First World Problems

In New York City's Central Park, there is a memorial to John Lennon. It is an area of the park called "Strawberry Fields," and there is a mosaic that is a reproduction of a Pompeii mosaic on the ground. Two years ago, my friends and I, along with a small group of passersby, were admiring this mosaic. I like having everything captured for posterity, so I asked a man who was standing nearby to take a picture for us. He looked like a nice, competent man who would not run away with my camera. My friends and I stooped over the mosaic. The man graciously took the picture and placed the digital camera in my hand, but once I looked at the picture, I realized I had been wrong in my assumption of his competence. He had taken a shot of just our heads. No mosaic, no trees...there was nothing to denote that we were in a park at all. I had to wait until he was a safe distance away before I could ask another person to take a picture for us.

I can't travel with a tripod, and I certainly can't fit a tripod in the small clutch purses I use when I go out, so I often have to rely on other people to take pictures of the best times of my life for me. I don't expect people to compose shots a la Annie Liebowitz, but I do expect some common sense. If we're at the Grand Canyon and I ask you to take a picture for me, please don't zoom in on just our faces. With digital cameras, you can see in the viewfinder what the picture will look like, and you can also see the picture seconds after taking it. Short of bar scenes where I expect my fellow revelers to find it difficult to operate a camera, there is no excuse for taking photos of just heads, or worse yet, parts of heads. (Note: more than once, male photographers have focused on just the chest area. I suspect this was deliberate, however.)

I'm patient enough with older people who look at me blankly when I hand them a camera. As for everyone else, what kind of cameras have YOU been using?

Here are some things to remember about using, oh, just about every camera on the market:

• Just push the big button. Yes, the big button. It's the same one that's in the same place on every camera.
• You have to hold the button down until the flash goes off. Longer. No, don't take your finger off yet. Damn it, just give it a few seconds.
• I don't care if it's a vertical or horizontal shot. In fact, I don't think anyone cares. I don't need to remember what shoes I was wearing on a particular day.

And people wonder why I think it's more fun to take pictures of ourselves--two or three people leaning in, and me extending my arm as far as it will go...