What do you say when people ask you to move so they can take a photo? Not because you're standing between them and the camera but because you're standing in a place they want to take a perfect shot for their socials?

[Wreckshaw]

I have never encountered this before but I had it several times today. I am on holiday and went to a very nice place for a day trip. I've been there before a few years ago and people didn't act like this then. Obviously people took photos - I take photos too. But this was different. There were small groups of two or three people in various places who were repeatedly posing, over a prolonged period, and repeatedly taking pictures - I assume for socials. When I was in the areas, they asked me to move "because it's a photo taking spot". One guy said I was "in the way" and I pointed out that I wasn't and he was perfectly free to take whatever photos he wanted just as I was free to go about my business. I was pretty taken aback to be honest and couldn't think of a better response. I'll probably just go for "fuck off, you're chatting shit" next time, but what do other people say when they encounter this vapid bullcrap?

That's disgusting @Bearhunt468 , don't they teach this in schools anymore?

They very much do teach it.

Well that makes it even worse, if they were ignorant it might make it excusable.

We had a guy like this during a whale-watching boat grip. Leaning out, with his special mobile-holder, blocking everyone, insisting on the front seat.
He left his phone on the side of his chair during a blissful stop to have some water and I was so tempted to knock it into the sea.

it would depend how long I had been there. If I have been there a long time and they really wanted photo in that spot then I think I would oblige.

Personally a find a postcard is usually a better picture than I can take if I want a memory of the thing I am seeing

Ugh. We were at Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest a few weeks ago and it was impossible to get anywhere near the viewing points as there were so many people spending ages posing and getting shots.

It put me off going to any of these spots - you can just look at photos online FFS. Travel is about more than a photo - it’s an experience and an opportunity to meet people, learn about the culture etc not just get the perfect selfie.

Yuck.

I enjoy taking my own photos. And postcards never actually look like the place you remember. The sea and sky is never that colour. And as very few people actually send postcards anymore, they can be difficult to find.

How can people carry on like that and not be embarrassed?

Am I just old?

I love taking photos btw - I take LOADS...but not usually of me.
And I am very obliging when someone asks me to take their photo in front of a view/attraction - nothing wrong with wanting to capture the moment.

But no, the social media posing...no. Cringe. Stop it.

Of course we do 🙄

But we have no control over what they do when they're not in school or have left school. We just have to hope that our influence is greater than the whole of the rest of society's...

Yes, it’s apparently very difficult to get a decent shot of the leaning tower of Pisa these days because of twats posing like they’re holding it up.

I agree with you about people proving a point too. I’m happy to wait but some people are just bloody minded. I move as soon as I’ve got my shot.

Not a holiday one but reminded me of similar and that some people are just plain entitled bonkers.

My youngest DD had a martial arts grading. Myself and DH got there early and nabbed seats in the front row. It’s in a sports hall so all the seats are on the same level and we’d found previously that sometimes people stood to take photos and blocked the view if you were sat further back. Just before the grading started a woman came in and came up to DH and I and asked us to move so she could have our seats. It’s took us a second to comprehend what she was asking as surely no one would make such an unreasonable request. But nope she wanted us to move to other seats because her son was nervous so she wanted a front row seat for him to be able to see her and also get good photos. DH said to her why do you think we got here early? We (obviously) refused her request but did she take the hint, fuck no. She stood there whining like a petulant toddler only short of stamping her feet and repeating that she needed us to move until DH just said ignore her so we did. At which point she proceeded to try the same tactic along the whole front row of people. Everyone else also refused her bonkers request and in the end she flounced off huffing and puffing to a row further back. I will say her (I assume) long suffering husband spend the whole time hissing at her to stop and calling her back but she just ignored him and continued her batshittery

@SomeonesSomething it wasn't a knock at their teachers, I'd just hope even at that age they'd know there are somethings that aren't there for media likes.

@Aliflowers my god people are so fucking entitled these days.

These are no doubt the same people that listen to videos/songs without earphones or have speakerphone conversations on public transport.

no consideration of others - just concerned with their entitled selves.

If they are polite and use please and thank you, I say 'Sure, no problem'

If they aren't then I say 'No'.

I went to the theatre this week and someone (an adult!) got their friend to take video of them doing a cartwheel down the aisle…..

So nothing to do with whether it's taught in schools then?

Yes, you'd hope they'd have absorbed common decency from just living in the world for a reasonable amount of time but many people don't.

This thread has been on my mind a bit. I wonder if it’s partly because people (in general) have lost the sense of keeping to a social contract. Things like using public transport in a considerate way (not playing music out loud, not standing directly in front of the doors when people are trying to get off). A few years ago we got home to find a woman sitting on the steps up to our front door. She seemed normal (not drunk, nicely dressed) but didn’t see what the problem with her sitting on our steps was.

We had a guy getting the hump cos people kept standing in front of the Platform 9 3/4 sign at Kings Cross the other weekend. The sign, and half-trolley, that is set up to queue to get a paid photo (OK so half the world just get their phone photo and ignore the shop sales attempted one) so people are constantly and intentionally in front of it.

He wanted people to stop the photo queue so he could get the perfect deserted shot.

Isn't there normally a staff member 'policing' the queue? I often watch it when I'm waiting for a train at KX and it seems quite closely controlled - they shoo people away from the sides of the queue because it blocks the entrance to the 'Passenger Assist Lounge' so you can only reach the trolley by queuing within the ropes.

I don’t mind moving if I’ve had a reasonable time to take my own photos (not selfies) and I did ask two people to move at the top of the Rockefeller because they’d been there for ages and were hogging the best spot - and they did move! But being told or asked to move just so some idiot can do an extended selfie pose, err, no.

Great sorry about the pool bombing! Brilliant!

I think that is a pretty reasonable attitude and I do the same. However social media is causing some people to go to greater lengths than your normal holiday photos. Today when visiting a certain city known for its alleys and closes, there was a girl blocking the whole (narrow) alley posing for various photos with a witch’s hat on. I just walked past her, not caring because she was clearly going to be there for a while. We live near a very pretty and photogenic traditional English village. Over the last couple of years we have noticed lots of mainly foreign tourists shamelessly posing for endless photos in front of people’s homes. Maybe take one or two photos, preferably from a distance but these people take several minutes and are then replaced by more
people doing the same. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the residents sitting inside.

Over the last couple of years we have noticed lots of mainly foreign tourists shamelessly posing for endless photos in front of people’s homes. Maybe take one or two photos, preferably from a distance but these people take several minutes and are then replaced by more
people doing the same.
Oh, that’s a bit much. They’re people’s homes not film sets. Mind you, I just remembered when I was a child, in summer holidays we sometimes stayed with a relative who lived in a well known pretty seaside village that gets a lot of tourists. Some of them used to actually walk into the garden to pose for photos and look through the front window! Flip the letter box up and peer through that too, the absolute cheek of it!