Evolutions in photography
Hello everyone! Welcome to my first blog! Today's topic is embracing change.
As an avid photographer since the mid 1970's, I have run the full gamut of converting from life in the days of film and darkrooms to fully embracing the technologies of today. Now instead of bulk rolling my own, I just let my computer suck up all my images wirelessly, copy them to my network drive, and even make backups in the cloud just to ensure the safety and security of my work. No tedious hours of developing and printing contact sheets to be viewed under a loupe to decide which are worthy of taking the time to print, let alone the expense and aggravation of getting it "just right". Now I just open my drive and skim through my images full screen on my computer and click my way through them.
Take into account the instant gratification that we photographers get of simply dropping the viewfinder from our eye and seeing the results of our shutter release right before us in full color on the back of the camera! Unless you have taken rolls of film from a shoot, travelled miles to get back home, and then gone through the developing process to discover that something wasn't right along the way, you will never truly imagine the frustration that has been eliminated by having the immediate "Do over" option of lifting the camera back to your eye, making a couple of adjustments, and releasing the shutter again.
In the late 60's, I even tried a little "home film making". In the 1990's, I began digitizing all of my video from tape and made the move to digital editing, and even making 3-D real-time animations! Such a fledgling concept at the time with computers that ran a 133Mhz pentium processor at 16 bits, I would literally start processing a 5 minute video and go to bed, hoping that my computer didn't crash overnight, and that by the time I had had my first cup of coffee that my video would be rendered. Today, running 6-core processors at 3GHz, I can't even drink the coffee before it is done.
Prior to my first Digital entries in 2000, my photography was primarily 35mm, and excluding my scuba diving work, done on Minolta cameras. I still remember the excitement of purchasing my X-700 the week they began importing them to the US. To be able to meter off the film plane during the shot was unbelievable technology! To have a Program mode that didn't require me to do anything but focus? Unheard of! Having worked with my first Minolta ST-101 for a few years with full manual being the only option, this was heaven sent! Today, the Minolta name is gone, and I have moved into the world of Nikon DSLR's. Nature photography and landscapes have always been my favorite subjects, and I hope you will follow my future posts to see the beauty of our world, captured by today's technology, as seen through my eyes!
Thanks for embracing change, and for following my work!
Bob
As an avid photographer since the mid 1970's, I have run the full gamut of converting from life in the days of film and darkrooms to fully embracing the technologies of today. Now instead of bulk rolling my own, I just let my computer suck up all my images wirelessly, copy them to my network drive, and even make backups in the cloud just to ensure the safety and security of my work. No tedious hours of developing and printing contact sheets to be viewed under a loupe to decide which are worthy of taking the time to print, let alone the expense and aggravation of getting it "just right". Now I just open my drive and skim through my images full screen on my computer and click my way through them.
 |
| Taken in 2000 with my "NEW" 1 Megapixel HP C200 |
Take into account the instant gratification that we photographers get of simply dropping the viewfinder from our eye and seeing the results of our shutter release right before us in full color on the back of the camera! Unless you have taken rolls of film from a shoot, travelled miles to get back home, and then gone through the developing process to discover that something wasn't right along the way, you will never truly imagine the frustration that has been eliminated by having the immediate "Do over" option of lifting the camera back to your eye, making a couple of adjustments, and releasing the shutter again.
 |
| "Frozen Blue" taken Jan 2014 - IR photography |
In the late 60's, I even tried a little "home film making". In the 1990's, I began digitizing all of my video from tape and made the move to digital editing, and even making 3-D real-time animations! Such a fledgling concept at the time with computers that ran a 133Mhz pentium processor at 16 bits, I would literally start processing a 5 minute video and go to bed, hoping that my computer didn't crash overnight, and that by the time I had had my first cup of coffee that my video would be rendered. Today, running 6-core processors at 3GHz, I can't even drink the coffee before it is done.
Prior to my first Digital entries in 2000, my photography was primarily 35mm, and excluding my scuba diving work, done on Minolta cameras. I still remember the excitement of purchasing my X-700 the week they began importing them to the US. To be able to meter off the film plane during the shot was unbelievable technology! To have a Program mode that didn't require me to do anything but focus? Unheard of! Having worked with my first Minolta ST-101 for a few years with full manual being the only option, this was heaven sent! Today, the Minolta name is gone, and I have moved into the world of Nikon DSLR's. Nature photography and landscapes have always been my favorite subjects, and I hope you will follow my future posts to see the beauty of our world, captured by today's technology, as seen through my eyes!
Thanks for embracing change, and for following my work!
Bob
Hi Bob, could you please tell me if there are lenses that actually bend light? That will give the effect of a shot being taken out of the cock pit of an aircraft? please?
ReplyDeleteHello Yussuf! If I understand you correctly, the bending of light that you refer to would look something like this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allcoolpics.com/pictures/Cockpit_View.htm
The answer is yes. A "Fisheye" or "wide angle" lens will give you this effect. Although it is not really bending light, the effect is certainly striking in photos like this. I could give you far more technical aspects, but I would hate for Dr. Douglas Kyker, my "Waves" professor in college, to think that I was actually paying attention! What he doesn't know won't hurt! ;)