The wind is whipping around the corners of the house, blowing the magnets off the fridge, and turning the potted thyme into a tangled mess of gorgon hair. But the really crazy happening is that I'm actually reading the instruction manual that came with my digital camera. A little background sketch might help explain why this is such a radical development.
I've only had this camera for 3 or 4 years. One would think I might have looked at the manual before now. Uh, nope. It took no little effort to find the darn booklet. Without ever having cracked open the manual I've managed to find some ever so useful features while pushing every button repeatedly and randomly, accompanied by creatively colorful language. I don't think the foul language made the camera respond any differently, but it did keep it performing well since the alternative would have been to throw the camera with great force at the ground or other nearby hard surface.
I'm not really sure where my anger at digital photography comes from. I have a BFA in photography, after all. When I started the photography program at Rhode Island School of Design, the department did not have a digital lab. When I graduated, I believe there were 8 Macs and a film scanner available for student use. Today, the wet color darkroom no longer exists at RISD. This saddens me.
I tend to be a Luddite at heart. I prefer the mechanical over the digital. An illustration of this is my car - the windows roll down with cranks, the transmission is manual, it doesn't have power steering - the thing has no bells and whistles. Forget about GPS. Give me a good map any day. My philosophy is: the fewer bells and whistles, the fewer things there are to go wrong. Or, at least, the fewer repairs I can't take care of myself.
My Luddite brain just can't accept digital photography. I don't get why it's necessary or good or better to emulate something mechanical (film) with something digital. And then price it 20 times as high. Because I no longer have color darkroom access, I need to transition to digital to practice my art. And I am slowly doing this, reluctantly to say the least. But it kills me that the kind of digital camera and lenses I need to match the quality and performance of my film cameras and lenses (the ones I've been using for over 20 years without any problems, thank you very much) cost over $3,000. The issue isn't whether or not I can afford the digital equipment, but rather that I'm offended by the product.
That all being said, I do have a little Fuji FinePix S1000. And I'm frustrated with the poor quality of images I'm getting in my Odd Bird Studio product shots. They're not sharp. After many an hour randomly changing settings I don't understand, it finally dawned on me to read the manual. Did it work? Well, I've gone from this:
to this:
Which I feel is a huge improvement. Now, let's see if I can duplicate this quality 40 more times to post a new batch of mouse pads in the shop.
I know I need to let go of my reluctance to join the digital photography bandwagon. But my pigheaded, stubborn, cantankerous heels are dug in pretty deep. If you have insight or advice, please send it my way. I need all the help I can get.
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