A Day in the Life

Week two (1/15) of my first semester of PH 108: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY with John Trefethen

This is a creative shooting assignment. The goal is to post one image you think is a good representation of "a day in the life" of your town. Your capture should be a symbolic representation of the whole town.

Consider questions such as:

Why do you live there?

What is the prevailing attitude that makes your town unique?

Approach this assignment as a photojournalist on assignment to visually represent your community. Step outside the day-to-day things you see and make believe that it's the fist time you visited. What images can you capture that begin to tell the story of your area?

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Depending upon your prior experience with photography, you will have different feelings about the industry's transition from film to digital. You may be a traditionalist, or you may prefer the latest technology. Please discuss your thoughts about capturing images on film versus digital. Why is one form better than another? Is there an appropriate time to use digital versus film? When?

I first started taking photos when I was around six-years-old. My first camera was a 110 point and shoot with flash cubes and the family camera was a Kodak Instamatic. Even then I started learning what not to do with film photos and one of those was don’t waste a shot. Anyone who has ever used a 110 camera knows how difficult that can be. In high school I moved up to my borrowed (from my uncle) 35mm SLR Pentax K-1000, this is I feel the best camera ever for learning how to shoot photography. It is 100% manual. Not only that, but I learned how to develop the film to a negative and then turn those negatives into prints. There truly is no greater thrill then seeing that process from start to finish. And I spent hours in the darkroom. Again, you made sure not to waste a shot, but I also had the permission to shoot at will for whatever I felt was worthy of being printed in our yearbook.

When I made the transition to digital it was both bitter and sweet. I love the freedom that digital offers and the flexibility of shooting as many shots I can, or want with out being committed to keeping it. I think that photo editing software is a great tool, though I think that some go overboard with the use of the programs and rely on them to make the photos good. I think that a photo should be good or great long before it ever hits the editing process.

I also think that we loose something in the process. It seems to me that with digital photography everyone is calling themselves a photographer, because they can shoot, and shoot, and shoot a card full of photos, delete the really bad stuff without ever really looking at the shot and considering the light, subject and/or story they are telling. Then they take it to an editing program and manipulate it to a point of looking nowhere near the photo that was taken.

So, where do I stand on the film vs. digital debate? I would say that I am a traditionalist and think that film is the better choice. You always have a hard copy of the image to go back to regardless of the change in technology and it requires you to slow down and think through the process. Don’t get me wrong I know that there have been retouching as long as there has been photography, but film also makes this process more thought provoking. I love digital for the ease of use; you know you got your shot with the screen display and the fact that shooting is a lot more economical. I hate it that you have to worry that if my computer crashes “did I back it up,” or will I be able to read this in five years.