EdU239 Loc: The Northeast

Of course you can think of your images or of taking picture however you want, but if you want to communicate with other people about it I think you need to stick with photographer, etc. Also, calling your computer images an electron collection is not helpful. Why not call negatives chemical collections? You never see electrons, and film or digital, the camera is recording photons.

MichaelL

I like Pixel Harvester. But Photographer will have to do.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Are those who use film photographers since they don't use tintype?

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

The very word "photograph" means "writing with light" ("photo" is based on the Greek for "light" and "graph" on the Greek word for "write"). Thus any means of light-writing is the same whether it is with film (analog) or electronics (digital).

Stephan G

Phot-ology. The study of light.

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Yes. Any image made with using light sensitive materials is a photograph. Also, a camera is not necessary for the creation of photographs.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

I like overseeing my ever expanding herd of pixels, letting them out in "post-processing fields forever" to play and be re-imagined.....they are much easier to herd than the old way. I also like the movie "Pixels", so yes I'm weird too!!!

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Photographers “see” something to preserve, and they do so with mechanical devices. It does t matter if it’s analog, digital, sold, or kept. To also doesn’t matter if it’s exotic, common, artful, or not very good at all.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

Just because no one is looking at the pictures in the photo album doesn't mean they are not pictures, of course they are. That's like the old, if a tree fell in the woods and no one was there to hear it, did it make a sound. Of course it did.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Completely agree.

whatdat Loc: Del Valle, Tx.

Aw; the good old days. I was in film years ago, then I came back to photography recently, and I discovered I could see the results much quicker thru digital. No more waiting till I get back from a trip to know if my pictures turned out or not; I know thru digital in time to re-take my shot while there. Besides; IMHO, a photographer is defined more by his skill than his equipment. If you like film more, go for it; it is an art. But, digital photography doesn’t make it any less of an art.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I think this is a misperception. Photography means "light writing" or "light scribing". The word was derived from Greek. It is general enough to refer to any means of creating an image via light projected through a lens onto a photosensitive surface of some sort. It is not limited to any particular medium such as film or paper coated with a silver halide emulsion.

The laws of physics apply to digital imaging in the same ways they do to film imaging. They will apply the same ways to any future imaging technology, as well.

Whether we view images on monitors or projection screens, does not matter. What matters is the IMAGE CONTENT. How does it make us feel? What does it "say?" What "story" does it tell?

Once, we had a photographic medium that required a physical entity — a print or transparency — to view. It could be viewed in one place, or many, but you had to have a physical print or a transparency and viewing means (projector or light box). Now, we have images that — yes — require electrons, but we can make exact copies of them and view them simultaneously from almost anywhere. I can make an image and send it from my smartphone via the Internet to anyone, anywhere, with Internet access. I can access it from a server and print it or view it on multiple devices at the same exact moment. Try that with an original film image!

I was working for Herff Jones Photography Division, a now defunct pro photofinishing and school portrait operation absorbed into Lifetouch in 2011, when the digital imaging revolution began. We used to process thousands of feet of film in 35mm, 46mm, and 70mm x 100' rolls, every day. From that film, we often made three to seven DIFFERENT products — portrait packages for parents, plus school "service" items including ID cards, rotary file cards, yearbook panel page prints, adhesive backed prints for teachers' file folders, class composites, and principal's albums. We had to print products sequentially! The film got dirty, scratched, fingerprinted, lost... Production could take weeks when we were in peak season.

Once we switched to digital production methods, we could print multiple products simultaneously on different devices. Every image was pristine and clean. *Bits beat atoms!* We had four labs, and closed three of them, partly due to efficiency, and partly because the digital revolution also meant a shift in demand away from prints and towards electronic images. Lifetouch closed the lab I worked in in 2015, as demand dwindled.

Today, we still use photographic images. But we view them virtually, via smartphones, tablets, computers, and smart TVs, from Internet sharing sites and local storage media. We are no longer limited by the need to make a print, and to have that print with us to share it. All we need is a smartphone, which can morph into any of two million other devices, via software, when not viewing photos and videos.

Photography and photographers certainly still exist. We just use different tools. We're still concerned with preserving memories, teaching visually, storytelling photojournalistically, recording history, finding forensic facts... Our messages are the same! It is just a LOT easier to record and share them. Photography has become democratized.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

If you break it down to it's roots we photographers are still collecting photons but instead of on film its a CMOS sensor.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

I think you have way too much time on your hands. You could also take the same approach to film. Film is nothing but silver halides in a plastic emulsion that have reacted to light, and much the same can be said about photo paper. A change from an older technology to a newer one is what you are observing.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

You are absolutely delightful!