Analog People In A Digital World

removed account4 · Jan 11, 2021

thanks, that was fun

Ariston · Jan 11, 2021

I love the gentleman who said, "I use a digital camera. I'll take picture with a digital camera, but then I take a picture with my film camera... to back it up." Then he smiles.

DREW WILEY · Jan 15, 2021

I'm not an "analog person"; I'm a real person. And I don't do "analog photography". I do real photography. I don't do "antique" processes. If I had given the flick a title, it would be "Real Photography in an Increasingly Fake World".

George Mann · Jan 15, 2021

I am an analog kid in a digital man's world.

Cloudy · Jan 16, 2021

DREW WILEY said:
I'm not an "analog person"; I'm a real person. And I don't do "analog photography". I do real photography. I don't do "antique" processes. If I had given the flick a title, it would be "Real Photography in an Increasingly Fake World".

You sound a tad bitter. Digital photography is still photography.

foc · Jan 16, 2021

It's all photography to me.

juan · Jan 16, 2021

For me digital has its uses, but I do so much else behind a computer film photography is an escape. I think about different things and processes. Though I do enjoy tweaking people who comment on my Super Graphic by referring to it as my real camera.

blockend · Jan 16, 2021

foc said:
It's all photography to me.

Ditto. If I were to make a division, it's between hard copy and virtual (screen) imaging.

VinceInMT · Jan 16, 2021

It seems that regardless of the endeavor, someone will want to turn it into a competition and create a hierarchy.

DREW WILEY · Jan 16, 2021

Cloudy - Ha Ha Ha! I'm not bitter. Why would I be? I just don't buy into the "gotta have the newest toy" mentality, especially when the results are so inferior. On the trails around here I often run into digital imaging engineers and even CEO's of imaging corporations. Lots of them ask if they can still get real film, and ask to look under my darkcloth, and even how to set up their own darkroom. Do you think that people slaving away 60 or 70 hours per week on an imaging screen and keyboard with carpal tunnel fingers want to do the same thing for a hobby? Heck no! If you want to brag about your rhinestone coated Smartphone, go to the digital section of this forum where those kinds of comments belong.

Auer · Jan 16, 2021

Someone needs a nap.

Too much shit in the world to worry about how other people capture images.

There are no rules.

Wayne · Jan 16, 2021

DREW WILEY said:
Cloudy - Ha Ha Ha! I'm not bitter. Why would I be? I just don't buy into the "gotta have the newest toy" mentality, especially when the results are so inferior. On the trails around here I often run into digital imaging engineers and even CEO's of imaging corporations. Lots of them ask if they can still get real film, and ask to look under my darkcloth, and even how to set up their own darkroom. Do you think that people slaving away 60 or 70 hours per week on an imaging screen and keyboard with carpal tunnel fingers want to do the same thing for a hobby? Heck no! If you want to brag about your rhinestone coated Smartphone, go to the digital section of this forum where those kinds of comments belong.

Except you're in the mixed workflow section. I know, how did that happen...

Cloudy · Jan 17, 2021

Definitely not a good look...

ChristopherCoy · Jan 17, 2021

Ariston said:
I love the gentleman who said, "I use a digital camera. I'll take picture with a digital camera, but then I take a picture with my film camera... to back it up." Then he smiles.

That's Don... and if you've never been in his store in Dallas, I highly suggest it. Last time I was there was some years ago and it was heaps and mounds of old analog equipment. You could spend three days there and still not go through the amount of items he has piled up in his store.

DREW WILEY · Jan 17, 2021

Just for fun. Nothing more. I enjoy it when someone walks up to me and sheepishly asks me if I do digital photography too. My normal reply is, "What is that? Never heard of it". There's just something about a big maple tripod and 8x10 atop it that tells people I mean business.

removed account4 · Jan 17, 2021

Cloudy said:
Definitely not a good look...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

im a photographic free agent, im more interested in photography than really caring what kind of manual or electronic camera or toy or no camera or imagination someone used or didn't use to express themselves. at least people are salting and peppering their points of view with humor ? could be worse...
thankfully there is an ad in the sidebar of this thread so I can get my superhero garb. im still looking for a trash can lid to go with my captain america slacks and top.

awty · Jan 17, 2021

Not analog enough for me and how can people work in such a sterile environment. Apart from the old cameras everything else is modern.....and clean.

VinceInMT · Jan 17, 2021

All this reminds me of the old time radio listserv where they banned the word "television."

DREW WILEY · Jan 18, 2021

My point, besides just stirring up some predictable coals for fun, is that predicating something that has been around for nearly 200 years with a new modifier, "analog", is an utterly silly convention. Chemical photography has the title to stand alone, and doesn't need apologized for. Digital imaging is the new kid on the block, and still has to prove itself. The tontality, detail, and hue rendition simply isn't equal yet. Equipment is software dependent and outright designed to go obsolete relatively quickly.

There's nothing backwards or retro about either film or film cameras. Another common anecdote : people come up to me and asks where I found the "old-time" camera. I merely point to its delrin, titanium, and aircraft aluminum hardware, and its epoxy/ ply /fiberglass bedding. Certain concepts just work well. That's why turtles and crocodiles are still on the earth, and all the fancy dinosaurs aren't. But it's also about capturing a sheer quantity of lumens. Even my little 6X9 Fuji Rangefinder has twice the capture area as a "medium format" digital camera costing a hundred times as much, and will probably be usable a lot longer.

Digital isn't like TV versus radio. It's just radio with too many knobs and more static.

Sirius Glass · Jan 18, 2021

When asked why I still use film, I tell them that I collect the light on molecules not pixels and while they image on megapixels I photograph on the equivalent of gigapixels. Honestly though the nasty comments about not moving up have gone away. As a bonus the film camera is bringing me closer to young people now.

Andrew O'Neill · Jan 18, 2021

Sirius Glass said:
When asked why I still use film, I tell them that I collect the light on molecules not pixels and while they image on megapixels I photograph on the equivalent of gigapixels. Honestly though the nasty comments about not moving up have gone away. As a bonus the film camera is bringing me closer to young people now.

Yes, I used to get the "haven't you heard of digital?", or "why are you still using film?", or "oh, too expensive digital's cheaper". Now people are just impressed that you can still buy film and that someone is still using it.

DREW WILEY · Jan 18, 2021

In this area, big film cameras and real film generally get a lot of respect from the public. I've never heard anything snarky except from a few Japanese tour bus types with their latest rhinestone-coated cell phones, which they'll toss in six months for something even newer. I shoot a variety of formats. But one day as I was packing up at a parking lot over at Pt Reyes, a little Chinese tourist who didn't speak any English waved at me and asked, Sinar? - the one term he did know. I smiled a yes, and he gave me the thumbs up sign. Another time an old Sikh gentleman was out with a big walking stick and his family on a ridgetop, and asked if his grandson could look under my darkcloth and understand what a "real camera" was (his words, not mine). So he put the child up on his shoulders for a look at the ground glass. He explained that he had grown up in the Himalayas, but was now the CEO of a digital imaging corporation in the valley below; and he still preferred film. I could tell dozens of stories like that.

radiant · Jan 18, 2021

Andrew O'Neill said:
Yes, I used to get the "haven't you heard of digital?", or "why are you still using film?", or "oh, too expensive digital's cheaper". Now people are just impressed that you can still buy film and that someone is still using it.

My response for "why/are you shooting film?" is "well how else you can make photographs?". If someone doesn't get the joke and answers "well, by digital cameras?!?!" I go "aa you mean those that came in market few years ago? I need to try one someday, I heard you can see the picture right away!". At this point the questioning person is usually quite speechless

Anon Ymous · Jan 18, 2021

Impressive... I must be the only member of this forum who hasn't been asked why I still shoot film, or if I can still buy it.

Analog People In A Digital World

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