It’s challenging to do a rapid 20-second assessment of strangers to guess which ones are not in too much of a hurry (or don’t appear to be), look friendly enough to not bite my head off when I ask them to snap a picture of me, or in a foreign speaking country, if can actually understand what I am trying to say.

There are some brilliant hits and well, some glaring misses. Even the requisite tourist photo shots (the “proof that I was there” kind of shot) can be botched by even the most well-intentioned photo-taking strangers.  

So here I am offering some tips for the would-be picture taker. Please bear with us solo travelers who, do not as of late, own a selfie stick.

1. Don’t let the subject photobomb her own picture

I have to admit, the inspiration for writing this article was this picture taken at the Place du Trocadero, which has one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower. I asked one of the many tourists to take my photo and he handed me back my phone with this:

The gentleman was kind enough to take more than one shot, but unfortunately, I could barely make out the Eiffel Tower in all of them. 

When in front of a world famous monument, chances are, your subject would like to see the monument play a major part in the in the background. Sure, you may not catch the entire thing as some buildings are just too tall or massive, but at least make it obvious what the monument is.   

This website has some useful tips on how to photograph buildings. Tips also apply when there is an actual subject in the frame.  

2. Don’t be all thumbs when holding the camera

And with the size change, came the change in camera location.  Some phones have their camera somewhere in the middle of the upper part of the phone, others like the iPhone have it on the upper right hand corner. Check out some tips here.

Easy enough to remember or figure out if you’re taking a portrait (vertical) shot. But when you need to take a horizontal (landscape) photo—which a lot of photography websites will tell you is ideal—it’s easy to get confused about the proper way to hold a camera phone so that the picture doesn’t turn out to be all thumbs, mostly yours.  

Don’t ruin a perfectly good picture with a hint your thumb makes an appearance. Remember, not all pictures can be cropped. 

A good rule of thumb: Check where the camera lens is located on the back of the phone. When you change orientation of the camera – phone from portrait (vertical) to landscape (horizontal), double check to make sure your thumbs are no one to be seen in the frame.

3. Don’t forget to ask questions. 

Some thoughtful strangers may ask what their would like to include in the photo and if they want a horizontal or vertical shot—and that’s great. But spare a few more minutes, if you can, to ask your subject to check the photo to see if they like the picture.  

It is a small gesture, but it will save your subject the additional time of looking for another stranger to re-take a picture because they don’t want to offending your photography skills.

4. Don’t discount the flash

Some photos end up blurred or smudged because the one who took the photo will move right after…the flash goes off. You may not always remember to check if a phone camera’s flash settings are switched on or off, but just to be on the safe side, wait a few seconds before moving to make sure.  This is especially true if you are taking pictures in the evening.

5. Don’t take your own selfie

Has this ever happened to you? You look through the photos in your camera and you see something like this: 

You might take an inadvertent selfie when you don’t realize that the camera lens is facing you rather than the subject. Double check to make sure that the camera is not in front-facing camera mode. 

Okay, everyone is busy and chances are you’ve got better things to do than stop a take a photo of a tourist. But for a lone traveler who wants to commemorate a trip, you, the stranger willing to a photo, are his best ally.  Remember, long after the trip is done, photos are the one thing that a traveler can look back on. If you don’t count that requisite ref magnet, that is. – Rappler.com

Ana P. Santos is a regular contributor to Rappler apart from her column, DASH of SAS. 

As a recipient of an international reporting grant plus other overseas assignments, she did more traveling in 2014 than she had ever done in her life. As a result of the unfortunate pictures she has posted on Facebook, her friends gifted with not one but two selfie sticks for Christmas.