Dumping the film cameras and buying a DSLR is probably not such a bad idea. I sold almost all my screw mount Pentaxes and a couple of K lenses to finance the *istD, battery grip, flash cards, and one ultra-wide lens. I was just starting to get heavily involved in stock, and I could see it was impossible to do enough volume with film. I make a bit of money here and there on photography, but I'm still a hobbyist. This will probably be the first year that income will exceed expenses. Digital has made that possible. In fact, since my finances aren't as healthy as they once were, I wouldn't be shooting much these days if I was still on film. I love the intricacies of film, I love the darkroom, but I'm enjoying photography every bit as much today as I did when I was dipping my hands in fixer every night. Paul
> So, Frank, if you wanna be a "photographer," maybe you should dump the film > cams and buy a DSLR. > > Shel > > Frank wrote: > > > Along the lines of what you're saying, when I first > > quit my job a month or so ago, I was thinking, "here's > > my chance to do what I love - I'll be a photographer!" > > > > Then I realized that without digital I've been left > > behind. Even little a**-wipe weekly rags have gone > > digital these days. They don't hire staff photogs > > (since the editor is also the reporter and > > photographer), so the best I could do is freelance. > > And, they don't want negs or prints, they want > > digital. > > > > So about all I can do with film is continue to take > > whatever silly little photos I take, and maybe they'll > > end up on the wall of a cafe or restaurant or small > > insignificant gallery, and people will go "oooooh" and > > "aaaaaah", and if I'm lucky I'll sell one or two, and > > I'll end up losing a couple hundred dollars on the > > show. > > > > Or, I could go to a publisher, who would steer me to > > their vanity press subsidiary, and for a couple of > > thousand bucks I could get a run of several hundred > > books which would likely be very poor quality anyway, > > which I'd schlepp from store to store who wouldn't > > want to even take the crap on consignment, so I'd sell > > maybe 10 volumes to relatives. > > > > That's all film will get ya these days. > > > > Without digital, all ya got is a hobby. A wonderful, > > fulfilling hobby to be sure, but nothing more than > > that. > >
