When we take our breaks at work, I'm sitting around with 20 or so people . . . . . who all have their heads down into their so-called 'smart' phones. No talk, no conversation, I could light myself on fire and no one would look up. No thanks.
I was raised as the son of a wedding photographer and started off with a 120 Agfa Super Speedex folder as a kid, armed with a Kodak Photo Guide. No light meter, but it did have a rangefinder. I often joke I had two twin stepbrothers . . . . . a pair of Rollei 2.8F's. Film cameras were wonderful, mechanical, clockwork devices back then, full of gears, springs, sprockets, etc. Film taught you a certain discipline in that you had to learn in order to KNOW you got it in the camera, it would be a while before it was developed and printed. The chemistry is what killed it, and when that ran into the digital revolution, it was over, as dead as steam locomotives in the jet age.
I liken film photography to the way recording was done before multi-track. Everyone in the same room, playing the tune, one take double or nothing, and hope the mics were in the right place and everyone stayed in their lane. Digital photography is like (or really is . . . .) digital recording, take everything apart, re-arrange, re-tune, fix, change rooms, and shoot it wirelessly around the room or the world. It's amazing to now have cameras that my Dad would have said were impossible.
As somebody who was the 'one-hour' guy for several years, I REALLY don't miss color prints and C41 chemistry. But I dearly miss transparencies: I think the whole world looks better on Velvia, and one day, Fujifilm will finally perfect a 'Velvia' profile in their X-cameras. Close, but not quite there just yet . . . . I still look down at my digital cameras occasionally and for a split second wonder 'where's the rewind crank?' . . . . .
