Digital or Not?
I was a keen amateur in my teens and had dabbled with developing and printing black and white images, but my interest waned in my student years. In 2001 I bought a Canon G2 and I was very pleased with some of the images I was able to produce. This reawakened my enthusiasm. I began to experiment and go looking for subject matter rather than reacting to it. I 'borrowed' (on a permanent basis) a Canon EOS with a variety of lenses from my brother and began shooting film as well. All of my pictures, whether digital or film, were printed on an Epson inkjet printer.
I joined BCC in 2002, I was concerned that I may have been seen by some as an outsider because of my use of digital and it was with some trepidation that I took along my first entries to a monthly competition. I was encouraged by the praise my pictures received and also the response I got when I admitted that some of them were 'purely' digital. However, I did smile to myself when one of the members examined one of my pictures intently: it had an obviously digital feel to it. Ironically, this was the only one of my entries that originated with film!
Since then, there has been some good humoured banter about the lack of chemicals used to produce my photographs, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the interest other members have shown in my latest purchase, a Canon EOS D60. In fact, the majority of member pictures have been scanned, tweaked and digitally 'fiddled with'.
On a final note, I have now gone from the sublime to the ridiculous and bought a Bronica SQ. Manual focus, manual exposure, manual everything! I have gone full circle. Digital photography offers me an immediacy and the opportunity to experiment. The Bronica is a labour of love, spending an eternity, adjusting aperature, shutter speed and composition. Digital technology rekindled my love of photography, but something really beautiful deserves the quality of a 6x6 piece of film.
Mark Harris