The 'Excitement' Factor

[Sean]

I did some shooting this weekend and am about to put my 2 rolls of provia in for processing. I sure do love the excitement of not knowing how the shots have turned out. 2 days of shooting, and no idea if it was a total success. Did I get the shots I wanted? It's all I can think about while I wait for the rolls to be run. As soon as the processed film is handed to me my heart is pounding, I've got one hand holding them up to the lights (my eyes running through the frames saying yes yes no maybe no no yes maybe), and the other hand paying the cashier. The same applies when I process my own film, and the excitement involved in that final stage when I pull it off the reel for the 1st examination. I think this is a good thing to experience, which makes me wonder, where are the excitement factors in digital? Or is digital better to some because it removes this excitement? It's hard to understand that many consider excitement to be a nuisance. What do you guys think? Is photography the same when you remove that 'excitement factor' which has been part of it since the beginning? Does the instant gratification of digital make photography boring?

 

[Nige]

I'm sure a digital shooters (ignoring professionals) excitement is still there, it's just delivered in small bits after each shot when they check the LCD. The film shooter has all these little bits cumulated into the orgasmic experience of seeing their negs/transparencies! Maybe a bit of an exageration!!!

Interestingly, I was playing with a digicam (Minolta DiImage 5) last weekend and like the previous digicams I've played with, it didn't leave me wanting to rush out and buy one yet! I definitely will need an optical viewfinder and minimal exposure lag before I could be comfortable.

 

[Les McLean]

I'm excited when I pick up a camera, either analog or digital, and start to make exposures. Like you Sean, the excitment builds when I process the film but when I look at the digital image on the screen of the camera I consider that to be my negative for there is always much work to be done in the computer or the darkroom. The real excitment for me comes when I make the final print and see there what I visualised when I made the exposure.

I don't consider that digital is boring and that analog is not, I look upon both as equals but with subtle differences in the final image. I've been making photographs for nearly thirty years and was beginning to get bored with the traditional processes for they no longer offered me a challenge either when making exposures or making prints in the darkroom. When I started to take digital image making seriously about 2 years ago I found my appetite for the traditional methods started to return, I thank digital for that. As I write I am very excited for in just 7 hours from now I will be loading my darkroom (it's an 18ft by 10ft custom built shed) on to a truck using a crane to transport it from my old home to where I now live and in a few days will be making silver prints for the first time in 5 or 6 weeks.

 

[Sean]

Well said guys. It's interesting to hear what different folks find exciting about photography (traditional and digital).

Les, glad to hear your darkroom is on the way. My darkroom has not had a home since I moved to NZ, but I'm about to start building a basement room under the house to finally accomodate it

 

[Jorge]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Nige @ Apr 27 2003, 05:12 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I'm sure a digital shooters (ignoring professionals) excitement is still there, it's just delivered in small bits after each shot when they check the LCD. The film shooter has all these little bits cumulated into the orgasmic experience of seeing their negs/transparencies! Maybe a bit of an exageration!!!

Interestingly, I was playing with a digicam (Minolta DiImage 5) last weekend and like the previous digicams I've played with, it didn't leave me wanting to rush out and buy one yet! I definitely will need an optical viewfinder and minimal exposure lag before I could be comfortable. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Funny I had the same feeling when I worked at the camera store, the digigizmos were fun to play with and the instant gratification was nice, but they did not make me say "ah, I wish I could have this camera."

 

[frank]

Jorge, I feel exactly the same way. I pick up a digital polycarbonate wonder-cam and I feel nothing. Put a real metal camera in my hands and I start to dream. For me anyway, digital is soul-less. I'm sorry, I just can't be politically correct on this issue. In one instance I feel passion, and in the other I feel untouched. I'm not saying digital photography is inferior or with less merit than silver-based wet photography (not out loud anyway), it's just not for me. BTW, I feel the same way about video - just not for me.

That helps explain why I'm so happy to have found,and be involved in APUG. Long live the A!

Frank

 

[Ed Sukach]

Do I feel "Excitement"? Absolutely.

One of the greatest "kicks" I've ever experienced was watching the emulsion of Verichrome (the original orthochromatic Verichrome) gradually dissolve into negative images in a tray of Microdol.

I've never forgotten that.

Now, I'm a little more "sophisticated" - not sure that's a "good" thing - but I get the same "rush" when I pop the top off the JOBO tank - and see IMAGES.

There is more - "seeing" the image - that flash of realization that you have reacted to the scene - and tripped the shutter at "THAT TIME" - when that significant image was passing in front of the lens. The really unexpected images I did not realize I had taken that were inexplicably "good" - Strange techniques I've just tried for the first time - that worked out well ... So much more ...

My wife has been hardened ... occasionally, I'll run upstairs with a wet print --- "Look at this!!!".....

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[fhovie]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Aggie @ Apr 27 2003, 06:43 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ed Sukach @ Apr 27 2003, 04:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

My wife has been hardened ... occasionally, I'll run upstairs with a wet print --- &quot;Look at this!!!&quot;..... </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

Sounds like my hubby and son. Yet my husband has nabbed one of every postcard I have done for the exchange. He has them at his office and shows them off to anyone who will listen to him. My son I overheard during a work session in my digital camera class extoling how much better my analog photography was than the digital thi9ngs I was doing. So there is hope for all beleagured family members that have us running to show off our lateset images.

On the topic, I have the start of the excitment when I find something that moves me to take the picture. Then when I am agitating the SS tank I have that eager can't wait to open it feeling. Once it comes out and I can inspect it, I feel a rush when I see something I want to print. The real excitment comes in the darkroom. the workprint may not be technically correct in manner, but it gives me the image and if it is in focus. That is the beginning of the hard work. The calculating of how you will maybe crop, the buring and doging, the estimation of the correct filter and times. To me it is magical and I doubt I will ever tire of it. I too have done the digital thing, and for the moment feel pretty good I have finally figured out the digigizmo. But those images will never ever replace the rush I have in the darkroom. They have become a good tool to tell me in the field if the image will look good. It is for me a better tool than having a polaroid. It also helps when I am photographing a place and the woner or caretaker comes around following me asking questions. I just put the digigizmo in their hands, and they are contented taking pictures of their own. I have later taken a disk back to them with files of their pictures. Builds good will. This way I can still have access to places that most never get into. </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
this is EXACTLY how I feel about it - amen!

 

[Aggie]

bump....is the excitment fact still around?

 

[noblebeast]

bump....is the excitment fact still around?

Yup - every time I develope the film and see that there is an image on it. Even after thirty years of experience I still can't take it on faith that my photos will definitely be there - part of an even bigger dilemma in my life that I focus too much on all the variables.

My newest excitement comes from visiting the same locations quite often and once in a while discovering a new image to make. It shows me that I'm progressing with the "vision thing."

 

[Francesco]

The excitement is knowing, feeling that you have in front of you A shot, A scene which will provoke in you the ceremony of unfolding the field camera, choosing a lens, composing on the ground glass, metering, taking notes, inserting the holder, SHOOTING!!!!! Everything else to follow already preordained. Exciting indeed.

 

[harveyje]

"One of the greatest "kicks" I've ever experienced was watching the emulsion of Verichrome (the original orthochromatic Verichrome) gradually dissolve into negative images in a tray of Microdol."

I agree with Ed but I didn't know anybody else remembered. My parents gave me a Kodak developing kit with a contact printer for christmas when I was 11 yrs old - so that I could afford to see the pictures I had taken with my Brownie six-twenty. After that I was hooked and the excitement remains to this day.

 

[Jim Chinn]

Just today I processed some sheets of film in the JOBO, having to (as I always seem to do) make sure I don't rush anything, but constantly looking at the timer towards the end of the final wash waiting, waiting, and then the best moment for me, inspecting the negatives and still being amazed that my efforts could produce something so magical.

 

[brimc76]

For me, watching a print come to life in the tray of developer is still magical.

 

[blansky]

Every day is just like Christmas, without the annoying relatives.

Seeing the image come forth is indeed magic.

The way the chemicals make love to the paper to produce such beauty is a thing of wonder. I guess that's why photographers must employ beautiful music in the darkroom. Without out the music the image may end up being ugly.

The photography process is for me, photographing almost exclusively people, a great deal of fun. I get to be an extrovert and performer for a while to coax out expression and spontaneity. I am high for an hour afterwards.



MIchael MCBlane