AIBU to be frustrated at this trend of turning nice places into queues?

[Emori]

I've noticed this phenomenon across Europe, specifically in Italy, Spain and Greece in the past year where I've been somewhere on a day out, tourist attractions so obviously always going to be busy with lots of people taking photos etc, now there's an additional queuing etiquette which is something else. It's like there are certain points within the attraction where people get fucked off with you just walking around like a normal person and instead expect you to stand in a line to take a photograph. Even though there's no official signs to such effect. I find it really spoils my enjoyment, appreciation and concentration. Am I alone in this?

The queues at the top of Everest are definitely problematic but these aren’t people queuing to get a photo, just to get to the summit. I’m sure photos get taken but it’s not what they’re waiting for.

😮I wouldn't be able to laugh this off. Imagine dying for such a shallow and pointless reason.

I was horrified by the way people pose at concentration camps, until I learned that some Jewish people do it in a ‘fuck you, we’re still here’ kind of way, which I think makes sense.

I think the people who were hunting Pokemon in Auschwitz are probably the worst.

Why wouldn’t people take photos of the Colosseum?!

last year at the acropolis, I waited for someone to take some photos of another woman.. After the 20th shot, I just went in front of them and had my husband take some photos of me. The women complained and I said she didn’t own it and carried on walking up…

i had something similar at Hampton Court Palace. A couple had decided that they wanted to have a photoshoot on a particularly lovely staircase which was the main route between exhibits. There was a photographer there and some woman at the bottom of the stairs saying “sorry you can’t go that way because there’s an engagement photoshoot going on”. I asked her if she worked for HCP…no she wasn’t… I asked if this was booked/arranged through HCP… no it wasn’t. They’d just rocked up and decided to hold up a whole exhibition with their hired photographer. I just walked up because wtf and short of manhandling me down the stairs what are they going to do.

@Pollyanna87 because they were getting in the way of people wanting to use the bridge to get to the Colloseum, Forum etc. It’s not wide enough for 3 people.

YANBU.
i have no interest in pandering to some narcissists photo shot demands and I don't care if they like it or not.
And if that triggers anyone trying to get and a SM 'perfect shot' that's tough. They are as dumb as a rock if they are just taking a photo of themselves which is identical to 000s others taken at the same place. That type of photo is no more than a trophy shot and it's nonsense-trophy shots are as dull and boring as the people who take them.
Whatever happened to mindfulness and simply appreciating & admiring what you are looking at rather than snapping it with a smartphone? Do these idiots think they are enhancing the view by sticking themselves in shot too? (They aren't btw)

In one of the Adrian Mole books, when he is living in Oxford, he rants about being asked the way by “foreigners” every five minutes, and says that he enjoys sending them in the wrong direction. (He has instant karma when he realises that he gave his Royal British Legion blazer into an Oxfam shop, with a condom in the top pocket.)

Completely agree OP. I just won’t accept that someone with a camera has more right to spend time in front of eg a painting, or an amazing view, than someone who simply wants to enjoy the view with their own eyes.

And as for the people who are constantly filming every bloody thing - when you know full well 99% of the footage is never going to be watched. I think they should be forced to sit and watch every single video they’ve ever taken.

I wonder about the environmental cost of storing all these photos and videos. I have read about the Cloud relying on the building of new data processing centres, which require a lot of land and use a lot of water.

I used to be an avid traveller and photographer before other things prevented the travelling. I always respected other photographers trying out a few angles and other tourists just wanting to stand and look. I found most of both groups noticed me standing to one side with my camera ready, but not with my eye to the viewfinder and me huffing and puffing, and they frequently stepped aside to allowed me time to take my photos. The waiting time was productive as it allowed me to soak in the sights.

There are places in the world where waiting will allow you to get an uninterrupted shot of the subject and there are some where you have to ‘suck up’ having people in your shots. I have plenty of both but they are still reminders/memories of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen. I have two photo frames in the house and they are always on the go with photos so I really do look at the photos I’ve taken over the years. As some others have said, I wonder how many other people actually look at their photos in the weeks, months, years afterwards….. I see some of mine every day.

I always spent time ‘just looking’ as well as taking photos and friends always joked that they never saw photos of me on my travels. I didn’t need photos of me, I knew I had been there because I had my photos. I did occasionally slip in a few of my husband and there was often a joke about me only having him in the shot to provide colour or size comparison. Go and stand by that rock/tree please !
I expect a lot of my experiences have been coloured by mostly travelling to rural locations but I have also waited for my photos in heavier tourist areas. Monet’s Garden being a real challenge.

I will no longer be able to travel to places where there are iconic ‘must have’ shots but I will have my memories. 😊

People are so funny. I did a bit of people watching outside a beautiful cathedral last week. Sitting on a bench in the sun.

People were arriving and heading straight for the queue to go in. Many looking at their phones. Very few stopped for a moment to look up at the amazing building with incredible stonework. Only when one person stopped to look up would others do the same. If someone took a photo then others would take a photo.

People don’t know what they want until someone else tells them. They don’t want to miss out. Everyone else posts a photo of every tiny thing so failing to do that is missing a chance to compete.

It’s never just a quick photo either. Several poses whilst I’m standing there like a wally

We were in London recently.

Two young insta mums taking photos and videos strutting forwards and backwards.

They had a little girl in a pushchair and she was crying and obviously very upset.

The two women completely ignored the child because they were so wrapped up in themselves and their stupid videos.

I felt so sorry for the little girl.

Totally agreee @Emori People take photos instead of just looking and seeing. I remember at the Smithsonian trying to look at Dorothy’s red shoes as closely as possible to see how they were made (IYKYK) and not being able to get close because of the crowd two deep just taking a photo. And the gift shop there sells a postcard with an exhibition quality photo.

It’s got to the point where those taking photos think they have priority over those of us just wanting to look and experience.

skim reading this thread and so pleased I’ve found my people.

The Insta pouters are good for quiet private mockery though.

YANBU....I have lived in once lovely Florence for over 30 years & it's now become a hell hole with the droves of tourists just wanting to tick off their list (handbag stores, wine windows, foto booth, Davids willy...) with no awareness or apreciation as to where they are....so i'm leaving !

I think the desire to curate the most attractive bits of our lives has been there as long as humanity itself. We’re profoundly narcissistic creatures. Digital photography and the instant hit of social media has made it easy and nominally acceptable.

Im a Londoner. I mostly walk around my great city feeling a little bit sorry for those who have to produce these insta moments for the folk back home. I mostly walk through their shots because life really is too short.

Exactly the painting this thread made me think of! Went last year to the MoMA. There’s not a huge amount of space around Starry Night, and I remember a security guard asking me to move when I was standing looking at the painting hung at right angles to it.

That sounds like a rubbish display arrangement, both for Starry Night and the adjacent paintings. I wish Starry Night could come back to Europe, even temporarily.

The Starry Night over the Rhone is in Europe still and well worth seeing. I was enormously lucky to see it at the Musee d'Orsay years ago when attending a private event through work. Very few people around, many of whom were very familar with the exhibits already so I had it to myself.

Completely agree. Most people take completely rubbish photos on their phones, of absolutely everything and probably never look at them again.

We've just spent a week on the Côte d'Azur and the whole town was full of people walking around filming themselves walking around, and standing in everyone's way while they take an utterly unmemorable snapshot of the marché provençal.

Complete pain in the backside, but luckily I didn't see any queues to take pictures.