One thing that people ask sometimes about travelling all your own is:
When you’re a solo traveller, how do you get photos of yourself?
A few years ago, Buzzfeed published an article called We Asked 17 Travel Pros For Their Best Advice on Traveling Solo And Here’s What They Said and I realised this was the number one question in the comments – “if they’re travelling alone, where are the pictures coming from?”, with such a “gotcha!” tone. I sat and stewed over this for a while and then I decided to write the post on it.
I travel on my own and although I have phases of just not thinking about it, I do have plenty of pictures of me in interesting places. But if I’m on my own, where are the pictures coming from?
There are three main methods that I know of and use. And it’s not just for solo travellers – what if you want a group photo with every group member in it?
1 – Selfies
This is my least favourite method but it’s the simplest and it’s become so normal that no one even blinks at you taking a selfie in public. In fact, my dad (who is mentally about 150) now wants to be in my selfies when I take them on our regular walks.
I like to get in plenty of background – that’s the point of a selfie for me, usually. Here I am, at a place. If all I wanted was my face dominating the picture, I could take that at home in my bedroom – and I find that a bit tricky, especially if all I’ve got in the way of distance is the length of my arm. From hand to face, that’s just over two feet. People are still inclined to turn up their noses at tourists with selfie sticks but the extra distance does great things for your selfies.
I also find the cameras lens doesn’t quite see the world the way as a mirror might – there are bits of my face that look wrongly proportioned compared to what I think they look like but that’s probably self-consciousness because I don’t notice it in anyone else’s selfies.
2 – Use the timer on your camera
This one is dependent on you either having a tripod (not a thing your casual point-and-snap tourist tends to cart around) or something in the area where you can prop the camera. Lava formations and fences are good for this. I have a tiny Gorillapod, which means I can balance the camera on things it can’t balance on normally, and I’ve invested in a lightweight full-size tripod for my trip to my shepherd’s hut, provided Boris lets me go.
You also have to know how the timer on your camera works. It’s not rocket science but I know plenty of people who can’t figure it out. And finally, you have to get in position within the ten-second countdown, so it sometimes takes a few attempts. But you can get some really good pictures with the timer.
A variant on the timer is the remote shutter release but I don’t have one so I can’t say anything about it. I’ve looked into it but my little point-and-shoot doesn’t support such things. However, it does support remote control from the app on my phone. By the time this is published, I’ll have a new phone but right now, my phone battery wouldn’t survive being in a pocket for an hour, let alone being asked to do anything.
3 – Give the camera to a passer-by
Some people don’t like this method. Some people really don’t like collaring a stranger and handing their camera over to them. I’ve never been afraid for my camera, though, and I’ve never been refused either. The results can be a bit hit-and-miss but by and large, it’s the best way of getting good photos of yourself. I find the best people to pick are either families with teenage sons (the camera will inevitably end up in the hands of the teenage son, who is usually the most capable of using it), women around my own age travelling either alone or in pairs or a man on the further side of middle age who has a DSLR hanging around his neck – these three flavours of people are all generally trustworthy and are usually able to take a half-decent photo. If someone asks you to take a photo of them, that’s an excellent opportunity to ask “Can you do the same for me?”
Don’t be afraid to say “No, that’s not what I wanted, can you try again?”. I’ve had it said to me plenty of times, from small things like they want it in portrait orientation, to things like they don’t like the proportion of background to face. I’ve never taken it personally and if your would-be photographer gets upset, forget them – you’ll never see them again anyway – and choose a new passer-by.
4 – Non-conventional means
This doesn’t count, which is why I said 3, not 4, but there are other ways.
Webcams – It takes a bit of organisation and sometimes a bit of foreknowledge, but there are webcams about. I’m watching the Rovaniemi Santa Village one right now. You can arrange to have someone watching it and taking screenshots. This particular one is positioned nicely so you can jump up and down in front of it; others aren’t so much.
Group photos – I often go out with a tour group for a day trip. Sometimes the guide or leader will take a photo of the group and either send you a link or tell you to check Facebook in the next few days. Sometimes other members of the groups will share their photos with you. When I did the Laugavegur Trail, one of the girls set up a Google Drive folder where we could all put pictures. Two thirds of the group didn’t but at least I got a few.
Postcard/souvenir photos – for a decade, I had a picture on the side of my wardrobe taken by a photo machine in Paris during our Year Ten French Exchange. These days, those machines still exist but they’re usually digital. I have one from Zaryadye Park in Moscow, only instead of replacing the background with a nice fake tourist background, it’s literally me standing in a crowd outside one of the habitats.
