Back in the 90's, Rochester Institute of Technology was one of the top photography schools, and I had been accepted and was going there. I was doing an internship with an advertising photographer out of Cleveland. The more I worked with her, the more I realized that, unless you worked for a big company, there was more business and less photography involved in the business. I didn't want to go into business, It was also a very cut throat. Digital printers were just being introduced, not cameras, keep in mind, but printers. These new printers were taking away from need for an actual developer. You could develop your film and then put the film in the printer and tweak it on there. You couldn't tweak much, just color really at that time. I didn't want to get into computers, I wanted to take great pictures. So, I decided that in order to have the freedom I wanted for my photography, I'd just pursue it at as hobby and go into a field in which I would actually be able to find a job (ha! I was so naive). I didn't end up at RIT since I went into education, but, to this day, I still believe RIT has the coolest campus I've ever seen.
I have always believed, and still do, great pictures start with the person, but end with the camera. People who take OK photos can have them turn out to be good photos on nice cameras. People who take really good photos can have them turn out to be OK on point and shoot cameras. I had a top of the line camera for the time. It was a Minolta 7000. I had different lenses and different colored filters. I almost always took pictures in manual mode and not automatic. I loved my camera. I still love that camera, but I don't have access to a dark room and you can't find places to develop film anymore without it costing an arm and a leg. Nor can you find the film.
When digital cameras came out, I held off. I mean, I had a camera I loved and no way would digital ever replace film. I mean, where was the work involved with digital? When I was pregnant with Monster, we decided to get a "cheap" digital camera since finding places to develop film were becoming more and more difficult. It took/takes (we still have it) OK pictures. Plain, boring, OK pictures. I tried messing around with digital software to make the pictures "better", but that's not for me. I don't have the patience for tweaking everything with my computer.
A friend of mine has a really good camera. Her pictures turn out really good, with no tweaking. I've taken pictures with her camera, and they've turned out 100 times better than the pictures I take with my camera. Problem is, really good cameras are insanely priced. I can't justify buying even a $400 camera, which is a "cheap" SLR. I'm not going to turn this into a career. Talking with Husband about cameras, we were discussing how technology is getting cheaper and cheaper, but digital camera prices are staying pretty much the same as where they were 7 years ago. How is that? Also, the editing software is crazy expensive. My camera from the 90's was expensive back then. It cost what my digital camera now costs. So we went from top of the line cameras being around $300. To top of the line cameras being over $1000.
In the past 3 years, I have really started to dislike taking pictures. My camera really does suck all the fun out of it for me. The slow shutter speed and delay in flash is starting to kill me. Also, if not careful, my camera flips between different modes while in the middle of use. It's becoming just as easy to take pictures on my phone and I'm getting almost the same quality.
I understand that technology is improving and advancing at an alarmingly fast pace. I just feel that some things were better before technology hit. I believe photography is one of those things. I miss it. I miss capturing the perfect picture and the dark quiet of developing that single, perfect picture.