Picture this scene (no pun intended): a group of friends gets all done up and ready to go for a night on the town and they want to have it documented. For this kind of outing, a selfie isn't going to cut it. No, they need an outsider to take on the role of photographer. The scene is familiar if you are are a member of the crazy group of friends hitting up strangers in the middle of downtown. However, this article may also hit home for you if you have fallen victim to the critical role of photographer either by being an innocent bystander, mother, the boyfriend, etc. Essentially, this is what it means when a group of friends (yes, usually girls) asks you to take "a picture":
1. "Can you give my friends and I at least 5 extra minutes to fix our hair and clothes but take cute candids while we do it?"
2. "Can you tell me before we take the picture that I have spinach in my teeth or my baby hairs sticking up everywhere? I can take it."
3. "Will you let me know if I'm the front girl and I look 25 lbs heavier than everyone else in the photo?"
4. "Take the photo from above so we automatically look like we've actually been following through on our New Year's resolution of diets and exercise regimes."
5. "Do some photos with flash and some without. I don't want to be masked by darkness, but then again you don't want to be washed out by the flash. I want to have all the options for Instagram editing. You know?"
6. "Can I see after the first three or so photos to tell if I'm making a fake smile or I need to readjust my arm so it doesn't look like my side boob is play-do squishing out the side of my dress?"
7. "After I look at said photos and make my readjustments will you proceed to take 15 more photos of my friends and I making slight variations of the same pose?"
8. "After we take all of the smiling photos we have a list of silly ones to do as well. So, get ready for 5 more bonus minutes of us making silly faces, holding up Jill's leg (she is the fun and flirty one of the group after all), pretending to laugh to make others think we're a super fun-loving group of pals, and making serious faces to feel like our favorite Instagram models"
9. "Okay now that we've done every pose we can possibly think of, I'm going to grab my phone back and quickly scroll through all of the pictures you just took while my 4+ friends all gather around the tiny phone screen laughing, screaming, and complaining about the photos they hate of themselves."
10. "I'm going to tell you did a great job whether or not the photos actually turned out okay and thank you for tolerating me and my crazy friends. Then if I send them out in the group message and we decide we need 'just one more photo' I'll ask another stranger so I don't hurt your feelings."
