Stop taking pictures of screens at concerts

[marmar]

from NOW Toronto:


Stop taking pictures of screens at concerts
On life experience as a crappy cell phone photo of a projected mediation of life experience

By John Semley





Last night at the Air Canada Centre, I was lucky enough to see Leonard Cohen perform. It was a privilege – albeit one tied directly to a) my having enough cash flow to shell out for two not-cheap tickets and b) the luck of being online when tickets were on sale. It was great in large part because I was close to the stage, which is of course always better than being way far away from it. Not in the first five rows or anything. Just close enough that a concert in an NHL arena could feel passably intimate.

Anyway, as is the fashion, the show was simulcast to monitors flanking the stage, with the video feed piped in from big, boxy HD cameras strafing across the barrier separating the floor seats from the band. Cut and projected instantly, the video feed had the glean of a live concert DVD unfolding in tune with the actual show itself. While I would love to get all think-y about how media consumption has scrambled our brains to the point that we can’t even enjoy a live concert without the mediated, second-hand exhibition of it – this summer at a Loreena McKennit concert, a woman in front of me enjoyed the entire show through the iPad held up to her face at eye-level – there’s maybe a more pressing issue here: people taking photos of the screens instead of the actual. What are you thinking?

I get that it’s 2012 and we all live online and there’s no way to guarantee you were ever anywhere without taking a thousand photos of it and that the rhythm of life now pretty much comes out to Instagramming photos of eggs benedicts then eating the eggs benedicts so you can convert the calories to energy to sustain your ability to photograph and eat more eggs benedicts forever and ever. But what about taking a photo of a screen makes any sense?

When you present them to envious friends and acquaintances in your Facebook or Instagram feed or whatever, do you think you’re going to trick them into thinking you were taking close-quarters professional photos of Leonard Cohen? When someone asks how the concert was, do you think they’ll buy it when you answer, “Great. I sat six inches away from the performers and got some really candid and abysmally lit shots of their faces and hands”? .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=190237

[BlueJazz]

1. I know what you mean. I'm gonna' start bring my own camera and lights.

[d_r]

2. the people taking pictures with ipads

I start to wonder if they don't know how to move pictures from a camera to the ipad later so they have to take them straight from the pad.

The thing that ponders me is the number of people who take pictures at places like Disney world. Not of their friends and family, but of things like the scenery. Like tons of people taking pictures of the rides and things like its a small world. Don't they know that everything in there has been photographed like 10 million times and you could just look at the picture of it on the internet? You can watch the whole thing on dozens of youtube videos, so why are you looking at your ipad to video it? Are you going to catch something that everyone else has missed? I understand completely taking pictures of your friends and family in places like that, they make cute pictures and memories, but why spend so much time looking at the scenery through your view finder?

[pipi_k]

3. What makes me shake my head

and say WTF is when people take video of concerts and then post it on You Tube for public viewing.

The video is crappy. The sound quality sucks.

OK, maybe it's good enough for them, but for Pete's sake, make it private and don't waste the time of people who are looking for halfway decent sound and video quality for their "favorites" lists.

[Throd]

4. These days we record events rather than enjoy experiences.