Your iPhone is Blocking My View - Rules of Etiquette for Taking iPhone Pictures at an Event

This is an actual picture from my daughter's Kindergarten graduation last year.
This is all I could see. If everyone would have put their arms down, at least
I could have seen her singing her graduation song (that's what everyone is recording).

If you have any elementary aged kids in your life, you may have noticed a startling trend. At any event where kids are showcasing their skills, talent or just general cuteness, massive iPhone arm forests are springing up. They are temporary and only last long enough to block your view and end any chance you may have had to be able to see the result of all those dance lessons you paid so much for. As soon as the recital is over the iPhone arm forests magically disappear. What can we do to end this blight upon our children's events?

Okay, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but it is a fact that every two minutes, we take more pictures than the whole of humanity took during the 19th century. (Source) People take pictures of each other, of every move their child makes, of food, of garbage, of license plates, of ridiculous things we see on the street. Along with memes and emoticons, photographs are becoming an ever more increasing form of nonverbal communication. And you know what? It's turning us into a bunch of inconsiderate jerks.

It's true that we're all pretty new to the concept of being able to carry around a camera and a video recorder in our pocket, but the simple fact remains that, just like in a movie theatre, there should be rules of etiquette that go along with using your device to take pictures at events.

For example, you go to your child's Christmas program and in every row in front of you, every single person has their device out recording it. You can't see a darn thing no matter which unnatural way you angle your neck. There's a woman on the end using a gargantuan iPad to film the entire show from the excruciatingly slow parade of children lining up on the stage all the way through to the exit of the little darlings. There'a a woman doing a close-up video of her son, even though he is stubbornly refusing to sing. Then there are the people in the middle who are taking turns holding up devices like a bunch of iPhone whack-a-moles. Everyone's hands are all raised above their heads, smart phones held aloft right in front of everyone else's line of vision. 

In addition to school programs, weddings are another event where the use of devices really should be curbed. Imagine taking a look at your wedding photos only to see that in every single picture, several of your guests have their devices out to record your big day. A crowd of finely dressed ladies and gentlemen have morphed into a crowd of paparazzi displaying their Juicy Coture phone cases and whatnot. It's unavoidable for the photographer, and a huge eyesore in wedding pictures. In fact, this trend has been ranted about by bloggers like Stephanie Fusco at Leopard is a Neutral.

Regardless of how excited you may be to see your little peanut sitting on stage for the first time, or to watch your cousin walk down the aisle, everyone around you is just as excited, and they can't see through your outstretched arms, or past your enormous Berlin wall of an iPad. It's frustrating and rude, but since it's not socially acceptable to tackle other adults at events, let's talk about a better way.

Here are some ideas of how we can all get pictures and video of events without having to stare through a massive forest of smartphone arms.

1. Don't use an iPad. Please, for the love of God, just don't.
2. When taking a photo, be quick, and then put your hand down. You don't need seven identical pictures of your child standing on stage, so don't hold your phone up endlessly hitting the shutter button.
3. If you're going to take video, take a short one, and then put your phone down. There's no reason to film it from the very beginning to the very end, unless you're being paid to do so by the bride and groom/school/what have you.
4. If it's your wedding day, it's okay for you to make a note in the program or have the officiant make an announcement asking people to refrain from taking pictures or video during the ceremony. 
5. Same goes for children's programs. The PTA could organize one person to volunteer to film the whole program and then post it online. That way everyone can sit and enjoy seeing their child, and children don't have to grow up with memories of a crowd of parents looking like a hoard of paparazzi. Also, no one has to sustain a neck injury in order to peer around your iPad.
6. Be considerate of the people behind you. If you can't get a picture without holding your arms up high, then step into the aisle. Remember how annoying flash photography was 15 years ago? Holding your iPhone up high is just as obnoxious as that was.

It's hard not to simply do as the Romans do here in the information age in which we live, but in following these five simple rules, you will create a more polite world, and ensure that no one misses out on pictures of memorable events. Doing this also ensures that you don't get tackled by an irate mom three rows back. So let's get together and see if we can't achieve iPhone arm deforestation, for the betterment of humanity, and your blood pressure.

I Went to Six Weddings in Eight Months

For some reason, wedding season last year went from October to June and I went to almost one a month. Add in the wedding showers and engagement parties and thats...a lot of events. The best part about it was definitely the people. I met people from all over the United States and several foreign countries as well.

It was really cool to see the Slovakian traditions at Eva's wedding, especially the trick pitcher she and Billy had to figure out how to drink from. I also loved Suellen's wedding where I met and danced with people from Brazil, Spain and Germany. I loved meeting an entire chapter of Pikes (Pi Kappa Alpha - my Dad's fraternity) at Rebecca and John's wedding, and John had the best groom's cake, made in the shape of the Astrodome! I have never before sent a bride and groom down the aisle to the sound of cap guns shooting like we did at Meghan and Donnie's wedding, and I guess I should have worn a dress to that one because my daughters wanted to dance with everyone else's mom instead of me! Lora's maid of honor had the best speech I think I've ever heard, I laughed really hard and still remember the advice she gave Lora and Bret, "If you are ever angry with each other, take off your clothes and see if you still feel like fighting while you're naked", or something to that effect. My favorite part of Lauren and Cordero's wedding is split between seeing Cordero cry when Lauren walked down the aisle, and seeing Alexis and Lola (the flower girls) very carefully and hilariously placing the flower petals everywhere but the path.

I went alone to the two out of state weddings, and Eric accompanied me to the other four, and our poor daughters only got to go to two. Eric wore the same clothes to three of the weddings. If you look closely at the photo booth pictures you can see which shirt was different. Obviously I needed a new outfit for each one, because fashion. Vivienne had been sick the week before Lauren's wedding and threw up at the rehearsal dinner and the reception. That was so awesome, she wrote sarcastically. I've already written about the foot infection I got trying to look cute for Suellen's wedding so I won't detail that here. I will say the most surreal part had to be when I found myself with a curling iron, curling Eva's hair. Eva has spent her whole life trying to tame or straighten her gloriously beautiful natural curls. So I didn't see that one coming. Each wedding was touching and each bride was stunning, and I did cry a lot.

Now I have a ton of photo booth pictures:

And I made a lot of new friends:

I was a bridesmaid in two of the weddings:

And somehow Kristen convinced me to sing with her at one of them:

I went to one wedding on the East coast:

And one on the West coast:

Two of the weddings were for my best friends' younger siblings:

One was for my cousin (okay she's actually my half first cousin once removed but we just skip all that and call each other cousins because that's simpler than explaining that my dad and her grandpa are half brothers):

The rest were close friends:

In all it was a very exhausting eight months, and I witnessed an awful lot of love happening, which was beautiful, and I have almost perfected crying without smudging my mascara. So congratulations to all the happy couples, half of whom have already celebrated their year anniversary before I got around to blogging about their weddings. Here they are in order of their nuptials:

Eva and Billy Newcomb

Lora and Bret Grigsby

Meghan and Donnie Lunsford

Suellen and Nick Weller

Lauren and Cordero Martin

Rebecca and John Zerwas

And many congratulations for all the honeymoon babies! There are five so far!