Photography has long been a passion of mine.
Not so long ago I would spend hours tinkering around in a makeshift darkroom, processing reels and reels of Ilford HP5 films, developing numerous black and white photographs many of which adorned the walls of both my home and those of my family.
Always shy of photographing people directly I loved exploring form and texture, taking many shots at the beach and local parks and woodland. I still have numerous folders of both photographs and carefully organized film strips, tucked safely away in the hope that one day I will have both the space and time to resurrect my passion.
These days my trusty old Minolta SLR has been replaced by a Canon Rebel digital SLR. Whilst I still manage to take numerous photographs, I really do miss the tactile, hands on delight of developing my own films, waiting patiently whilst tilting and twisting the tank, wondering if any of my pictures will appear as I had intended and would be good enough to print. Perhaps it is the mystery that I miss, the anticipation.
Today I can review photographs I have taken as I go, and the ‘developing’ process requires little more than plugging the camera into the computer – where is the fun in that?!
The Joys of Photoshop
Actually there is still a lot of fun to be had, its just a completely different sort of fun. Thanks to numerous programs such as Adobe Photoshop, the ways in which photographs can be manipulated is vast – and in some respects it is perhaps a little nicer to sit at a desk rather than to be locked away in a chemical smelling cupboard!!! I can and do still create black and white and sepia images, and can create the same textured images that I love on the computer. I can airbrush out imperfections, superimpose one picture on top of another, and general be as creative as my skills will allow.
These days I do not print every picture I think is worthy, as digital images are a lot easier to flick through and share than lines of filmstrips; yet nor do I delete as many images as I should do as losing an image forever just seems too permanent, one day I may still want to look back and relive a moment even if it is not quite perfectly composed!
The Storage Solution
Keeping large quantities of large files on my computer did nothing other than slow things down and maintain a nagging doubt that one day soon I would lose the lot.
Initially I chose CDs as my back up storage which soon upgraded to DVDs, which worked well as long as I managed to stay organized and label everything properly. Lately, on the advice of a friend I have invested in an external hard drive, which is not only portable but has masses of storage capacity (perhaps even a little too much for my needs, but there is nothing wrong with a little overkill now and then!) I opted for a Samsung 2TB story station 3.5. There are numerous external hard drives on the market, but with 2TB allowing me to store higher quality images and not worry about ever running out of space, I am pleased with my purchase.
Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssh/12638218/