"Slow down, you move too fast, you got to make the morning last..." from the 59th Street Bridge Song by Simon and Garfunkel back in 1966. Well what does that have to do with photography? As I have been thinking lately, a great deal.
Digital photography has allowed us to do a great deal, get a lot of things right we perhaps would have missed and deliver the images within even moments of shooting them. But perhaps all of this at times at the expense of some creativity and losing the look and reliabilty that we have experienced in shooting film.
The actress Sharon Stone said of shooting with the famous Hollywood photographer, George Hurrell, to paraphrase... George would shoot three frames and each was a masterpiece. Helmut Newton's wife relates that an art director once compained that Helmut only shot three photos for a project. To which Helmut replied... 'Well they only need one'.
I will not be ending shooting with digital and actually have expanded my digital equipment with larger sensor size and use of medium format digital backs. But I am expanding my use of film for a different look and feel in some of my work. And only having 15 to 36 frames to shoot before reloading does make you slow down. The film will be processed, scanned and made available online by one of the top labs in the country, The Icon in Los Angeles. And The Icon is very familiar with a lot of top pros still using film. They also have an excellent client display, edit and delivery system called The Icon Box which I have been using, very well designed and convenient.
By the way, I have also re-discovered the joy of writing in pencil and keeping a paper calendar again! Retro...!
Thanks and keep coming back if you "Wanna See More...?"
