WPPD – Selfie! and a little venting.

Photography, Thoughts and Opinions

I suppose I might as well continue with my pinholday pinhole photos. This is the 4th photo from that day that I liked. It has become a habit to make the last roll on my Terrapin* an arms length selfie and I like to grab whoever is with me to play along. In this case we have my buddies (clockwise from myself on the left) Remko, Brendan, and Inge . What a fun day that was! Looking forward to next year’s meetup in San Francisco!

Geeky Bits:

Camera: Terrapin Bijou, Incher configuration
Film: Ektar 100
Exposure time: 5 seconds

 

Mini rant:

So yesterday I made the mistakes of reading the comments on a Petapixel post that compared a film photo and a digital photo (I know, I know. Don’t read the comments). There was the inevitable “Who shoots film these days” comment, and there were several people defending the use of film with the “who uses film these days” guy brushing off the arguments and not listening. Typical online argument.

I found myself in a similar predicament in real life a few months ago. I was explaining my pinhole photography to someone and mentioned that I used film (“You can still buy film?!?”) and she couldn’t understand why I would use film. She then proceeded to list all of the ways film fails to digital and I found myself in a discussion where I had to defend my use of film. It kind of sucked. And I didn’t feel like having this kind of discussion so I changed the subject. But I think about it a lot, especially when the film vs. digital topic comes up. Here is what I have to say to people who are so vehemently against the use of film photography:

  1. Why do you care? What does it matter if I use film or if I don’t use film? What does my creative medium of choice matter so much to you? Why can’t you focus on your creative medium of choice and I will focus on mine and we can respect each other’s work, instead of nitpick the way we approach it.
  2. Artists in other mediums don’t have this heated debate, so why should photographers? People who draw digitally don’t disparage those who draw with a paper and a pencil and vice versa.  People who write using a computer don’t care if someone is writing a manuscript using a pen and paper. I mean, seriously, who fucking cares what medium is used to produce the art? What matters is the outcome. And why should one artist waste their time worrying about how another artist produces their creation.

The Digital Vs. Film argument is stupid. Just stop it already.

/end rant

*Incidentally, the first photo I took with this camera was an arms length selfie!

17 thoughts on “WPPD – Selfie! and a little venting.”

  1. I don’t understand why people feel compelled to criticise or ridicule others who are doing things differently. Maybe ISPS (Insecure Small Person Syndrome).

    The photography scene has always been faddish, cliquish, but most of all cultish. And the bottom line is that its about selling gear to the massive amateur market. What use are cameras and gear that last 40 years. Not much profit in that! The followers of the old religion have renounced their old ways and converted to the new age religion. If you dissent or fail to denounce the old ways you are a wing-nut, or even worse, a heretic, subject to collective scorn;-)

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I’m tired of the film vs. digital debate. It’s a waste of time. When someone wants to question my choice for film, I just say I shoot what makes me happy and change the subject. For the record, I shoot about half and half.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Absolutely agree. And me too. I have no qualms shooting digital. I just find I do less post processing with film and I hate post processing

      Like

      1. OMG yes. I shot digital on my trip to NYC and holy frijoles the post processing. It took forever. The roll of film I shot at a car auction — *at the wrong ISO* — took less time to process per shot.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Even within the ‘shoot film’ community there’s a lot of snobism. In their mind Holgas don’t count, only Leicas, and I’ve been called a lazy and disrespectful photographer because I didn’t want to Photoshop my (film) images to death.

    I always went by the rule: it’s not the camera that takes the picture, but the eye of the person behind the camera. Our vision and creativity are what make a picture great, not that expensive camera around your neck.

    Btw, love that pinhole photo of the four of us! ❤️

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I still work on my fiction with gel pens and college rule notebooks. Ink? What’s that about? And what about those idiots who make pottery when there is so much plastic and it is so cheap. And don’t get me started on oil paintings. Geesh.

    Liked by 1 person

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