Do you mind taking a picture of me?

Topping off on yesterday's discussion, I had a GChat talk with our SLR guru, SS. He pointed out to me that it was super irritating to him when someone approached him for taking a picture of them when he was busy setting up his own SLR to take a shot-of-the-year, so to speak. And however occupied he was, he couldn't say 'no' and be done with it. After some thought, I figured it wouldn't hurt anyone to know the etiquette of getting their picture taken by complete strangers. So here are some helpful guidelines - 

1. If someone looks busy and doesn't make eye contact, approach someone else. Simple, right? If they don't make eye contact, they obviously want to be left to do whatever it is that they're doing. So find someone else.

2. Just because someone's dangling an SLR doesn't make them an expert. This is a wayward assumption. But given the fact that all the major brands have slashed down prices, most people are buying the SLRs first and figuring out how to use them much later. However if they do look jobless or aimless, go for it.

3. Never ask someone with a tripod to take your picture. This is ambiguous too. It is assuming that the tripoder is a serious photographer and would much rather wait for his/her "moment" than take a picture of arbitrary you.

4. Approach other tourists with point n shoots. Well, they are your best bets really. And be polite and offer the barter. Their picture for yours.

5. Never make someone take your picture twice. Think about it. Even if they messed up the shot, they did take out the time to aim and shoot a picture of someone they didn't know. Don't extend their courtesy beyond the normalcy and make them take multiple shots, scrutinizing the previous ones right before them and scowling at the bad shots. There are other people out there. Me, for example.. I am already praising their effort even before the preview appears on the screen. And if I hate it, I wait till the first guy is out of earshot and then find someone else to take it. Its only decent.

6. Mean the "do you mind" part. Its like some well-rehearsed dialogue and it must appear in some book for sure. "Do you mind taking a picture of me/us?" is how anyone approaches a stranger. Unfortunately the "do you mind" is purely perfunctory and you are already thrusting the camera into reluctant fingers even before you get the confirmation. Be prepared to hear a "yes" for the mind part and move on spiritedly to someone else who doesn't mind. After all the picture shot by someone who truly doesn't mind has got to be better than the one taken by someone who did for the heck of it.

On that note, here's a one-liner for all the people who did mind taking photos of others and didn't say it - SAY IT! We'd rather not approach grouchy people to take shots of us in our happy times. On the other hand.. it is one picture. And we're not robbing you off anything here. And so if you really can take a shot, consider it your good deed of the day and do it in good humour if it permits you to!

Uh, well.. that's all I could think about right now. Is there anything I left out? Add your two pence...

Traveling solo..

Doing a PhD often entails solo travel, be it for meetings, conferences or workshops. Worse, sometimes you're left to tour exotic locations all by yourself (especially if your husband can't make it with you). Even otherwise, I have come across a lot of people who aren't squeamish about traveling alone. But here's a common issue. When you travel alone, do you end up with more pictures of the place than of you with some of the sights/sounds out there? This question is along the lines of another discussion we had over a year ago on MindBlogging - if you could ever go to movie/restaurant alone.

To answer the question raised above, I am guessing...YES for a vast majority of people. Either that.. or awkwardly positioned self-shot pictures which end up having your face 3D upfront with vestiges of the monument you wanted to capture in the background. Even while traveling in groups, I've noticed that most people are not comfortable requesting a stranger to take a picture of the entire group. And thats often a combination of one of two reasons - they are afraid that they'd mind in that we're disturbing them or that the picture they end up taking is going to be sub-par. However I believe somethings better than nothing and you could always ask someone else to take a shot if you aren't entirely satisfied by it. Or you could travel alone, use a tripod and not be shy to smile wide at a camera positioned 10 feet away with the timer blinking for 10 seconds with the possibility that some jerk is going to run away with your equipment any second. Ok the last bit is a possibility, even if unlikely. 

So what is the solution? I know some people just don't mind not having enough pictures of them in a location and it matters to them only what they absorbed visually and felt while being there. But then again, I don't belong to the "some people" category. I love having my pictures taken in all the new places I visit with whatever needs to be captured in the picture. And so, I approach random touristy-looking strangers and make exchange offers with them. Their picture for mine? A never-fail barter system. Even if only a handful of shots are up to your own quality-control, at least you have them. And even if a bunch of people turn you down, you don't know them and are probably never going to run into them ever again. And for every person that refuses to take your picture (I am yet to find one), there are 10 or more that will. So the bottom line? Don't blame shyness or your own loneliness for the fact that you didn't get enough pictures to a place you visited (unless you really really didn't mind) and instead, get out there, speak the word or play the charades (if you are language-stricken) and get what you want - a picture of you.

PS: When you give a camera to someone to take your picture, please please let it be a point 'n' shoot. If it's a fancy SLR, unless the person you are giving it has had some experience, you have a guaranteed blur!

Firing the canon

So here she is… the newest member of our growing Canon family – a simple film SLR camera. I’ve only just loaded new film into the camera and I got to say I love the “sound” of clicking. There’s nothing digital about it. It’s all mechanical. And it’s finally refreshing to be limited. With the film SLR, thanks to the manual settings, you really got to know what you’re doing. There are no second chances for a single photo. And so this first roll is going to be entirely experimental. If any of the photos do turn out to be masterpieces, you know where you can expect to see them. Until then, just wish me happy clicking.

My new Canon film SLR.

  

PS: This one doesn't have a "on-off" button, just a "lock". Hence the poll.

Curb your enthusiasm..

Nope.. once again wrong. Not the Seinfeld writer's newer venture. This time it's photo-centric. About 6 months ago I wrote lamenting the fact that no one takes too many prints of digital photos anymore. Though its a serious advancement in technology and improvement in everything, we have allowed digital photography to cripple us on the basic level. You can read that post here. And so I took the plunge. A film camera. A return to innocence almost. But at it's best. A Canon. An SLR. 36 shots in one film roll. Better yet it's upto us to bring the best of our talent out in that. No more retouching. No more post-processing. Time to restrict the impulse and fire the Canon.

PS: Will post pics of the new camera soon (but through digital means of course).

And here's an interestingly elementary question and poll to finish -