The only constant is change.

[FrankS]

I once was a dedicated film photographer, at the evangelist level, I'll admit. I joined the university darkroom group and learned how to develop and print B+W about 50 years ago. Once I got settled into family life with a house, I took over a spare bedroom next to the washroom and plumbed in a darkroom sink and developed and printed B+W at home for many years. I was a weekend warrior photographer doing weddings and family portraits while supporting my family with my full time job.

Then digital came along. Oh, I resisted for several years and continued shooting film with great, classic film cameras, mainly Nikon, Leica, and Hasselblad. Eventually I gave digital a try and, while still being happy with the images I was making, and appreciating the ease with which I could share images on the internet including here on RFF, the digital process did not provide me with the same satisfaction of darkroom printing. With great effort comes great satisfaction. However, I could not rationalize this great effort when the digital alternative was so easy and fast. It was a catch 22 situation.

Because of this conflict, my love of photography faded. I am still very satisfied with the images themselves, but now almost exclusively use my cell phone. My free time hobbies drifted towards home stereo and vintage motorcycles. I came back to RFF where I was once very active, after a recent chat with an old RFF friend who mentioned RFF.

Here's a cell phone pic I took in New Mexico while on a motorcycle trip around the US some years ago, and a pic with a Rolleiflex TLR in Texas.

 

[DownUnder]

I entirely agree with your basic comments, but my life's path in photography has been somewhat opposite to yours.

I dislike cell phone photography. To me it's the 21st century equivalent of trying to do everything with an Instamatic. I use my iPhone for 'quick and nasty" snaps, but even with the utmost care in shooting and post processing I find I cannot really get images that satisfy me. Colors are okay, composition ditto, sharpness, well... But it suffices for casual street work and off-the-cuff candids.

I used film cameras from 1961 to 2009 when I decided Nikon digital cameras had reached a technical level I was happy with. Moved into 'D' with a Nikon D90, then a D700, now a D800. I'm currently pondering the purchase of what will likely be my last camera, either a Nikon Zf or a Zfc or even a D7500 as with my fading eyesight I don't cope well with most electronic viewfinders. The D7500 is appealing as I want to play with a 10.5mm D fisheye lens a friend has offered me on permanent loan. I may then add a Nikon 40mm G macro lens and an adapter to use my collection of Nikon D lenses (especially the 85, 180, 300). That will do me for the rest of my life.

Film is wonderful and it still stimulates me. I love my Nikkormats and Contax G and Leica LTM and Rollei TLRs and I get great pleasure from setting up the camera myself for each and every image I make. The one fly in the ointment here is the high cost of film and processing basics in Australia. Buying a five-pack of 35 or 120 film is no longer a purchase, it's an investment. I do my own B&W processing, but at my age time in the darkroom means I have to take it away from so many other things I want to do before I go to my next avatar. So I have to make what now? decisions. More change as a constant.

I also enjoy digital. It's easy, it satisfies my urge to make images, and most importantly as an age pensioner, it's super affordable.

I'm not a "spray and pray" photographer like so many of my digital shooter friends have become. One posts each and every image she takes, last weekend she did 500+ at a family picnic and put them all online. Nobody bothers to look at any which annoys her no end. To us minimalist photographers she comes across as either needy or attention seeking or seeking constant affirmation. Otherwise she is a nice person 'tho at times annoying with her endless fishing for compliments about her (frankly ordinary) images. Nobody is playing and it irks her. The "change is constant" principle would do her a power of good if only she could see her way to it. We all know people like this. Sadly, there are entirely too many of them, but such is life in today's narcissistic me first culture.

My love of photography fades now and then but invariably it returns. it has been my way of looking at the world and at situations around me for so long, it's part of my basic nature, and I couldn't live without it. When it changes, and it will, I will the have to change along with it, and I'm tryint to preadapt to this. It's my way to survive.

Apologies for my long post. No intention of stealing your thread here, it's a good topic and I thank you for posting it.

 

[pyeh]

It's very good to see you back on RFF, Frank, no matter what camera you're shooting.

 

[John Bragg]

Photography is great, no matter what medium you choose. It is chiefly about enjoyment and whatever gives you that is good. I adopt a hybrid workflow out of choice, so my "digitised" images are originated on film as for me, using a range of wonderful mechanical cameras is a huge part of that enjoyment. Phone camera is rarely used unless I don't have an actual camera with me. I like HP5+ and what it gives me aesthetically and have had to learn to scan my negatives and enter the digital "Rabbit Hole" of post processing. I still like prints so inkjet is frequently used, and that way I get to do any contrast adjustments and burning and dodging just once, then every subsequent print is identical.