Film photography vs. Digital Photography
Film Photography vs. Digital Photography
My love of photography started at a very young age, long before I was able to buy my own camera. Whenever my step-father would get the camera, I knew something important was happening; he didn’t waste film on just anything. That was true with most every family in the 60’s and 70’s because film wasn’t cheap and neither was the developing. I remember sending the film off in a special envelope that required not one, but two postage stamps; that was a considerable investment in itself. Like most families, we had one camera. Today nearly everyone carries a camera with them on their phone. Americans used to take millions if not billions of pictures using film each year. Most of those pictures wound up in a shoebox, but that shoebox is counted among a family’s more valuable possessions. Today we probably shoot more pictures in a day than we did in a year back in the days of shooting film. If we take a good one, we’ll upload it to Facebook or Instagram. Our friends will skim over them once, maybe stop and smile at one or two, then they’ll eventually be deleted. We’re taking more pictures today, but creating fewer permanent memories; digital photography has weakened the intrinsic value of the photograph.
When I was a child, photography had an innate suspense within it that compared with the excitement of Christmas. The build-up of anticipation leading up to that magical moment of opening presents on Christmas morning was almost too much for a kid to bear. When we were finally able to open the treasures that had been sitting under the tree for weeks on end, there would be smiles, laughter, showing and passing gifts around to other family members, followed by the inevitable sigh of satisfaction that it all turned out pretty good. There’d always be a few clinkers; the shirt that didn’t fit, or maybe the sweater that made you think to yourself, Nope, never wearing that in a million years, but there were always one or
My love of photography started at a very young age, long before I was able to buy my own camera. Whenever my step-father would get the camera, I knew something important was happening; he didn’t waste film on just anything. That was true with most every family in the 60’s and 70’s because film wasn’t cheap and neither was the developing. I remember sending the film off in a special envelope that required not one, but two postage stamps; that was a considerable investment in itself. Like most families, we had one camera. Today nearly everyone carries a camera with them on their phone. Americans used to take millions if not billions of pictures using film each year. Most of those pictures wound up in a shoebox, but that shoebox is counted among a family’s more valuable possessions. Today we probably shoot more pictures in a day than we did in a year back in the days of shooting film. If we take a good one, we’ll upload it to Facebook or Instagram. Our friends will skim over them once, maybe stop and smile at one or two, then they’ll eventually be deleted. We’re taking more pictures today, but creating fewer permanent memories; digital photography has weakened the intrinsic value of the photograph.
When I was a child, photography had an innate suspense within it that compared with the excitement of Christmas. The build-up of anticipation leading up to that magical moment of opening presents on Christmas morning was almost too much for a kid to bear. When we were finally able to open the treasures that had been sitting under the tree for weeks on end, there would be smiles, laughter, showing and passing gifts around to other family members, followed by the inevitable sigh of satisfaction that it all turned out pretty good. There’d always be a few clinkers; the shirt that didn’t fit, or maybe the sweater that made you think to yourself, Nope, never wearing that in a million years, but there were always one or
Cited: Goff, Adam. "Birth of Digital Snaps." New Scientist 213, no. 2855. 28-29. Web. (March 10, 2012) Database Link Goldborough, Reid. “The Changing World of Photography.” Tech Directions 72, no. 7. 12-13. (February 2013) Web. Database Link Newman, Rick. "Learning From Kodak." U.S. News Digital Weekly 4, no. 3. 8. Web. (January 2012) Database Link Syken, Bill. “Machine of the Year 2000.” Time Digital 5, no. 9. 38. Web. (January 2001) Database Link