to want a picture?

[bness]

So I'm in mixed minds about this. I can see both points of view, but posting as I genuinely want to know what others feel.

I was at Covent Garden for a mini reunion with some friends. Right in the centre of the piazza they had a beautiful bench/swing with flowers surrounding it and there was a giant queue for people to take photos. We joined the queue and waited for about 10 minutes for our turn. That's when we noticed just slightly further ahead there was another identical bench with no queue but someone (youngish) was sitting there. We waited about 8-10 more minutes but the lady was still sitting so we decided after much debate to ask her if we could take a quick photo.

Me: Hi, I'm so sorry for asking but do you mind if we take a quick photo on this bench - the other one has a super long queue.

Her: You want me to move?

Me: Just for one minute I promise - I'd just like a picture and we will leave.

Her: Huffily gets up, looks at me and says YOU ARE SO RUDE YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO ASK ME TO MOVE. and storms off.

In an ordinary situation I would never dream of asking anyone to move but touristy area, photo bench, and I did say it was literally for half a minute. I can understand that she felt annoyed but I felt she was a bit OTT.

AIBU?

It’s convent garden - she’s unreasonable to expect peace and solitude in a massively tourist area. The only surprising thing about this is that other people hasn’t left the queue and asked her to do this before you.

Seems like a reasonable request, hardly asking her to donate a kidney.. In any case she is incorrect, you have every right to ASK her to move. She doesn't have to comply but you have the right to ask.

She sounds like a miserable old gipper. You can come and take a picture of my bench if you like, no queue and no peculiar people sitting on it.