I suck.
Okay, I said it. I’m starting to think I’m regressing as a photographer… going backwards in a forward looking world. In an era where technology is advancing at warp speed, you would think taking better quality images and increasing your percentage (%) of winners would be easy.
Not so fast.
Cameras almost take pictures by themselves these days. Sure, they can’t frame the image or come up with a creative vision, but the green ‘Go’ button on Canon models and the teal ‘Auto’ button on Sony products are as close to autopilot as we’ve ever seen. We simply have to push the shutter release and the camera does the rest.
In days of old, print film offered 24 or 36 frames per roll. You shot blindly, said a few prayers and then waited for the lab to process your images. You had a +/- exposure window of 3 stops, so there was plenty of margin of error. You took multiple images in a selective manner to control cost and usually came home with a few winners.
Slide film was a great advancement due to color saturation, sharpness and fine grain that early color print processes couldn’t match. “Chromes” as they were called, became the gold standard in photography. One disadvantage was the light sensitivity, or the fact slide film wasn’t as forgiving as print film. You had to nail the exposure within +/- 0.5 stops or risk losing the shadows or blowing out the highlights. You took plenty of pictures and bracketed the image(s) to insure a few images were properly exposed.
Back to my lousy photography... I feel like Anthony Volpe of the New York Yankees as of late. I’m showing up at the plate with a bat in my hand for no apparent reason. You would think the digital photography revolution changed the landscape and made life a panacea for photographers. In some regards this is true. The ability to see your images in real time is a game changer. However, it doesn’t correct all of your deficiencies. Next to penicillin, it’s one of the greatest inventions in the modern era.
I sense my issue pertains to not shooting on a regular basis. Anthony Volpe isn’t getting into the batting cage everyday to learn how to hit a baseball (some fans would argue otherwise). Rather, he’s reinforcing his rhythm & timing. Perhaps I also need more batting practice as of late. If things don’t change soon, I suspect I’ll be removed from the starting line-up and sent back to the minor leagues.
Until next time…
Cheers.
