We take lots of photos as we travel. And now, in a world filled with cellphones, just about everyone has a camera. It seems that everybody wants to record the special things they see. But here’s where we’re different. We rarely take photos of people.
Why? Maybe we’re a bit shy; maybe we don’t want to impose on people. We just don’t seem at ease photographing strangers. Our exception is to photograph people who are taking their own photos. They’re a photographer like you and me, totally distracted, framing their picture. They don’t usually notice that we’re even there, let alone taking their photo.
Porto, Portugal on the Douro River
Barcelona, Spain at Parc Gruell
Sometimes if we’re lucky, we photograph these strangers and their subjects while they’re taking photos of other people.
Hanoi, Vietnam for graduation at the Temple of Literature
Guimaraes, Portugal at the castle
Shanghai, China on The Bund
Taking photos of friends of ours in unguarded moments while they’re concentrating on taking their own photos – or showing a photo just taken – works well.
Bangkok, Thailand at the Grand Palace
Photographing other photographers might just enhance your travel photography repertoire.
January 2016
simpletravelourway 
I love this idea and will challenge myself to give it a try on my next trip. I don’t tend to take photos of others partly because I know there are some “rules” about it (getting permission, releases, and whatnot)… Also I often think a photo of the place I am in will be more interesting and take me back to the moment when I was standing in that spot at that time!
We understand what you’re saying. We think it is better to err on the side of caution and being polite than to point our camera at everyone who catches our eye.
Great post – what an intriguing perspective on this!
Thank you for saying so!
Dear Joe & Beth,
I LOVED this clever take! How cool that you captured it over time and gathered these photos in one place. Miss you so much! Come and visit soon! Love, Betsy
Love these compilation posts. It’s a nice little photo essay around the world.
I often photograph people taking pics. Must do a blog on that someday. Thanks for the idea and the pics and commentary.
I don’t like to take photos without permission. I don’t want my own photo taken, so I respect the fact that others may feel the same.
Do unto others as you … Good guide. Thx!
This one put a smile on my face. How true it is, camera’s everywhere.Musn’t do anything wrong…..
Yes, I’m trying to keep Joe in line.
We often take photos of each other taking photos and while we were in Hawaii the last two weeks, someone else took a photo of both of us, standing back to back taking photos.
You’ve taken photographing photographers to a new level, a level to which we aspire!
Fun post. And no selfie sticks. 🙂
Yours is an interesting observation; we haven’t been seeing many selfie-sticks.
Good to hear. When I was in Istanbul in April they were everywhere. But we did’t see as many in October in Germany.
I feel the same way about taking people’s photo so I try to be sly about it (hard with a iPad mini. Once, it was so crowded at Yosemite Falls with people taking photos that I decided to capture photos of all the photographers! It was fun.
… and having fun is an essential part of the travel experience, right?
An interesting thought…
Thanks. We hope others who have tried this will share their photos of photographers.