I'm trying to remember that movie, in which there was a gag about a girl trying to dial a number on a phone with a rotary panel and not getting to figure out how it works (there was some kind of emergency). She just pushed the numbers with her long, painted fingernails and nothing happened...I had an experience at work yesterday. One of my coworkers, in an almost bragging way, said that he had actually seen (not used) a rotary phone. The kid was born in 1984. I was in college then. Discussion of rotary phones ensued and I wondered if pulse dialing even still works now (I don't know, nor do I have a regular POTS/PSTN line to even test it) but I know it won't work on my VoIP line. I wondered if there were some sort of pulse to DTMF converter so I could use a rotary phone, because I am thinking of setting up one room in my basement I'm building out with everything circa 1965-1975 or so. I said it might sound odd but - then he interrupted me and said, "nah, makes sense, you're old, it's what you grew up with."
Well. I'm glad it made sense to him, but "you're old?" At 51?
As I said before WRT people hovering around while under the dark cloth of my view camera, [queue Foghorn Leghorn voice] "Go, I say, go away son. You bother me."
Do you wish to live your daily life with less automation? Do you think that washing dishes by hand is no harder than using a dishwasher (where you practically have to partially 'wash' the dish before you place it onto the right rack?). When you drive a long distance, do you prefer 'to be told' each and every turn, from the time you leave your driveway, or do you, like I do, prefer to see a complete mapping of the trip, from the onset, and then decide, on your own, how you will tackle that journey? Do you tend to anticipate WHEN you will stop, and where, given the ability to pre-determine rest stops, or do you wait until you are in need, and only then, do you start looking for possibilities? When you read a book, do you want a 'Kindle' or would you prefer to have a paper version where you can pencil notes in the margin?
Proven technology means 'mature' to me. The problems are known and the wisdom is being passed down to new practitioners. There are work around methods known to be problems, for the over sensitive or under sensitive reactions. The down side is market share dropping and financial realities set in.
To take photography seriously, at some point you're going to have to invest in the ability of the equipment to enable the vision, something believers in progress rarely do.
Progress as an idea, is largely mythical. Ideologues cite examples like anaesthetic or universal suffrage, both of which I fully commend, but what have we lost along the way? To buy into progress, especially the instantly outmoded world of digital photography, requires an almost religious commitment to the superiority of this new thing over that old thing.
To take photography seriously, at some point you're going to have to invest in the ability of the equipment to enable the vision, something believers in progress rarely do. They want the next but one thing, and they want it yesterday. That is not good for anyone's head.
True.OR, throw off the shackles of process and concentrate and enjoy "photography" or whatever you wish to call it, where the goal is not process and equipment but instead the final product.....the print. And not just the print, but the subject of the print.
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