TIFU by thinking “golden hour” meant something completely different

r/

Not today, but a few months ago. I was trying to impress this girl I’d been seeing. She’s super into photography and kept going on about catching the “golden hour.” I nodded along like I knew what she meant.

In my dumbass brain, I assumed “golden hour” was some kind of metaphor, like a time where things get romantic or something magical happens. So I planned this whole date night: dinner at 7:30, candles, wine, jazz, you name it. She shows up and goes, “Wait… aren’t we going out to shoot sunset pics?”

Turns out, golden hour is literally just the hour before sunset. Not a vibe, not a metaphor. Just physics.

She laughed when I explained and we still had a nice evening, but she did tell her whole photography group and now they all call me “Mr. Metaphor.”

TL;DR: Thought “golden hour” was a romantic metaphor. Turns out it’s just a lighting term. Planned a candlelit dinner instead of a sunset photo shoot.

Comments

  1. UDPviper Avatar

    She said hour, not shower!

  2. euph_22 Avatar

    Could be worse, could have confused it with Golden Hour in an emergency medical context.

  3. MtnMaiden Avatar

    Invite her over for movies.

    And only watch movies

  4. circlecircledotd0t Avatar

    Wait but this is cute.

  5. Comfortable_Trick137 Avatar

    I thought OP was going to cover himself in gold paint and glitter, buy a piano, and play JVKE’s golden hour for her

  6. Extension_Ad4537 Avatar

    Haha that’s very sweet.

  7. oscoposh Avatar

    mr. metaphor is hilarious.

  8. sumostuff Avatar

    Aw but you did something sweet, and now you guys have a cute couple story.

  9. SneakySalamder6 Avatar

    If you have any game, this will work out even better than your original plan. Now you guys have a cute story

  10. Critical-Bank5269 Avatar

    Yep Golden Hour is the last hour of daylight into twilight and there’s a corresponding period in the morning from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after. The changing of light can and does change the entire dynamic of a photo session

  11. honeyandwhiskey Avatar

    I wouldn’t have known what she meant either. I’m familiar with it in the context of the first hour with a newborn though. At least you didn’t show up with a receiving blanket and ask her take her shirt off.

  12. archiangel Avatar

    If this relationship works out, you now have a great setup for a proposal 😁

    Enjoy photo time, Mr. Metaphor

  13. BobTheInept Avatar

    If that’s how you F up, I’d love to see how you nail it.

  14. Mathelete73 Avatar

    At least you didn’t mishear hour as shower.

  15. crag-u-feller Avatar

    Mr Metaphor is a win. Now they all will watch what they say because it could be incidentally deep. I would lean into that and strike a pose or do ‘fingers to temples to double guns at you’ gesture randomly

  16. FingersPalmc8ck Avatar
  17. Code2King Avatar

    Golden hour is also a practice widely adopted in hospitals nowadays. It’s the hour directly after a baby has been born for skin to skin with the parents and has some crazy benefits for both baby and mother. So, you’re not wrong in that the term can be used as a way to describe any ‘hour’ of magical or important qualities!

  18. Correct-Earth-7148 Avatar

    I think it was an innocent and adorable mistake. She must think so too, because she didn’t get pissy, she just made it into a cute joke.

  19. FingersPalmc8ck Avatar

    Another bot account created on 9th April. More AI shit.

  20. fibrizo Avatar

    Just be glad she didn’t mean the other golden hour, which is just after sunrise lol. That’s the best time because it’s colder usually and there will be even less atmospheric distortion from heat. Evening golden hour still has residual heat effects sometime lol.

  21. abrod520 Avatar

    Could’ve been worse, thinking she was talking about the golden hour when responding to physical trauma like a gunshot wound or bad car crash.

  22. Alis451 Avatar

    Wait till you learn the “Witching Hour” is similarly just the hours past midnight before sunrise, usually referring to the darkest part of the night.

    >The “witching hour” refers to a time of night, traditionally either midnight or 3:00 AM, when supernatural beings and events are believed to be most potent, according to folklore and literature. In some contexts, it also refers to a period of fussiness and crying in babies, typically in the evening.

  23. RadiantHolloww Avatar

    Haha, ‘Mr. Metaphor’ strikes with candlelit vibes!

  24. Kismet_Jade Avatar

    Ok, but this is so awkwardly wholesome, and something the right people would find endearing AF. Glad she appreciated it properly!

  25. soundmixer14 Avatar

    In film and TV shooting the golden hour is the same thing but right around the time of sunset to dusk, not morning.

  26. afschmidt Avatar

    At least you didn’t confuse it with a Golden Shower.

  27. nsfbr11 Avatar

    Fun fact, golden hour is not necessarily an hour. The most common “definition” for golden hour is when the Sun is within 6 degrees of the horizon. So, for example, right now in Reykjavik, Iceland, golden hour this evening is from 9:30PM to 11:33PM. Solar midnight will be at 1:25 AM.

  28. Asleep-Temporary3980 Avatar

    I mean, it’s also a vibe

  29. beichter83 Avatar

    I was confusing it with “happy hour” while reading, so I was equally perplexed 😂

  30. zorganoff Avatar

    I mean, not really a fuck up. It’s one of those things where how are you going to know if you’ve never been told? I’d never heard the term before dating a photographer either.
    What you did was sweet. She’ll look back and be impressed you went to the effort.

  31. audible_narrator Avatar

    Laughs in video production. It really is amazing when you hit it just right. I once directed a live jazz fest on the river and those medium closeups with boats sailing by in the background? MAGIC.
    You didn’t FU, great post.

  32. TorkX Avatar

    You assumed she wanted to take photos of your romantic date?

  33. -6Marshall9- Avatar

    Sunrise or sunset is golden hour for photo and video

  34. Your_Nebulessness Avatar

    At least you didn’t mishear golden shower!

  35. spribyl Avatar

    Whatever you say Mr Bobby Brown

  36. RedOctobyr Avatar

    Boy, wait ’till you hear about “blue hour”. And importantly, note the spelling, friend.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_hour