Totally depressed

narsuitus · Jul 21, 2007

I have been totally depressed since the owner of my professional photo lab showed me the photos he took during his recent vacation to Peru. Normally, he shoots his vacation photos with a film camera; but this year, he used a digital camera. Since his photo lab is geared toward film users, he was the last person I expected to go digital.

kb244 · Jul 21, 2007

For some people theres work and there's play. Because of his profession he might have gone digital.

Kinda like my co-worker, he has been a Nikon and Leica (and some Canon) user for years as not only a wedding photographer, but also decades as a commercial photographer and darkroom technician (talking 40+ years). He now shoots with a Pentax *ist DL2 and a Canon Powershot G6. He has a Canon A2 and a Nikon F3 at home as well as a little Rollei 35 but most of them never see the light of day unless he wants to go out and play with say the peleng 8mm mounted on the A2 or some other old lens to mount on an old body. Most of his stuff is heavily photoshoped (his personal stuff) and is on photomusings.com but yea for him digital just made sense, and he'll often tease me about going from digital to film, but he has plenty of experience with film which I often learn from him.

He'll sometimes ask me why I don't just shoot the digital (something bout how I'm wasting a model's time shooting film) or like my newest purchase an Olympus Pen-FT. 99% of the time my answer would be just simply "I want to", or "It's fun". Which he totally accepts, but if I give him some other kind of answer he'll try to break the logic of that answer.

I remember a bout a year ago he said something to the likes that he was 66 and that he didn't have time for film. But yes on the surface if you seen his resume you'd think he would be the last person to go digital, just like how if you seen my past record you'd think I would be the last person to go film. Course he and I both agree that if Ansel Adams were alive he would so be using photoshop, lightroom or one of those others, least we got that in common (aside from wanting to experiment and play with every camera gear we come accross)

Bill Mobbs · Jul 21, 2007

Look at it this way: Totally depressed is a low as it gets! Buy some more film, buy some chemicals... make pictures, develop them yourself.... Have fun! The sky is the limit... No... it is higher than that!

Andy K · Jul 21, 2007

Actually dead is as low as it gets, but that's besides the point! Shoot your new digital and enjoy it. You'll come back to your film cameras.

kb244 · Jul 21, 2007

Andy K said:
Actually dead is as low as it gets, but that's besides the point! Shoot your new digital and enjoy it. You'll come back to your film cameras.

He was talking bout someone he knows, not himself.

Andy K · Jul 21, 2007

kb244 said:
He was talking bout someone he knows, not himself.

Ah, so he was! I must read these things more carefully!

In that case, don't worry about it, it isn't your problem.

Roger Hicks · Jul 21, 2007

narsuitus said:
I have been totally depressed since the owner of my professional photo lab showed me the photos he took during his recent vacation to Peru. Normally, he shoots his vacation photos with a film camera; but this year, he used a digital camera. Since his photo lab is geared toward film users, he was the last person I expected to go digital.

Without wishing to be unduly literal or damping, no, you aren't totally depressed. You're just a bit pissed off. As Spike Milligan once said, 'being depressed is like being dead.' You can't do anything; you regard suicide as a desirable option, but you can't be assed to do anything about it.

I've been depressed, and I've been pissed off. Sometimes the latter can lead to the former. The news you report would certainly piss me off, and maybe, in the hollow of the night or when I've had too much to drink, that could tip me over into genuine depression. If it did, I certainly wouldn't have the energy to post here.

It's only a photograph. I have very mixed feelings about digital, which I use alongside silver halide. If I were shooting only happy snaps, I think I'd use only digital too. If I were shooting only Fine Art, I think I'd use only film. But it's worth retaining a sense of proportion here.

Again, my apologies for being unduly literal, but really, depression is so bloody awful that your header reminded me of what it is like...

Cheers,

Roger

keithwms · Jul 21, 2007

Sounds like your friend should be the one who's depressed- not you.

To treat your depression, the best thing would be to take a film camera to Peru.

But Roger is right, you might be taking the definition of depression a bit too lightly... just have a little drink and start planning your trip

Roger Hicks · Jul 21, 2007

keithwms said:
...just have a little drink and start planning your trip

Dear Keith,

I'll drink to that! (Off to the Pyrenees next week with a Hasselblad, lots of film and the new ZV lenses, insh'Allah!)

Cheers,

R.

copake_ham · Jul 21, 2007

I have reached the point where I fully accept that film photography is a niche interest practiced by those who just enjoy it. Leaving aside fine art photography, for most professionals, the digital option is a very viable one. While that means accepting that being a "filmster" means one is in the minority of all picture shooters - so be it.

Just enjoy what you do and let your friend enjoy playing with his new digi gear. And don't say "I told you so" when he starts shooting film again in a year or two because he misses doing "real photography".

snegron · Jul 21, 2007

I have a workable solution for the digi vs. film blues: go to the "Product Availability" forum here on APUG and list your favorite on-line photo lab. This way we can all send our film to be developed at a reputable lab. By giving that lab (or those labs) the extra business, we help keep them in business while sending the message that we refuse to let film die.

I can't have a color lab in my house because I don't have the space for it. I have no choice but to rely on labs for printing my negatives (yes, I can scan them but that defeats the purpose doesn't it?), and I am sure that there are many of us here that are in the same boat. If we could shoot several rolls of film per week and have them developed professionaly at a decent price, I see no reason to stop using film.

This would make many of us very happy. Looking forward to getting our rolls back from the lab has always been one of the joys of film use as well. This, in turn, would lead many of us to buy even more film equipment. Everyone benifits, everyone is happy.

Please excuse my unusually happy tone. I just got back from a three day photo gettaway vacation in Key West, Florida! My "don't worry, be happy" tone should be dwindling some time soon.

bruce terry · Jul 21, 2007

copake_ham said:
I have reached the point where I fully accept that film photography is a niche interest practiced by those who just enjoy it. ... that means accepting that being a "filmster" means one is in the minority of all picture shooters - so be it.

Here-here, being part of the shrinking photo-graphic minority is liberating and uplifting, not depressing.

So narsuitus, you're quite well actually, you don't suffer cronic Instantus gratificatus.

Pavel+ · Jul 21, 2007

See the problem is the engineering mind. The engineer in all of us - only a few happy souls can claim they don't have one - is the one that weighs up the pro's and con's. Its the part of the brain that makes up the equations.

The equations do not look so good for film. We all know that. I mean the practical aspects involved in shooting are with digital - like driving a sterile little gas efficient car for all of ones life it just makes sense to the practical mind. We know it at some level. but it gets rubbed in the face and that pisses us off.
But you know something? Engineers make poor artists. The equations for fun are all "wrong" they say. Passion? does not compute. Honestly .... and I hate painting with so broad a brush ... but here goes .... in my experience, engineers, accountants and co. just don't get it and the results suffer.
Film doesn't have to be logical. Heck, it probably should be exactly the opposite. Like love. The moment one analyses it ... it vanishes. So with art. Those that get that are much closer to enjoying the photographic mysteries - and I can't but help noticing that it happens much much more often with people who are defying the lemming urge and walking to their own inner beat.

Throw out the engineer and all the sense - and then, paradoxically film starts to make perfect sense. Its art.

I believe as more and more people walk away from film that we get closer and closer to its resurgence. As things become rare they grow in value. I believe a film renaissance is already starting. It just makes sense. Perfect artistic sense.

Peter Black · Jul 21, 2007

Hell, you don't even need to shoot the stuff. I can enjoy just opening the fridge door and imagining the potential magic contained within all those cartons! And if the reality ever approaches the potential, I'd be a really happy guy!

Roger Hicks · Jul 21, 2007

Pavel+ said:
Engineers make poor artists.

Yes, but it's surprising how often artists can be good engineers.

removed account4 · Jul 21, 2007

if i happened to be a cobbler, my shoes would be filled with holes.

Sirius Glass · Jul 23, 2007

Pavel+ said:
Honestly .... and I hate painting with so broad a brush ... but here goes .... in my experience, engineers, accountants and co. just don't get it and the results suffer.

You must not have seen my work then.

Steve

kb244 · Jul 23, 2007

Stever said:
You must not have seen my work then.

Steve

Different strokes for different folks eh.

Steve Smith · Jul 23, 2007

Pavel+ said:
Engineers make poor artists.

I am an engineer, photographer and musician. When I am a photographer or musician, any thoughts about being an engineer have to be totally supressed.

My first ten years as a photographer were far to technical. You have to learn to ignore logic and start actually looking at things.

One of my fellow engineers at work is also a marine oil painter. We both agree that we are both far more interested in the aesthetic than the technical side of things.

Steve.

ehparis · Jul 23, 2007

I just received a like-new F2A in the mail today.

To heck with digital. It's their problem.

Roger Hicks · Jul 23, 2007

ehparis said:
I just received a like-new F2A in the mail today.

To heck with digital. It's their problem.

Yup. And I just got a 503CX with 50/4 Distagon, 120/4 Makro-Planar and 180/4 Sonnar.

The only trouble is that Zeiss wants 'em back in a month...

Cheers,

Roger

Kino · Jul 23, 2007

Roger Hicks said:
Yup. And I just got a 503CX with 50/4 Distagon, 120/4 Makro-Planar and 180/4 Sonnar.

The only trouble is that Zeiss wants 'em back in a month...

Cheers,

Roger

Would they notice if you sent back a Kiev 4A with assorted FSU lenses instead?

"It was an honest mistake, you see I was shipping some cameras to be CLA'd at the time.... No?"

Totally depressed

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