Yep, I'm in a mood to rant a little ... and it ain't even Sunday morning. I've been back on the list for a short while, and am (almost) stunned to find so many messages about digital imaging. The messages I've read had little, if anything, to do with photography, at least in the sense that I've come to know photography over these past four decades or so. Bits, bytes, EXIF's, and all sorts of jargon that is arcane and which I cannot see, except in a rather tangential way, as having much to do with traditional photography. By that I mean making photographs, not digi v film. Now, don't get me wrong - I use a digital camera, and am very much interested in how I can use pixels to make my photographs, yet I believe there's far too much talk about the intricacies and subtleties of how a RAW becomes a TIFF, for example, and far too little discussion - or action - about the art and skill of making a photograph.
Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about all the crap that goes on inside a digital camera, or what and where the headers are in some TIFF or JPEG file, the ebb and flow of electrons, the size of the sensor, who Bayer is and why he interpolated red green and blue pixels. Show me the picture, the final image, if you will. Show me the interplay of light and shadow, the smile caught in a sly glance, or a story written in light, whether with a silver or an electronic brush. That is what photography is. That is the tradition. I've been having a lot of fun with my digital camera, and it's been exciting to learn Photoshop, but hanging out here for the past couple of weeks has made me nauseous from all the digital hyperbole. I got so tired of hearing about the technical strengths and failings of software, the dissection of file formats, complaints about sensor size (It's that age old question: Does size matter? Or is what you do with your tool more important?), analyzing and supposing why one size shall prevail over another ... so, since I'm off my antidepressants for a while I had to find something to elevate my mood. I grabbed my old Leica M3 - no batteries, no light meter, no auto anything except for the nerves, dendrites, and synapses that connect my eye, brain, and shutter release finger - stuck on a 90mm lens, and went out an made some photographs in the old fashioned way. What a lovely experience ... I could focus wherever I pleased (even where there was nothing to focus upon!), not where some sensor told me to; I decided if the focus was correct or not, not some sensor that glows in the viewfinder; I could over or under expose without changing modes; I could even make a double exposure without too much trouble, although the Leica is not the best camera for that. A good, ol' Spottie or MX, or some such similar relic makes doing that a (literal) snap. I guess with a digital camera one would make a double exposure using post processing techniques <LOL> I'm hesitant to suggest that everyone go out and use an old camera. There are many people here, and elsewhere, who are wedded to the new technologies, and far too many who wouldn't even know how to use a camera such as a Leica or a Pentax H3v. Mind you, that's not a slur ... I have trouble with many of the newer cameras. It's just what one has become accustomed to. Just the idea that I have to turn it on and get into a shooting mode gives me apoplectic fits. Oh, I know that it won't take long to figure out how to get one of these high-tech image processors up and running, and that with most it's just a quick read of the manual to learn how to make the camera do what I want it to do, which is generally nothing but take the picture at the aperture and shutter speed that I choose. And I know that all you dudes who grew up on video games and have great eye-hand coordination can probably switch modes before I could even figure out what mode I should be in. Maybe I should just find a nice sunny spot in the park, sit on a bench, and feed the squirrels. So, for those of you who haven't tried it yet, grab an old camera, grab some film, and go out and make pictures in the fashion of a by gone era. And for those of you who have an old Spottie around, or an MX, or some such silly paperweight, it may be time to take it for a walk around the neighborhood before all the gears and levers fuse together from lack of use. You'll have a wonderful story to tell your grandchildren ... "Billie Jean, come sit with grandpa in the garden and I'll tell you about film. And if you're good, I'll tell you that story you like so much about developers." Now, on a completely different note: Does anyone have a great recipe for beef stew? I've been craving comfort food lately ... wonder why? shel
