TBJ: Confessions of a Selfie Stick User

Yea I said it, I use a selfie stick. You have a problem with that!? No need to refresh your screen, you read correctly, I'm a selfie sticker and I don't care who knows it! I'm tired of lying to my family and friends. I'm tired of hiding! Hiding my beautiful pictures. Why should I be ashamed of my photos? Because YOU don't agree with how I take them?? Please. This ends today.

Some of you may be confused so let me elaborate. If you're anything like I used to be, and if you've seen the wave of selfie stick users out and about, then you make fun of those people. You laugh at their ways. You point at them as they pose in front of their extended stick. Now you're probably thinking, "Why Evan?? Don't tell me you're one of THOSE people. Why not just ask someone to take your picture?? Why look like such a fool??". Oh yea, let Shannon and me hike 3 miles into the jungle and leave the clueless stranger from Albuquerque in charge of our epic waterfall picture. Leave it up to him to properly frame and adjust the lighting for the picture which we'll be sharing with our friends and family for years (possibly generations!) to come. Good call! No chance he screws this up! No chance he butchers the background and we're stuck explaining with our words what the seaside cliffs looked like. No, I'm not settling for some out of focus piece of garbage. I'm using the selfie stick and that's all there is to it. End of discussion.

Sure it may look silly, but the benefits of using a selfie stick massively outweigh the social ridicule. For one, Shannon and I are able to retake as many photos as needed until we get the shot right. No bugging strangers necessary. No stressing about my terrible fake smile. If I didn't show enough teeth, we'll redo it. Another advantage is the fantastic angles it can capture. The selfie stick provides multiple camera angles that are nearly impossible to get otherwise. The elevated selfie, the side shot, selfie from the ground looking up, using the extended arm to peer over the edge of a waterfall - the angles are magnificent. And, with so much natural beauty on our trip to Hawaii, every slight angle adjustment created a different breathtaking shot. It was fantastic.

To quote IBM, "new ideas are ugly" -- people point at them, people laugh at them, people dismiss them as ridiculous. We are all resistant to change to some degree and the selfie stick is the most recent example of this. I openly admit to having been one of those people, but for two seconds take a step back and reconsider.

Just a few short months ago, I remember walking down the peirs in SF with my mother and sister gawking at the tourists using their selfie sticks. "God, what fools". "Look at those losers". But were they losers? Or were they catching great vacation moments from unique angles with the push of a button? Were they losers, or were they ahead of the curve?

A couple weeks laster I purchased two selfie sticks as gag christmas gifts. "Lindsay and Meredith are going to get a kick out of these", I thought to myself. Sure enough, they opened their gifts with laughter. What a funny gift right? Next thing I know, I'm watching them run around, taking sweet photos with family, wishing I'd purchased one of my own. "No, no, you don't want one of those. You don't want to be one of them", I thought. But why was I fighting this urge? What was I afraid of? I held off on getting one for a couple months but with our trip to Hawaii just days away, I knew I had to pull the trigger.

If you're still saying to yourself, "No way, I'll never own a selfie stick and those people that do should be publicly shamed!" Well, you're not alone. According to an article published earlier this week, multiple famous landmarks recently outlawed these ingenious devices stating that they pose safety risks to the museum exhibits and other visitors. One Italian official was quoted saying, “The twirling around of hundreds of sticks can become unwittingly dangerous,”. Twirling around? What do they think we're doing here, trying out for the marching band? We're taking selfies for Christ sake. They're photographs - you have to remain still when you take one. If it's the long arm they're worried about, I hope they realize they collapse down to about 6". Though I don't understand their reasoning (besides being used as weapons to beat line cutters and whining children) it doesn't surprise me that the Man is trying to keep the common people from maximizing their Instagram likes. Just like Prohibition in the 30's, I'm sure this oppressive rule will soon be a thing of the past.

We bought our selfie stick for $13 on Amazon. What we've received in exchange are priceless photographs. Photos we will share with pride and without an ounce of regret. Some people just won't change their mind no matter how many points I make or unbelievable photos we take. To those who refuse to accept the future of photography and continue to cling onto the past with their stubby-armed, friend-cutting out and close-minded selfies - I say to you, open your eyes and see the future. Open up your heart and let your selfie stick prejudices go. If you do, maybe, just maybe, your Instagram/Facebook likes will be able to compete with ours ... #selfiestickpride

Eat your heart out haters!

Double Waterfall Selfie