CCD abuse

[xmatt]

I'm beginning to become annoyed by digital cameras. I don't have one of my own and I don't want one, at this point. I've noticed a disturbing trend whereby many people become so fixated on taking pictures of everything that they forget to experience whatever it is they're photographing

Comments

[nikolai521]

For myself, the tell-tale sign of whether a girl is in hs or college (I don't know why I'm making this comment) is how they handle the digital camera she brought to the party.

[campusgreen]

A friend of mine told me about going on a road trip with her friends, and every time they saw something beautiful, instead of pulling over and taking pictures, they sat outside for a while and drew sketches it. Mind you, I don't know if this was a car full of artists or not, but I like to think not. In my traveling after first hearing that story, I've tried to sit down and badly draw a view that I find beautiful at least once a trip. It makes you take in a scenery in a totally different way. When you're done, the image is not only completely committed to your memory, but you are left with a little sketch of the way YOU saw it, rather than just the way your camera saw the it for the amount of time it took you to focus and flash. (I will then usually take a picture too, just to make sure.)

huh?

[jwmo]

I'll note before I begin this retort that I own a Nikon Coolpix 3500. It's pretty cool, and in my opinion, it is significantly underused by me.

That said, the advent of affordable digital cameras has made photography a viable hobby for many who before didn't have the avenues for it. REAL print photography is incredibly expensive, and you have no control of your shot with a Kodak Funsaver 35, the previous forerunner of consumer cameras. Even the worst cameraphones have manuals to control at least the zoom and use of flash. My camera, definitely a consumer model, has very detailed controls for resolution, focus, lighting, etc. A film camera with those kind of controls probably would've cost me three times as much back in the day of analog photography. With someone as left as you claim to be, matt, I would think you would support the availability of resources to greater masses.

Photography used to be a real art form...Art is fundamentally linked to experience. Photography is still an art (cell phone photography included). This

Re: huh?

[piratehall]

Right on.
-E

[loveismywine]

Are you a Best Page In The Universe fan? Maddox had something similar to this to say, thought I'd pass it along

Regarding photoblogs:

Photoblogs make me yearn for the day when cameras weren't digital, film cost money, and it took time to develop pictures. I remember back when it wasn't easy for any random asshole with a camera to go out take countless pictures of nothing. Nothing is exactly what these pictures are of. No focus, no theme, no message, no posturing. Just countless pictures of Denny's at 2 AM. We don't care that you went to Denny's. You're not an artist. You're not deep. Get a new hobby.

Thought you might appreciate that.