Camera Fiend

aka: Shutter Bug

"Shutter Chance!"

"Always take the shot."

— Mark Jefferson, Life Is Strange

Some characters who are reporters or photographers use a camera or video cam for work. As well, other characters have photography or filming as a beloved hobby. They'll have the camera gear with them everywhere they go and they'll use it often, usually sticking the lens in the most unwelcome places. They'll take the most inane or arty pictures they can, record videos of everything they see or all of the above (maybe even risk life or limb for the perfect shot).

Something embarrassing happens? They'll snap a shot. Important plot event occurs in front of them? They caught it on video. You can always expect this character to keep their camera handy for any important or non-important moment that may arise, probably becoming uncomfortable without the camera nearby.

Whether for work or for their off-hours enjoyment, these characters love their camera. They probably collect high-end cameras, lenses, flashes and tripods and may be in a camera club. Wealthy characters may do Conspicuous Consumption of the most expensive cameras and some hobbyists may get overly obsessed with their pastime. For camera enthusiasts, Older Is Better. They'll rave about the unsurpassable quality of their 1970s Leica or 1980s Nikon. Filmmakers will praise their 35 mm film camera and insist that it's better than a videocam.

Some camera lovers derive a strange pleasure from secretly watching people and snapping photos of their private life. Sometimes, the love of photographing everything can cross the line into obsession, voyeurism and even harassment (in the case of paparazzi with celebrities or a person following their ex-partner).

On the bright side, they'll provide the scrapbook Montage of happy times near the end of the film or series. As well, with thrillers and murder mysteries, sometimes the photography nerd who's always taking photos happens to take a Convenient Photograph, like a snapshot of the suspect, Bigfoot, or the epic natural disaster. They themselves might get annoyed about being caught on film or having their picture taken. Expect one of the cast to use this to their advantage at some point.

Unlike Going for the Big Scoop, these characters take pictures compulsively and often, while characters Going for the Big Scoop are motivated by getting a good story (they can occasionally overlap). Also, this character isn't necessarily a reporter, photojournalist or artist; there's also amateur photography nerds.

An off-duty Intrepid Reporter tends to fall into this. Sometimes referred to as a shutterbug.

Because this character is often a budding art, film or media student, they are very likely to be an Author Avatar of the production's writer, director, or producer. If they love shooting and editing videos and movies, they may be The Movie Buff.

See also the Japanese Tourist, who will more often than not be one of these, especially in 1980s works. For the darker side of this trope, see The Peeping Tom. Related to Selfie Fiend, which is about someone who loves taking pictures of themselves. If we hear that a character is an amateur shutterbugs who is always snapping photos, their pastime may become a Chekhov's Hobby after a crime has been committed; hearing this, the Great Detective asks for their pictures to look for evidence.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The Burger King Kids Club Gang: Snaps is named as such because she always carries a camera.

Anime & Manga

• Asteroid in Love has two, and neither of them has anything clean in their intentions:
  • Mari, the president of the Earth Sciences Club, often sneaks in pictures of the club's activities, much to Mikage's dismay and Moe's excitement. Chapter 16 reveals the Mari and Moe share photography experiences and tips.
  • Mira's Childhood Friend Moe "Suzu" Suzuya is fond of photographing the cast members at every opportunity. She pays Mira and Ao a modeling fee for the pictures she discreetly took of them while they were working at the Suzuya bakery.
• Lisa Vanette in the final episode of Bubblegum Crisis 2033 nearly gets herself killed trying to "reveal the Knight Sabers' true identities".
• Tomoyo Daidouji in Cardcaptor Sakura, who follows the titular Sakura through her battles with her trusty camcorder whenever she can, often making her wear strange outfits in the process. Whenever she isn't around to see Sakura win a battle, she always laments that she wasn't able to record it.
• Code Geass:
  • Anya Alstreim records anything and everything with her handheld computer/camera device. She has a fairly legitimate reason for doing so: she doesn't trust her own memories due to Geass-related tampering.
  • One of the Britannian students in episode 5 of the first season at one of the Shinjuku gravesites is seen taking pictures with his friends until an enraged Tamaki approaches him.
• Tazawa, the tall ponytailed member of the Press Society in Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, has his camera even in a hot springs bath house... the only time he's seen without it is when he hands it to Goura to get his picture taken.
• In Jewelpet Sunshine, Peridot always has her cell phone at hand in case there's something interesting to photograph. This lands her a spot in the newspaper club and proves to be helpful in episode 48 since she has taken enough pictures to make a respectable yearbook.
• The Kindaichi Case Files - the Saki brothers, who follow Kindaichi everywhere recording everything, providing vital visual evidence for Kindaichi to review whenever the inevitable murder(s) happen; the elder Saki brother was even murdered for making the mistake of being quicker figure out who did it than Kindaichi and was replaced in the next case by his identical (as in, Kindaichi and Miyuki freaked out, thinking they saw a ghost) younger brother
• K-On!:
  • In the anime, Mio and Ritsu are downplayed examples. They both share two aspects of the trope; Mio usually snaps shots of the proverbial "Kodak moments" while Ritsu focuses on taking the more embarrassing or invasive pictures; essentially they play double-duty providing most of the scrap-book shots throughout the series. One odd contrast is that Mio uses film while Ritsu is primarily digital.
  • The manga's final chapter has Yui sparring some of her meager extra cash on a high-end camera to take pictures of the band, particularly of Mio while she was sleeping (and presumably Ritsu and Mugi as well). This is later revealed to have been the basis for a set of T-shirts they would wear on stage, which Yui had Sawako design using their silhouettes. Ritsu meanwhile worried about what Sawako would do with the pictures now that the shirts were finished and sent.
• Kazumi Asakura of Negima! Magister Negi Magi likes to use her Wacky Class' antics to her advantage whenever she can, or otherwise obsessing in some way about Going for the Big Scoop. Her class panics when being attacked by a ghost? She pulls out her camera immediately. At the end of the trip to Kyoto, she's taking pictures of her classmates in the Hot Springs, including Mana Tatsumiya who in the picture is shown to be hiding a gun under a bucket and is seconds away from shooting Kazumi.
• Kensuke Aida from Neon Genesis Evangelion usually directing it at military paraphernalia, but capable of pulling it from Hammerspace at any place or time.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Todd Snap from the original series, who was first introduced in the anime, would later be the main character of the spinoff game Pokémon Snap.
  • Trip, Ash's main rival in Black and White, is usually seen with his own camera. He explained in his first appearance that he's keeping a scrapbook of his journey. We also have a One-Shot Character named Robert from the episode "The Four Seasons of Sawsbuck!" who has the same profession and Japanese voice actor as Todd Snap above.
  • Trevor from the XY arc goes out of his way to take pictures of rare Pokémon, including legendary Pokémon like Moltres. The gym leader Viola as well.
• Kurishima from Real Account is a dark take on this trope. He walks around, finds vulnerable people, breaks them, and takes pictures of their despaired faces to gush over them later.
• In Rosario + Vampire Ginei, the club president, is the only member of the Newspaper Club to be seen with a camera. His photos become a plot point in the anime, twice.
  • In the anime, he uses his camera to make sexy or panty shots.
• School Rumble has Akira Takano, whose shutter finger can catch every embarrassing shot she sees, and she has at points manipulated her friends into oddball activities so she can record and make money off of them. Unlike her School News Paper News Hound rival (from his point of view) Takeichi Fuyuki, she actually does catch some of the more impressive photos that he only wishes he could manage. Plus, she is skilled in the use of firearms.
• Ranko Hata from Seitokai Yakuindomo, who was shown to carry an entire TV studio's worth of equipment with her in episode 3, and carries relatively normal cameras almost every other time she shows up. "Relatively normal" not counting the time she Golgo 13-ed Tsuda in an epic camera set-up scene.
• Saiga of Speed Grapher, who gets sexual pleasure from taking interesting photographs.
• In Strawberry Marshmallow, episode 26, Miu decides that now that she has a video camera, she's going to record everything. This includes her morning soup, what happens when you attempt to deprive Nobue of smokes, having Matsuri try to find her glasses when they're on Nobue's face, and finally, seeing for herself if the 11-year-old English-born girl actually is... er... noticeably developed (she is, but as she is only 11, they're still almost nothing). (See also episode 9 for the text equivalent.)
• In the Tenchi Muyo! OAV, Tenchi's dad was shown to be a bit of The Peeping Tom and a pervert. In Tenchi Muyo In Love, it becomes clear that Tenchi's dad was a Camera Fiend when he and Tenchi's mother were in school.
• Chie Hori from Tokyo Ghoul, a human girl completely obsessed with taking "interesting" photographs. In pursuit of her obsession, she completely disregards her personal safety or normal morals, leading her to stalk and later befriend Tsukiyama. As an adult, she manages to turn this into a very profitable career as an Information Broker.
• Makoto the School Newspaper News Hound eats, breathes, and at least sleeps next to his camera, always ready to get pictures of the Ultimate Girls.
• In Vandread, Paiway Underberg, the female nurse aboard the Nirvana is constantly recording interesting moments with her camera, with her catchphrase "Gotcha!", all part of her "Pai-checks."
• Yoshinori Ikeda, the main person in Yubisaki Milk Tea often takes pictures of himself crossdressing as his alter-ego Yuki. Some of the pictures are used for display by the photographer he works part-time at, while others are for himself as memory, knowing that he won't be crossdressing forever.
• Yuri!!! on Ice:
  • Phichit Chulanont loves to take pictures and videos of his daily life and upload them to social media sites, and he almost always has his phone on hand to take selfies. His friends Guang-Hong Ji and Leo de la Iglesia are like this to a lesser extent as well.
  • The Nishigori triplets are usually eager to take pictures and videos of their favorite figure skaters, which is what leads them to record and upload a video of Yuri Katsuki performing Victor Nikiforov's program to the internet; the video going viral is what kicks off the plot.

Comic Books

• Rewind of Transformers: More than Meets the Eye is an Autobot historian who transforms into a flash drive. He is always recording events as they take place around him believing that any moment could have some measure of historical importance.

Fan Works

• George, sort of, in With Strings Attached. During the New Zork chapter, he acquires a Super-8 movie camera and over a hundred film cartridges, and he spends a good deal of time filming things in C'hou, though he doesn't do much filming in the other two worlds they visit (mostly because circumstances prevent him from doing so). He figures the films will be wonderful proof of this strange thing that's happened to the four and is bitterly disappointed when he finds out he can't take the camera and film back to Earth.
  • George continues to film things in The Keys Stand Alone, even though he's aware he might not be able to take the stuff back to Earth when it's all over.

Films — Live-Action

• Ricky in American Beauty is always videoing and has a large collection of homemade tapes in his room.
• Austin Powers: Austin works as a fashion photographer, taking multiple pictures of his models.
• Blood Widow: The movie opens with one of these taking photographs around the old school, and then entering the house. He tries to take a photo of a white mask, only to be caught and murdered by the titular antagonist.
• Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blowup is about a fashion photographer who thinks he has captured a murder in the act in the background of one of his shots.
• A 1903 film called The Camera Fiend gives us a title character who would rather take pictures of a drowning boy than help in any way.
• Cloverfield: Hud keeps his camera running throughout the night as the characters attempt to flee Manhattan. When one of the others asks why he's still filming Hud replies that people are going to want to see what it was like to be on the ground. The DVD extras reveal that he was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for producing such a complete record of the event.
• Nicole in Crazy/Beautiful took tons of pictures with her vintage Polaroid camera. There was even a scrapbook montage at the end of the movie containing her photos.
• In Eden Lake, Brett uses Paige to film the gang's acts of torture and murder.
• A Truth in Television example, Thierry Guetta from the Banksy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop films absolutely everything. At one point it shows that hundreds of unmarked tapes that he's filmed over the years.
• In Fair Game, Ringo keeps snapping shots with a Polaroid camera, including an upskirt of Jessica and nude shots of her while she is sleeping. Jessica eventually shoots his camera.
• In The Firechasers, Jim Maxwell carries a camera with him everywhere he goes, and snaps anything that catches his attention. He explains to Toby how a photo is a moment frozen in time, and that no two photos are ever exactly he same.
• High and Tight opens with Seth's scrapbook of home movies at a Halloween party - showing everyone getting drunker and sillier.
• Katsuji from Gremlins 2: The New Batch. "Work a camera? I AM a camera!"
• Lizzie in Headless Horseman. Through the opening scenes, she is shown taking photos of anything and everything. She only stops when the inhabitants of Wormwood steal her camera.
• Brophy from Mel Brooks' Hitchcock homage High Anxiety. In a parody of Blow Up, he finds proof that an imposter committed a murder that the main character is accused of by blowing up one of his candid photographs to wall-size.
• In The Killing Kind, Thelma, an amateur photographer, obsessively photographs her son Terry, and frames the numerous portraits in the house. She even takes photographs of him while he is in the shower.
• In Lizzie Borden's Revenge, Bobby carries a camcorder with him everywhere, hoping to shoot footage he can put on his sleazy website.
• In Meth Head, Dusty was always seen with his camera. Even when he and his friend was desperate for money, he refused to pawn his camera.
• One Hour Photo had Robin Williams in the unusual role of an obsessive film developer, to the point that he was practically stalking one family through their pictures that he was developing.
• Micah from Paranormal Activity qualifies as this, as he is obsessed with that camera, calling it his baby at some point in the movie, and refusing to get rid of it, even when he knows the camera only makes the demon angrier.
• Pecker from the John Waters film of the same name is all about this trope.
• Peeping Tom is a definitive example. Mark is incapable of venturing out without his camera — he films all of his murders, films the police tailing him, and finally films his own suicide.
• Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, the High School Musical spinoff/sequel, has film student Peyton Leverett making a film about Sharpay. When he doesn't have a camera in his hands, he's probably on his laptop editing the footage.
• The Skydivers has a minor character who is this trope. He's asked what he does with all the pictures he takes: "Sit home and look at them."
• Doug Hastings in Strictly Ballroom always seems to have his old film camera in someone's face.
• In Vampire Diary, both Holly and Vicki carry camcorders with them and compulsively film everything they see and do. Their footage makes up the bulk of the movie.
• In The Witch Files, Claire always carries a video camera with her and films almost everything; claiming that the camera helps her keep an emotional distance from events. It is her footage that makes up the majority of the movie.

Literature

• In 1911, Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law Ernest Hornung used The Camera Fiend as the title for a novel about a mad scientist obsessed with documenting the human soul. A la Peeping Tom, he designs a device to kill and photograph in the same instant. Unsuccessful, he turns the device on himself, hoping that his suicide will yield the evidence he was unable to obtain in life. It may be read here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30096.
• Twoflower and Otto Von Chreik in Discworld. While Otto doesn't constantly take pictures of everything, he still qualifies, because only a Camera Fiend would get a job as a professional photographer when every camera flash has a good chance of killing him (Otto being a vampire), forcing him to rely on someone else to bring him back to life (after which he does it all over again). Eventually, he takes to wearing a small vial of blood around his neck; he takes the shot, turns to ashes, the blood breaks on his ashes and he gets up, cursing.
  • In Monstrous Regiment he specifically tells Polly that he has replaced his addiction to blood with one for 'the subtle play of light'.
• Fate/Apocrypha originally had Saint George amongst the summoned heroes (he was later cut), who had taken a liking to modern cameras. This was later reinstated into his character when he appeared in Fate/Grand Order.
• Full Metal Panic! has Kyoko, who's been known to take pictures of everything from random interactions between her friend Kaname with strangers to grease stains that look like George Washington.
• Colin Creevey in Harry Potter. Since he's also a Hero-Worshipper, his first scene consists of him asking Harry for a signed photo, much to his exasperation. His camera eventually saves his life — when he runs into the Basilisk and tries to take a picture, its gaze only petrifies him because he didn't look it directly in the eye.
• Navidson from House of Leaves, who sticks his special Hi-8 cameras everywhere in the house, and uses them in every exploration of the house; it's hinted more and more throughout the book that his preoccupation with filming and photographing the horrors of the world around him is a symptom is his emotional issues.
• Tsutako from Maria Watches Over Us is pretty much defined by carrying a camera everywhere.
• Yotsuba from Sister Princess, as part of her "checking up on Big Bro" (i.e. stalking the protagonist) personality quirk.

Live-Action TV

• Joel on Dead of Summer, who is filming his experience as a camp counselor.
• Doctor Who: In "The Invasion", Isabel Watkins is a professional photographer who always has a camera with her. She persuades Zoe to model for her, and takes photographs of the invading Cybermen, despite being told by The Brigadier that it is "no job for a woman".
• Kamen Rider Decade is somewhat obsessed with (and terribad at) capturing the world on photographs.
  • Though Tsukasa's normal pictures tend to be blurry and distorted, they also reveal the true nature of the subjects he photographs; for example, a picture taken of a girl with a missing brother shows a ghost image of said brother watching over her.
• There's two types in Kamen Rider Fourze. We have Mari, a sweet girl who loves taking pictures of smiling people and there's Yayoi who has a Gossip Column in which she posts pictures up to prevent three former Zodiarts from graduating.
• Simon films just about everything on his camera-phone during the first season of Misfits. He doesn't do it so much in season 2, a sign that he is actually starting to engage with people rather than standing around filming them creepily.
• Several monsters in the Power Rangers mythos are formed from cameras, making them literal embodiments of this trope.
• Scrubs: Dr. Cox's best friend and ex-brother-in-law Ben Sullivan is an avid photographer, and he says he won't stop taking photos "until the day he dies". Which is one of the clues to The Reveal at the end of "My Screw Up".
• In Star Trek: Voyager, the Doctor has a 24th-century holo-camera that he loves using. It was a key element in at least one episode.
• Stranger Things: Jonathan Byers lives through his photography, which he uses to effect making missing posters for Will. His photography also comes in handy, as one of his season 1 pictures catches a glimpse of the Demogorgon right before it takes and kills Barb. According to Stranger Things Worlds Turned Upside Down: The Official Behind-The-Scenes Companion, Jonathan is a member of the Photography Club, the School Newspaper, and the Yearbook Club.
• Canadian teenage sitcom Student Bodies crosses this with School Newspaper News Hound in the aptly-nicknamed character, Flash. At one point she describes cameras as "her babies."

Music

• Picture This by Kero Kero Bonito is sung from the point of view of a Camera Fiend.

Podcasts

• Caiden from Sequinox is a photographer and is introduced taking pictures of the main girls (though he only did it because Tellie told him to and he really didn't want to because it was so creepy).

Tabletop Game

• In Transhuman Space Personnel Files: School Days 2100, Denise is described as often carrying a "portacam"; a professional-quality 3D movie camera, and has the Photography/TL10 skill. Her character quote is about photographing someone, and her main view of life planetside (she was born on a space station) is that there are lots of interesting things and people to take pictures of.

Theater

• I and You: Though she uses her phone camera rather than a professional one, Caroline startles Anthony at several points by suddenly taking photos of him while they're talking and has numerous photos she's taken taped around her room. She happily explains that she hopes to be a professional photographer someday, and when he sees her photographs Anthony admits she has a natural talent for it.
• Mark from RENT is a documentary filmmaker and films the other characters throughout the story, this leads to him getting cursed out by a homeless woman he tries to film in front of his friends during "On The Street":
  Bag Lady: Who the fuck do you think you are?! I don't need no goddamn help from some bleeding-heart cameraman, my life's not for you to make a name for yourself on!
  Angel: Easy, sugar, easy! He was just trying to-
  Bag Lady: "Just trying to" use me to kill his guilt! It's not that kind of movie, honey! Let's go! This lot is full of motherfucking artists!

Video Games

• Ace Attorney:
  • Lotta Hart, the Intrepid Reporter introduced in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It especially shows in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2: whenever she's accompanying you, she's endlessly taking photos of everything in sight.
  • Also from Investigations 2 is attorney Raymond Shields. As soon as he enters the Winter Palace of Jeffrey Masters' mansion, his first response is to take as many pictures as possible, even one of Edgeworth without his consent.
  • Cody Hackins of the first game falls into this category. He refuses to testify unless he is allowed to bring his camera into the courtroom.
• Mahiru Koizumi in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, the Ultimate Photographer, whose work focuses on people that are smiling. If you hang out with her in Island Mode, she'll at least have the decency to warn you that if you do anything stupid in front of her, she won't waste a single opportunity to take a shot of it.
• One of the gameplay mechanics for Dark Chronicle has you taking pictures of things in order to invent new items.
• Frank West, from Dead Rising can use his camera to obtain Prestige Points to level up. Of course, he is a reporter so catching good pictures is an important part of his job.
• Beat, from Eternal Sonata, carries his camera into battle, where he can take photos of the monsters as they're attacking him - and sell them for cash in shops. His love of photography is frequently ridiculed by his buddy Allegretto.
• Jin Sun-Kwon from F.E.A.R. never leaves her camera behind. She may not carry any sort of firearm, but the camera's there. Somewhat justified since she's the team's data analyst, but that wouldn't obligate her to keep her camera throughout Extraction Point, particularly up to the moment of her death. A weird twist is that the unmanned camera continuously snaps shots of her corpse.
• Prompto of Final Fantasy XV loves taking pictures of all the various things the group finds during their journey and will even take pictures during battle somehow. Photography is his personal skill, where during camp you can select a number of photos to save and choose one of them to be used in The Stinger.
• In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Carl "CJ" Johnson has a camera in his Ganton home's bedroom, which he can pick up and even use in some missions. Any photos you take when playing appear in the Gallery. They're basically a different sort of screenshot.
• While we're on the subject of GTA, Grand Theft Auto IV had Manny's cameraman, who definitely fits this trope as demonstrated by this cutscene.
• Dorothy Hyatt from The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. She's a Cute Clumsy Girl who more often than not stumbles into trouble due to her own ditziness. She's also a genius photographer who on several occasions proves instrumental in gathering evidence in unlikely places since she's too caught up in her work to understand that private facilities and shady meetings aren't appropriate places to snap pictures. It's this combination that ironically makes her one of the best reporters in the Liberl News in spite of the trouble she causes.
• One of the optional items in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the Pictobox. This item is absolutely necessary if you want 100% Completion, as sidequests will force you to use it in such odd ways from snapping photos of paranoid residents to monsters about to eat your face off.
• Life Is Strange:
  • The Player Character, Max Caulfield, always carries her old-school Polaroid camera with her. Not surprising, given that she is a photography student.
  • Max does it in part to emulate her teacher, Mark Jefferson, who provides the page quote. As a very famous photographer, he teaches all that he knows at Blackwell Academy, tells his students to “always take the shot”, and is partly responsible for fostering Max's habits. He is also quite the literal fiend who takes the trope to disturbing levels, as he is the Big Bad drugging and kidnapping girls to take them to his Dark Room, where he photographs them in bondage and sexualized positions and tortures them, all to capture the moment where innocence becomes corrupted.
• The player character in Michigan: Report From Hell is a TV news cameraman who hardly ever puts down the camera for anything. Not zombie attacks, not Body Horror monsters, not even to get a kiss from the hot reporter chick whose life you save.
• In the second "season" of the Orwell games Karen Vhart, the wife of your investigation target, has a very active account on the image site Hologram. This can prove useful to the investigation.
• The Pale Beyond: Kasha, the Temperence's photographer, hardly goes anywhere without her camera. She uses it to constantly document the going-ons of the crew, even during crises. Kasha states she believes that photographic evidence is the only way people will believe what's happened during the journey. When she accidentally drops her camera off a cliff, Kasha goes to lengths to save it, potentially costing her life.
• TJ Snapper in Rhythm Heaven is this, during the Freeze Frame minigames. A perfect on one of them unlocks commentary about him from his girlfriend's perspective.
  "My boyfriend's funny, it's like he was born with a camera glued to his nose, or something."
• Aya Shameimaru of Touhou Project. She even has her own spin-off game, Shoot the Bullet, which has her taking pictures of spellcard patterns of the other characters. Fandom flanderised this into a specialization in upskirts and Reimu's armpits.
• Uncharted:
  • Elena Fisher in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune in the course of the game captures all the important footage for her documentary (for which the network is providing backing for the exploration). Later in the game a predictably rickety Rope Bridge collapses beneath her and Drake's feet, forcing her to free her hand and climb up by letting go of the camera. Camera or your life indeed.
  • In Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Chloe Fisher can snap photos of the various scenic locales she finds with her smartphone.
• Miles Arbeck in Valkyria Chronicles 4 can often be seen snapping pictures of his squadmates throughout the story, even though film is harder to come by on the front lines of the campaign. His photos are used in a number of montages too.

Web Animation

• The human counterpart of Photo Finish takes on this role in "Photo Finished", one of the animated shorts released by Hasbro as a lead-in to My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games. She goes completely overboard while taking pictures for the school yearbook.
• In a Full House parody of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure featuring the villains from the first 7 Parts, animated by Diana A Go Go, the first episode portrays the United States President, Funny Valentine, as this. First by taking snapshots of Yoshikage Kira's house, then making a request.
  Valentine: Can you drive me to the top of Mount Fuji? I want to take some pictures for my travel log! It's probably... the only Japanese landmark I can name off the top of my head.
• Velvet Scarlatina, the cute Aussie bunny girl of RWBY, has been revealed as this trope, though she's actually pretty lousy at photography; her picture of Sun captures his abs very well, but completely cuts off his head. Or not. Turns out the camera is her weapon: taking photographs of other characters' weapons (which is what she was actually aiming for with the Sun photo) lets her create Hard Light copies and mimic their fighting styles, though it runs out when she finally unleashes it and she has to take more photographs to "reload", making it Too Awesome to Use.

Webcomics

• In Jupiter-Men, Quintin never goes anywhere without his trusty camera, a one-of-a-kind point and click/instant camera hybrid with a retro aesthetic commissioned by his dad. He uses it constantly to try to take pictures of Jupiter-Man. It's Quintin's most prized possession and he immediately rushes off to go find it when he realizes that his mom dragged him home without it.

Web Video

• Futuro Ex-Porta: Exaggerated in Episode 3, in the sketch where Naice plays a gynecologist that has the audacity to host livestreams showing the infected vaginas of his patients, such as Marina (played by Bruna), to his social media followers, while comparing the vaginal fluids (which he calls "pussy juice") to things like bubble gum and slime, and holding polls asking the audience what diseases they think the patients have. Marina is extremely embarrassed at first and repeatedly asks the doctor to stop filming her, but changes her mind when she notices her number of social media followers has skyrocketed.
• Unwanted Houseguest: Episode 2 of "TRUE Scary Stories" features a man who sneaks into a camp site full of children to photograph them while they're sleeping.

Western Animation

• The title sequence of Arthur shows Arthur irritating his family by constantly trying to get group shots wherever they go. Eventually, they all pull out cameras and get a photo of him looking unamused.
• Eddie Storkowitz in Birdz often carries a video camera with him to film everyday life, as he aspires to be a filmmaker.
• Futurama: Bender Bending Rodriguez s usual reaction to seeing something disgusting and/or horrifying is to say "Neat!" and snap a picture of it. One episode is even all about Bender's attempts to take a photo of an actor whose face has never been seen before.
• Kaeloo: Pretty is like this with her smartphone's camera. She normally tries to post the pictures on a social networking site called "Fakebook".
• Molly of Denali: Nina likes taking photos. In "The Funny Face Competition," Nina takes the pictures of everyone for Molly's book.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Featherweight, the school's designated photographer. And boy does he photograph: be it hidden, hard to notice, or even out of Ponyville, Featherweight will be there to take a shot of it.
  • When Featherweight replaces Diamond Tiara as editor (who previously ran the press) takes his place as photographer, a position he's still holding during the Summer Harvest Parade.
  • In "Pinkie Apple Pie", Pinkie Pie takes this role during her trip with Applejack's family to visit Goldie Delicious.

Real Life

• The term "camera fiend" originated around 1900 to describe people armed with such newly mobile cameras as Kodak's Brownie. In 1906, an article called "What Is to be Done About the Camera Fiend?" appeared in The American Amateur Photographer, decrying the fact that First Daughter Alice Roosevelt could not shop without being subject to the flashbulbs of passersby (making the paparazzo Older than You Think).
• Since all modern smartphones have a built-in camera, and most people own such a phone, most people in the world (at least rich countries) actually have their camera on their person constantly. Also, with the spread of social media sites and the concept of selfies, it's fair to say that a lot of real-life people live up to this trope nowadays.
• Val Kilmer, as seen in the documentary Val. Kilmer used to bring a camcorder with him nearly everywhere he went and amassed a warehouse full of videotapes of his travels, behind-the-scenes footage from his films and family moments. In a clip from the filming of The Island of Dr. Moreau, the exasperated director can be heard telling Kilmer to stop filming and rehearse his scenes.

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