Instagram can provide wonderful opportunities for photographers. It can help us show work to new people, see new perspectives, and gain inspiration. However, it can also open people up to criticism, negativity, and spam content. Luckily, you have the power to at least somewhat control the comments on your posts with help from filters and the ability to delete comments. You also can delete your own comments on the posts of others, should the need arise. Read on to find out how to delete a comment on Instagram and why doing so could make your Instagram account a much better place.

Why you should delete a comment on your post

You likely have heard that engagement on Instagram is valuable, and any interaction is good, but that’s not the whole story. The quality of that interaction matters. While deleting every single comment could impact your engagement and, therefore, who sees your posts, deleting harmful ones now and then will have no real impact.

Before diving into the reasons to delete, it is first necessary to clarify the purpose of your account. If you use your Instagram only for casual life updates for friends and family, then you don’t have to worry about potential clients stumbling into a toxic comment section. Likewise, if you like to drive conversation and debate on your page, you will want to weed out different types of comments than if you are selling products. Don’t be afraid to curate your posts according to the goals and purpose of your account to foster the best community for your audience.

Spammy comments

If you have an Instagram account, you have almost certainly experienced your fair share of spam comments. They seem to be an unavoidable, though constantly fluctuating, aspect of the app. It could be trying to get you to pay for promotion through some page or telling you that you won a free iPhone. You should delete these comments whenever you see them. For business or creative accounts, spam comments can take away from the professionalism and authority you may have, which is not something you likely want. It can make it look like no one is monitoring the account, which undercuts its authority.

Inappropriate, offensive, or hateful content

Comments with sexist, racist, homophobic, or any other hateful or offensive language should get deleted as soon as possible. Not only could it reflect poorly on you or your business, but more importantly, it fosters an unsafe environment. Don’t be afraid to report accounts that make these kinds of posts, either, so they can’t spew bile in other comment sections.

Trolling comments

Trolling comments may overlap with the other two types of comments mentioned above but are worth mentioning as a stand-alone category. Trolls are out to rabble-rouse, so leaving their comments up could drive a rash of follow-up comments that dissolves into nothing more than arguing and hurtful words. Delete or hide these comments.

Negative comments

Deleting negative comments falls into a gray area that comes down to the type of account you’re running. For business accounts, you may want to use negative comments (within reason) as a chance to respond professionally and publically address any issues. Your response could win over people on the fence about your brand and even help you gain new loyalists. And it shows that you stand by your brand and are willing to take feedback and improve.

However, if you have a creative account or only use Instagram casually for sharing bits of your life, there is no sense or need to put up with negativity. So go ahead and hit delete in those cases.

How to delete a comment on Instagram

Once you’ve decided what types of comments go against your policies, it’s time to learn how to delete them. You can now delete comments on both the mobile and desktop versions of Instagram. But no matter which version you are using to delete comments, you will first need to be logged in to your account.

Deleting a comment on the desktop version:

Step 1: After logging in on the desktop version, go to the post with the offending comment. 

Step 2: Find the problematic comment and click the three dots underneath next to “Reply.” 

Step 3: A window will pop up in the middle of your image with the option to delete. Tap delete to remove the comment.

On an Android phone:

Step 1: Tap on a comment or the comment word bubble to go to the comment summary page. 

Step 2: Long press on the comment until it is highlighted, and a bar pops up at the top of the app screen with a thumbtack, exclamation point, and trash can. 

Step 3: Tap on the trash can to delete. 

On iPhones:

Step 1: Tap on a comment to go to the comment summary page, 

Step 2: Swipe left on a comment.

Step 3: Tap the trash can to delete it.

How to delete an Instagram comment on someone else’s post

You can only delete a comment that you wrote on someone else’s post, not one by another person. You can report comments by others, but that is all. Luckily it is easy to walk through how to delete your comment on Instagram. To delete your comment on someone else’s post, you follow the same process as outlined above, depending on your device.

How to hide a comment on Instagram

If deleting a comment is too final for you, you also have a few options for hiding comments. Hiding comments can be a good option for trolls, as they won’t know that their comment is hidden (it is still visible to them) and thus it won’t add fuel to the fire.

If you have a problematic Instagrammer on your page, you can hide their comment and all future comments from them. To do so, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Long-press the offensive comment 

Step 2: Tap the exclamation in the top right corner.

Step 3: Tap “Restrict.” 

Restricted users will still be able to comment and see their comments, but it will be grayed out on your end until you click to see and then approve the comment. Others won’t be able to see their comments at all until you approve them. You can also restrict users through their profile page. 

Another option for hiding comments is more preemptive. Instagram allows you to filter comments that its algorithm deems offensive. You can also set up custom filters with words or phrases that you don’t want on your page. For example, if you are sick of the spam comments about winning something, you can create a filter to hide comments automatically that say, “Congratulations! You’ve won!” To filter content, do the following:

Step 1: Go to your profile.

Step 2: Tap the three lines in the top right corner and click Settings.

Step 3: Tap Privacy.

Step 4: Tap hidden words.

Step 5: Choose the appropriate options for your needs. You can toggle on “Hide comments” and “Advanced comment filtering.” Scroll down slightly to create a custom words and phrases list for filters. 

How to edit a comment on Instagram

Unfortunately, Instagram does not support the ability to edit comments at this time. You have two options if you make a typo or want to change your comment for other reasons. You can delete your original comment and post a new one or reply to your own comment with whatever updates you want to make.

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It pays to be bold, in photography and in life. That’s how one lucky music fan ended up with an entire roll of behind-the-scene shots of his favorite band, a young, up-and-coming Depeche Mode. And it all started with a gently tossed roll of film and a note. Here’s how it went down.

Related: 45 portraits of iconic rockstars ‘flipping the bird’ now up for auction

No cameras allowed

The year is 1983 and the relatively new British electronic band, Depeche Mode, is set to play Ulster Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Brian McDonnell, a huge fan of the band and a young photography enthusiast, is stoked. Unfortunately, the venue has a strict “No cameras” policy. So, instead of sneaking one in, Brian comes up with the innovative plan to throw a roll of film on the stage with a polite message requesting snaps. He also includes his return address.

At the time, Brian has no expectation of Depeche Mode following through. But, much to his surprise, they did just that.

The resulting images, shared for the first time earlier this month, show a legendary band on the cusp of greatness. And the candid and behind-the-scenes nature of the moments, many snapped in the band’s green room, makes the photos all the more special.

Why we’re seeing the Depeche Mode film photos now

Sadly, Brian McDonnell passed away 20 years ago at the age of 37. And, up until recently, these images had only been seen by a small handful of folks. That all changed when they were rediscovered by Brian’s sister, Anne McDonnell Lawrence, who shared them with the Facebook Group, Belfast Concert Photographs 1980s.

Anne found the shots stashed in an envelope while looking through photographs of their late mother. Shortly after she posted them online, a Twitter account belonging to the music venue Belfast Empire shared them with its 14.2K followers. The story was subsequently picked up by the BBC, which reached out to Anne for comment. Incredibly, she recalls the night of the Depeche Mode show well.

“I remember him telling me he was at the concert and he had brought a film for a camera with him—he wrapped his name and address around it and asked them to take photos and send them back to him. He never thought he would even get a response. I don’t know how long after, but he got the film sent back to him.”

She also recalls how devoted her brother was to the band and how much it meant to him when he received the photos back.

The wrap

So what’s the takeaway? Certainly not to pelt the next band you see with celluloid (or memory cards), especially given the price of a roll these days. Nope, instead, the takeaway is to think outside the box and be bold. Do that, and maybe, just maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised. That said, the next time you are told “No cameras allowed,” I challenge you to come up with a creative workaround (that doesn’t break the rules).

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Flickr announced this week that it will be adding a new category to its platform: virtual photography. “Photographs” captured in video games or other virtual platforms like Second Life will now have a place on Flickr alongside other photos, illustrations and artworks, and screenshots. It’s a big sign that the once-niche genre is on the rise. 

What is virtual photography?

As modern video games have become more visually impressive and photorealistic, developers have added photo modes to let players show off the beauty of the world around them. This has created an increasingly popular photographic sub-genre called virtual photography (or just video game photography). 

Related: ’35mm’ is a photography-themed videogame set in a post-apocalyptic world

Some games, like Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 2, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Red Dead Redemption 2, enable the player to pause the game, position the camera anywhere, adjust camera settings like the depth of field, and even pose the character how they like. It allows for a huge amount of creativity, and it’s what separates virtual photography from simple screenshots. 

What does this mean for Flickr users?

Until now, virtual photography didn’t fit neatly into any of Flickr’s categories. Virtual photographs aren’t really photos, nor are they quite digital artworks or screenshots. 

Flickr created the new virtual photography category with two types of works in mind: video game photography and “content shared by the Second Life community.” Although users are free to categorize their work how they like, the virtual photography category is now a handy option for video game photographers as it allows their work to be found, shared, and seen for what it is.

In its announcement, Flickr highlights the fact that virtual photographers will now be able to search the site to see video game photographs from other artists, without having to look at “real-world photography or other art and illustration”.

A genre on the rise

Flickr’s announcement isn’t the only bit of big news for virtual photography this week. Ubisoft has just announced a new in-game photography contest and exhibition called PHOTOMODE. Players can enter virtual photographs from “any Ubisoft game that features Photomode” including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Steep.

Related: Someone hacked a Game Boy Camera to shoot with Canon DSLR lenses

Like any other photo contest, there are multiple categories including Portrait, Outdoors, and Action, and some pretty cool prizes. The top 20 entries will get fine art prints of their work and will be displayed in a gallery exhibition in New York, while the three overall winners will also receive an invitation to the exhibition opening and an MSI Raider laptop. 

You can enter from now until October 16. The winners will be announced in November. 

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Three months after debuting shimmering NFTs on Instagram, Meta is making Facebook the next place to show off your digital collectibles. The social media behemoth announced that the feature is now available on both platforms through the connection of a digital wallet. Facebook NFTs, here we come!

Sharing a Facebook NFT

The process for posting your digital swag hasn’t changed from the feature’s original launch on Instagram. According to Meta, the parent company of both platforms, once a digital wallet is connected to your Facebook account, users will see the option to share an NFT, as well as a toggle for cross-platform posting.

So, what does an NFT look like on Facebook? A Meta blog post explains, “Once a creator or collector posts a digital collectible, it will have a shimmer effect and can display public information, such as a description of the NFT. Posts will also be visible on their profile.”

Need a refresher on NFTs? Read this handy explainer from our pals at PopSci.

Are Facebook NFTs here to stay?

Since Meta debuted its NFT feature on Instagram back in May, access to it has been expanded to 100 countries. Meta has also added support for the digital wallets Coinbase and Dapper, plus the blockchain, Flow. In May, the company announced that the Solana blockchain would also be added, but the details have yet to materialize. 

In addition to pushing NFTs, Meta has also reportedly spent more than $10 billion turning its virtual “metaverse” into a reality. Of course, monetizing digital collectibles is a key element of this futuristic vision. “With the incredible opportunity of blockchain technology, they can now leverage new tools to earn income, and fans can support their favorite creators by purchasing digital collectibles—art, images, and videos, music or trading cards—as non-fungible tokens (NFTs),” the same Meta blog post reads.

Ultimately, summer was a rough stretch for NFT enthusiasts—Bitcoin in particular is down 68% from its peak. And Meta didn’t fare much better. Will this announcement help turn things around? We won’t speculate. But it sure is a fascinating time to be a digital creator.

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Engagement photos in the Italian countryside? Weathered stone, cypress trees? And the light? Don’t get us started with the light. What photographer coudl resist? Though a lovely idea, it was a bit far for one Tennessee photographer, but luckily, she had another local location in mind: Olive Garden. 

Photographer Shea Cravens is no stranger to photoshoot locations that are a little off-the-beaten path. If there’s potential, she won’t knock it for being unconventional. “I’ve never shot photos at any other restaurant, but I’ve done a photo shoot outside of Big Lots because it was a really neat area that caught my eyes to take photos at,” she told BuzzFeed.

Related: How to copyright photography and register your work

How the Olive Garden engagement photos came to be

Cravens was inspired one day after dining at Olive Garden with family, remarking to her mother that the exterior of the building would be a good place for pictures. It’s easy to see why. The neutral stone beautifully reflects the light—and with a savvy crop, no one is the wiser. Is it a 13-century Italian castle-turned-winery or a restaurant chain? From the dreamy images, whose warm tones Cravens nabbed at sunrise, it’s a tough guess. 

Carlsey Bibb and fiancé Caden Mills are friends of Cravens. “I asked Shea…if there was anywhere she had been wanting to shoot but hadn’t yet. That’s when she mentioned Olive Garden!” Bibb told BuzzFeed. “They were way better than we could’ve ever imagined.”

Related: Botched wedding Photoshop has internet in tears 

These Olive Garden engagement photos are going viral

With more than 260,000 views and 24,000 comments on TikTok, Cravens’ Olive Garden engagement photos are picking up steam with photographers and the media—even Jimmy Fallon had to talk about them. On Instagram, the same video has been watched 387,000 times. Cravens’ TikTok profile now reads “that Olive Garden photographer.” 

The restaurant itself has weighed in, too. “Never-ending love calls for never-ending refills,” the pasta chain wrote.

A word of warning 

While it might be every creative’s dream to go viral, there is a cautionary note to the story. One interested media publication commented on the TikTok video, asking “Will you irrevocably grant NBCU permission for unlimited use of the video and on all NBCU platforms and media, worldwide, in perpetuity?”

Another user replied, “Don’t do anything without asking for payment! These vultures will get your videos and get rich off of them without giving you a penny. Happened to me.”

While getting in front of literally millions of people who might like your work sounds like a dream, there’s a cost, too. So, photographers, when your moment in the spotlight comes, know how to protect yourself. 

The post Tuscan dreams in Tennessee: These Olive Garden engagement pictures are going viral appeared first on Popular Photography.

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Since 2016, Instagram’s algorithms have been a source of drama. Many users insist they want a chronological feed of the accounts they follow while the developers keep adding more algorithmically suggested content. 

Things came to a head a few weeks ago when a petition championed by the Kardashians for Instagram to stop trying to be TikTok solicited a reply from Instagram head Adam Mosseri. The uproar was so bad, that in an interview with Casey Newton from The Verge, Mosseri acknowledged users weren’t happy with the approach to suggested posts and said Instagram needed to “take a big step back and regroup.” 

In a slightly cringey blogpost involving a sci-fi loving alien, Instagram has explained more about how its controversial “Suggested Posts” feature works. Nothing about it is particularly groundbreaking, but it’s still interesting to see Meta (Instagram’s parent company) address the controversy head-on. 

Presumably, this blogpost is an attempt to rehabilitate how users think about suggested posts. By showing how the new sausage is made, Instagram is, perhaps, hoping that they can convince folks to love it. 

How Instagram suggests posts

Instagram has two systems for suggesting posts to users: “Connected” and “Unconnected”. 

The Connected system is what’s used to rank posts by the accounts you follow and interact with. It takes all the content that’s been posted since you last refreshed your feed and ranks it based on things like the amount of engagement it’s had and how much you interact with the other user. It’s then served up to you on your Home screen. 

The Unconnected system is what’s used to find suggested posts from users you don’t follow. It takes “implicit” signals from the kind of accounts you follow and content you interact with to generate “seed” candidates for its recommendation algorithm. 

Finding a seed

For example, if you often like PopPhoto’s posts, Instagram likely presumes you are interested in photography content and so may use PetaPixel’s Instagram account as a seed. Alternatively, it might latch onto the tech angle and use PopSci’s account. For new users, Instagram serves up popular content from across the network or uses the accounts that the accounts you follow as seeds, until it has enough of an idea of what you like.

Generating candidates

The next step is to generate a list of potential candidates from the seed. This is where the algorithm really kicks into gear. It uses various machine learning principles—like embeddings based similarity and co-occurrence based similarity—to find accounts and content that are similar to the seed. 

Selecting candidates

From this big list of candidates, Instagram has to pick which content to show you. To do this, it attempts to rank all the generated candidates based on what you’re most likely to enjoy or engage with. The AI uses a “plethora of features” to make these decisions, including things like how much engagement each post has, what kind of content it is, how popular the user is, and so on. 

And from that, the suggested posts appear on your Home page. 

Does this ‘Feel Like Home’?

According to Instagram, their guiding principle is that any suggested content “Feels Like Home.” The idea is that the algorithm should serve up the kind of content that you would curate for yourself—if you knew it existed. 

Of course, all the recent uproar—and Mosseri’s admissions—suggest that Instagram has thus far failed in that respect. Anecdotally, I’ve found the suggested posts to be a major annoyance. I snooze them for 30-days every time they pop back up. 

Still, it’s clear that this is the direction Instagram is going to continue to go. The blog post closes with the developers stating that, “Overall, we are committed as a team to deliver a personal, relevant, useful, and curation-worthy feed which prioritizes long term quality of the product.”

Maybe they should just bring back the chronological feed.

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A wedding is supposed to be a joyous thing. But all who have planned a wedding know the preparation and stress that often run up to the big day. So imagine what hundreds of couples were feeling when the photography company they hired abruptly declared bankruptcy—in one instance 48 hours before a ceremony.

Related: Botched wedding Photoshop has Internet in tears 

What happened

The company in question, South West Photo and Film (SWPF, formerly known as Lee Brewer Photography), declared bankruptcy on July 27, 2022, citing hardships brought on by the pandemic. Those who had booked with the photography service and emailed to inquire received this email in reply:  “We have tried so hard the last couple of years to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. The financial implications have proven too much for us to get over. Unfortunately, I have been left with no choice but to cease trading and declare bankruptcy as of today, July 27. An official receiver will be in touch with further information.”

SWPF has closed its website and social accounts, making it extremely confusing for couples to get in touch and understand what will happen to their photos and, in many cases, their contracts. The now-defunct business was taking bookings up until the week it filed for bankruptcy. And Newsweek reports that up to 800 couples are affected in some way.

Related: Vanessa Joy on the art of capturing someone’s big day

A community rallies 

For couples awaiting their images, SWPF wrote: “…if you have had a wedding with us in the last 12 weeks and are still waiting for your photos/ video, we will be in touch over the coming weeks with the information on how you can get access to your photo and video files.”

However, it has done little to assuage the couples’ concerns. In the wake of the news, two photographers local to the region served by SWPF set up a Facebook support group to help others find replacement photographers and videographers. It’s also become a place to vent. 

“Daughter getting married August 28th…four weeks time…near Bath…absolutely heartbroken. Paid £1200 for photographer and videographer. We can’t find this money again. Heartbroken for her. There is no spare money anywhere, how can this happen, how do you explain to your daughter that there will be no professional photos or video of her special day?” one poster wrote. 

Vendors and fellow group members have rallied around each couple, providing recommendations and commiserating. Some photographers are offering to shoot at cost or at a discount given the situation. 

The wrap

We certainly hope the situation ends happily-ever-after for all the couples. And for any photographers considering a carer in weddings, it’s best to know what you’re getting yourself into before you open up shop.

The post Unhappily-ever-after: Bankrupt wedding photographer leaves hundreds of couples hanging appeared first on Popular Photography.

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For a while in the early-2010s, Instagram was the trendiest app going. It was a place for photographers, hipsters, and everyone else to share their photos (or at least photos of their brunch). Oh, how things have changed since then. Now Instagram, in a quest to be more like the short-form video platform, TikTok, is losing the love of some of its biggest users—like the Kardashian-Jenner clan—and it’s also opened the door for smaller, more fun social networks like Glass and BeReal.

Insta-done

Related: How to disable ‘Suggested Posts’ on Instagram

Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s recently renamed parent company, has been having a bad year. Its stock has fallen more than 60 percent over the past 11 months, as it’s been beset by crises of its own making. For the first quarter ever, Facebook lost more users than it gained in a quarter, Apple’s privacy-focused iOS updates will cost it $10 billion in ad revenue, the metaverse looks like a misguided and expensive bet that won’t pay off for years, and then there are the whistleblowers.

And now Instagram has gone and upset Kylie Jenner—who once knocked $1.3 billion off Snap’s shareprice with a single tweet.

Imitating TikTok

If you’ve used Instagram at all over the past few months, you’ll likely have noticed some pretty significant changes. The main feed is now overrun with “Suggested Posts”, it’s testing an ugly fullscreen feed, and its generally just doing everything it can to turn into TikTok. The final straw last week was the announcement that going forward, all videos under 15 minutes posted to the platform would be Reels. Not only does this mean they’ll appear slightly differently in your friend’s feeds, but if you have a public account, they’ll be eligible to be recommended to random users who don’t follow you.

In other words, to try and stop Instagram users leaving for TikTok, Meta is bringing TikTok to them. 

Kicking off with the Kardashians 

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A post shared by ▵✖️tati (@illumitati)

Like any changes to a social media app, this did not go unnoticed or un-protested. Photographer Tati Bruening set up a Change.org petition calling on Meta to “Make Instagram Instagram Again”, stop copying TikTok, bring back chronological timelines, and generally just listen to its creators. 

While that petition has now got more than 185,000 signatures, its biggest boost came from Kylie Jenner, the second most followed person on Instagram, who shared it, as well as her sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, the seventh and 16th most followed people respectively. 

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A post shared by Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)

There’s been enough uproar that Instagram head Adam Mosseri had to address the changes with—of course—a Reel. In it, Mosseri basically admits that Instagram is changing and some of the changes are pretty rough. He then doubles down on the whole pivot to video thing, saying that while Instagram will “continue to support photos” we’re going to be seeing a lot more video content—or at least getting forced on us.

Enter: Glass & BeReal

Related: Instagram brings back the chronological feed

While Instagram has been less attractive to photographers (and other users) over the last while, this has allowed other apps to get some traction. 

Glass is a subscription-based throwback to the good days of Instagram, Flickr, 500px, or whatever photo-focused app you remember with the most love. At $4.99/month or $29.99/year, it’s pretty pricey—but it is gorgeous and puts photography and community front and center. 

The latest app to take off is the French social network BeReal. It’s taken the top spot in the US app store a few times over the past week and has now been downloaded more than 20 million times. Billed as an anti-Instagram, users can only post once a day—and have to post in order to see their friends’ pictures. Everyone in the same country gets a notification at the same time and has just two minutes to share a photo or it gets marked as late. Users are also forced to take a snap with both the front and back cameras of their smartphone at the same time, to better show off what they’re doing at that moment. 

What’s next for the ‘gram?

Facebook was once the hottest social media site going (long before it became the favored platform of anti-vaxxers). And it seems clear that Instagram is going the same way—popular but not popular. Sure, it will keep lots of users, but I’m not sure how much longer it will remain “cool.”

So, to whatever app takes its place—whether it’s BeReal, Glass, or something else entirely—I hope you’re ready for the Kardashians… and for me.

The post The ‘anti-Instagram’ app only lets you post once a day appeared first on Popular Photography.

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A cameraman accidentally added an extra obstacle to the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon this week. The camera operator caused chaos for the 15 athletes when he meandered onto the track mid-race.

What happened?

Related: Tips From the Pros: How to Shoot the Olympics

And it’s not as if steeplechasers don’t have enough to deal with. Over the three-kilometer course, the athletes normally have to hurdle 28 three-foot barriers and splash through seven water pits all while maintaining a roughly 4:30/mile pace. This time, though, they also had to swerve around the camera operator standing in lane two. 

But why was the camera operating standing on the track in the first place? According to reports, he was getting shots of a different event, the women’s triple jump competition, happening simultaneously on the infield of the track.

Thankfully, no injuries to report

On the live commentary, US athlete Kara Goucher summed things up perfectly, saying, “That is a big, big mistake there.”

Thankfully, the as-yet-unnamed camera operator didn’t injure anyone or even interfere with the race too much. In the video above, you can see he remains entirely intent on his job and oblivious to the screaming runners bearing down on him. The pack of 15 visibly annoyed athletes split either side of him without breaking stride. (Getty Images photographer Patrick Smith captured a great photo of the moment, above.)

The athletes’ take

After the race, US athlete Evan Jager, who placed sixth, told the New York Times, “I was a little worried that he was going to dart one way or another, right at the last second but thankfully he didn’t realize we were there until we all passed him.”

Despite the extra obstacle, Olympic champion Soufiane El-Bakkali of Morocco won the race in a time of 8 minutes 25.13 seconds. According to the Times, he “rocketed” out of the final water pit to finish strong. Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia took second and Conseslus Kipruto took third to round out the podium.

The takeaway

While the camera operator was thoroughly mocked online, we’re sure he got a slightly more serious talking to from the producers. Hopefully, he at least got the shots of the triple-jump that they were looking for. 

Though really, screw-ups like this just go to show that even professionals working at important sporting events can make the occasional utterly idiotic mistake. I’m just glad that most of mine don’t happen on television.

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Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to climb into the crater of an active volcano, no matter how tempting the photo op may be. One unlucky American photographer recently learned this the hard way when they dropped their phone and then themself into the crater of Mount Vesuvius. The tourist was largely uninjured but the ordeal required rescue by helicopter and is now under investigation.

What happened

While vacationing in Italy, the unnamed 23-year-old took it upon themself to traverse a closed path leading to the face of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano that is very much still active. Once at the face, the selfie-snapping American proceeded to drop their phone into the volcano’s crater. In an attempt to recover it, this potential nominee for a Darwin Award tried to climb into the volcano, slipped, and fell to the crater’s bottom.

The rescue

Fortunately for the butter-fingered photographer, a team of mountain guides noticed their absence and quickly located them inside the crater. However, the guides alone couldn’t reach the incapacitated tourist and a helicopter had to be called in to save the day. Thankfully, injuries were reported to be minimal and the individual refused medical care (perhaps out of shame/embarrassment?).

Related: PSA Don’t try to take selfies with wild animals

The aftermath

Our story doesn’t end there. The unnamed photographer is now facing an investigation not only for accessing land that was closed to the public but also for being a cheapskate and not paying the Mount Vesuvius tour fee. And frankly, we hope they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

This is far from the first time someone looking to snap a selfie has done something dumb and we’re sure it’ll be far from the last. In fact, hundreds of people have literally died snapping em over the years. So, perhaps it is worth repeating that whether you’re shooting selfies or proper pictures, it’s important to always be mindful of your surroundings and avoid trespassing into potentially dangerous locations. We’re not going to tell you to not explore cool places with your camera, just do it intelligently and safely.

And when it comes to public land, always obey posted signs and warnings. Those are there for your safety and the safety of the environment and its inhabitants. If you need a refresher on minding your Ps and Qs, read our guide to being a respectful photographer at national parks.

No word on whether the American tourist ever got their phone back.

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