pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"

What can be learned from working in an old fashioned B/W darkroom is amazing. I love working with my digital and Elements but any photo course should require the old way. Then transfer that knowledge to the digital age. :thumbup:

pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"

Interesting stats! We're already living in a major worldwide catastrophe. :roll: :thumbup:

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

We have a real photo shop in town - Artcraft Photo, Kingston, NY. They seem to be going all day processing and printing, and the last time I was there, they had a good supply of film and all sorts of paper.

I'm glad I resisted the urge years ago to install a darkroom. I was always able to use the one in the high school, and that worked out fine.

Audwulf Loc: Golden State

When I was growing up, the cost of film was dear. When you could afford to buy a roll, you used it very sparingly, to make sure that all of your "Treasures" were the very best. You would pass up shots, always hoping to get a better one, missing out on some very fine shots. Thank heavens for digital. Now you can take photos of every thing you like. So, instead of taking twenty four or thirty six photos of the family in all of the the places you've been, you can now take hundreds, or more, without mortgaging the farm. Yeaah digital.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And color was more expensive to buy and to process. I think my Brownie took eight shots on a roll of 127.

pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"

I've got all the darkroom equipment, just got to find a spot to set it up. Bought a great Omega enlarger and timers, s/s tanks and reels, a 75mm Nikkor to go with the 50mm so I can start doing b/w with my mint Mamiya 645. I just want to do b/w with the 645. Don't ask me why. I should just convert my digitals to b/w but there's just something about a darkroom I miss. Maybe the smell, costs, mess, etc. :roll: :lol:

professorwheeze Loc: Maine, USA

My first digital camera was a Kodak DC 290 3.3 MP, costing over $900 in 1996. I was so pleased with the results. I always wanted to do color in a darkroom but those chemicals were not for me, Sitting at desktop computer permitted me to be creative without the chemistry and cheaper unit cost. I sold many, many prints that are still displayed.

I was the go to guy at the time for this new process called digital photography. Within a year of my Kodak DC 290, I was preaching the value of digital. Wait a couple of years, as in 2 years, was my mantra. Cameras would be improved, computers would be more efficient, all for the same cost as my purchase. Guess my 2 out of 3 predictions were right on.

Yet I still can't believe what $900 in 2012 money can purchase as compared to my initial digital camera. The amount of information, er data, has exponentially increased just like the MP's. and the cameras that sell for under $50 today can ALMOST do as well as my old DC290. ALMOST.

Now, the camera manufacturers have figured out how to eke out extra hundreds and thousands from the pro's. Surely, a Canon IIIMark 5 is better than a T3i. Same for Nikon. That aspect of digital photography leaves me spell-bound. The cost difference between the PRO-level and Advanced-Amateur level is phenomenal. Yet the difference my only be 20 cents per shutter activation.

If you want to know what the next 15 years will bring look at the parallel between luxury autos and basic autos. What was standard on Mercedes in 2000 is standard on the 25K car today. So ... look at Hasselblad, for example, and see what technology will be in the better digital SLR's in the year 2020.

I will stop rambling now.

Ray

P.S. I have no financial interest in any of the camera brands named above. I am still an amateur with a regular job outside of photography.

pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"

"P.S. I have no financial interest in any of the camera brands named above. I am still an amateur with a regular job outside of photography"

With everyone with a digital camera that think they're a pro you've got to have a regular job outside of photography!
When my stepson got married a month ago there were two "pros" that supposedly shot about 2500 images. Whats been posted on the web site are mostly bad shots. Not to brag but everyone thinks my shots are much better as far as lighting, composition, etc. I was just in the background trying to stay out of the way of the pros. Same with his college graduation. Ended up using my candid shots instead of buying from the photographer the university hired. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of talented hard working pros out there. But also a lot of wannabees that don't know an f-stop from a stop sign.

PNagy Loc: Missouri City, Texas

At the point where Sony introduced its Mavica camera I felt that digital would become better and better until it retired film completely. I retired frm it at that point.

picturedude Loc: Yosemite natl. park, Ca.

Getting some great replies here. I still get a good chuckle when I see groups of people holding their cell phones up to take pictures of the same thing. The first time I saw this reminded me of going to a concert and holding up our bic lighters.

picturedude Loc: Yosemite natl. park, Ca.

Boy that's for sure. I always shot B & W. I think the first time I shot color I was in hog Heaven. Almost afraid to use it for fear of wasting it.

friedeye Loc: Los Angeles

It's the democratization of the medium. It's what happened in music and film - anyone with a decent computer can make a movie or record a song. And, yes, it can lead to job loss. Television and some movie scores are done by the composer and maybe a couple of assistants on computers now, putting hundreds of musicians out of work (actually, that change happened almost 20 years ago).

Everyone has the means now to take and post produce stunning images. But, as in any medium, only the cream rises. Talent will out.

pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"

A great laugh was when in Rocky Mountain NP in Colorado some young guy with an OM-1 and motor drive on a tripod was firiing off bursts of a scenic mountain view. No change of exposure and it was a crystal clear day with no change in lighting. Just wanted to waste film I guess. Too bad there wasn't digital back then. He could have saved a lot of money. I never saw the mountain move but maybe he saw something I didn't. :roll:

ngc1514 Loc: Atlanta, Ga., Lancaster, Oh. and Stuart, Fl.

How many times have we seen the same thing happen over the last few decades? Technology advances and people embrace it. Look at computers, VCR, cellphones, CD, and on and on.

We have always been a picture-taking nation and we have always been big into instant gratification. Polaroid locked into those facts with their cameras (come on... who had a Polaroid Swinger or SX-70 way back when? "YOU! Yeah, you in the back.... put up your hand, we know you did!")

The other thing you can count on is the price of technology always dropping. Sure, there may be a few upward blips like the recent increase in hard drive prices due to flooding in Southeast Asia, but the price is always coming down.

Put all those factors into play: our picture taking enthusiasm, instant gratification and dropping prices and I don't think any futurist would have had problems predicting the results.

What people can't easily predict is who with thrive, who will barely survive and who will fold up and blow away.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

Lol this reminded me of a time when I was out taking some pics awhile back. I went to a park that is made to drive through and be pretty as you go through, but there's also a couple of gardens. Everything was starting to bloom and I wanted to get some pics. So I park the car get my camera and I start wandering around a garden looking for good areas to get some shots. Anyway one of the trees bordering the garden had some lovely blooms I wanted to capture, but it put me standing part of the way in the road. So I'm watching for cars along with trying to get the best angle I can on these blooms. I hear a car and I see it slowing down which I figured was for me because I'm snapping away. Next thing I know the car is stopped and the driver has their arm out the window taking a picture with their cell phone of the same blooms I was taking pictures of with my camera up close. To each their own I guess.