Hi:
In answer to your question of how I am doing.
Physically I am less able to walk the distances I need to get some of the images I would like to capture on film or digital. Yep, I said film. I have just about finished building my new but not as extensive darkroom room as I had where I used to live. But it will have all of the stuff I really need to work. Now all I need is to have the electrical part of the room taken care of. I want a dedicated line for my enlarger and analyzer so that the current will not be bouncing around every time the furnace or air conditioner goes on. I really am getting excited about smelling hypo and seeing the magic of a developing image.
You were right on when you said that getting back to printing was what you missed. After all the image is only the first step in creating the finished product on paper as you visualized it.
I have not made what I would call a good print for a long time. I have made many prints with digital but I always feel something is missing. I think it is that in film I was in complete control from the exposure to the print, my hands and brain did the work. There was a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment, it was a very personal challenge and from start to finish my baby. With digital I don?t get that same feeling. I can get a good image using manual, a one degree and some standards I have worked on. But then it all goes into the computer and from that point on it is electronics, a Japanese engineer, Photoshop, and Gates who have their say, The connection between me, the image and the final print is shared with them.
What I love about the darkroom is that I am continuing doing what I do when I make the camera exposure, I am working with light. Fickle light that must be mastered in both areas. I feel that it is a more photographic thing that way. When I depend mainly on digital I call myself a term I concocted for that kind of photographer, a CHIPOGRAPHER.
I DO use Photoshop and several other programs, but basically for my personal work to do some of the things that are not possible with film and the darkroom. Mainly in removing distractions and cleaning up the image. My way of working with digital for serious work is to only work in manual and to "think 8 X 10 film", expensive so think before you shoot. Just because there is no film or processing cost does not mean that making an image should be based on trial and error. Everything learned with film as a control can be applied to digital with better and more predictable and repeatable results. In the studio digital can be standardized, but with low ambient or daylight it is another story. For run of the mine record shots, family gatherings etc. Where I do not intend to keep the images for a long time, I like many, shoot using the cameras modes as I see fit.
I still teach my local group and some people on the internet. My Nikon D70 is getting out of date so I may think about upgrading. That is sort of funny because my favorite camera is my old Nikon F2 from 1971, all manual and built to last forever. I have many manual Nikon lenses that I use with digital, from 20mm to 500.
Phil
