You are somewhere worth remembering. You look around, pick the friendliest face, and hand over your phone.
What comes back is almost never what you wanted. The framing is tight, so the place you traveled to is a smudge behind your head. The focus is on the wall. Somebody blinked. And you cannot ask for another one without feeling rude, so you say thank you and walk away with it.
Why it goes wrong
The stranger is doing you a favour, and favours are rushed. They take one photo, not nine and a video. They stand where they were already standing rather than backing up. They do not know that the fountain behind you is the whole point.
What to do instead
Send a request in the app. A verified local nearby comes over, and for those five minutes the photograph is the only thing they are there to do: far enough back that the place is in the frame with you, and taking the time to get it right rather than snatching one and walking off.
Nine photos and one short video, for $19.99, and you are actually in them.
