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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to get museum rage?

56 replies

pigsinmud · 10/04/2010 09:37

Yesterday we all went to the Natural History Museum. It was exceedingly busy and quite warm in there so perfect conditions for museum rage.

Cameras - I mean why do people have to go along taking picture after picture of the exhibits. They appear to be barely looking at them, just snapping the camera. In some areas where the lighting was low all you could see was flash, flash, flash.

Then there were the people who have to take up half the corridor trying to take a picture of dear old granny standing in front of a glass cabinet with a stuffed bear behind them. WHY? It was so crowded and yet they quite happily spent ages trying to compose the perfect photo whilst making loads of people wait.

Sometimes I think digital cameras are a bad thing as people quite happily snap away in there knowing they can take 567 photos instead of the old 24 or 36.

OP posts:
ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 19:42

oh right - because I want pictures to remember our special trips to places I'm a dullar

Nymphadora · 10/04/2010 19:53

I take pics but I tend to only take pics of the 'favourite things' or something unusual.It drives me mad when people snap every single thing especially when its busy and you barely get a chance to look at things. I would rather look & read the blurb than come home with 600 pics.

foxinsocks · 10/04/2010 19:54

I think you'd have to be a saint to go to the NHM in school hols and not feel some rage

ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 19:57

problem is that 2yr olds don't tend to let you hang around long to read the blurb

(and then 6yr olds start complaining they're hungry )

and besides - I didn't go to read the blurb or see the stuff myself anyhow

lovechoc · 10/04/2010 20:04

YABU

I'd say get there as soon as the museum opens if you want to get round all exhibits without much of a fuss. I always get to places early and reap the benefits because it means DS can get round everything fairly easily without having to queue for things, or be jammed in with a large crowd etc.

11am is not early!!

ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 20:07

lovechoc - given that it only opens at 10am I don't think 11am is late either

lovechoc · 10/04/2010 20:13

one hour can make all the difference though - it means you are first in the doors and can get access to everything alot sooner than those turning up at 11 am.

ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 20:18

well in a big museum that depends on what everyone else wants to see first

tbh I don't think it would have made a difference if the OP had been there at 10, we arrived at 10.15 (but through the door at the other side so had to walk across) - by the time we left the dinasour exhibit the queues were enormous and we'd been in a solid line all the way around it as well.

LucyHoneychurch · 10/04/2010 20:19

This is a real pet hate for me too. What do people do with all these pics?

It really bugs me in gigs too. Being a short @rse I struggle enough to get a good view but now there are 100s of hands in the air taking pics on their phones and cameras ALL the way through it really is impossible.

I know what you mean OP... when do all the snap-happy people actually "experience" the thing they are getting so many pics of when they are just looking at it through a lens.

lovechoc · 10/04/2010 20:29

I tend to find getting to a museum early means you are nearly finished viewing everything before it gets to that really busy period of the day where it's all hussle and bussle and NOT enjoyable at all.

As for the photo thing, I don't really mind people taking snaps all the way through - but it's something I don't see much of because I'm in and out before the chaos of happy snappers begins!

ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 20:30

really........there were people snapping when we got in 15 minutes after opening.

There's no way you can be in and out of the NHM before it gets crowded in school holidays imo.

lovechoc · 10/04/2010 20:43

the NHM must be unique, I've been in that particular one! I was just speaking in general terms. Sorry for any confusion

lovechoc · 10/04/2010 20:44

oops, I've never been in the NHM that was meant to say.

MillyR · 10/04/2010 20:52

I'm still not really getting what people's objections is in this thread.

Is it that people believe that the purpose of going to a museum should be to wander around having a brief look at each object and then moving on to the next, like some glorified version of queueing with no particular aim?

And that people who go into a museum because they have a great interest in feathers for example, so need comparative photos of each bird, or who want to sit and draw one object for two hours, or who take photos of lots of things because their main interest is photography, those people are just mavericks?

homicidalmummy · 10/04/2010 21:03

Sometimes in rushing to get the camera you miss the moment....
True.

wastwinsetandpearls · 10/04/2010 21:12

We were at the National history Museum today and it was very hit. I took three pictures . I did comment to dp that people seemed to wandering around aimlessly snapping things. Digital cameras mean people will take pictures of anything. Of course they could have been photographing for a reason. I did this at the V and A for my classroom. But as the photos were important I took time yo compose them and was selective rather than just snapping on my phone at anything in a case.

ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 21:14

how was your DD with the T-Rex??

elru · 10/04/2010 21:21

Took my ds two years ago when he was 5 bloke was so determined to get picture of said t-rex that he shoved me out the way so he could stand behind my ds to get a photo, ds did not know he was there stepped back and nutted him in the balls! Was brilliant as then the staff told the bloke off for holding the queue up happy days. Hope he enjoyed the pictures when he got home.

wastwinsetandpearls · 10/04/2010 21:22

She was fine and denied all knowledge of ever bring scared of it. The OP will be pleased to know I took a photo which I will put on facebook when we get back.

She was a little gutted as she has a fossilised dinosaur tooth but they did not have the dinosaur on show. She got a great book though.

We are in our hotel now with sore feet, still a little hot and grumpy.

We called at the humminbird bakery on our way back just before they closed, they gave us some free cupcakes!

MadamDeathstare · 10/04/2010 21:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ToccataAndFudge · 10/04/2010 21:34

hehe @ the photo - I took three of the T-rex (actually there were 4 but a man walked in front of the photo that Simpson tried to take of all of us and you could only see DS1 on it so I deleted it )

StewieGriffinsMom · 10/04/2010 21:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

IWasThatEasterBunny · 10/04/2010 22:30

I deliberately he decided never to take my son to a museum unless he asked. He is now 18 and knows nothing! C'est la vie!

(We do both enjoy art galleries though!!!)

baluchi · 10/04/2010 22:39

Me thinks some people on here need to get a life.

elru · 10/04/2010 22:54

That's quite funny baluchi - as all this started at the natural history mueseum