For many decades authors (see Sontag, 1976, Baederholt, 2006, Chalfern, 1979, Crang, 1997) have recognised the fundamental role of photography within tourism. Many such as Urry (1999, 2002), Crouch (2000, 2002) and Crouch & Lubbren (2003) have explored the position of the visual in the tourist experience. Others have explored the social relationships between tourists that emerge through photography (Haldrup & Larsen, 2003; Badernholt, 2006), or the practices of photographing in a particular context (see Edensor 1998, 1999, 2001). However, despite references to the photograph as a tool for consuming and constructing in the tourist experience, little attention has been afforded to the effects of such practice (see Cohen et al, 1992). This paper therefore unpacks the complexities of the seemingly fleeting relationships between tourists and host communities that emerge during photographic encounters as local residents can become photographed subjects and objects of the tourist gaze. Focusing on the emergent interactions between tourists and locals who are photographed, it explores the social and cultural values that underpin tourists’ ethical considerations of whether or not to photograph local people. In doing so, it suggests that gaps in cultural and social knowledge affect of such values on these relationships as tourist practice is driven by subjective interpretations of that which is appropriate, acceptable or responsible with regard to photographing. Thus, encounters become driven by ethical confusion and a confusion of ethics (Scarles, 2009) as photography emerges as a complex fusion of both predictable and reactionary practices that align general ethical viewpoints with unpredictable ethical response in the immediacy of the moment of photographing.