Final Words (for now) about How I came to Digital Photography

 

Civil War Bugle

Chickamauga National Military Park

Nikkormat, 100mm f2.8 Vivitar lens, Kodak Kodachrome 25 film

(Click to enlarge)

 

(Blog note: To wind up the discussion about my switch to digital photography, I'm re-posting this piece from June, 2021.)

In the early days of this century I was opposed to digital photography and thought I would never switch. I preferred the "look" of film and considered digital images flat and lacking in contrast. Also, to be honest, I was proud of my skills in shooting and processing film.

By early 2003 I was doing commercial photography with a Pentax 67 and a Fuji GX680, an enormous beast of a camera that made a negative nearly 2x3 inches in size, and photographing weddings with 35mm color negative film. Neither of these cameras was cheap to operate. Even with 35mm film, covering a wedding properly meant a significant outlay in film and processing costs.

Meanwhile, digital cameras were getting better, and prices, while still very high, were coming down.

At the Southwestern Photojournalism Seminar in Fort Worth, Texas in March, 2003, I had a long talk with my friend Bill Bangham, a distinguished photojournalist who was at that time editor of the award-winning Southern Baptist World Missions magazine The Commission. I told Bill my concern that digital photography would result in a loss of control, making me into a mere button-pusher, with most of the control going to the editor.

Bill responded that photographing digitally would give me more control, not less. So I began to consider digital more seriously. The outcome was that I sold my GX680 equipment and searched the sofa for loose change and bought Canon's recently introduced 10D for the princely sum (or so it seemed to me) of three thousand dollars -- almost six times what I paid for a Canon A2 film body in 1995.

To this day I have a love/hate relationship with digital photography. As I said above, I liked the "look" of film and still do. In fact, I process my photos to look as much like film as possible. And while some have complained about slide film's lack of dynamic range, I never found it to be a handicap.

But the photography world was changing and it was either change with it or be left behind. So I changed. But I still miss film. 

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

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