Awkward People, Beautiful Backdrops

I had originally planned to have one last South Island trip blog post in which I showed you a ton of the really majestic postcard-esque pictures taken by Joe with his expensive camera and outdoors photography expertise. It would be called something totally predictable like "Pack Travel Part V." Then I started looking through the photos and changed my mind completely...

People spend a lot of time trying to have the perfect pose for pictures. Don't believe me, a quick search of 'selfie posing techniques' revealed this, and this, and this.

While a great picture of someone (you, a loved one, Barry Obama) can get a lot of likes, and maybe even some stalkers, the funny and awkward pictures are the most memorable. In our modern social media driven society, how often do people post the embarrassing pictures? The ones that are ruined by the face or pose the person(s) is making in it. Without further ado, here is a gallery of these photos, from the archives of Joe Katarksy, taken with the beautiful backdrop of many New Zealand scenes. I'll also be providing you with a plethora of synonyms for 'awkward', though here is a more complete list. 

At Castle Hill:

My ungainly hobbit feet are proficient at gripping rocky surfaces.

K:  Just leave me here, save yourself.
L: K bye.

I actually think is a pretty cool picture. I mean just look at the bill of this Batman hat. 

I spy with my little eye:  something veiny, clearly very dehydrated. 

At Arthur's Pass:

I don't really understand why Joe took this rather cloddish picture of two random women. Or why he shared it with me.  

An unfortunate yet excellent example of why sunglasses matter.

Campsite at Lake Pearson:

The sun sets over a tent that highly educated fools ungracefully took way too long to set up improperly.

When you live out the back of a car, heavy-handed splash-of-water 'showers' and sandfly repellent applications are a must.

On the hike up to Mueller Hut at Mt. Cook:

The exasperated look of "We've been climbing stairs for an hour and aren't even halfway to the summit yet."

Joe's unwieldy enthusiasm after reaching the summit. 

Wipe that shit-eating grin off your face, Eric. 

The South Coast at sunset:

Again just a pretty cool picture. I'm only awkwardly in it to demonstrate the reflective sheen of the receding tide.

Into the Fiordlands:

I believe Michael is air-drying his hands here, but I like to think he's displaying his gangling T-Rex pose.

In which Lee poses quite normally, Michael takes his power pose, and I generally ruin the whole damn thing.

And again with the inelegant pointing at the camera. You like that?! 

Rhiannon thinks this a good advertisement for cold-weather gear.

And on the kayak trip in Milford Sound:

An amphibious mountain man; up close and personal with Joe on the kayak.

The whole group, and probably our best picture together. Not that awkward if you disregard the spray flaps.

Okay maybe a lot of those pictures weren't awkward. So just to drive the point home, here's one more for good measure. On the flight back to Auckland:

Two weeks of thorny beard growth, sunburn, and hanging out with goofy people caused this.

Cheers!