Snap and Share: Selfies, Photo Ops & Vacation Pics

Fun Fact #1: London is the Selfie Capital of the World!
With so many selfie-suitable iconic landmarks, monuments and events, why wouldn’t it be? Here’s me with the Guardsman at Buckingham Palace. Here’s me in the Tower of London. Here’s me with Princess Kate. (Okay, the last one is not likely but a guy can dream!)

King of the World! The Colosseum is the most popular selfie background on social media. (Photo: © Martinmark | Dreamstime.com)

Fun Fact #2: The Colosseum is King!

Though more people post selfies from London, Rome is home to the #1 selfie background, the Colosseum. (Can’t you just see Emperor Titus posing for a picture?) This according to an analysis of more than six million social media messages done by the UK’s Daily Mail. Close behind was the world’s most visited monument, Paris’ Eiffel Tower.

The summer travel season will soon be in full swing with hordes of tourists descending on London, Rome, and iconic destinations all over the world. Soon your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds will be filled with selfies and touristy “look where I’m at” photos. We would complain, but we know full well that we will be taking and posting some of those egregious photos ourselves. (Apologies in advance!)

Really, we don’t mind seeing them! We love seeing the sights through the eyes of fellow travelers, even if it is the million-and-tenth time we’ve seen a vulgar pose involving the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But we know not everyone finds the humor, so we have a few ideas to help your Friends and Followers endure your wanderlust postings.

Go Big or Go Home!

There’s nothing wrong with posing with famous people, monuments and landmarks, but you can endear yourselves to your friends and followers with something unique or even something epic. Everyone poses like they’re holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but how about recruiting friends to help deliver an upper body kick? (At least, I think that’s what she’s doing!) (Photo: funnyneel.com)

Show Us More
Don’t stick with traditional selfies, show us more! Sometimes that does involve recruiting someone else to hold the camera (thus not really a “selfie”) or several tries to get some of the background in, but what’s the point of posing at the Taj Mahal if all we can see is you?

Showing us around town falls in this category, too. We know that, when you’re in Rome, you’re probably going to see the Colosseum and take a selfie in front of it. Rome is a pretty big place with lots of picture-worthy spots that you can show your friends. When you have a great cappuccino in the cutest coffee bar you’ve ever seen, show us!

Forced Perspective
A lot of the really popular “photo ops” are literally big; to get the whole thing into the picture you have to be pretty far away. That’s a great time to use Forced Perspective to create an optical illusion making the object appear closer or smaller than it actually is, or to interact with the object. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes thought provoking, sometimes just kind of cool.

Forced Perspective shots create interest and variety. Here are some of our favorite and most unique photos.

Use the Right Camera
It may be tempting to use the front-facing camera on your smartphone so you can be sure you’re looking your best, can see some of the background, and don’t have something odd, like a boot coming right at you. However, you should use the back camera because it generally has a far better resolution, meaning a better picture. Usually. (There are some pictures no camera can make better. We know, because we took ‘em.)

Beware the Flash
Whatever is closest to the flash is going to show up the brightest. In some cases, that could mean an overly lit you, and a background so dark you can’t make out the details. Try to find ambient light so both you and the background can be seen. If your camera has an HDR setting, use that to balance out the contrast.

Be True to You
The people who follow you on any social media probably follow you because they know you and they like you. Don’t feel obliged to post the requisite Vacation Photo at the Grand Canyon if that’s just not you. If you feel like some old school planking in St. Lucia and figured out how to use forced perspective to “float” over The Pitons…I, for one, want to see that!

So let the Selfie Mania begin. Assail us with goofy #FriFotos. Post away, world travelers. We look forward to seeing what you’ve got. (Unless it’s contagious…nobody wants to see that…)

Sometimes you have to go to extreme lengths to get an epic selfie. Especially when the camera is bigger than you!

Have any great selfies or outrageous shots of your own to share? How about photo tips, selfie or otherwise? You can share them in the comments, below!