Couple Defends Hanging Off Train to Capture Instagram Photo: 'Are You Ready to Die for a Pic?'
Some couples will go to great lengths for love — or to get the perfect shot for the ‘gram.
But not every perfectly curated Instagram post is met with admiration. The traveling couple behind the Instagram @backpackdiariez recently posted a seemingly dangerous photo from a popular train route in Sri Lanka that was met with bewilderment from followers.
The photo features the couple, who hail from Brussels, Belgium, hanging out of a train doorway, embraced in a steamy kiss above a canopy of trees, inspiring one commenter to ask, “Are you really ready to die for a pic????????”
Camille, the woman in the photo, says that despite what it looks like, the drop-off wasn’t as far as it looks.
A post shared by CAMILLE & JEAN (@backpackdiariez) on May 2, 2019 at 10:18am PDT
“When we took the picture, the train was moving at a walking speed and the edge was not deep at all,” Camille said in a statement to The Cut. “We would never risk our lives or our health to get a good picture. We care too much for each other for that.”
Camille and Jean, the man in the photo, had the help of Jean’s brother to snap the picture, though the couple said that they often end up using self-timer for their wanderlust-inspiring posts. Camille and Jean
“This train ride is very famous in Sri Lanka, and we had seen many pictures on social media of people hanging out of the doors, so we knew we wanted to try this and prepared for it in advance,” Camille continued. “We did some research to find out what the best time of the day would be to take it, what side of the train has better views, what color the train would be, etc.”
A post shared by RAQUEL & MIGUEL (@explorerssaurus_) on Feb 19, 2019 at 10:08am PST
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The Cut also spoke with the traveling couple behind the Instagram @explorerssaurus_, who posted a similar picture from the same train. They didn’t have as easy a time snapping their shot, though.
“We had to ask a stranger. The guy was from Australia, I remember that,” Raquel, the woman from the photo, explained to The Cut. Camille and Jean did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“The first time he shot the pictures and I checked them, and I didn’t like them that much. So I explained again how we wanted them, the angle, how we wanted them and so on,” Raquel said. “And finally, we managed to get that one. But that photo still has Photoshop. Because we didn’t like completely his angles, we merged two photos together,” she said.
