Seeing a trend getting photos off of sites

[gbmcleod]

On the old Footbuddies, it was mostly guys taking pictures of other guys in their day-to-day life, or some guy sitting near them at a cafe, or family outings, camps, places like that.

Now it seems that most of the photos are from magazines, sites, and places, which makes sense since one is not likely to get photos of Bruce Willis sitting 10 feet away.

But it also seems we've lost our sense of adventure and the fun of finding some cool-looking guy with a great set of toes, or just a plain guy with a great set of toes.

Any theories about this

[tenchichan]

I for one never came here for any of that stuff, to me it was always about the celebrity feet. But I'd also wager that it's easier for a larger portion of people to contribute to these threads than people who are brave enough to go out there and take pictures of strangers. It's easy enough to take a screencap or share a pic you found online, but going out to take pictures of people's feet takes much more work and carries a great deal more risk.

Plus it's the dead of winter, so for many of us this just isn't an option right now. Wait a few months for summer to hit and you'll see more of these pics again.

[Serph789]

I think since people now have an access to pictures of feet, be it a celeb or your average joe, online they are more inclined to look for and share pictures online than actually going out there and opting for the voyeur approach of secretly taking pictures of strangers feet. I for one think that , though there are many hot men out there who show off their feet during the summer and such, its a very creepy act , in all honesty its an invasion of privacy. So my opinion is that I prefer the trend of celebrity pictures than candid foot shots.

[culfoxio]

Well, I prefer to check out feet of regular guys out on the street, parks, trains or beaches/pools. Luckily my job makes me travel a lot to Hawaii or Florida/Caribbean and even some far-away places sometimes all year round so I am able to take pictures of guys at beaches or outdoor settings when it's winter here in the Northern Hemisphere. I love visiting my relatives/friends in Central America (where it's always hot weather year-round) or Hawaii anytime where there lots of local guys as well as tourists. Thanks for starting this thread!

[mewlovesfeet]

If I have time, I might post some which I took during the summer but never got the chance to upload.

[gbmcleod]

you show the face. It's a bit like photographing guys in the showers without their knowledge.

I don't show a guy's face if I photograph his feet, and he isn't aware of it. I prefer seeing a guy head to toes, but because of a sense of respect for their privacy, I don't do it. I'm not that upset if a pair of feet show up without the rest of the person, but my psyche wants to see a smiling, barefoot guy. I'm not even keen on photos where the guy bares his feet, and knows he's being photographed, but looks as though he's just been drafted into the army and is being sent to Afghanistan. It just looks joyless to me, and I prefer someone who's actually happy with great feet, to someone with great feet who doesn't appear happy for the camera. In part, that's due to my past job as a photographer. If you notice many of the men's mags, the women are nearly always either smiling or looking sexy (since they're undressed, that's a normal expression). It's appealing, period, to have someone look inviting.
But back to shooting photos of guys' feet without them knowing it? I used to point out that it was a form of rape to be touching a guy who's passed out drunk or in some way incapacitated. The response against my statement was easily 5 to 1 that I was nuts (no, I just know it means to have boundaries), so I doubt you'll find much agreement that it's creepy. Still and all, I suppose it's easier to get photos of celebs, since they're public figures and know they're being photographed. Having lived near Hollywood, I don't share that fascination with celebrities. But one poster is right: it is easier to get photos of the celebs. The only problem is, the supposed foot shots are 30 feet away: you can't see the shape of the toes, the nails, the sensuousness of the foot itself. All you see is half a foot with the toes cut off, or some blurry image.

As I said, it's very different than the site was 15 years ago, when most of the photos were of your average guy. But then, 15 years ago, the Internet was just coming into being, and there weren't that many photos of celebs barefoot/flip-flopped or anything "footy"-oriented. Tevas, the first really sexy sandals, showed up around 1993, if my memory of seeing them in San Francisco, which is a footguy's dream city, is accurate. Celebs didn't start showing their feet in great quantity until flip-flops appeared on the scene, around 2002 or so. And, it seemed, once footwear became popular, it didn't seem to even gross out gay guys if you told them they had nice feet (pretty different than in 1978 in San Francisco, where you'd get the "what-a-weirdo" look. Since guy were showing their toes, they LIKED it if you told them that their feet were sexy. They'd light up like a Christmas tree, and say, "Really?! Thanks, man!" Which is to say, you could probably do it in San Francisco in a gay setting, without it feeling really creepy. If the guy found you attractive, he might actually ask if you were just checking out his feet. And if you said yes, and would he mind if you photographed them, well, most of the time the answer was "sure." Of course, when you're sporting a Hasselblad, or some other serious piece of equipment, it gives a strange validity to what you're doing. Strange as it is, pointing a $10,000 camera at someone's toes make THEM feel like, "wow, this guy has some serious equipment and he's photographing me (or my feet). This is cool." A photo's a photo, but, as the late Rodney Dangerfield would NOT say, you get a lot more respect with a Canon, Nikon or Mamiya camera than with a Walgreen point and shoot or a cellphone camera. And a lot more access, too!
I get your point, though.