I’m not sure if anyone else will find this as funny as I do, but I recently read a comment by someone (and it was serious, I promise) and I need to share it.
They said “I recently discovered the work of Ansel Adams for the first time. It was fantastic, especially when you consider he did not even have digital to work with!”.
Perhaps it’s just me (or photographers of “a certain age” like me) but I think that is just brilliant!
The name of the commenter has been withheld for reasons of not wanting to ridicule anyone.
That is someone who “thinks” and “wishes” they were a “photographer”.
As the saying goes ” If you buy a camera, you’re a photographer. If you buy a piano, well… You just bought a piano”
Village idiots…
J
Comment by JM — 03 Nov
Ansel Adams is a fine example of a craftsman, a person who has mastery over his tools and can direct them to produce what he can envision. Digital photography has replaced the toolkit he used but not the passion, vision and discipline needed to become a craftsman.
Comment by Mike O'Brien — 06 Nov
Mike, I’m not sure digital has replaced his tools, we have just adapted them (or ourselves) to suit. What digital has given us is the ability to judge the result of releasing the shutter and make some changes and take more pictures if we need to. When Ansel was commiting an image to 10×8″ film he didn’t have the luxury of being lazy!
Comment by Gary Rogers — 07 Nov
Interestingly, I suspect Ansel Adams would have been less of a photographer if he started out in the digital age. His work to devise the ‘Zone Method’ helped him understand light in a way he most likely would have missed if the camera had done it all for him.
Comment by Jack Berglund — 21 Jan