How wack is this picture? Part I

You're at a concert. A fun concert. You're having a good time. A really good time. Someone waves a lighter in the air. Another person waves their cellphone. A second. a third. The onstage celebrity tells you it's alright. If you don't have a lighter, go ahead and wave that cellphone in the air. This is where the temptation steps in the picture. You've got the cellie aloft. It's got a camera function on it, a Zoom G, other funny letters behind it. The setting is good, the time is right. Why not preserve the moment for all time? Save that image of the concert for all posterity. Snap a picture on your camera phone. I assure you... three years, maybe three months, quite frankly three minutes afterwards, you'll be asking yourself, How wack is this picture? and, Why did I think this was a good idea?

Went to the Snoop Dogg show last night in San Francisco. Not only did I find myself asking myself this about my photo (which, of course, I took in order to test this theory), but also of every other nerd after me who rose their digital hood pass in their air, with one of two "silly" things in mind: 1) Whatever I get from this photomaker will be really good?; 2) I am a member of the digital age.

This photo above, perfect example. This photo will not go in any photo album of my concert adventures with Snoop Dogg. This photo will not win me a job with Annie Leibovitz and end up in Lens magazine. There is no Glenn Friedman in my future. If I show this to my child 15 years from now, they will laugh at me, and they probably should.

Note, there are a few forms. The back of a man in a white tee, isnt he drinking. Oh, here we go, this one is cool because there's a lot of purple. And look at those stage lights! Check that posterization! Not a photographer, or a tech snob, but I gotta say this looks like one of those (usually more) interesting throwaway prints you get from Walgreens: the "the camera was between"-frames-when-you-took-this shots. Or the over/underexposed, ghost shots. You might tack it up on the wall or cut it into some bad art, but it's making its way to the trash very soon. This picture is what my friend Yasboogie calls Chico gar-Bage and those who take them and think they are contributing to digital life are his backup singers.

Actually they are Damien "Jr Gong" Marley's backup singers ...