alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

I just hope you dont have to stop quickly

cytafex Loc: Clarksburg MA

Do you not consider photograms as photography?

GAS496 Loc: Arizona

The pleasure derived from carrying fifty pounds of gear miles to a remote location to photograph an ancient Anasazi Ruin is not in the final image. It’s in the process of taking in the beauty of the location it’s history and mystery. Then in setting up the large format 8x10 camera and seeing the image on the ground glass for the first time. Is the composition right? Everything in focus? Everything is perfect corner to corner so now it’s time to sit for a few minutes and take it all in. Is this the image you really want? Yes, this is why you hiked miles down a rough canyon and will have to hike back up that rough canyon. So you load the film, take some meter readings, set the aperture and shutter, pull the slide and trip the shutter. Log it all in the notebook.

Fingers crossed you pack up and head home. Unload the film in total darkness into the tube, prepare the chemistry with all its glorious aroma and fifteen minutes or so later you take your first look and see if all that sweat, time and money were worth it.

In the time of instant gratification why I have chosen this path is somewhat of a mystery. Maybe because the entire process is a mystery, the upside down reversed ground glass image, how film captures photons on its silver halide, and then how the development process reveals and stabilizes the image frozen in time forever.

Appreciating both the simplicity and complexity of the process, taking the time to view the world in a deliberate slow process is what photography has brought into my life. Oh yea, I shot a backup with my iPhone just in case!!

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Very well stated, GAS496. I couldn't agree more.
--Bob

one shot Loc: Pisgah Forest NC

Wonder what people thought when an artist (painter) could buy their paints in a tube and didn't have to forage for the materials then create the paint and colors. Not true artists?

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Yes. We've gone beyond just taking pictures. Now we are "image makers".

Ariel

It is still a snap shot . but with a more elaborate approach ... nothing wrong in that .

Paul Buckhiester Loc: Columbus, GA USA

Great stuff!

GAS496 Loc: Arizona

Actually there is nothing wrong with any way you choose as long as it brings you pleasure.

Thanks Bob!

Yankeepapa6 Loc: New York City

A person with a camera???

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

Very keen observation that gets to the heart of the matter!

kdogg Loc: Gallipolis Ferry WV

Up until 2016 I was still shooting film, mostly B+W and slide film(until it all but disappeared). The learning curve was not as steep as I thought it would be and I have come to love the digital format. That said I am waiting for the return of Ektachrome sometime next year. It will give me a chance to dust off the old Minolta's (I have 4) and take a trip down memory lane. I continue to explore digital photography and am just now getting into PP, which for me is the biggest part of the learning process of the digital format. No I won't go back to film exclusively but but I still have all darkroom equipment and really did like the process and kinda of miss it. On the other hand I am starting to get into Paint Shop Pro and After Shot Pro and like what I can do with the images I take and process on my computer. No special room and my hand stay nice and dry.

Daisy Dog

Always an interesting debate. I'm a new member and this is my first 'reply'; it's also the first time I felt I had something to offer. My profession, architect, brought me to photography, and UHH, but similar debates have raged in the field of architecture. The first debate I was aware of was "do you design with a pencil or pen?" This seemingly ridiculous (at least to me) difference was the cause of many heated arguments, staff replacements, rejected concepts, etc. Then the computer and computer aided design and drafting (CADD) reared it's ugly head and the debate raged on.

After fifty plus years of listening to the arguments I have come to the opinion that humans are afraid of change and need some time to embrace that which they don't understand. Every time I hear that Ansel Adams used a big box camera I think, yes, but he did but he didn't have an option.

Ariel

It's not that you use a big box camera or that one uses a pencil or pen it's what you say using "whatever "
Adams did have options but his schtick for the unwashed masses was the big box camera...it added a mystique.

kdogg Loc: Gallipolis Ferry WV

You are quite correct about people resisting change. I am not an architect but did have 3 years of drafting in high school and one of our teachers was more focused on our printing than on design. But it did lead me to become a contractor and with the help of my uncle(an architect) I could just about anything, but continuing education and change was always the order of the day. As they say you snooze you loose!