I retired from professional photography because enough of my clients thought they could get acceptable results themselves with their own point and shoot cameras. Why pay me when they could do just as well, and a lot cheaper? That was a blow to my ego and self esteem. All my education and experience nullified by crappy, low quality, P&S technology and rampant ignorance. Well I must be wrong in that perception, because here I am, retired. I get frustrated when I remember how picky art directors and clients would stand over my shoulder in the studio, scrutinizing Polaroid after Polaroid, and today, I see so much absolute crap published by the same folks.
Now, I'm into digital myself, as a hobbyist. I hate post processing though, and all the tricksy things Photoshop will do. I try to shoot digitally as I did professionally with film, to get the image results I want right out of the camera, including crop. I pay attention to technique like I'm shooting transparency film.
Occasionally, I still shoot film and keep a collection of my favorite film cameras. I'm hoping I will continue to be able to purchase the film I find acceptable and be able to process it or have it processed somewhere, before I die. Wet photography is a medium which I hope will undergo a resurgence of popularity as the undeniable allure of digital imaging will hopefully lose some of its novelty, but for now, I don't see that happening.
