So glad to see you back. You are frequently a breath of fresh air in the mud puddle!

About this image - I really like it. I like that it's not focus stacked, therefore it shows depth going to out of focus in the background. The composition is wonderful. Did you arrange the buds, or was that natural? It has just enough negative space to really draw attention to the hero of the story.

It would be really hard in today's world to have an image that is limited to the original film. I don't know of any place that prints directly from film anymore, unless it is done in a home darkroom. So, while I understand your angst about that, it's something we have to accept - that every image that gets posted on the internet is to some extent a hybrid.

I must apologize for being AWOL for a time. The truth is that I was getting caught in a bit of a rut and needed to take a little break from This forum and Linda's Creative post processing section. I just finished reading the very interesting thread about AI and what we should do about it. I find it an interesting topic, but won't go down that rabbit hole here. Instead I'm going to post a phot of a flower that was taken during a "table Top" photography evening at our local club. Everyone brought in a soft box or something along that order with some props. Members then set up their images using the lights and props that were available. I ended up shooting a roll of film using my delightful Nikon F5 and some Kentmere black and white film. I think it is a pretty good image and I like that it was done with a fairly old camera and some fairly old technology. It is interesting to note, however, that I scanned the negatives and then made some alterations in Lightroom. So even though it is an image that started out on film, it is hard not to see the final image as anything but a digital-analog hybrid image. That, in turn, is only a baby step away from more aggressive AI.