Yesterday marked the wrap of Singapore's First Night Festival. And Friday night saw me swaying to the wicked melodies of live jazz performed at the Singapore Art Museum as part of the a series of programmes lined up during the festival.

I took a seat at Dome's, ordered coffee, laid back comfortably into my seat and let the evening breeze brush playfully across my face as the band played. Then I thought I saw multiple lighting flashed across the sky. I winced and was prepared to move further under the shelter. But it was actually something else - flash bulbs.

Then I couldn't help but wonder, when was the last time we sat through a performance and thoroughly appreciate it with our senses without whipping out our cameras?

The week before, The Best Friend and I attended the opening act for Night Festival at National Museum. Performers would perform (almost) death-defying acrobatic acts mid-air while secured to a harness. Announcements of no flash photography were made repeatedly; sudden lightening would startle the performers and distract them. While I kept my Sony CyberShot in my bag during the performance, everyone else seemed to ignore that announcement and the flashes never ceased.

In a mobile (i.e. moving) act, plots, scenes, movements change in an instant second. Miss it and you will never get it back. I wouldn't want to peel my eyes away and miss a single beat just because I need to figure which buttons to push to achieve less noise in my picture. I want to watch the alluring breath-taking mid-air dancing from A to Z and feel its grandeur with my senses and feel its impact in my heart. Photographed pictures you may take away and keep for a long time after the event, you can show them off to the world, but can you recall the emotions evoked within you that night other than 'Damn where's that ISO HIGH button' 'Shit picture too dark' 'Aiyah that man's head blocking lah'?

Would there come a day when we have photography and no photography - for those who prefer not to be visually disturbed by flashes of lights - at such performances?

I did turn on my camera and took videos of two separate segments, for the silhouettes of the dancers are almost large as a speck of tint in the air. I had to zoom into the image and watch through the large screen. Close enough but I completely lost the plot because watching through the lens just isn't quite the same.

I took no photos that night because I know with such far distance, poor lighting condition and limited capabilities of my Sony Cybershot under those mentioned conditions, it'd be a total waste of time. I prefer to just watch the performances with my eyes, not through the lens.