Interpreting photos

You need to be able to identify geographical processes to be seen in a photo, and to describe and interpret them. Photos may be used to illustrate almost any aspect of geography, and you may be asked to identify or comment on what you can see - or to compare information from a photo with that from a graph or map.

Interpreting photos is really about asking questions. Take a look at the picture below of hikers on top of a mountain. Below it are examples of the sort of question you need to ask about a photo like this:

Walkers in Wasedale, Cumbria

1. What is happening? The obvious answer is: people enjoying a walk in a mountainous landscape. You could then explain what geographical features make the landscape so remarkable.
2. What impact does this activity have on local communities and the environment? Looking at these two near the mountain top, you might think the impact was minimal. But lower down the mountain there may be many more walkers. Large numbers of recreational visitors to this landscape may bring in money and jobs - but might also be causing soil erosionsoil erosion: loss of topsoil due to eg wind or water action, or deforestation, congestion, pollutionpollution: The presence of a potentially harmful substance that can reduce quality of a natural resource, such as water, and have knock-on impacts on the environment., disturbance to wildlife, or disruption to farming and/or local communities.
3. How might the impact be reduced? Answers to this might include restricting access to parts of the mountain, building paths and encouraging tourists to stick to them, and discouraging the development of tourist facilities that are inappropriate or too large-scale. Bring in your understanding of how tourism can be developed in a sustainablesustainable: Sustainable means using something or doing something in a way that minimises damage to the environment and which avoids using up natural resources, eg by using renewable rather than scarce resources. way.