Who do You Trust for your Traveling Pics?

As a kid, you always hear your parents say: "don't trust strangers." Especially strangers offering candy or ice cream ... 

Then you grow up, and sure enough, you will still hear that saying from time to time. But when you  travel solo around the world, who else are you supposed to trust? Who else are you supposed to ask to take a picture of you with the beautiful scenery or the colorful monument or the 15th century castle? STRANGERS.

Had I known I was going to write this blog, I would have kept more of those epic shots where half my head was missing, or half the monument was missing or even sometimes the entire monument, and in some cases, where no photo was taken at all, even though I thoroughly explained to the stranger holding the camera where to press to take a photo.

But thankfully given how much I travel, I found a recent fail from Ireland that I hadn't deleted yet. And my awesome virtual friends from Girls Love Travel  have sent me some as well. If you are a girl and love to travel, make sure you join GLT, it is an awesome platform for travel inspiration and girls supporting and encouraging each other.

Back to the failed pictures. Here are my top 5, and even though some of theses pictures were taken by strangers, regretfully some were taken by best friends or boyfriends who I am sure had the best intentions but are just terrible at taking pictures ...   

Exhibit 1: Ireland - Photo credit -> Me 

Photographer: a stranger
Location: Dunguaire Castle - and yes I know you cannot see it 

Photographer: my selfie skills
Location: same as above

Exhibit 2: France - Photo credit -> GLT Victoria Georges Ward

Photographer: a stranger
Location: Eiffel tower 
Photographer: a stranger
Location: that same Eiffel Tower, just a little easier to spot -:)
So yes, sometimes strangers do work out ... but it is rare ... 


Exhibit 3: USA - Photo credit -> GLT Stephanie Ferreira 

Photographer: a stranger who decided to zoom in for a close up of the rocks ...
Location: Garden of Gods, where the rocks tower to an impressive 300 feet ...

But here are the rocks when not zoomed in -:) just for some perspective ...

Exhibit 4: Indonesia - Photo credit -> Forat Sami 
Photographer: best friend
Location: Tanah Lot Temple in Bali 
Photographer: a stranger
Location: same as above, but more temple and less ground -:) 

Exhibit 5: Last but not least: the Philippines, a picture taken by her versus a picture taken by him ... And guess who took the better one? Photo credit -> Jordan King 
Photographer: HIM
Location: Blurry Waterfalls in Cebu 
Photographer: HER
Location: Beautiful Waterfalls in Cebu 

Morale of the story: you really cannot trust strangers, or boyfriends, or best friends ...  or anyone ... besides yourself to take good pictures ... You will always be your best bet when it comes to taking the picture you want.

However, doing it over and over and over will always multiply your chance of getting one good picture. Using the burst mode is definitely a life saver. Investing into a tripod and a timer is probably a good idea.

And maybe, just maybe ... taking pictures and posting the perfect picture on Instagram aren't that important anyways ... Just kidding...

Special thank you to the above GLT mentioned girls who allowed me to use their pictures, and a special thank you to Jordan King who started the thread where I got all the pictures from.

And a special shout out to the best quote I read on GLT about husband picture taking skills: "my husband is awful. He either takes two which he thinks are good (okay they are fine but not Instagram fine) or a rapid burst and  I look like a Wookie caught in a time warp." Thank you Belle Alexandria Knight for making me laugh so hard.

in case you didn't know what a wookie was 

Lucky for me, my husband does a pretty good job at taking photos ... but he wasn't born that way ... he did have to receive extensive and intensive training and we have had to have multiple conversations about what he thinks is a good picture and what I think is a good picture -:) But here we are, a year and 6 months later, and I think he is doing pretty amazing.

What do you think? And Who is your trusted travel photographer?
 1) a stranger holding an expensive looking camera
 2) your friend/ boyfriend/ girlfriend
 3) your selfie stick
 4) a tripod
 5) I gave up 
 Photographer:  HIM
Location: Kona, Hawaii 
EAT WELL, TRAVEL OFTEN, TAKE PICTURES 

SARA 

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