Back in the dark ages, I was invited to the house of a friend (let's call her Mildred) for dinner and to view pictures of her and her husband (let's call him Ernesto)'s honeymoon. Honeymoon pictures... wouldn't you go?
It was a free gourmet dinner with pleasant people. And, yeah, I was curious what I was in for, picture-wise. For better or worse, it didn't play out as you might imagine. And, really, I'm having a hard time thinking of friends I'd want to see in flagrante. This was perhaps especially true of Mildred and Ernesto. So, I guess I got lucky... not seeing them get lucky.
But seeing other people's vacation photos? Usually, anywhere from incredibly dull to depressing, right? Post them on Facebook and move on. Alas, this was pre-Facebook.
We had a perfectly pleasant dinner and then Ernesto set up the slide show and we settled in.
*click* (picture of sign)
Mildred: Here's a shot of the "Welcome to Maine" sign.
Me: Ah.
Mildred: We just loved Maine!
*click* (picture of cabin)
Mildred: This is the cabin we rented for the week. It was so great!
Me: That looks nice...
*click* (picture of living room)
Mildred: Here's the living room in the cabin.
Me, thinking it's going to be a loooong evening: Pretty...
*click* (picture of vista)
Mildred: Here's the view from the cabin.
Me: OOOooo, very nice.
Mildred: Yeah, it was pretty amazing.
*click* (picture of Ernesto in a Captain Morgan-like pose on boulders with a scarf tied pirate style on his head)
Me: Hahaha! Look at you, Ernesto! A pirate! Hahaha! That's great!
Mildred: *pause* We went hiking. It was really nice there. Some great trails.
*click* (picture of Ernesto still with the same scarf on, in front of a rocky bluff)
[Ernesto may or may not have looked exactly like this]
Me: Arrr, Matey! Hahaha!
Mildred:
Ernesto:
Me: Hahaha!
Mildred:
Ernesto:
*click* (Yet another picture of Ernesto in the scarf.)
Me: Ha...ha...*cough*
It was at this point that it occurred to me that Ernesto was not trying to be a pirate so much as cover his balding head in what he perceived as a fashion forward way.
Awkward. With a capital AWK.
Which brings us to the question du jour: Is it appropriate to show other people your vacation photos?
13 March 2011
"Photograph... I don't want your photograph" --Def Leppard
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14 comments:
LOLOLOLOL!!!
Never, never, never!
Bahaha! Oops. :) All your responses made me laugh out loud.
I had friends back in the nineties, pre-digital cameras, who liked to take slides on vacation. We'd (a bunch of us) go round to their house for drinks or something and out would come the projector and slides. Now I'm actually a big fan of photography and slides delight me, but really, if you're going to go to the trouble of buying expensive slide film and processing it, at LEAST take some snaps that aren't in contention for the "most boring snapshots ever taken" . award. People's heads cut off, blurry, endless photos of people they met who we didn't know from Father Christmas all projected giant sized on a living room wall.
I think it's only ever appropriate if someone asks specifically to see them or if you have some excellent or funny snaps you're sure others would enjoy. Even then, keep that shit short. Edit out some good ones for public consumption.
Yikes! And hahahaha!
Um, no. Not unless you went somewhere extraordinary AND the other person asks.
Hahaha sounds like a kind of awkward moment I'd have.
I don't have facebook and when I first got rid of it, it was nice not having to reply to the question, "Have you seen my pictures on facebook?" anymore (mostly because no I haven't... because I don't want to). But now, hearing "oh why don't you come over and I can show you my/so-and-so's vacation/party/concert, etc. pictures/videos on my account" has become the sentence I dread the most in the English language.
Only if you can take the heat.
And I was thinking of posting a picture just like the first one. Apparently a lot of people do that pose.
Hmmmm, i guess it depends on the friends, the type of relationship you have with them, and the vacations themselves - and afetr a careful photo selection too. I remember many years a go, a friend who was a photography aficionado took a tour in Egypt, and did a slide show party for us after he got back. That was amazing.
Ahhh, the infamous slide show. So glad those days are (mostly) over. I never force my vacation pictures on people. I post them on Facebook and usually on a sharing site like Flickr or Snapfish, so my relatives not on FB can take a look if they want. Otherwise, I only show them if people are actually interested. I know from experience that looking at other people's photos can be torturous, especially if they like to take lots of bad pictures (not in focus, of nothing terribly spectacular, blah blah blah).
No it's not appropriate. Thank goodness for facebook. All of our pictures are snoozville and just a bunch of flowers or buildings. We don't do the "will you take a picture of us?" so there's usually not a lot of pictures of us to look at anyway.
No slide shows please, but I do like looking at photo albums (at my own pace) and seeing friends' pictures online, especially if it is a location I am considering for a trip. It's kind of shocking what terrible pictures people are proud to show you (myself included!).
Only if they beg, and thankfully that doesn't usually happen. I throw a few pictures from some of my "vacations" up on my blog now and then and people who are truly interested can find them there.
Knowing how I feel about seeing other people's pictures, I say no. We have friends who often send us the link to hundreds of pictures from their latest trip. Do they for a minute think we are going to plow through all those, looking at people and places through someone else's eyes? They at least have the good taste not to quiz us after the fact!
Don't feel bad. They deserve to feel insulted as payback for asking you to endure a slide show.
Vacation photos should be left on the coffee table for willing participants to pick up and peruse at their leisure (or not!)
froggy: Noted, noted, noted.
The Vegetable Assassin: Blurry with the heads chopped off are the worst!
Lemon Gloria: Amen, Sister.
Felisa: Do you reply with "I'd love to but I'm having root canal instead?"
Mike: There is nothing new under the sun. (Needless to say, that quote isn't new.)
Titania: If you're a professional photographer, maybe I'm in.
Kate: I love it when the pictures are so mundane that even THEY can't remember what it was a picture of.
Toe: You don't even take a gnome when you Rome?
ellen: It IS!
Cyndy: Infinitely reasonable.
Barbara: I know EXACTLY what you mean.
Mac and Cheese: At least they didn't ask if I wanted to see a "birth video"!
No.
Also?
ARR!
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