VSL Reader, Ron White, asked to see some of the photos from Montreal that I took with my iPhone. Glad to oblige.

 

amazed that Canada still has pay phones!!!d

All of these images were done with an iPhone XR which is about a zillion generations old and has only a fixed 26mm lens. I have several apps such as Filmic Pro and Halide on it. Both can shoot in raw -- I think. I just use the software that comes native on the phone. These are all untouched and right out of the phone's camera. The files are nice but seem just a little "thin" to me. 

Hope this is useful. I mostly used the phone to make images in the Jean Talon open air market. 

it was easier.

Let's start with the important stuff. Coffee. And an incredible building that may be the ultimate location in the world for coffee. The building is that cool. And it's in Montreal.

Canadians rushing to find great coffee first thing in the morning.

No sweat though, great coffee is as easy to find in Montreal as it gets.

Click to see big. Consider looking at the images on a big monitor.

There are some with a LOT of detail.

I traveled to Montreal in 2019 with B. She's hardly the elitist coffee addict that I seem to be. But even B. was impressed by the interior of Crew Café; enough so to linger over a lovely cappuccino. I can't remember who it was that suggested we go by and check Crew out but I am eternally thankful. In fact, when I was planning my trip back up again this year the proximity of my hotel to the café was a determining factor in my final choice. Crew Café is about a block and a half away from Hotel Gault. I can easily stumble that far in the morning to get tasty caffeine... even when I can't find my eyeglasses.

In a state of semi-consciousness I always make sure to take along my EHC (every hour carry) camera of choice, the all purpose Leica Q2. Pre-coffee is no time to be fumbling with rangefinder focusing and the embarrassment of having forgotten to remove a lens cap. As in: "Why is the image black on the LCD?" And God help you if you have to navigate a Sony camera menu before being fully awake.

On my first full day in the city I woke up right before 7 a.m., shaved, splashed my face a number of times with refreshing, cold water (here in Austin water from the "cold" tap runs about 90° (F) and got dressed in my street shooting clothes. Sturdy, dark brown shoes with a new insole, a nondescript pair of dress trousers, a long sleeve shirt with a collar, and one small camera hanging by a demure, thin, black leather strap. Toss on the eyeglasses and I'm ready to head out the door. Destination: Coffee.

Hint: To prevent the embarrassment of forgetting to remove lens caps one might consider taking the lens cap off the lens while still in the hotel room and leaving it with the little pile of gear you aren't carrying that day. 

Crew Café and the associated contract workspace adjoining it are located in an older, 

very historic bank building just a block or two east of Rue McGill. inside the old town. 

The sign is.....understated.

A note. Even though I think the building that is home to the coffee shop is fabulous (interiors) I would never have bothered to go in if the coffee wasn't great. But it is. 

The front door of the building housing Crew.

I start out each day deciding what single camera and lens I'll be taking out with me. Montreal is an easy city to get around in and if I've made what is, for that day, a poor choice in cameras or lenses I can always swing back by the hotel and change gear(s). I consider the first day in any town a "warm up" day. A day to observe how people and places look. What the "feeling" of a neighborhood is like. Even how relaxed or wound up I happen to be. All those things determine camera choice for me in the early part of a trip. 

A camera like the Q2 is great on day one because it eliminates most of the choices you would otherwise have to make while providing great files and wonderful color. It's small, relatively light and easy to use. It's one camera I can set to "automatic" and mostly trust. So, if I have no hard "imaging" agenda and just want to get my feet wet in the city it's a great choice.

I'll admit that I'd forgotten just how cool the interior of the space in the building was/is. And since a 28mm lens was the longest I'd brought along with me on the trip the Q2 was the perfect first day, pre-coffee choice of camera. 

But before photography --- breakfast. I ordered a large latté and a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Just right. I don't know what it is that makes coffees so good in Canada. Maybe the difference is in the milk? But really, I think the baristas are just....better. I sat at a community table and soaked in the ambiance while savoring my coffee and bagel. There was a mix of older tourists, a crowd of 25 to 35 year olds having business meetings, working on laptops, swilling great coffee and mostly ignoring the splendor of the place. 

When I finished and dropped my plate and cup into a bus tub I started taking photographs in earnest. My goal is to always work with a calmness and a projection of the idea that I'm supposed to be here. Supposed to be taking photographs. That this is a normal thing. It generally works unless you just stomp right up to a person and push your camera in their face. Then all bets are off and you are on your own. Don't make a lot of visual "noise" and you'll do fine.

So, the big space on the first floor is divided up between the coffee shop and, on the other side, a work space where you can rent a desk or a small conference room, etc. by the hour or by the day or by the week. You have to be escorted into the space by a host who manages the rentals. But you can see the space through the glass walls from the café. I spent a lot of time (for me) documenting the great ceilings in the coffee-side space but I also wanted to photograph the office space on the other side. 

I approached the hostess and tried in my best mangled French to ask permission. She looked baffled. I tried again in English and explained why I needed to photograph the ceilings on that other side to have a "complete documentation" of the space and she decided that this could be allowed. I smiled at my first imaging "victory" of the day.

I'm going to bet that your local Starbucks doesn't have a ceiling like this one...

I've admitted many times that I am not an architectural photography but that never stops me from being impressed by buildings, their designs and their interior decor and finishes. I can only imagine that a true architectural specialist could spend at least a full day doing justice to the overall space and the details here. But for me it was the ceilings and the arches that worked so well. 

There are pervasive arguments all over the web that the lens on the Leica Q, Q2 and Q3 (all the same) isn't really a 28mm focal length but is actually wider. Closer to 24mm or, maybe somewhere in the middle, like a 26mm. I have no way, and no inclination, to test the exact focal length of the lens but if it is a bit wider than advertised I'll certainly welcome it. That helped me get in more ceiling than perhaps I would have gotten if I'd brought along the M240 and the Zeiss 28mm instead.

When you have a wide angle lens on the camera and you concentrate on the ceilings for a while no one seems to notice when you decide to instead document the entire room. This area, now housing the café was once an ornate bank lobby and some of the artifacts remain. Such as all the teller windows located along the right side of the frame.

More typing below.....

For a tourist this interior is wonderful. I come from a city where everything is new. Anything older than about 25 years is in the process of being torn down and replaced with an ever more utilitarian structures bereft of even vestiges of soul. To have something saved, restored and repurposed is such a novel concept for a Texan living at ground zero of corporate greed. Just saying. 

I imagine that residents of the area get used to the grandeur of their coffee house and eventually become acclimated to it. And that's fine because, as I've written, the coffee alone is worth the visit. 

But I get bored with even the best architecture in a short amount time. My plan on first seeing the space was to have every breakfast of the week here. But on the next day I found myself exploring new options. Ah well. Intentions are malleable. 

One of the many remaining touches that say, "this was once a wealthy and powerful banking institution." 

Over on the bright side is the office area. 

When the hostess escorted me into the office side I was ready to photograph. I can hardly imagine how cool it would be spending my working days in an office like this one. Especially if I thought working in an office was cool.  Grand and glorious. So much space that it's almost medicinal. Yeah. I know. I have some key-stoning in the frame. Try to think of the overall image as documentation... or look just below.

It was interesting for me, over a week later, to finally look through the images and see what I had really taken in the Crew Café space. Many of the images from the café side were shot at between ISO 2000 and 8000 and I think they still look quite good. Of course, I could be forgiven since I tried making photographs with cameras like the Nikon D2X back in the day and struggled mightily with super noisy images even at ISO 400... It's different now.

I find the Q2 to be very sharp, even when used at wide open apertures. The whole hoopla about how people will react upon seeing "the red dot" or the Leica logo is fantasy. No one in the course of my seven shooting days even so much as glanced at my camera or made any indication that they knew about Leica, coveted Leicas or wanted to steal my Leicas. It's a myth that's hung on from a time in which cameras were thought by the general public to be valuable. Now they are nothing more, really, than a generational signpost. Camera over shoulder? Fifty and older. Camera cinched tight cross body? A very nervous tourist over sixty. 

And here I'll have to admit that I used my iPhone as a camera from time to time on the trip and was always very, very impressed by the images I was able to get. In fact, on my next adventure I may just take an iPhone 15 Pro and forget the "accessory" camera altogether. Not as sexy for my generation but probably, in all, a better imaging choice. 

After breakfast and interior photography I headed back over to the hotel to change cameras. I went out for a full day of Metro riding and exploring. For that I decided to use the M240 and the CZ 35mm f2.0. By way of immersing myself one step at a time....

More to come.

I'm back. I had a great trip. A wonderful vacation. A splendid time walking through the streets of Montreal, Canada. Mostly with one camera and one lens at a time.

I spent six nights and seven days in Montreal this past week. Every one of them filled with sunshine, warm - but not hot - breezes, and all layered with fun and interesting things to look at... and sometimes just enjoy. Camera or no.

I averaged 18,900 steps per day (according to my iPhone) with one day overachieving with a glorious 24,000+ steps. That was the day I walked from the Marché Jean Talon up and around Mont Royale (splendid views!) and back down to Peel and Crescent streets. I am now perennially hungry. 

Most of the time I carried only one camera. It was generally the Leica M240 outfitted with either the Zeiss 28mm lens or the Voightlander 50mm APO. The 50mm can claim the title of "my current favorite lens" and also, "my current favorite focal length for use on a rangefinder camera." 

It took me a while but I think I am finally up to speed on the workings and mysteries of the Leica M240 camera. It's delightful for travel and will run, all out, for a couple of days (at least) with one battery charge. I never had to grab for a back-up battery while out shooting. I'll give more details shortly.

I stayed on the edge of the old town in the Hotel Gault. It's a lovely four star hotel in a beautiful, older building. The entire hotel has only 30 rooms or suites. The service was outstanding. The interior design was modern but immaculate. When I checked in I was thrilled to find that I had been upgraded to a corner suite. I asked why. It's a benefit of paying in advance for six nights. Most people  book for only two or three.... 

I loved the room. I made a point to stop walking and exploring around sunset each day, have a wonderful meal with a good glass of wine at a selected restaurant, and then I would head into my room for the night just to sit, enjoy the space and read. What a relaxing way to spend time. 

I meant to save money on the trip. To economize because there were faint guilt pangs about going by myself. But since I felt under the weather in the days leading up to the trip I tossed fiduciary caution to the wind and upgraded myself to first class for the long haul segments of my air travel. Both United (on the way up) and American (on the way back) did a nice job. Everything was not only "on time" but several of the flights got in 20-30 minutes early. And really, for the extra seat space, better boarding options and tastier snacks, the cost to upgrade wasn't nearly as ruinous as I thought it might be.

It's my nature, when in a completely safe and wonderful city like Montreal, to either walk or take public transportation everywhere. And that's exactly what I did. I bought a one week "Opus" pass that was good for unlimited Metro and bus travel. And I used that card hard. Carried a Leica out in the open. No tape covering logos or red dots. No one batted an eye. No one robbed me at knife point. Nobody cared. 

I'll start writing in earnest now that I'm back. But first I'm heading over to swim practice. It's been a while. I hope I can remember the strokes.... back in a bit.

Produce at the Marché Jean Talon.

Trees actually turning colors in the Fall. 

An ongoing attempt to master black and white imaging with 

the Leica M240. It's not that difficult. Really. 

Just a quick notice. I"m leaving for Montreal in the morning tomorrow. I will NOT be taking an iPad, Laptop or other electronic writing device. This means that the blog will go silent until the late afternoon of October 3rd. Just thought you'd want to know.

 

I packed up on Saturday. You know, so I could fuss around with the idea of different cameras in the time in between. As it turns out I got food poisoning on Saturday evening and am just now on a good path to recovery. Not an auspicious start... But it did mean that I didn't waste time second guessing my camera or clothes packing. 

Feeling much better today but totally low energy; which is almost foreign to me. Everything else is fine.

observation about the Carl Zeiss ZM lenses when used on an actual M series digital camera. What happened to the color shift across the frame?

 a few months back I was pretty excited about picking up two mint condition, Carl Zeiss wide angle lenses that were designed to work with Leica M mount cameras (and, I think, also with the Zeiss ZM camera, which was a short lived product...). I bought a barely used 28mm f2.8 and an even less used 35mm f2.0 Biogon. That's back when I started experimenting more with various adapters. M to L mount, in particular. 

I used the lenses on a couple of Leica SL bodies and also on the Sigma fp. But even when I shot .DNG and developed the files using the lens profiles made for them, in Lightroom, I got some obvious color shifting across big swaths of the corners of the frames. This problem never appeared with the Voigtlander 50mm APO lens and it was most obvious with the 28mm lens. With the Sigma you can calibrate the color shifting by creating a file -- shooting a white target and letting the camera create a "workable" profile. But the ones from the 28mm were never quite perfect. 

when I put the 28mm lens on the Leica M240 everything cleared up. I set the lens profile in the camera. There is not one exactly for the Carl Zeiss lens in the M camera ---- they are, after all, competitors. But I found that one of the profiles for a recent, non-aspherical Leica 28mm worked just fine. And, if you are shooting raw/.DNG there is a more exact profile in Lightroom for that lens on the M body. Winner.

There is some variation in tone in the image above but no color shifting. It's just the normal variation you would see in the sky if you were actually a lens and a camera. 

I tried the same basic process with the Carl Zeiss 35mm Biogon and found it to be without any color shift as well.. 

So there is a reason after all to use lenses designed expressly for M cameras on M cameras. They work better. 

I'm packing the two Zeiss lenses and the Voigtlander 50mm f2.0 APO for the M240, for photographing in Montreal. I'l also taking the Q2 along as a back-up camera/lens combination. One small, dull green Domke F1 bag in the rugged finish. With an additional coat of wax on the top lid. Packed and ready now. 

I know, I know. I'm a couple days early. Still time to second guess myself, dump everything out and just take the SL2 and the 24-90mm lens. But I don't think so. Not this time. 

Med-info. My arm is sore from the Covid vaccine. And my head hurts. And I'm pretty wrung out today. But I did make it up at 7 and into the pool by 8. We got in a leisurely 2,900 yards. I've already returned a carry-on suit case I didn't like to Amazon. I ate a donut. First time in years. Tasted great while I was chewing it but the sugar rush was obnoxious. My arm is feeling better by the hour. 

I hope I recover by 6 pm. My friend, Keith Carter, is having an opening reception for his new photo book. It's at the Steve Clark gallery. Gotta show my face. And, I think his latest book, published by the University of Texas Press, will be amazing. Fun with Fine Art Photography. In person. As it should be. 

Warming up for next week's shooting adventure. What?!? You don't practice before a trip? Are you insane? Maybe don't answer that....

Thursday. 7 a.m. Already having fun. Leica+Dermatology.

This was the week to tweak. To get things done. And to practice so I could be up to speed with a camera that's new to me. I moved money from here to there to pay for the trip and to replenish balances lost to camera acquisition syndrome. I had a long call with a money manager. He encouraged me to spend more money on cameras. Yeah, I'll see if B. believes that really happened as well....  I had my teeth cleaned and checked by my wonderful, delightful dentist and she let me know I might want to move more money around because she found a partial crown that's twenty plus years old and failing. She'd like me to spend a couple thousand dollars to replace it. But she did compliment my improved flossing...

At least that's something.

Next stop was at the dermatologist's office. I love the guy. He's got a perfect bedside manner. Not that I was in bed. He loves the jigsaw puzzle that is the sun battered skin on my back. He figures he can cut and burn and cauterize stuff ad infinitum until he's got both kids through college. But he always makes time to see me and I always insist on the getting the first appointment of the day. That way one avoids the nearly unavoidable schedule slip that happens through the course of the day at most doctors' offices. Yesterday we just hit a couple of spots with the good, ole liquid nitrogen and laughed at the ridiculousness of spraying something that's minus 326 degrees (f) onto another human's fragile skin. Don't get any of that stuff in your eyes! And, of course, the wardrobe at the dermatologist's practice is so fetching. I'd rather just stand around in a pair of boxers. I mean, we practice everyday in swim suits. Can't be much different.

If you spent your youth pursuing various ultra violet follies, as I did, you might want to strike up a chummy and routine relationship with a good, board certified dermatologist. Best to keep an eye on all the various spots and splotches so he can catch them early and save your hide. And your life. The co-pay for anyone with decent insurance is minimal. $40. The downside for blowing it all off?  Read about melanoma. Creepier than a Stephen King novel.

After a good dose of frozen insanity we took my blood pressure and it was still pegged at 118/70. Nice. Although I have a mind to talk to my cardiologist about the systolic number. I think it's too low but my G.P. tells me I'm wrong. We should get the heart guy to give a final pronouncement. 

Yes, these are some of the things I think about when I'm not busy with work. 

To cap off the financial underwriting of medical practices this week B. announced, when I came in the door this afternoon, that the new Covid vaccines had arrived at our favorite pharmacy and there's one more open appointment in 50 minutes and I should haul ass over there and top off my day with a jab in the arm that also promises an evening headache and swim practice tomorrow with a sore arm. Delightful. Oops! Forgot the slight fever and body aches. Good stuff!!!

I was okay with it all until the trip home when someone without that Formula One skill base (and five to seven pounds of lost sweat) flipped his SUV in the express lane of the freeway, trying to leap the barriers for free, and made all three other lanes of traffic creep along for an eternity. A sun drenched eternity. Turtles and snails were passing us like we were standing still because....for the most part we were all standing still.

Now. About the cameras. I have been going out every day with the Leica M240 and one of three lenses (but only one per day).  At the beginning of the week it was the 50 APO. Yesterday it was the 28mm CZ-ZM. Today, this morning, it was the 35mm CZ-ZM. Yesterday and today were different though because I had acquired a +2.0 diopter to screw into the eyepiece of the camera to correct for my farsightedness. That was an engineering step that took me back to the paleolithic age of cameras. Back to a time when I had perfect eyesight and didn't need any freaking diopters. But....I have to confess that it sharpened up the finder quite nicely and made focusing the rangefinder a breeze. 

I'd been out for three days this week making sure that I'm up to speed with the operation of the camera, the disposition of the menus and the way the lenses look through the optical finder. Man, that 28mm is edge to edge in the finder. Something to get used to. And that's the whole point --- getting used to all that stuff before I get to my shooting destination. I don't want to be one of the those guys who stands in the middle of the street, oblivious to traffic, trying to figure out how to use the exposure compensation controls on his new camera. I just don't want to open myself up to that kind of judgmental ridicule. 

Every day I try to master something new on the camera. Or something that confused me at first blush. We love to think of ourselves as brilliant technicians. After all we've survived complicated careers and projects. But we're as fallible as anyone else and sometimes all of us need refresher courses to get back up to speed on the nuts and bolts stuff. Best to do it in a situation with zero costs --- other than time spent.

A semi-photo note: You might not know this but I'm finding that as one ages the padding on the bottoms of our feet gets thinner and, well, it pads less. I'm also finding that along with the general decay of aging comes a tendency for the natural arch of the foot to collapse like a rusty suspension bridge. And don't get me started on those achy metatarsals. Over the last two years my feet get sore in places after walks longer than four or five miles. Not a happy feeling when looking forward to a vacation that should feature ten or fifteen miles a day of spirited walking. Right? 

So, there are these guys who call themselves podiatrists and they are supposed to be experts on feet. And foot pain. And curing foot pain. And preventing foot pain. My regular doc referred me to one. I liked him because the guy, in addition to doctoring, is also a long distance runner. He examined my feet. I told him my tales of foot woe. He nodded with a knowing look. 

"A lower heel, more arch support and more metatarsal padding." He said. And nodded again. Knowingly. Then he recommended some over the counter orthotics to put into my shoes and told me to call back if that didn't work. 

Miracle of miracles. The "inserts" work perfectly. I am rejuvenated. But like the engineer I once studied to be, I had to put a set of these orthotics in every pair of shoes I considered talking on my trips with me and then take each pair of shoes+orthotics out for a test walk of not less than five miles per. I've now got three contenders for the trip. All delivered a pain free romp through parks, on trails and across the concrete of downtown. Not a whimper from my once aching feet. 

I now consider good orthotics as a photographic accessory and will list them as such on the next profit and loss statement for taxes. 

Final technical note. Wheeled carry on luggage. Amazon should have a driver here before ten p.m. with five different airline approved (size wise) wheeled, carry on suitcases. The ones with four wheels on the bottom and a handle that pops up on the top. I've decided against checking luggage. If I miss calculate I'll buy what I need on the spot. But, again, I don't want to be that guy at the luggage carousel with tears in his eyes and the sad slumped shoulders of a man who realizes that he's already been waiting two hours for his checked luggage to come spinning around on the big, wide, moving belt and that it might....never come.  I'll let you know the results of my search. Or I may think that's too boring and give up thinking about it. 

Depressed about Montreal. The weather is supposed to be beautiful. Highs around 70°, lows around 50°. Shorts and sandals weather for northern residents. I was hoping for snow, sleet, perilous wind gusts, glowering clouds and the like. Sigh. I guess I'll make do with whatever I get. 

And that's the wrap up for Friday. What a week. Above and below. The images are from the M240 and the Carl Zeiss (CZ) 35mm f2.0 (ZM = Zeiss for M mount). Nothing really Wow! But nothing bad either. 

Tips for a happy life: marry someone really great. do something you really, really love for work; to make money. save a ton of money. invest wisely and from a young age. get in really good shape. stay in really great shape. hire experts for all the things in life where you have blind spots. treat everyone well. eat and drink the things you like. always in moderation. make and keep friends. don't overbook yourself. try taking a nap. read a lot. but mostly fiction. watch 52 movies a year. but only good or fun ones. live within your means. marry someone who really, really makes life great. easy as pie.

 

This is a re-posting of a blog entry from 2011-12. Just quality testing my ability to predict the future...

 A reprint from over a decade ago. Relevant today? 

Is the age of "professional photographer" over? 

More people are taking more photos than ever before and it's a wonderful time to be a photographer.  It may even be a wonderful time to sell pictures occasionally and to make a little side money but I think we're seeing the passing of the "Professional Photographer" (in caps) as a profession in the same way typesetters vanished from the face of the earth within ten years of desktop publishing hitting the marketplace.  Same with traditional labs.  In the old days typesetting required skill and taste and equipment.  But it cost money to do it right.  We paid the money (in the ad agency days) because that was the way it was done and that was the cost of doing business.

But when Pagemaker and QuarkExpress hit the market it became possible (mandatory, from a cost point of view...) for art directors and graphic designers to do their own typesetting.  While early versions of the desktop graphic design programs lacked the ultra fine control, and the massive number of fonts traditional typesetters offered, the programs offered something that accountants couldn't resist:  The Idea of Free,  and they offered something a generation becoming fascinated with computers couldn't resist:  The Idea of Personal Control over the whole process.  While there are tiny exceptions the vast majority of professional typesetters and typesetting services are gone.  Not transformed, just gone.  We don't have a group who "upped their game" and made a viable argument for the value proposition of the very best typesetting in the world we just don't have any typesetters.

While more and more photos are being taken, as a percentage, far fewer are being taken by professional photographers than ever before.  And that includes images being used in ad campaigns and in  the general course of commerce.  Wedding photographers have seen a radical decline just in the last two years in total sales and revenue.  And it's not a question of not seeing the future.  Professional photographers don't know how to make money doing what they have done in the past in the future they do see.  Everyone who needs a photo for one use or another is stepping up with their own camera (or phone) and taking their best shot.  PhotoShop and it's lite cousins are the Pagemakers and Quarkexpresses that are driving the total market adaptation.  Time and budget are relentlessly driving the market for images.

Why did I start thinking about this?  It was the news that Kodak might be filing bankruptcy that started me down this tortured thought trail.  If the company that invented digital photography can't figure out how to survive in the age of digital photography what hope can there be for the professional photographers?  Yes, we're more agile and able to change quickly, but we're doing what all the devolving industries have done when confronted with their decline,  we move into other related fields, each of which is probably also in decline.  A great example is video production.  

When the 5D mk2 hit the market, and Vincent Laforet did his video Reverie, it struck a match of hope in the hearts of photographers looking for a secondary income stream.  How simple.  We would all become video artists.  But in the last two years so much programming has moved to YouTube and the numbers in the professional side of that industry are, if anything, worse than those confronting the majority of working photographers.  Some photographers have starting offering web design but that market is flooded as well.  

I've heard the chorus before.  It goes like this:  "Up your game and the world is your oyster."  But the reality is that, for most, even the perfect game isn't going to compete against free, or almost free. And it's not enough to compete against the concept of "good enough."  With tens of billions of images available at the fingertips of people who used to have to assign work, and pay real money for it, the odds are that perfect isn't going to be in the budget again for a long, long time.

Kodak was, for me, the symbol of photography as I knew it.  And the guys at Kodak weren't and aren't dumb.  They are/were some of the best and brightest.  They just didn't plan on the market shifting at the speed of light.  They didn't anticipate that disruption would occur faster than T-Max 3200.  And we, as professional photographers, are now standing where Kodak stood before the Toons dropped the safe or the grand piano on their heads  (Who Killed Rodger Rabbit reference).  Will we be able to do a better job of creating an alternative universe for ourselves?  It remains to be seen. 

I think the markets will continue as they progressively wind their way away from traditional assignment work.  Photographers will transition as designers have.  In order to stay in the middle class they'll need to diversify into video, digital presentation, writing, web publishing and more stuff that we haven't even invented yet. We'll likely become "content providers" working in concert with designers and agencies. Designers work with type, work with graphic elements, shoot their own source materials when necessary, design for the web and print and outdoor and for mobile apps.  Would they prefer to concentrate on pure design?  Sure.  But they also like to eat, pay the rent and buy stuff.  

Our industry will make a similar transition.  We just haven't figured out the whole roadmap yet.  And the people who don't want to learn to swim (all four strokes)  will be left behind, clinging to a fragment of the battered haul from a ship that's sinking quickly into the deep, cold waters of incessant progress.

Ian Summers summed it all up best with his motto:  "Grow or Die."

The only reality check I can offer is that Professional Photography is a much, much bigger and more diverse industry than Typesetting ever was.  And there are, of course, segments that will keep holding on even as most of the formerly profitable market is destroyed.  To make an analogy to video, while people are shooting their own webcasts with small digital cameras, or the cameras in their laptops, they don't want to give up the quality of professional camera and video work they see on broadcast NFL football games.  That level of work still takes a lot of skill and experience.  But a quick training video or "how to" video for in-house use?  Forget it.  Parts of the industry will go on.  But large swaths of what we always considered "the bread and butter" will not.  Not in the same way.  And without foundational work there's no real chance the majority will make it being photographers, exclusively.

Do I write this because I am angry or cranky?  No, I write this as an honest opinion.  It's as inevitable as the waves on the beach.  How can we battle  it?  We can't.  We can sort through our options and figure out our futures but we have to recognize that things changed quicker than anyone thought and, that old models are breaking down.  My business used to be completely devoted to assignment photography.  Last year a large percentage of our income was from publishing royalties.  Another segment came from several video projects.   Another part of the pie came from web marketing.  And some money even flew into the coffers as a result of teaching at workshops and seminars.  I may be a curmudgeon but I'm embracing change as quickly as I can.  Wanna buy a Visual Science Lab T-shirt?  

I hope Kodak makes it. Not because I believe they must for nostalgic reasons but because it would validate my thoughts that we can, as an industry,  retool and we can re-engage our markets (and new markets) in different ways.  

This essay is aimed solely at the people in the audience who make a living from taking photographs.  If you don't fall in this category you are either luckier or less lucky than we are.  If you get beyond the idea that the people at Kodak are not intelligent and you can understand that they were at the mercy of the data they had at hand you'll likely do a better job with your re-invention.  It starts now.