The Other Side of Date Night

A photo within a photo is called the Droste Effect.

But what do you call a photo of someone taking a photo?

My significant other calls it "The Other Side of Date Night," according to her new Instagram account that features photos of me taking Instagram photos when we're out together.

This differs from the recursive photo-within-a-photo-within-a-photo properties of the effect named after an image on a Dutch cocoa package designed by Jan Misset in 1904.

The Droste Effect is well-documented. Look at these 50 great examples.

So too are popular searches for photos of people taking photos. Consider this Tumblr search or 500px blog post.

It's not the same as "The Other Side of Date Night," though.

Closer is this amusing Instagram account of the problems people encounter in taking pictures of mirrors they plan to sell on Craig's List.

Closer still is "The Boyfriends of Instagram" account, which documents the ridiculous lengths boyfriends go through to capture the perfect Instagram shot of their girlfriends.

But there's no label to describe the faux-epic image of me at the top of this page, iPhone held aloft, snapping the unoriginal Instagram photo of the New York skyline to the right, while on a date with my wife in Jersey City.

Or this photo she took of me from inside a dry car on a rainy night in Bogota, NJ. I posted the resulting image of St. Joseph's Church on my @foundinnj Instagram account because I post a photo of a New Jersey church every Sunday accompanied by the #njchurcheverysunday hashtag.

Why? Because I can't help myself.

I blame modern life for this technology-enabled obsession. I don't think my parents or grandparents worried about stuff like this.

What's worse is that thought of taking a photo of me taking a photo of something else has now spread to my workplace.

Consider this recent photo of my colleague Eric Wilkens (not shown) taking a photo of me, taking a photo of phtojournalist Dominick Reuter, taking a photo of Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg.

Let me propose a name for this social-media-era phenomenon. Call it the SOS Effect.

SOS stands for "Significant Other Shot" or, in work situations, "Significant Observer Shot."

The SOS Effect is a photo of someone taking photo of someone else taking a photo. When you're the trailing subject of such a photo, it's also a sign that you desperately need help.

It means, for example, that you should be paying more attention to your significant other.

And that, my friend, is the true meaning of "The Other Side of Date Night."