Really. Good manners and etiquette may very well lead to a better photography yield. Here’s the anti-photographer’s code of conduct. Quarter, tar and skin the photographers who:

• think shooting professional gear already equals conducting themselves in a professional manner,
• blabber nonstop about technique and gear while others are trying to concentrate on their landscape shot,
• don’t care about their own shadow crossing into one’s composition and bother even less about walking into someone’s frame,



• glee when taking pictures of others in inappropriate poses they themselves don’t want to be seen in,
• shoot the back and legs and unaware faces of people,
• never pay the beggar, homeless or street performer for their photos taken,
• photo stalk people like a creep and never ask ahead for permission to photograph because they’re reborn HCB with the birthright to shoot anything anytime anywhere,
• force people to smile,
• ask, “What copyright infringement?”
• ask, “What paparazzi problem?”
• witness an accident or crime scene and put the unique shot above morals and ethics,
• don’t take no for an answer and keep on snapping where the use of cameras is prohibited,
• use flash where flash is neither wanted nor appropriate,
• photobomb someone’s special moment,
• mark photos with huge watermarks — remember, whatever you upload online basically becomes public domain,
• get in the way of people doing their job for the sake of the unique angle, living Robert Capa‘s “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” in extremis,
• never happened to think that they’re representing all of us photographers when they make a bad impression,
• can’t take nature getting in the way of nature; they keep on interfering in a landscape by moving elements around to please their own idea of nature.
• carry so much gear, they tire out and hold back a whole group,
• are attention seekers who, according to photographer Sarah Marino, come in the forms of the Great Gear Expert, the Gear Snob, the Look at My Expensive Gear Guy, the Camera Brand Fanboy or the Exaggerating Storyteller.

Not that this list is complete…