'Selfie tourism' - AIBU?

[SunflowerPosers]

This weekend I went to a beautiful sunflower field not far from where I live (NC for this as don't want it to be too outing), and I just wondered if anyone else feels the same way as me or whether I'm being too judgey and unreasonable?

There I was with my little DSLR camera trying to get some nice photos of sunflowers, and I couldn't believe the number of people who clearly thought the place existed for their own personal photo shoot.

Women (of a range of ages, not just the early 20s 'influencers') all clearly dressed up, doing 'candid' poses (where they deliberately don't look at the camera for some reason), instructing increasingly exasperated partners to take 20 more photos of them doing very similar poses. People walking around with obnoxiously large 'selfie sticks' where they've got the camera trained only on themselves the whole time, rather than just taking a moment to put their phone down and be present.

Maybe it's my age, but I don't really get it, and just think it all looks so cringeworthy. Of course, I understand wanting to get one or two photos of yourself in a nice location, but some people seem to take it to an extreme level of narcissistic behaviour.

And it seems to be common at so many places now. Go anywhere pretty, and you can barely move for the amount of people with selfie sticks. I'm half convinced that a lot of people you see on walks are only interested in getting photos of themselves to show where they've been, rather than actually enjoying walking!

Apparently there's a term for this sort of thing that I wasn't aware of, selfie tourism. People who specifically go to a location to get the perfect photo of themselves, rather than appreciating where they actually are.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this is crazy?

It's a question not a statement. I'm asking you. Or are you fine with other people being in your "shoot" then?

This is my issue. People treating public spaces as their personal studio.

You’re jumping to conclusions here. It’s a massive leap to assume all the people taking selfies at the sunflowers are posting content every day. Loads of people take selfies. Each to their own (I’m not one of those people). But not all those selfies are posted online. And I can guarantee a lot of those people do NOT post photos of themself online everyday. while I get it might not seem weird, plenty of people are careful with what they share online and only share personal photos with friends or family. You’re overgeneralising. What you saw is just the way many people take photos nowadays. Everyone is entitled to take photos how they want to.

I was at one of the thermal baths in Budapest enjoying the hot outdoor pool when I saw a young woman with a selfie stick up on a balcony taking selfies. She was up there for about an hour, by herself, taking so many pictures. It made me feel sad, I didn't see her with any friends. All that to get the perfect shot to post online. There is totally a selfie culture now, the October pumpkin patches are rife for this, puts me off going. Disneyland Paris as well.

Not unreasonable at all! I’ve seen women doing this all over the place, our local shopping centre being the most hilarious. It’s quite a nice shopping centre, but even so….! Walking through Regents Park last autumn I saw people picking up armfuls of dried leaves to throw in the air, imagine grabbing leaves straight off the floor in a public park. Could be grim!!

💯.

All the more reason for them not to clutter the place up then. If they're earning that kind of money they can pay the landowner/council, book a slot for their shoot and let people enjoy it in peace once they're gone.

Nobody's suggesting banning influencers - that would be totally unenforceable, plus individually they aren't doing any harm (I agree tripods are a different issue and it's a no-brainer to ban them from crowded areas). I think galleries are already doing the best they can, although they could maybe use dynamic pricing to encourage people to visit off-peak.

I already avoid places where they move people along. In the case of the Mona Lisa, having a security guard waving his hands in front of the painting ruined that particular experience, but since I was only visiting the Louvre for the classical sculptures it didn't matter much. When I eventually get around to visiting Rome or Athens I will certainly go during the low season to avoid being inconvenienced by crowds and becoming part of the problem myself.

But how do you know you're not talking about me? In the 5mins you actually see me and for the 2mins you are actually watching me, all you will see is me standing in front of the view and smiling and saying "DH, can you take a photo? Hang on! Let me sort my hair a minute!"
Or me taking a selfie and saying "Oh no! DH, smile properly! And another one because DS wasn't looking!"
It might look like I'm not taking in the view but you don't see - or choose not to notice - the other 25mins where we're walking together and spotting birds and singing silly songs together.

There is doubtless one or two people who are faffing and want a load of samey shots to edit etc when they get back but it's highly unlikely that's what the majority are doing and to say it is and THEN say it's all women is rather sexist.

Oh come on, now.

Surely some PPs can see there is a difference between someone taking a couple of photos of themselves in front of a view, to show close family/friends and as a memory of their visit - and an influencer turning up and spending 20+ minutes striking different poses, usually with their back to the view, they don’t even look at it, whilst everyone else just has to stand there waiting until they get the “perfect” posed shot for their SM accounts? They aren’t interested in the location at all other than it being a nice backdrop for the photo of themselves.

(And no, that’s not an exaggeration, we saw it time and time again in Italy earlier this month).

And if you seriously can’t see the difference between the two, then all I can say is lucky you, you’ve probably never seen an actual “professional” influencer at work.

No irony to be seen.

The OP was there to do landscape photography - not take pictures of herself.

There’s only one sunflower field in the UK but it’s quite hard to see because it’s covered in women.

If it makes them happy and it's not adversely affecting you, let them crack on. You have YOUR style of photos, and they have theirs. Neither is better than the other.

Because a couple of minutes of your DH taking snaps of you and the kids as people have been doing for decades is a completely different thing from what we’re describing. I don’t know how I can explain it any better than I already have but if you’d seen it you’d know.

But that’s the point _ it does affect other people

there you are wanting to see the view or just walk on but you are waiting behind someone pulling silly faces trying to not get in their way even though they don’t give a toss about getting in your way - lack of manners

to be fair if they are blocking the path these days I just walk in front of their cameras

And fair’s fair then. It doesn’t matter if they’re clogging the place up taking pictures of themselves or indulging in their ‘proper’ photography hobby then same difference. I think it’s the moral high ground tone that I’ve got a struggle with here, ‘my photography hobby is being spoiled by other people’s photography hobby’ is what I’m hearing from the OP.

I kind of agree about insta style thing, it seems pretty naff to me too and doesn’t float my boat of interesting, but I’m old and the young gonna young. I also can’t really complain about them touristing in the same place as I’m touristing, that would be a bit hypocritical.

Amazing 😂

@MurdoMunro careful your misogyny’s showing

Is it? You didn’t get the nuance of that with the opening ‘there’s only one sunflower field in the UK…’?

This will help - /s

The whole selfie culture makes me
appreciate what models do & why they get paid so much!

I will take selfies and screw what other people think.

I want my kids to have photos when I'm.long gone, and my grandkids etc, to show a happy, confident mum somewhere nice. I also post them on social media, because why not? I don't have lots of bitter friends who begrudge it. I love seeing pics of my friends and family, whether they're sat at home or fucking about in a pretty field with a nice dress on.

Im.also a semi-professional photographer. I take lots of landscape pics as well, but pictures with people in are always so much more interesting

Only if the people in them are interesting, which these vapid, attention-seeking wazzocks are not.

There is a vast difference between a couple/family taking in a view and then snapping a family photo (IMO most people are conscious that other people might be waiting and don’t take too long) and an influencer intent on getting their 101 photos of themselves.

The Villa Cipresi has a wonderful view over Lake Como, through a pretty pair of gates that open up directly onto the lake.

Only I didn’t get a chance to look through them, or take a photo there of DH and the DS, because of the influencers hogging it. I took a short video after we’d watched one person twist and turn for the camera for a looong time. I don’t think you can post videos to mumsnet, so here are a couple of screenshots from the video. Check out the queue that has built up behind her, all waiting patiently for their turn…

Example I saw in Cinque Terre last year - four young women in perfect outfits, hair and make up on one of the hiking trails. God knows how they got there as they were wearing dainty sandals - any open toed shoes are supposed to be banned on the trails.

They’d clambered over a fence to take over a spot overlooking an iconic view (preventing anyone else getting photos without them in) and taking it turns to photograph each other during extended shoots.

i’m sure the end result would be some great insta-worthy shots but the whole thing seemed entirely fake and contrived. Rather than actually enjoying the location it just seemed to be serving as the backdrop to their own personal lifestyle marketing.

Grabbing a few nice photos to capture the moment is one thing, but entirely manufacturing a “moment” Is another.

@RockaLock that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. No one should be queuing up or waiting to walk on a patch of gods good earth.

I know there are some bizarre hobbies about, but I didn't realise taking photos of yourself counted as one?