The DIGITAL Temptress ~ Her Siren Call Seduces Many

I'm sitting in the office of my friend Mike. I guess there's about twenty years age difference between us and while I got involved with photography at age eighteen I think that Mike was nearing thirty. Digital had started to poke its head beyond the Tech Geek phase of development and Mike bought some Canon digital bodies to use with his Canon lenses. For a few years he shot both film and digital, but he soon gave up on scanning negatives to print digital. He went digital all the way.

I don't know whether it's just my age, habit, or not wanting to learn a whole new way of doing things. Maybe it's the fact that I like shooting with my rangefinder Leicas, or the fact that I see the world "wide angle" and I love working in close with very wide angle lenses. I'm also parsimonious, and the thought of buying into a new camera system that is still new and constantly changing technology with a New Improved camera model hitting the market every year, or sooner, lacks appeal.

My Leicas are 1950's technology, they still make essentially the same camera taking the same lenses, and my cameras were all made between the mid '50's and about 1970. They've supported me all these years, they still work just fine, and they were paid for a long time ago.

Mike is still at that stage of life where the latest MUST be best. I remember being there myself. It was an exciting time, and sometimes I envy Mike's enthusiasm. Then I think about the money he must spend every year keeping up with the technology, how big and heavy the cameras are, the lack of a nice compact ultra wide angle lens like the 15mm lens that I used for this photo, and the digital urge quickly goes bye-bye.

A lot of people like the idea of seeing hundreds of images from their wedding, and the last vestiges of pores and stray hairs removed from their portraits They like their color vibrant or muted, want strange mysterious backgrounds placed behind their head long after the exposure was made, all those things that can be done with Photoshop. I tell them to call Mike at Sans Souci Photography. I hate shooting weddings anyway.