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.
