Citizen Photographers

Since I have a wide array of travel experience and am now a resident tourist in DC, I'd like to provide some advice for all you travel hopefuls out there.

From my experience, there's a technique that can take vacation after vacation to perfect. It's referred to as the art of picking the right "citizen photographer". What I mean is, your future Christmas card cover could be in jeopardy! If you are inexperienced in this art you could grab the wrong Joe Schmo off the street and ruin your Kodak moment. Therefore, here are my handy tips:

1) It's preferable to find someone who speaks English, or any other language you speak (this is not racially based. See reason #4).
2) People who rush past you in a hurry do not take good pictures.
3) Tall people tend to take bad pictures of short people, and vice versa. If you are short and your spouse is tall, we've found it to typically be a lose-lose situation.
4) Try to specify before the photo is taken what you want in the picture. Scripted example: "We are taking this picture because...". This tip could have saved us from many a ruined pictured (see below).
5) People dressed in artsy or trendy clothes tend to take better pictures.
6) The guy with the huge Nikon around his neck is usually a safe bet.

Since I recently became an expert in this art, I have a few examples from various sites in the city.

Example #1:

This is a beautiful photo of us standing by a DC stop sign. But wait? What is that white behind Ben's head? Could that be... the White House? I think this citizen photographer was too preoccupied to realize he'd used the subjects to cover the subject. He was a middle-aged man in business attire, and clearly in a hurry. That was our first mistake. Although when you look closer, there really is a beauty to DC stop signs that you don't see anywhere else.


Example #2:

If you go to the Eastern Market on Saturday morning to eat blueberry buckwheat pancakes, be sure to get a picture. And while you're at it, be sure to hint to your citizen photographer that "the pancakes are so delicious we just have to get a picture". Then tip the plate up just a bit, as I did. Will it work? It didn't for us, but maybe it will go better for you. At least she got the cool lights in the background, right? By the way, she was a 30-something woman clearly more focused on her eggs and bacon than taking advantage of a great photo opportunity.


Example #3: The Award for the Most Epic Citizen Photographer

While visiting the Lincoln Memorial, we thought it was a great photo op. Ben happened to choose for our citizen photographer a rough looking guy in his late 20's, probably a George Washington University student. I knew from the moment Ben picked him that he hadn't taken an artistic picture in his life, but of course Ben is still learning the drill :) This was the first photo he took:


Can you tell what is wrong with the picture? Never mind that we're standing in front of one of the most famous statues in America. It's on the back of the penny for crying out loud. I guess he took our request of "Will you take a picture of us?" literally. As soon as he shot it, I knew he hadn't gotten Lincoln in it. So I kindly asked him to take it again, "Up and down". This is a courteous way to kindly "guide" your citizen photographer in the right direction.


Hopefully some of these tips aid in getting Grade A photos of your family during the year. And if they turn out great, we expect a Christmas card.