Greetings and Rants!

[bjorke]

Hello, my name is Kevin Bjorke & of course I have a website, botzilla.com

To save you some time digging, you can see some of my street photography or find out about my personal battles between film and digital cameras.

I'm delighted to find this site -- there are many technical details in my photo journal, but basically I'm a dyed-in-the-wool 35mm shooter who went digital, then came back. I like black and white but have little interest in nostalgia.

Cheers!

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[FrankB]

Actually 7 of are quite vocal on the board.

*Quite* vocal?! <Duck and run for cover!>

 

[blansky]

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to APUG.

I play hockey with, and have a number of friends at Industrial Light and Magic, and they have numerable friends within the industry if you ever need an "in" or an introduction or whatever.

Enjoy the group.

Michael McBlane

 

[Ole]

Welcome, Kevin!

Any Norwegians in your background, by any chance? "Bjørke" seems Norwegian to me

 

[FrankB]

but basically I'm a dyed-in-the-wool 35mm shooter who went digital, then came back.

Magazines these days are full of tales of those who have adopted d****** kit and found nothing but joy. I'd be very interested in hearing why you returned to film, if you wouldn't mind sharing the experience...

 

[Sean]

In college I fell in love with black and white traditional, then started taking digital courses to see what it was all about. I went gungho digital after that, and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. It took about 2 semesters before the novelty completely wore off. Something about the squinting and click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click..... -you get the idea.

I found it was destroying what I loved about photography. The 'magic' factor wasn't there with digital, nor the feeling of really capturing light and painting with light. It's easy to get caught up in the convenience and tricks you can pull off with digital. Some stay with it, but some come back to handcrafted traditional photography. I'm here to stay after experiencing both sides.

 

[bjorke]

Hi all, thanks for the welcome & for looking. I've been working my way through the member list and clicking all the "www" links I see... some really terrific shooters here.

Michael: Good chance I know many of the same friends! Ice hockey or inline?

Ole: Ja my father is Norwegian and my mum's Welsh. Best or worst combination ever, depending on your perspective

Frank: A couple of years ago I wrote an assessment here when I realized that my film use was increasing even as my digital use was waning.

I actually prefer a digital "back end" to the process of printing -- I'm currently able to make 50" color prints from 35mm slides, something I was never able to achieve before scanning. But the digital cameras, so far, are tedious, limited, and not very compelling to me. The top cameras seem okay but are far too large and expensive.

My wet-process cameras are instant-on, they have good lenses at the wide end, they handle faster and have greater dynamic range -- and I can fit them in the pockets of my anorak (even in the summer time). This will change eventually but I'm more concerned today with my ability to make the pictures I want -- not with keeping up with the trends in manufacturing (unless they are useful to me).

I still have digital cameras (freestanding and on my phone) and they are useful for a sort of mid-quality utilitarian shooting -- static objects, ebay sales, party snaps, and so forth. It's what they were made for.

Of course, commercial photo magazines are thralls to the Cult of the New -- Nikon doesn't spend money on ad space promoting the F2!

 

[FrankB]

Thanks for that, Kevin.

I agree that at the moment d****** cameras do seem to be an immature technology. An expensive one too, especially with Canon discontinuing the D60 after less than a year!

Doubtless it will improve but even then... ...I spend all day working with and on computers and sundry other IT clobber. I go in the darkroom because I enjoy it (and, come to think of it, not nearly often enough!).

D****** is different and, for me, not nearly as much fun.

Regards,

Frank

Baxter's First Law of Photography - "If it's more than 50 feet from the car it's not photogenic!"

 

[blansky]

Kevin, you sounded like you were well established but I wasn't sure.
Ice hockey, being Canadian if I played roller hockey I'd lose my citizenship.

Michael MCBlane