We have all been there, done that and got the t-shirt and paid for the photo to prove it! Now as a photographer I like to think I can adapt to most environments and take a camera with us on any adventure we do, but sometimes there are places that don’t allow camera’s or photography and then hit you at the end for a $25 photograph that looks crap but it’s the only photo you will have of the experience!
Being on a budget you can’t be frivolous with your money, unlike if you were on your 2 week summer vacation. So over the last few months I have been developing a tactic to bypass these tourist traps and get hold of the prized piece of photography that you want.
There are some restrictions to my method and depending on the activity we have coughed up for a photo, albeit a crap one! Sorry I’m fussy on this one! But typically all tourist and adventure activities will take your photo at some point, tourist photographs are easy prey for my method but adventure photographs have proven a little trickier!
So you need a partner for this method, the idea is to seek out the photograph centre once the activity is done, here they typically will have printed and put out on display ‘The Photo’ of you in action or the final version of the green screen photo they took beforehand. Your partner takes the photo stretches out his/her arm, you then take aim and then snap….
You have the photograph, bearing in mind the quality of cameras today from a distance with a high pixel resolution the image is able to be enlarged. Once the image is downloaded onto your PC, open it up in some photo editing software and crop away…
Perfect the snap you wanted for free, now you may question the quality of the photo but let’s face it the original is going to be average anyway, so you have just saved yourself $25 for a crappy quality photo of a memorable experience! In this case Steph's priceless expression!!
This method has served us well so far but there have been some instances where you have to work at it a little depending on the lighting but persevere, it will come! This method can also have its barriers for example when the displaying of the photographs is done on a computer or shown on a TV screen; the screens are not conducive to photography so these you may have to pay for, we have had to weigh up the options a couple of times but only for the amazing experiences such as white water rafting the Zambezi or the Black Water rafting.
Some may call me a visual thief, I see myself as the visual robin hood, but whatever you think enjoy a couple more examples of the tourist shots we were not willing to pay $25 for….
