positive-outlook photographs
Avid about photography? Yes. It’s addictive - a thousand times more so with digital cameras. I actually loathed cameras prior to purchasing my powerhouse Canon 3.2MP point-and-shoot four years ago. Film was tedious, prints were easy to fingerprint-up and expensive in comparison, the mechanical nature was simply painful. At least for someone like me with no prior 35mm experience.
Digital cameras make people go nuts. At a family reunion? A cute baby starts smiling and four of ten people look for their wallet-sized soul-stealer. Even though I was not apparently alive during “the day”, it seemed to be that only the photographically nerdy had cameras for those special moments. Now, not-so-special-and-possibly-trash-bin-worthy moments are captured in 200 & 400 & 800 “speed” film.
The advantage to this, though, is that our memories are sharpened. Events are recalled with finely-pixelated clarity and get togethers are enhanced with the good times of the past. My iPhoto starts at a few hundred shots, 70% of which are great photos. Then I cross the 2,500 mark where 40% are shots I wouldn’t mind framing. Then 5,000 and 10%. And 10,000 & 2%. Finally, I breech 15,000 and consider hiring someone to go through the collection to mass-erase the quantum chaos.
Yet, still, my memory is clearer. Those moments, though blurred by lack of focus or underexposed by someone blocking the flash, piece together a beautiful and singular series of moments. If I hang out with friends for two hours, given certain circumstances, an easy 200 photos could result (thank you, Compact Flash II) that, as a whole, organize themselves into an array of thousand-word memories. The trade-off of letting the photos do the remembering for me while I endure an overly stressful and potentially overbearing workload at school & work which saps my extracurricular memory - the trade-off is arguable.
Can you tell? I just went through a bunch of photos, young and old. It was worth it.
November 19th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I’m really glad you like your new Canon. I’m still pretty attached to my Nikon N80, even though it’s a film SLR. I agree about the advantages of digital — we take our little digital point-and-shoot to most places, and I plan carefully before going out to photograph with my Nikon. The one advantage I think that film still has, though, is that the prints are still just a little better than digital. I can usually identify digital prints easily, even when they’re done at a high-quality lab. But I know it won’t be long before digital print quality reaches that of film, and maybe then I’ll jump ship.
November 19th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Oh, never throw out a photograph: you might end up throwing out accidental pieces of art.