Shutter Bugged-Out

Over the weekend, my wife & I saw Aretha Franklin perform at Radio City Music Hall. I knew we were in for a special night when The Queen of Soul launched into a smoky version of 'My Funny Valentine.' There are concerts and then there are legends like Aretha.

But it was the pre-concert hysteria that lead me to blog about this event. When we arrived at Radio City, the lobby was buzzing with excited fans a good hour before the show was scheduled to start. And that's when it hit me.

Aretha's fans were snapping pictures of each other left and right. Photos of family and friends standing in the crimson lobby. People snapping shots of each other standing along one of the majestic staircases that lead up to the balcony. From their seats and around the concert hall. Digital cameras and camera-phones seemed to be flashing everywhere.

Yeah, Radio City is an historic venue. And I'm sure a fair number of attendees were out-of-towners who wanted to capture the moment. But it seems like everywhere you go these days, people are just downright snap happy.

Digital cameras and camera-phones certainly make amateur photography more convenient than what was available to us ten or fifteen years ago. You can take more shots and simply delete the ones you don't like and not have to worry about paying to have bad pictures processed. I'm no exception -- I try to bring my Sony Cybershot with me on vacations or special outings, like one of my kids' concerts or a school play.

But what has happened to objectivity, or selectivity, for that matter? Maybe it's just me, but too many people seem bent on trying to archive even the most mundane moments.