It seems today that traveling is not so much about the horizon expanding experience, it’s more about the photos you collect. Tourists are so busy snapping selfies at the Grand Canyon, for example, they barely pause to soak in the majesty without looking through a camera lens. At just about every landmark, attraction and scenic vista around the world, hordes of visitors are clamoring to get their obligatory cliché shots. Some just want to capture the moment for their personal albums, while many others are compelled to share pics with their social media peeps. We’re guilty of it too, to some extent, so don’t think this is a snobby condemnation of this cultural practice. In fact, there are some iconic hotspots out there where certain dorky shots are almost required. Sure, there’s nothing original or clever about them, but it’s hard to resist taking these cheesy shots along with everyone else. You’re not a cool or “superior” traveler if you resist the urge. Don’t overthink it. You know you want to. Here are 13 unabashedly tacky tourist photos you have to take when you’re at these global landmarks.
1. Holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa
It’s almost comical watching the crowds carefully aligning themselves to get their classic Pisa shot, posing like a Tai Chi flash mob. The standard position is to angle your palms so it looks like you’re trying to push the tower back to an upright position. Variations include kicking it over, flicking it with your finger, pinching it, leaning like it and, um, angling so it looks like the tower is protruding between your legs. Anything you can think up has already be done before, but that’s okay. You’ll regret it if you don’t have one of these tacky tourist photos in your Pisa collection. Just do it like everyone else, and move on.
2. Holding the Eiffel Tower
Every traveler to Paris longs to see the Eiffel Tower and capture its essence in artsy photos. It’s probably the most photographed landmark in the world. This iconic structure shows off well from many angles throughout the city. Among your various romantic skyline shots, close-ups of the ironwork and that cool angle looking straight up from under it (everyone does it), you just have to include a distant pic that looks like you’ve got the tiny tower in the palm of your hands. Alternatively, make it look like you’re pinching it from the top like a dangling ornament. If you want to lay the cheese on extra thick, make a heart shaped frame with your fingers. Walk far down the Champs de Mars or Trocadero to find the right perspective.
3. Straddling the Equator
If you’re traveling in Ecuador, chances are you’ll take a trip to the Mitad del Mundo – the equatorial line around the middle of the Earth for which the country was named. There’s a museum and marker here, and tourists like to straddle the yellow line so they can be in two hemispheres at once. A variation on this theme is to balance on top of line, like a centered yogi. Which hemisphere are you in then? Well, hate to burst your bubble, but the latitude of the Mitad del Mundo is a little off of the real equator. Newer GPS calculations have determined that it actually lies 240 meters north of this painted yellow line. But close enough, so straddle away and snap a couple of tacky tourist photos anyways.
