Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Luddite pt.7

If I ever admit defeat and buy a digital camera, I think I've found the excuse I can give myself.

Portability.

Much as I love my current camera, I hardly ever take pictures. Basically I only use it when I go on a trip and consciously think 'I will take photos'. And then, look out. I can quite happily take hundreds.

Something in me objects to the instant gratification mentality of digital photography. I don't want to know straight away whether I took a good picture. I want to have to work at it, to learn from my mistakes. But if I do go digital, I would carry my camera with me as often as possible. That way, I could take the opportunistic photos I always regret missing...

...like the truly stunning crescent moon that's been accompanied by the planet Venus this evening.

4 Comments:

At 10:16 am, Blogger Mary said...

I am here to assure you that the instant gratification thing is minimal. You still have to go home, look at the photos on the computer, see how horribly wrong you went with the flash setting for a sunset shot or how unfortunate it was that, out of 10 photos, you didn't get a single non-blurry shot of that dragonfly that landed on your remarkably clean windshield in the middle of rush hour traffic. You still have PLENTY of opportunity to be dismayed in surprisingly awful ways, right along with the obvious instantly-delighted experiences you know you'll get.
If that's not enough for you, occasionally forget to charge the battery and have no back-ups handy. Then you won't feel so gratified when you pull out your portable digital cam and try to use it to capture a lovely wattle or something.
There, feel better now? ;)

PLUS, you'll have a whole new area of your life that needs order and organization! You'll want to keep your photos in labeled files on your computer and delete any duds asap so as not to take up precious space. Come on, that's right up your alley, you love order!

And we all looked at the pretty moon last night here, too. Waxing Crescent. ♥

 
At 1:01 pm, Blogger orfeo said...

What, you mean those viewing window things don't work? How silly.

Not half as silly, though, as the fact that Dad's camera makes the sound of a shutter opening and closing even though there is no shutter!!

 
At 4:16 am, Blogger Mary said...

LOL, my sister's camera does that fake shutter sound, too! So silly.

Speaking of sounds, one thing I'd recommend if/when you do go digital is, if you're going to often be in spots where you want to quietly photograph something, make sure you get a camera that doesn't have a lot of bells & whistles (literally!). Mine makes this subtle ding-ding-ding sound when I open it and there isn't a way to disable the ding. It's not super-loud, but if I'm in a library or or theater or something, I panic slightly because I know people are looking around wondering if someone's microwaved food is ready. ;)

 
At 12:17 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, a digital camera is a major development in development.

coming via Carol's blog

 

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