NOTES ON PHOTOGRAPHY

Kit
For those interested, I now work almost entirely in digital as it has finally reached the quality levels of film.
I use Nikon Digital SLRs - two 6 megapixel D70s for workaday stuff - press, etc, and a 10.2 megapixel D80 for occasions when ultimate quality is necessary, which for me, is most of the time - the D70s are back-up cameras nowadays.

All my prints are made on a A4 Canon iP6600D (why so many letters?!) and an A3+ Epson Photo Stylus 2100. I use only Canon and Epson pro-quality inks and papers.

(Saddos, please note; I do not indulge in "Product X is better than Product Y" debates.)

Please note!
It must be stressed that since the advent of digital, for photographers' purposes, the only thing that has actually changed has been the recording medium and the way the stored data is handled. Taking a good photograph requires just as much skill, knowledge, understanding of light - and above all, one's subject matter - as before. Technically, it is more complicated than ever and requires an exponentially growing amount of software, hardware, tupperware, gizmos, cables, plugs and machines that flash and go "ping". It is a job itself just trying to differentiate between what one actually needs and what the boffins, sycophantic equipment freaks and nerds say we do. So, while on the face of things, film may seem more laborious, at the end of the day, nobody is really any better off - a photograph is still a photograph. Moreover, stored properly, a photograph on film will still be viewable a hundred years hence without any electronic aids. With constantly changing formats and equipment, a couple of corporate decisions can make your family album redundant at a stroke. Always remember this before you throw out that old film camera!

I am sure I am not the only photographer in recent years who has had to bite his lip when met with a client who says "Well, of course, it's a lot easier for you now with digital", as if they think the photographs now take themselves (and that your fees should drop accordingly). The job takes just as long as before. Indeed, as we now have to do our own colour processing - guys in labs used to do that for us - it actually takes longer. The equipment doesn't last as long and, thanks to the rapacious tendancies of a supplier led market in cahoots with the major players in the industry, is out of date by the time you've got it out of the box.

To summarise; sorry folks - the fees won't be dropping just yet!