Greddy gave some tips also, which is cool, and he is only a few hundreds kilometres away in Estonia, and saw the same lights! :D
I think the taking of photos of everything culture also kills the value of photos themselves. They are taken and then never seen again - people used to make treasured albums - now they are all disposable.
Greddy takes some amazing shots! I had read some of y'alls conversation before i made my remarks. Cool that he was so close... i thought of that when he mentioned Helsinki.
I think you are more than correct with your sentiment. It's funny how the 'albums' are such a vault of experience, yet when combing through these treasure troves... most folks don't recall what the event that was worth capturing in the photos was to begin with. It sucks the soul out of the precious moments from both sides leaving things with less meaning and disposable as you put it. I'm obviously not against taking photos... but there are times when less is more!