The Thrill is Gone

I’m inundated with images I can’t judge without opening each and every one on a computer. I’ve batched renamed them in a scheme that is no more informative than the meaningless code the camera assigns. They all require post-exposure processing to look acceptable. Remind me again why digital photography is so appealing?

My abrupt comparison was triggered when I reviewed several boxes of slides that had been bereft and abandoned on my light table since my hasty affair with the new camera began. Here, now, was a real image. On a piece of film, an object I can hold. Complete. No manipulation required. With that delicious texture of grain. I fear I am becoming like one of those cranks who insists the only way to appreciate recorded music is on vinyl.

I am taking off for Venice in 12 days for weeklong visit. It is an overdue exposure of my sensibilities to things European. I am contemplating not taking the digital camera, just the b/w panoramic setup. I add up all the things I need to keep plugged into a wall outlet to manage this artificial image capture mechanism, and I inwardly sag. I think of what will be required of me to edit the work on my return—weeks staring into a monitor—and I feel defeated before I even board the plane.

Comments

[nina]

hey doug! i think if i had a darkroom of my own i wouldn't do digital either! sounds like you're doing well... we should all get together soon. (i'm leaving jan. 11th) talk to you soon...
nina

[Dennis Paulson]

Hi, Doug.

Here's a voice from the past. I saw your comments on tweeters and had to check your blog, and I was interested in your comments on digital photography. I'm nothing more than an amateur as a photographer, but I use some of my photos in professional ways, mostly in books that I'm writing. I just finished another shorebird book, mostly full of photos from others, but now I'm working on a pair of dragonfly field guides that will include largely my own photos, and we're taking a lot of trips around North America to get them. Netta has stuck to film, as she loves to watch the slides projected on the big screen. We priced a TV that would allow us to show slide shows at home without buying a digital projector, but either option is too darned expensive, so that remains an issue.

But when we go on a trip together, which is fairly frequently, she comes home without a clue about how her photos are going to turn out (and suffers some serious depression when some of them don't), while I, with my Nikon D70 (the only one I could afford but satisfies me), already have a very good idea of what I have, as I download the camera to the laptop every night. This allows me to plan the ensuing days and have that great feeling every day of knowing I've nailed something.

You're a better photographer than I am, so you can probably depend on getting great shots and not worry what your slides will look like. For me it's a matter of stress reduction. It's worth enlarging all those thumbnails (I use iView MediaPro) to know what I'm getting at least every evening (I spend very little time looking at the images as I take them, just eyeball the exposures).

As you said, I also like the feeling of financial freedom I have now. I've always said "click, 25¢, click, 25¢" exactly as you do, knowing a fair proportion of those quarters were being thrown down the drain. Indeed there has been an initial hemorrhage of funds to support the digital habit, but now that I have all the equipment, I can wear out my shutter finger with a smile!

Regards,
Dennis