Yes, I know about digital cameras. I have one, a modest but effective unit which I use mostly for blog entries. I used a digital video camera with still photo capabilities in 2001 and still have the images on my computer.
But I love film and the darkroom, and I'll be processing film in my dark room later today. It's a solitary process, only part of which takes place in total darkness. I'll enjoy listening to CBC radio this afternoon while I mix chemicals and process film, using chemicals and developing times that work best for me.
Yesterday my wife Merle and I drove from Edmonton to Calgary to buy buy darkroom chemicals, paper and film at The Camera Store, a wonderful, eclectic store which sells Dektol, Leicas, developing trays, Ilford film in various formats, point and shoot digital cameras, and virtually everything else that a photographer wants or needs.
While almost everyone says that film is dead I was delighted to see young students buying Ilford and Kodak film and chemicals. Calgary and Banff are home to several institutions which teach photography, and The Camera Store serves these institutions and their students well.
Photographers make, edit, and publish photographs. The cameras they use are not as important as how they use them. All digital and film cameras are based on light entering a lens and being recorded. The main difference is how the images are recorded.
Pick your system and work with it: or use whatever approach, camera and lens that works best in a particular situation. Film won't go away and neither will digital. A camera is just a camera, so use whatever works for you.
Our challenge as photographers is to learn how to see.
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