Choice Who’s?

Choice. Say it ……. and let it linger there alone in the air. What’s it mean? Just hear the word alone. What comes to mind?

Choice and the creative process. The picture you just took involves choice, first, you liked what you saw so you chose to shoot it. Then there is film, fast-slow? B+W or color? Negs or transparencies? Exposure, shutter speed, aperture and their relationship to depth of field? Lens, wide, tele, normal, what’s that? Light, filters, angle of view to name a few.

The most important choice is to make all the choices! Every picture has been taken before, every lighting design, print process all done before, what separates your image is the imprint of your soul on the photograph. The more choices you make the more the photograph is you/yours!

In 1971 I chose to buy my first new Nikon F, two years later I chose to buy a 1969 F used. The 1971 I later sold in a slow period. The ‘ 69 I still use almost daily. What a concept that something would last a lifetime. I remember my first up-grade I was in New Hampshire on vacation with my parents and there it was on the side of the road. A sign saying up-grade so up the steep incline we went and the only cost was the extra gas {around .20$ a gal} that the old Studebaker used, and that was refunded on the down-grade as we coasted down the other side.

Up-grade doesn’t quite hang there in the air with the panache of “choice?” What’s it mean? Just hear the word alone. What comes to mind?

In another thread Tom just realized that old negatives and prints from 65years ago were of very high quality, as good as today maybe. Sixty five years without an upgrade wow. Now we have, in the last decade learned so much that every six months we have so much new technology that we have to upgrade and even more amazing all this new knowledge seems to coincide with Christmas and spring weddings and graduations. Choice who’s? Well it is time for me to flip the record on the turntable. enjoy pjcOriginally written for a column on Traditional Photographic Art about five years ago. In that time “You” have chosen to upgrade your diggie and software 3.33 times. Or was it Ashton Kutcher and all that TV cleavage that made your choice? enjoy pjc

Photographic Art