Are you familiar with picture taking rules?
“Why don’t you come over and let’s go through my vacation pictures!” Ohhhh God! How many times have your friends asked you over to take a look at their “fabulous” vacation pictures…and you’d rather be…ironing your hair? Enough said? In most instances: B-O-R-I-N-G! It’s unbelievable to me how many people have no idea how to take fun/interesting pictures. What’s worse, is they expect you to “ooh and aah” over them. I’m your friend, I’m not an actor! Balance photogs, you need balance when you’re taking a lot of pictures!
Here are the Gay Guy rules for Picture Taking:
1. Make sure that there are people in most of your pictures — people we know would help. If we can only have you, after awhile, try to get someone else who looks interesting in there with you too. Without people in your pictures, it becomes an endurance test looking at 300 pictures of Mount Kilimanjaro. If all that’s photographed is the mountain and maybe a big pile of dung someone along the way found interesting…it’s not interesting! Put people in your pictures! If there is something noteworthy that you’re taking a picture of, get yourself or your friends in the front of it. Kneel down by the dung! You’ll give it scale and you’ll certainly look like a moron – now that is fun! “A picture is worth a thousand words”…but if there are people in them, maybe you get two thousand! “Look at her hair!” / “They really made you wear khaki?” Get it?
2. One of the best ways to make your pictures more memorable is if you or your friends get yourselves into positions where it looks like your are holding something up with your hand, head, tongue. The more unorthodox, the better. See a statue of a hot General? Why not get right in front of him, get on your knees…and…say a prayer for him! (I know where your mind went…good job!) Think “The Washington Monument”. So phallic—so large—so little time! Get some action into your pictures.
3. If you’ve decided along the trip that you absolutely hate the person you’re traveling with — just take pictures of your feet. Everyone likes their feet, right? Actually, I enjoy taking pictures of peoples shoes…it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds.
4. Don’t be a hog! Take pictures of others too, Narcissus! There’s the other extreme where the person vacationing is in every-single-frickin-shot! No matter how hot they are, it gets boring if all we see is them. OK, maybe a few body shots would be interesting? I could look at that all day long! I’m getting off subject.
5. Practice your smile! New Rule: Say: “WHISKEY” when you get your picture taken! Never-ever say “cheese” again. Try it. “Whiskey” makes you use muscles in your face that lifts your smile and makes it look a lot more natural. “Cheese” makes you pull your face back to the sides — and no wonder you hate to have your picture taken.
Final note: If you want your friends to come over to look at your pictures —You Serve Cocktails!
—Let me hear from you. Leave a post! What do you think are the 5 things people need to know when they travel with someone they haven’t traveled with before? Or, send me some of your most fun pictures, maybe I’ll put them up on the site—
Good post! Yeah I hate taking vacation pictures much less showing them! This will definitely be helpful though and the more fun we can have with taking pictures (especially shooting people’s fabulous shoes!) the more fun it will be to show the pictures! Keep up the good, informative posts!
You will be amazed at how much fun you can have taking pictures of feet and shoes. You could blow them up and put them on a bare wall. What a conversation piece! There are some interesting/funky shod feet out there. And no, I don’t have a foot fetish…I think!
Thanks for the comment.
Did you have me in mind when you mentioned the “dung” pictures? When my sister and I hiked the length of the Black Hills last summer, we did find some very interesting poop and took lots of pictures. Next time I’ll make sure Jessica puts her face down beside the poop for scale. ;-)
Atta girl! Thanks for posting!
Tips for traveling with others. For God’s sake DO NOT insist on spending every minute together and doing everything together. I have seen a lot of friendships die an ugly death this way. Give ample space to one another and check out interests ahead of time to see if there is mutual interest on what to eat, see, preferences of travel style etc. Too much time together breeds contempt!
Great advice Patty! Do you want to write a co-blog post on TGTGG on how to be a good traveling buddy?
Here’s my email: dean@thegotogayguy
Thanks for your comment! —d—
Jeremy and I used your picture taking rules while touring Wilmette for our new blog, Tour de Burbs. Not only were the pictures fun to frame and take, they are also HILARIOUS! I got pictures of our feet, we juxtaposed random background things with foreground people, and made sure there weren’t too many scenery shots. My fave: Jeremy sitting with a bottle of kombucha in front of a fountain with the shot set up to look like his kombucha is exploding.
I need that picture! I’ll put it on the blog! dean@gayguyapproved.com
I’m glad you guys took my advice. It makes the picture taking a blast! Bravo! —dean—
YOU ARE A CRACK UP!!!! OMG, I died laughing on that one
I’m glad you liked it. It’s true! Right? xo —dean—
Wow what great ideas! I’m going to try some of these ideas for my next trip..
Thanks for the comment Zezette. Please send me some pics when you do. Come back soon!