The Digital Camera Concert Conundrum

This is something I think about a lot. Maybe too much. The obstructive nature of all the amateur photographers at concerts and other events.

Everyone at pretty much every show has a way to snap a picture and video. There are only two reasons why one should take a picture:

1) Preservation of one's personal view of the event, especially if you are close to the action
2) That your picture taking skill is in the upper 1% of the audience (which mine is surely not)

So what do you do? Are you tired of putting your little screen in front of the 20 people behind you? Do you hate when others do it?

You have three choices:
1) Go balls out and shoot until your camera is full.
2) Take a few quick shots at opportune moments like between songs
3) Keep the fucking camera / camera phone / video camera / video phone in your fucking pockets.

There is only one thing worse than the cameras. It's the people with obstructionary hair. We're talking mohawks, people who spike up their sweaty long frat boy hair at Radiohead concerts to make it taller than it previously was (that kid was REALLY asking for it), or the worse is the curly fro. Every knows the fro looks awful. Half of my pictures from the Flaming Lips show Sunday were interfered with by a Jack Osbourne look-alike with a terrible mane of black curliness and his thick frames. Then he would take bad pictures to doubly obstruct. This kid sucked. I hope I never see him again. I would take a scissor to his hair, just like my sister did without telling me when my hair got too long.

So what's the final conclusion. If you're going to take pictures at a show, please keep it calm unless you really know what you're doing. People go to shows to watch them, not to watch you're two inch screen. And do not look at your pictures until after the show. But make sure if you interfere, you at least share the pictures so someone who wasn't there can see what happened.

Just try to be considerate during apex moments and think of the others who are standing behind you thinking how big a dick you are, just like the Black Curly Afro whitey pissed me off. If you can't point and shoot right, please please put the camera away.