Favors From Strangers.

So a few weeks ago I caught up with a good friend over a Vietnamese noodle lunch to tell each other about our (busy) summers. With the power of Facebook and Flickr we'd seen one another's adventures in foreign countries. Since I've gotten into the habit of taking my camera pretty much everywhere, I have the usual handful of self-taken shots. My friend pointed out that she'd noticed other photos where someone else had obviously snapped my picture at various points during my solo trips. "Did you ask someone to take those?"

"Of course -- how else could I have been in the picture?"

She seemed amused/amazed by the fact that I'd handed a stranger my camera to take a photo of me. In retrospect, I'm not sure she's the type of person to ask someone to do that same thing -- I definitely used to be the same way. I can't say that I was the most assertive person back in the day but thankfully that's changed for the better. For example, if people are being rude at the movies by talking, laughing and blatantly disregarding everyone else in the theater, I will tell them to shut up. I didn't pay ten bucks to hear you yap about Jersey Shore.

but seriously

I digress.

I mean, if someone I didn't know asked me to take a photo of them standing in front of some Point Of Interest, I wouldn't think twice about doing it. Couples and groups request this all the time from strangers; why wouldn't someone traveling by him/herself? Because to be honest, self-shots are pretty limited. I suppose there's always the possibility of the person running off with your camera, but that's really not something I'm worried about. So I'm left wondering if this is an offshoot of the social stigma of being alone that I discussed in a previous post.

Happy Hump Day people.