If you’ve taken a reasonable number of photos in your life at any popular destination, the chances are that you’ve encountered a photographer that just rubbed you the wrong way. Maybe they talked incessantly. Perhaps they tried to copy your photo. The might have even tried to teach you a thing or two without you asking them to do so.
Or, even worse, maybe the annoying photographer is you.
Either way, Tony and Chelsea Northrup feel that it’s important that we all understand the most fundamental annoyances so we can avoid committing these sins (and maybe let others know when they commit these sins too). They’ve created a hilarious video (see below) that exhorts us all to be on our best behavior.
With that, let’s have a look at the five most common types of annoying photographers!
The Copycat
You’ve done all the hard work of getting there early and painstakingly setting up the ideal shot. Then what happens? Another photographer gets up in your space to try and replicate the shot you’ve tried so hard to get. What’s even worse is when the offender proclaims that they’re a photographer too and that you should check out their work!
The Chatty Cathy
For many of us, photography is a fun activity that we do to relax and unwind. For others, photography is a job that requires the utmost concentration to get the shots that are needed. But that’s hard to do when a Chatty Cathy arrives and talks your ear off. Whether it’s a friend on a photo walk with you or a random stranger that wants to shoot the breeze about photography, the result is the same - it’s hard to concentrate on taking high-quality photos when all you hear is chatter in your ear.
The Gear Nerd
Gear lust is a real thing. So is being a gear nerd. After all, if you’ve gone through the expense of filling up your kit with awesome accessories, you want to use them, right? But if you’ve ever tried to go on a photo outing with a gear nerd, you know there is more time spent packing and unpacking all those unnecessary accessories than actually taking photos.
The Photography Widow
It’s easy to get caught up in the grind of uploading photos to Flickr and Instagram and taking part in photography contests. It’s just as easy to spend hours online looking for the best gear and outfitting ourselves to the teeth. But photographers that do that sort of thing often leave their loved ones behind. Instead of enjoying a hike with a special someone, the Photography Widow spends all their time taking photos, then rushing through the rest of the day to get home to edit and post their images.
The Teacher
Perhaps most annoying of all is the photographer that decides you need to know more about photography and how to take better photos. Though friendly advice might be welcome sometimes, photographers that try to teach other people can quickly go from being helpful to being downright annoying.
Have a look at all these types of photographers in action in the video below!