flagship event of Outpost—a new and unconventional take on the trade show that may better be described as adult summer camp for movers and shakers in the outdoor industry—and made possible in part by our friends at B+H, the panel was a blast. We likely didn’t solve any of the world’s problems, but we had quite a few laughs trying.