This year was about camera consolidation for me. I've long since passed the point at which the quality differences between "new camera A" and "old camera B" are at all visible to me; and certainly not to my clients, friends and family. Instead of panting over new cameras arriving on the scene this year I've spent the time using the stuff I already have. And, surprise, surprise! All the cameras I have spread around the studio work great for anything I press them to accomplish. And all the excess ones have been given away or sold.
I'm a firm believer that when we hit 24 megapixels of resolution we absolutely hit the sweet spot of imaging science. Across all the cameras I routinely play with 24 megapixels is the standard. I have two cameras that have higher megapixel counts (47.5) but I really can't see the difference between them and the lower res models unless I'm really, really pixel peeping and squinting really hard at images. Certainly, if I were routinely printing four foot by six foot panels for clients I might see a bigger difference but, stepping out of my generational role as a curmudgeon opposed to all digital progress, I have to admit that I'd probably get at least as much advantage just using one of the many powerful tools in PhotoShop to res up the files to match. The software for imaging has gotten so incredibly good that I think the availability of those post processing tools will really retard progress in getting newer and newer cameras into the market. Because...why?
If the old bugaboos of file noise and file size are the metrics most people still care about I have to say that A.I. DeNoise and Enhance Image in the Adobe apps match, in older camera files, what people are paying for in newly introduced cameras. So... why bother to buy more? And certainly, why upgrade?
I sold off my medium format digital equipment this year. It just wasn't as much fun to use as the full frame stuff. Sure, if I locked down the camera onto a tripod for every shot and used all the right techniques I might get strikingly better images from the larger sensors but that's a long way to go versus enjoying the more agile and haptic-ly mature handling of the 35mm sensor sized cameras. And the smaller lenses. And in the end, after using both systems in real jobs, the output just didn't match the investment.
I have some predictions for the year(s) ahead. Now that camera makers have started putting big, high res sensors in smaller cameras I think the age of big, burly "pro" cameras is coming to an end. Leica's most popular camera is the Q3 --- and the Q3-43 variant. Not the big SL2 or slightly smaller SL3. I'd wager that the same is true across other brand's product lines as well. The resurgence of compact cameras; what we used to call "point and shoots" is a good thing. Nearly all photographs are headed to screens with no detours to a desktop printer or a printing lab. Sure, some people still get prints made but even there the high end compacts have more than enough image quality potential to deliver great results.
Compacts originally died out because the sensors were small and the lenses were mostly slow. Big, fast sensors were too expensive for the compact price points, early on, but now Sony, Fuji and others have shown the way. It was surprising this year to see Leica join the compact camera circus with their D-Lux8 but I think that's a harbinger of what's to come across the product lines. And, from everyone I've talked to it's the advantages of handling the cameras that makes them a better choice for serious shooters than smartphones.
People are also finally figuring out that a stolen phone can have dramatic implications for privacy, account security, identity theft and a raft of other issues that current compact cameras don't share. And not having to have a phone in one's hands out in the streets means less exposure to all kinds of non-material theft. A stolen camera? Yeah, you lose a few images and the cost of a camera. Stolen phone? Hacked Bluetooth? Hacked Wi-fi? Those things can result in thousands of dollars of loss from multiple financial accounts. We might even see a welcome regression in people's habitual use of phones to defer boredom... (wishful thinking). Do you turn off Bluetooth when you are out walking with your phone? Maybe you should...
Judging from my own experience and my attitude I am comfortable predicting that once the "newly retired" generation passes away home inkjet printing will quickly become a thing of the past. Like CD players and DVDs. If you need or want prints it's much more cost effective and convenient to send files to a high quality printing service and work instead on making sure your screen calibration matches that of your chosen output supplier.
If I have services print stuff for shows or displays the minimum print size I'm looking for is usually 24x24 inches of live image surrounded by three or four inches of white border. Home inkjet printers that can do this well are outrageously expensive to own, service, feed, etc. Like owning a Ferrari that you only drive for a couple days a year. If you are printing at home every day then more power to you but...what the heck are you doing with all those prints? And what are you getting that a good, custom printing service can't more reliably deliver? Head clogs?
Moving on. Let's discuss lighting. I was at the big, bricks and mortar camera store this month looking at lighting. I actually still do work that requires flash from time to time and while I didn't need any more flashes in the moment I was curious what the camera store might have. Five years ago their inventory was overflowing with Godox, Westscott, Profoto and other flash equipment. Things were moving more and more toward flash gear that used big, rechargeable lithium batteries to replace the cord to the wall socket but you could walk in and buy wonderfully small, pack and head systems as well as a range of monolight flashes that ranged from 100 watts seconds to at least 600 watt seconds. All over town I'd see wedding photographers, family photographers and wannabe fashion photographers out in the wild using these bigger flashes with umbrellas or soft boxes on them doing the good, old fill flash with sunlight.
On my recent trip through the photographic candy store I found exactly three studio/pro flash units but the number and kinds of LED lights had taken over 95% of the shelf space. A non-stop embrace of continuous lighting. There has been a quick and profound change in people's lighting techniques. Big Flashes are now an occasional rental item and not the everyday tools that we considered them to be.
The same can be said for tripods. I can't give them away. Younger photographers look at me with a mystified, almost pity filled stare when I try to pass tripods on to them. One actually asked, "Do you not know about image stabilization in cameras?" Seems the only people with even a passing interest in tripods are videographers. And even there getting them to use a tripod instead of a gimbal requires the insistent demands of a client who really doesn't want pay for shaky "footage."
I still use tripods. But when I use them in front of new, younger assistants I feel like a dinosaur. And not a predator dinosaur but more like prey.
It's been a strange year. Clients still call but they've stopped asking for bids or estimates almost altogether. I still reflexively send along contracts with budgets embedded in them but most clients don't care. They have the money to spend. They know costs are rising...
It's been a strange year. I bought car I really didn't need and while I like it a lot I sometimes stop and wonder what the heck I was thinking. It's not a financial hardship but I'd have a hard time explaining a new car as an impulse purchase to my depression era parents; if they were still around...
It's a strange year. Every time I think about retiring completely I find myself being bored. And terrified of being bored. And every time I think about fully retiring my mail box starts to fill up with requests from existing and new clients to undertake more new projects. Maybe the marketing secret here is to just posture retirement and wait for the deluge of new work.
It's a strange year in that we've once again voted in our own incipient hardship era. Well, not for wealthy stock holders but for the poor and the middle classes. If most of your money comes from dividends and wealth relentlessly being accrued in the markets even while you sleep you probably don't care. You can "posture" liberal but take advantage of the markets for your own gain. Ethically bankrupt but legally permissible. And don't get me started on the morality of our modern politics. On either side. Stay invested? Move to Switzerland? Huddle down and look for sales at the Dollar Stores? It's a mess.
This seems to be the year (2024) when photography-oriented blogs just fell apart and collapsed. Old codgers wanna write about their golden years instead of anything contemporary and topical. I'm so bored with the blogs I used to love that when waiting for a tardy appointment to commence I find myself scrolling through my own archive of posts from this site to re-read. The fortunate thing about getting older and forgetting stuff is that some of the work here from ten years ago seems fresh and new to me when I read it again. Mostly I like it because it's relentlessly about cameras, lighting, jobs and photography --- which is the job. And not about the best weedwhacker for the money or how one blogger or another "deserves" to join the 1% while at the same time delivering mostly sunset content.
Photography as my generation knew it is collapsing. But not to worry. The next generation and the next will breathe life into photography the way they like and value it. No more speed graphics! A lot more interactive sharing? And smaller cameras joined up with a lot more experiences.
Why do I photograph? It's not to touch cameras and play with gear. I do it because I love the way people look when I photograph them. I love the experience of meeting people and making a lasting record of them. This is the opposite, I think, of wanting to "be" a photographer but not being at all sure of what it is you want to photograph. It's not enough to master the process. You have to have a passion for the subject that gets you out and working on stuff. But for me it's always the people component. Falling in love with my subjects over and over again. At some point the camera is just ancillary.
Finally, this is the year that I realized that archiving the bulk of our work is a meaningless, ego driven activity that just sucks up time I can better use living and photographing for the fun of it. If you aren't a Magnum photographer or one of the collected fashion or editorial photographers who've made a name for themselves with museums and galleries the idea that anything beyond your 100 favorite photographs surviving after your inevitable demise is just an idea that serves to insulate you from the pain of mortality. The more you throw away the happier your heirs will be.
In spite of everything I've written here I still love photography, love heading out after swim practice to walk the streets, sit around drinking coffee, catching up with old and new friends, all while looking for fun new ways to photograph them, my city and my life. My tightest and most appreciative audience? Well, that would be me.
Young woman in a yellow Santa Claus outfit passing out candy canes for a clothing and jewelry boutique on trendy, South Congress Ave. Adorable.
