The Equipment: Digital vs Film

I was a late-comer to the digital photography bandwagon.  I held out for years, clinging to my film, relishing the anticipation of waiting for my shots to be developed, that delayed gratification of finding out whether a time, a place, a trip was sufficiently captured until sometimes well after it had passed.

The beauty of film is that you learn to make every picture count.  You could take continuous shots, hoping that one of them will turn out, but you'd also waste a lot of materials, not to mention time spent changing rolls and space to store all those cartridges.  In the end, you'd pay to develop shots that you'd rather toss.  Instead, over time, you gain a sharper and keener sense of what looks good on that 4x6 (or 4x7 or 3.5x5 or 4x11) strip of paper and you train your eye to find it in the space around you.

Church on Spilt Blood; St Petersburg, Russia

Some of my favorites shots were captured on film.  The entirety of all my trips to Russia are chronicled on film.  I was perfectly content with my equipment as it was: it was small, portable, powerful, and captured consistent shots. I saw no reason to make the switch.

 In May 2007, I went to Jamaica.  While I was there on business, I couldn't help but be in awe of the beautiful scenery around me: the Blue Mountains to the south, the Caribbean to the north, the flowers exploding with color amongst the lush greenery.  I tried to capture what I could.  

I will never know how those pictures turned out.  I put my trust in the developers at the local photo shop as I always had and they failed me on several levels.  This was the turning point.

Topsail Island, NC

That fall, I spent a weekend in Topsail, NC.  It was the last trip where I used my film camera.  I knew it was time to bite the bullet and make the change.  I researched, I browsed, I tested, I looked high and low for the features I needed versus the features I wanted.  In the end, I settled upon the best blend of those things I could find and I set out into the world, a digital convert.

Paella for 12; Madrid, Spain

The first test of the new equipment came in Madrid.  It took time for me to understand that a lot of images can fit on a 4GB memory card, resulting in my compulsive reviewing and deleting of shots immediately after taking them, rather than just running with the moment and dealing with the sorting later.  One evening, our group went for paella.  Paella for 12 people is made in a gigantic pan, requiring two people to carry.  It was beautiful, but I know in my eagerness to review the shots I'd taken, I likely deleted the best one. 

The lesson I took from this experience was to rely on instincts learned from working with film, but also to embrace the freedom that digital storage provides.  I made peace with the fact that no one other than me will probably see 40-60% of the shots that I take, especially when experimenting with a new setting or method.  Wildlife bumps this ratio even higher, as most critters fidget, making great moments even more elusive amongst mediocre snapshots.

Some things about digital photography still bother me: manipulation of images beyond a basic crop or red-eye removal feels impure.  The lure of a darkroom and the skillful artistry to balance the chemicals to coax the images from the filmstrip looms as a set of skills I never fully mastered.  I'd like to think there is still room for both.