Wiggle's Concert Survival Guide
We just went to our fourth Wiggle's concert. This one was at the BiLo Center in Greenville. It's not my favorite location but it's close and on our way home I decided to share my knowledge on how to "SURVIVE THE WIGGLE'S CONCERT".
The first thing that you have to do is eat on the way. I know a lot of you out there loath the idea of eating in the car but a full belly helps to cut down on trips to the concession stands.
The second hurtle is getting there early. Trust me when I tell you that you do not want to be in a line to get in the event building with a 2-5 year old who's very existence at that moment is centered around the group inside.
Hit the restrooms on the way in. The last thing you want is for the concert to start and here, "Daddy... I have to potty." Do in on the way in, the eating and jarring from the car ride is paying off now.
Buy one of everything in the souvenir stand on the way in. If you've followed my advice so far, you kid(s) are feed, you are there early and they've just taken care of all the internal pressure, so now let's satisfy their consumer instincts for swag. Another alternative that I used this last time was to wait. As people came in with their swag, I'd ask my daughter what she thought of them. Then I asked to list 3 things that she wanted and as soon as the Wiggles came out on stage, I slipped out to the lobby to do my shopping. I had to use the cell phone to verify a couple of things but it worked out pretty well and I had all of the shopping done in one song. If you try my alternative approach, I'd have to recommend that you at least 'visit' the souvenir shop on the way in to get your bearings on what they have.
Take plenty of pictures before the concert starts. The lighting is better, you can often go up to the stage and sometimes they will let you put your child on the stage for a once in a lifetime photo.
SHOOT IN RAW!! If you don't know what that means then find a digital shutter bug and ask. Basically (and I'm sure I'm way over simplifying it but) when you shoot in jpg, tif, or heaven forbid a propitiatory format; the camera has to make some assumptions. Normally those assumptions are close but when you are on the fringe (like say shooting in dark areas) the camera normally misses. When you shoot raw, the raw data from the CCD is saved to the card and that is what you open in photoshop (or what ever you use to edit with). At this point you make those same decisions and see the outcome. You can over expose or under expose, add filters, etc. after the fact and at you leisure. You can also pull out detail that you never knew was there. In the images below, there is an unedited that my camera would have saved as a jpg and a modified version that I let photoshop choose the settings for. I could have tweaked it more by hand but my point here is how bad this picture would have been had I taken it in jpg.
These are just a few of the tricks that I've discovered over the past few years of Wiggles concert going and I have to say that I am so glad that The Wiggles travel all over the world and are still willing to come to a little back woods town like Greenville SC.
---Footnote:
The images used here are for education purposes only and used with absolutely no permission what so ever. Anthony, Greg (or Sam), Murry and Jeff, please don't sue!