To introduce my background in photography, I grew up taking pictures as a kid with disposable film cameras that you mailed in to develop. Then I had a cheap, plastic camera that I used for a darkroom class I took when I was about 8 ears old, then never really used it again. When I was in middle school, my mom got a digital point & shoot that I would borrow so often, I probably used it more than she did. (It fit in an Altoids tin, why not take it to school?!) After that, I was exclusively digital, and more and more addicted to photography, buying my own point & shoot, then my first DSLR, and now I’m on my second DLSR, and getting back into film photography for my black & white film class this semester.
And now onto my comparison:
I think digital photography is a faster and easier process but you don’t learn as much or get as in depth in the settings as you do with film. For example, my professor explains people who learn on crappy digital cameras today; they take the picture and if it doesn’t turn out, they keep taking it until they get what they like and just delete the bad ones. They don’t know the settings or what they do or why they work. They aren’t making the photographic decision. It’s trial and error with buttons and settings, not really knowing what they’re doing. With a fully manual film camera, you have to really know your manual settings and record them, so when you develop and see that you over- or underexposed, you can see what you did wrong and calculate how to fix that the next time.
I also really love the “magic of the darkroom.” It’s so much more hands on than digital editing, which is just pushing some buttons and moving your cursor around. Getting a good print in film requires so much more skill in developing the film, exposing the negatives correctly, having the right paper, using the chemicals long enough, burning and dodging right, etc. etc. It’s a much richer experience than “open this image file, tweak, save, close.” I’m not sure if they’re even too comparable. I’m beginning to think they are more like cousin art forms… sort of like comparing a watercolor painting to a printer print-out. Not that there aren’t some very high-end and beautiful art works that were printed on fancy printers, but painting is just a longer and older process that is much more hands on, get dirty in your raw materials as compared to the completely virtual process of digital imaging. You basically never have a tangible piece of art in digital photography until it is printed. Whereas with film, you’re working with tangible mediums with your negatives and your paper.
In the end, digital is a much faster and relevant process for today. Especially for portraiture, where you’re expected to have lots of images in a short period of time, and need a fast turn around and lots of options for paying clients. But I still see a use and a need for the film process as art and as documentation. Silver prints still last decades longer than ink-based digital prints. Personally, I would like to use film more, if darkroom and printing sources were more available after I am no longer taking classes.
Comments on your preferences in film vs. digital? What’s your experience?
Well talk about a fail for the month of January. It’s been a good while since I’ve posted anything here. It’s been an awfully busy start to a very busy semester for me. But I’ll jump right in.
Avatar Movie Review
I’m going to say right off I really enjoyed this movie a lot. But I felt that the plot was a direct pull from Disney’s Pocahontas. White man meets native girl, natives teach him their ways, white man and “savage” fall in love and try to bring the fighting between their people to a stop, etc. But I felt that it was a different enough twist with aliens, new planet, outer space, futuristic time period that it was well worth the watch.
I also feel that it had very strong themes on community, nature, and protecting your environment. You get emotionally invested in the storyline and want things to workout. This movie in fact reminds me a lot of the Disney movies I watched growing up as a kid and made me think of the impact those still have on me now. For example, with The Lion King, every little girl (and some boys) between the ages or 4 and 8 became obsessed with lions around the time this movie came out. We all wanted to play with Simba and Nala and Zazu, the nice African animals. We grew a sympathy for lions, and now I think my generation is more conscious and sympathetic towards African wildlife because it subconsciously reminds us of our animal friends from The Lion King, that we watched and played with as kids.
There is similar effect that the Discovery Channel has created with Shark Week on television. People love Shark Week! I hear about it non-stop when it’s airing. People talk about sharks and how awesome they are instead of how many people they bite a year. The few people who do bring up how they bite people, someone pulls out a statistic (learned on Shark Week) about how more people die of bee stings a year than who get bitten by sharks. You have a better chance of dying from a lightning strike than a shark bite.
My point is, that I see this movie getting into people’s subconscious and making them more sympathetic to environmental issues and difference among people. Who cares if you’re tall, blue, and you have a tail; we can still get along! Media effects people, our opinions, what we think, our morals and so on. This movie will impact younger generations most specifically. And from what I see, it will be a good impact. I give Avatar two thumbs up, and I will probably be buying the DVD.
<Dork Alert> P.S. - One other relationship… you know how in Pocahontas when she’s singing “Colors of the Wind” and she touches the tree and the rock right before you see the bears and the ground glowed… I wonder if Avatar took that from Pocahontas? Hehe. I always wanted to be able to do that… </dork>
So today is the last day of 2009. That kind of snuck up on me. I’m happy for the excitement of the new year though.
One must wonder though, now that there aren’t two zeros together in the middle of the year, what in the world are they going to do for those kooky glasses in New York? Have a 1 down your nose? A 1-shaped eye piece. That would be disorienting to me.
Well, no matter what shape your glasses are this New Year’s, I hope they are all slightly rose-tinted and that everyone has a wonderful night, and a great year ahead! Welcome, twenty-ten!
This is the documentation footage of my Time Studio final project. This video was made with the context of the bus stop in mind, and projected onto the surface during the evening in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. (There is no sound.) This was recorded with my lovely new Canon Rebel T1i. Enjoy!
Yay, holiday season! I’m on a three week break from school, and Christmas is soon approaching. I’ve made cute little mugs of candy as gifts for my friends. They’re easy to make. You just need to arrange the following:
A Christmas Mug
Peppermint Patties (in the bottom)
Giant Christmas Kit Kat Bar
Skittles or M&M Tins, containing their respective candies
2 Sweet Tart Candy Canes
And you’ve got yourself an affordable and enjoyable gift for many people. I think this also sort of counts for one thing my list of 101 Things to do in 1001 Days; #28. Make Christmas presents. This counts, right? Sure….
It is my hope that everyone enjoys this holiday season. (And really… who can’t have a nice time with all the pretty snow, music, lights, and happy friends and family about them? If you can’t, you are a grinch. And I’ll call you out on it!)
A note to Santa: I would like my own Santa Hat this season so I don’t have to Photoshop one onto my head each year. (P.S. I’ve been a very good girl.)
1. Don’t settle for anyone.
2. Get a design I’d want if I ever got a tattoo.
3. Watch a meteor shower.
4. Dress up for the historical society in 1800’s fashion.
5. Go on a real picnic with friends.
6. Go clubbing.
7. Plant some potted flowers and keep them alive.
8. Introduce a friend to the wonder that is Sherman’s ice cream.
9. Leave a 50 - 100% tip for great service.
10. Memorize a poem.
11. Read 50 books [3/50]
12. Cover a wall in pictures I’ve taken.
13. Get rid of one piece of furniture in my bedroom at home.
14. Photograph the Northern Lights.
15. Create my websites and maintain them.
16. Have a piece of writing published.
17. Start keeping index cards of what books I’ve read.
18. Take 100 Photographs I like enough to print out and store in a photo album. [0/100]
19. Make 100 Icons 100×100 size for fun. [0/100]
20. Get rid of 100 things I don’t need in one week.
21. Save $1000 in savings and don’t touch it.
22. Learn to French braid and get good at it.
23. Make mashed potatoes for my friends.
24. Send a postcard to Post Secret.
25. Take a picture of myself at least five days a week for a year. [20/52]
26. Do something fun for my 20th birthday.
27. Learn some ASL.
28. Make Christmas presents.
29. Learn to play “Zanarkand” on piano by memory.
30. Get a pair of nice shoes.
31. Finish writing any story.
32. Write a letter to myself to be opened in 10 years.
33. Be in bed by 10pm every night for a week.
34. Take a photo of something interesting everyday for a month.
35. Blog at least once a week. [25/143]
36. Have a “girls’ night” 5 times. [0/5]
37. Visit at least 2 new states. [0/2]
38. Blog and prove everything completed (if possible) on this list. [1/101]
39. Write a love letter (to someone else or myself).
40. See a Broadway play in NYC.
41. Write and draw a little comic/children’s book.
42. Create 10 new paintings from original photos. [0/10]
43. Go out just for fun at least once.
44. Learn basic CSS.
45. Complete an old dare of kissing a stranger.
46. Get someone else to do 101 in 1001.
47. Have a “family night” once a month in summer -movies/games/reading/etc.
48. Write my future husband a letter once a month for a year. [4/12]
49. Use one full box of teeth whitening strips in a month. [0/30]
50. Create post/greeting cards out of my photos and send to people.
51. Swim in a lake at least twice a month in the summer.
52. Ride the whole Kal-Haven Trail, at least one way.
53. Scan important family photos and make a CD of them for mom.
54. Find eye shadow colors that work for me and how to make it look good.
55. Keep taking ballroom dance at school and possibly over the summer.
56. Learn more about my family tree.
57. Find a layout for my room and keep it that way and clean.
58. Get a TV for my apartment next year.
59. Get a job.
60. Take a massage class to compare with my skills from personal experience.
61. Take a friend to the beach.
62. Hike Canyon Falls again.
63. Visit Brett.
64. Have a “romantic” Valentine’s dinner–in or out! (with single friends is okay.)
65. Don’t ever get a credit card.
66. Spend one whole day reading.
67. See three mainstream music concerts live. [1/3] (Hellogoodbye)
68. Go camping somehow.
69. Get a complete (min. 4 person) dinnerware set for myself.
70. Put $2 in an envelope for each task I complete and go on a shopping spree with what I saved. [$0/202]
71. Write and illustrate a fairy tale.
72. Read all the unread books on my shelf or get rid of them.
73. Look into doing a semester abroad in England.
74. Plan a plausible trip to Wales to the town my great-great-great grandfather came from.
75. Buy real bras that fit me.
76. Sleep under the stars with someone close to me.
77. Organize all my photographs, and print/back up the ones on this computer.
78. Send a message in a bottle.
79. Get a pair of awesome knitted wrist-warmers.
80. Blow bubbles in public with friends.
81. Take one photo a week for a year. [25/52]
82. Take a few photos and write an accompanying blog post. [15/52]
83. Make a book (on blurb?) of said photos and posts.
84. Write one blog post a week for a year. [25/52]
85. Sketch more.
86. Draw cartoons occasionally.
87. Be silent for an entire day.
88. Build a sand castle.
89. Build a snowman.
90. Write a future wedding guest list for fun.
91. Frame and display my own photography.
92. Find out how soon I could get my own cat.
93. Play RISK or some version of it more.
94. Play chess at least once a month for a year. [0/12]
95. Send five happy/uplifting postcards to random addresses.
96. Take pictures in a photo booth.
97. Meet at least one person from YWS.
98. Find happiness being single.
99. Give away 30 happy paintings.
100. Don’t be afraid to fall in love.
101. Love and be loved.
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