[Leica] OT or not: dilemma

[lmc at interlink.es (Luis Miguel Castañeda)]

On 17/12/2005, at 12:50, Philippe Orlent wrote:

> and then had a great time playing low techie in the kitchen with  
> temp, dilutions etc.

Quite relative low tech... I don't think that I've discovered how to  
do it even having everything in my favour. Now we do recipes with a  
limited amount of experimentation, or going to the straight way using  
recommended chemicals, dilutions and times from the instructions sheet.

> But there was one thing I noticed: doing it this way sure makes me  
> think more when I take a photograph.

Sure. As you go larger and larger in the format, more conciousness is  
required.

> I guess it all comes down to the choice between a certain analog  
> nostalgy and the certainty of digital quality and user  
> friendliness. Easier put: I'm struggling with the decision to  
> abandon analog and going 5D or D200. Somehow it doesn't feel right...

That's a pure personal matter. You can find lots of arguments and  
endless discussions favouring one or other side, and the pressure to  
jump  into the digital speedwagon because if you're not there you're  
nobody, or, with luck, and old git on your own path to extintion.

All vain.

You have to walk this path, as many others, but as you ask, here is  
my personal view.

I've used - and I'm using - digital extensively. As early bird of  
digital thingies, I've started with it preparing still-lifes on HP  
and Umax flatbed scanner's glasses to be scanned. At that time, the  
digital photo was unavailable to mortals and the F3 back  
ridicoulously expensive with little resolution (pretty amazing  
leaping back) came a while later.

With time, and as I've gone deeper and deeper in it I found myself  
that, once the hype of the investigation has passed, I was dealing  
with a gazillion of images from shots that were taken only because it  
was almost free, and if they were in negative I was dropped them(*).  
My goals for  my personal work turned again to the starting point in  
a natural way because I discovered that I enjoy as much the capture  
of a image as its craft in the handwork sense.

So, my advice is start the walk, and don't care to advices :)

(*) I don't fool myself, that's great, even the greatest step lately,  
if I will have to have images at all cost, but that case is rare for me.



Saludos
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