FrankS
Registered User
I once was a dedicated film photographer, at the evangelist level, I'll admit. I joined the university darkroom group and learned how to develop and print B+W about 50 years ago. Once I got settled into family life with a house, I took over a spare bedroom next to the washroom and plumbed in a darkroom sink and developed and printed B+W at home for many years. I was a weekend warrior photographer doing weddings and family portraits while supporting my family with my full time job.
Then digital came along. Oh, I resisted for several years and continued shooting film with great, classic film cameras, mainly Nikon, Leica, and Hasselblad. Eventually I gave digital a try and, while still being happy with the images I was making, and appreciating the ease with which I could share images on the internet including here on RFF, the digital process did not provide me with the same satisfaction of darkroom printing. With great effort comes great satisfaction. However, I could not rationalize this great effort when the digital alternative was so easy and fast. It was a catch 22 situation.
Because of this conflict, my love of photography faded. I am still very satisfied with the images themselves, but now almost exclusively use my cell phone. My free time hobbies drifted towards home stereo and vintage motorcycles. I came back to RFF where I was once very active, after a recent chat with an old RFF friend who mentioned RFF.
Here's a cell phone pic I took in New Mexico while on a motorcycle trip around the US some years ago, and a pic with a Rolleiflex TLR in Texas.
Then digital came along. Oh, I resisted for several years and continued shooting film with great, classic film cameras, mainly Nikon, Leica, and Hasselblad. Eventually I gave digital a try and, while still being happy with the images I was making, and appreciating the ease with which I could share images on the internet including here on RFF, the digital process did not provide me with the same satisfaction of darkroom printing. With great effort comes great satisfaction. However, I could not rationalize this great effort when the digital alternative was so easy and fast. It was a catch 22 situation.
Because of this conflict, my love of photography faded. I am still very satisfied with the images themselves, but now almost exclusively use my cell phone. My free time hobbies drifted towards home stereo and vintage motorcycles. I came back to RFF where I was once very active, after a recent chat with an old RFF friend who mentioned RFF.
Here's a cell phone pic I took in New Mexico while on a motorcycle trip around the US some years ago, and a pic with a Rolleiflex TLR in Texas.
Attachments
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
I agree with your basic premise, but my life's path in photography has been somewhat, well, opposite to yours .
For one thing, I dislike cell phone photography. To me this is the 21st century equivalent of trying to do everything with an Instamatic. I use my iPhone for "quick and nasty" snaps, but even with the utmost care in shooting and post processing I find I cannot really get images that technically satisfy me. Colors are okay, composition so-so, sharpness, well... But it suffices for street work.
I used film cameras from 1961 to 2009 until I decided Nikon digital cameras had reached a technical level I could live with and be satisfied with the results. Moved into 'D' with a Nikon D90, then a D700, now a D800. Now pondering the purchase of what will likely be my very last camera, and am considering either a Nikon Zf or a Zfc or even a D7500 as with my feeble eyesight I don't cope well with many electronic viewfinders. The D7500 is especially appealing as I want to play with a 10.5mm D fisheye lens a friend has offered me on more or less permanent loan. I may then add a Nikon 40mm G macro lens and an adapter to use my collection of Nikon D lenses (85, 180, 300). That will do me for the rest of my life, what remains of it.
Film is wonderful and it still stimulates me. I enjoy handling my Nikkormats and Rollei TLRs and I get a great deal of pleasure from setting up the camera myself for each and every image I make. The one fly in the ointment here is the ridiculously high price for film and film processing costs here in Australia. Buying a five-pack of 35 or 120 film is no longer a purchase, it's an investment. I do all my own processing, but at my age time in the darkroom means I have to take it away from so many other things I now want to do before I pop off to another avatar. So again I've had to make decisions. More change as a constant.
I also enjoy digital. It's easy, it satisfies my urge to make images, and most importantly as an age pensioner, it's affordable.
Obviously I'm not a "spray and pray" sort of photographer like so many of my digital shooter friends have turned into. One posts each and every image she takes, last weekend she did 500+ of a family picnic and put them all up online. So far nobody has bothered to look at any of them which annoys her no end. To us she is either needy or attention seeking or she badly needs affirmation. Otherwise she is a nice person altho at times annoying with her fishing for compliments about her (frankly very ordinary) images. Nobody is playing along and it annoys her. The "change is constant" principle would do her a power of good if only she could see her way to it. We all know people like this. Sadly there are entirely too many of them, but such is life in today's narcissistic western culture.
My love of photography fades now and then but invariably it returns. it has been my way of looking at the world and at situations around me for so long, it's now part of my essential nature, and I couldn't live without it. But when it changes, I realize I have to change along with it, and I try to adapt. It's my way to survive.
Apologies to the OP for such a long post. No intention of stealing your thread here, it's a good topic and I thank you for posting it.
For one thing, I dislike cell phone photography. To me this is the 21st century equivalent of trying to do everything with an Instamatic. I use my iPhone for "quick and nasty" snaps, but even with the utmost care in shooting and post processing I find I cannot really get images that technically satisfy me. Colors are okay, composition so-so, sharpness, well... But it suffices for street work.
I used film cameras from 1961 to 2009 until I decided Nikon digital cameras had reached a technical level I could live with and be satisfied with the results. Moved into 'D' with a Nikon D90, then a D700, now a D800. Now pondering the purchase of what will likely be my very last camera, and am considering either a Nikon Zf or a Zfc or even a D7500 as with my feeble eyesight I don't cope well with many electronic viewfinders. The D7500 is especially appealing as I want to play with a 10.5mm D fisheye lens a friend has offered me on more or less permanent loan. I may then add a Nikon 40mm G macro lens and an adapter to use my collection of Nikon D lenses (85, 180, 300). That will do me for the rest of my life, what remains of it.
Film is wonderful and it still stimulates me. I enjoy handling my Nikkormats and Rollei TLRs and I get a great deal of pleasure from setting up the camera myself for each and every image I make. The one fly in the ointment here is the ridiculously high price for film and film processing costs here in Australia. Buying a five-pack of 35 or 120 film is no longer a purchase, it's an investment. I do all my own processing, but at my age time in the darkroom means I have to take it away from so many other things I now want to do before I pop off to another avatar. So again I've had to make decisions. More change as a constant.
I also enjoy digital. It's easy, it satisfies my urge to make images, and most importantly as an age pensioner, it's affordable.
Obviously I'm not a "spray and pray" sort of photographer like so many of my digital shooter friends have turned into. One posts each and every image she takes, last weekend she did 500+ of a family picnic and put them all up online. So far nobody has bothered to look at any of them which annoys her no end. To us she is either needy or attention seeking or she badly needs affirmation. Otherwise she is a nice person altho at times annoying with her fishing for compliments about her (frankly very ordinary) images. Nobody is playing along and it annoys her. The "change is constant" principle would do her a power of good if only she could see her way to it. We all know people like this. Sadly there are entirely too many of them, but such is life in today's narcissistic western culture.
My love of photography fades now and then but invariably it returns. it has been my way of looking at the world and at situations around me for so long, it's now part of my essential nature, and I couldn't live without it. But when it changes, I realize I have to change along with it, and I try to adapt. It's my way to survive.
Apologies to the OP for such a long post. No intention of stealing your thread here, it's a good topic and I thank you for posting it.
pyeh
Member of good standing
It's very good to see you back on RFF, Frank, no matter what camera you're shooting.
John Bragg
Well-known
Photography is great, no matter what medium you choose. It is chiefly about enjoyment and whatever gives you that is good. I adopt a hybrid workflow out of choice, so my "digitised" images are originated on film as for me, using a range of wonderful mechanical cameras is a huge part of that enjoyment. Phone camera is rarely used unless I don't have an actual camera with me. I like HP5+ and what it gives me aesthetically and have had to learn to scan my negatives and enter the digital "Rabbit Hole" of post processing. I still like prints so inkjet is frequently used, and that way I get to do any contrast adjustments and burning and dodging just once, then every subsequent print is identical.