Don't Picture This

Submitted by Kristen:

Gareth came across as nice and normal, although what he didn't mention until the date itself was that he liked taking pictures of everything.  Everything.  He must have snapped a dozen of me on his little silver model before a word came out of his mouth.

"Hi, I'm Gareth.  Don't worry about my little baby here," he patted his camera, "You'll just get used to her.  Everyone does!"

He pointed his camera to the sky and took several pictures of it.  I asked him why he had brought his camera along, and he said that he was doing a project in which he was chronicling every aspect of his life for posterity.

At the restaurant, he took pictures of the tables, chairs, glasses of water, glass of beer he ordered himself, and the waiter.

I asked him if he'd put the camera away so that we could, you know, talk a little, and he said that he already knew enough about me from talking to me beforehand to know that he liked me and that I'd probably be tolerant of his "little obsession."  Hmmm.  No.

He snapped a picture of a family at a nearby table and the man, who I'm guessing was the father, put his napkin down and approached us.

He asked Gareth what he was doing and why he was taking pictures of his family.  Gareth rolled his eyes and said that he was asked that question all the time.  He explained to the man that he was doing an art project, chronicling his life for the future.

The man then asked Gareth what his (the man's) family had to do with Gareth's life chronicle.  Gareth explained that since he had encountered them in his life, they were now part of it.

Gareth then snapped a picture of the man, who went on to say that he didn't want Gareth taking more pictures of himself of his family.  Gareth agreed not to, and the man went back to his table.

As he was heading back, Gareth snapped a picture of him.  The man turned and swept back to our table.

"What did I just say?  Are you fucking retarded?  Give me the camera!"

"Sir, as you're part of my life, I had to take a picture–"

"Give me the fucking camera.  You think I'm playing around, boy?"

Gareth reached into his pocket and handed the man the camera.  The man did a search on it and turned to Gareth after a minute.  "There aren't any pictures on here."

Gareth took the camera back and cried, "I took... no!  Where'd they go?  You deleted them all!"

The man said, "Well, just don't take anymore," and went back to his seat.

Gareth winked at me and held up his original camera quickly before setting it down.  The one he had handed the guy had been an empty duplicate.

"That kind of thing happens all the time," he said, "I have to go into the field prepared."

He snapped another picture of me.  I grabbed his camera.  Now that got him really upset.

"Stop taking pictures of me," I demanded.  He promised to stop, I gave his camera back, and he didn't take any more of me for the rest of our short date, at least, not as far as I could tell.