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.

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!!