"To Sontag..."

I was in the train on my way home tonight when I decided to actually read my readings for Communication Studies. Normally, this is a tedious experience, but one of this weeks readings was an essay by Susan Sontag about the history of photography, from it's beginnings as simply portraits to it's current uses. Because I was on the train and had nothing better to do, I began to think about Digital Photography versus the old Developing kind. I really don't know what you'd call it, other than maybe just "film photography". I was thinking about how everyone is so in love with digital cameras. I don't like them. There is something magical about a roll of film that digital photography just doesn't have. When you take a photo with a regular, old fashioned camera, you can never really be sure how it will turn out till you get to the dark room. You can't even be sure that it will develop at all. You can't go back and delete the picture and take it again. You took the picture and it was done. There is also that wonderful thrill when you take a really nice picture, when the composition, lighting and subject all work out. When you do this with a regular camera it's fantastic. I don't think it's as much of an accomplishment with a digital camera because you can see immediately what's wrong and go back and fix it. Sure, that's nice if you're try to take the perfect photo but it takes all the thrill out of going to the photo finishing place, opening up the package and rifling through the pictures to see if you got anything good. Yes, it sucks when you have, say, a picture of the ground because you accidentally set your camera off, but it's a chance I'm willing to take for the excitement of newly developed film. I'm willing to wait for the film. I don't need the instant gratification.