Up Close and Digital

As I mentioned in a previous post, with digital SLRs being substantially more complicated to operate as opposed to the film SLRs of the past, such as the Nikon F2 that I cut my teeth on, it is important to keep current with the camera, staying familiar with, at least, the rudiments of it's capabilities. Once you arrive at a photo shoot, it's a little late to try to bone up on the fine workings of the camera, when you should be snapping into action.

I took advantage of this autumn rainy day to pull out my trusty old 60mm AF Micro Nikkor, a lens that is equally adept at macro work as it is with so called "normal" shooting, as, at 60mm, it approximates how the human eye would normally see. Well, the fun has just started, and I post one example above, a shot staged with very little set up.

With digitals, the results are immediate, no need to load the film and little need to bracket any shots through the wonder of Adobe Photoshop. There is no waiting for viewing, processing, or otherwise. Of course, there are things you can do with film that you either can't do with digital photography, or are limited, such as extreme F stop work, at one end of the spectrum or the other. This kind of depth of field manipulation seems compromised. Also, film is its own medium, with warm, specific results, that really can't be duplicated digitally. However, after experiencing digital fun, there is no going back to the past that can be anticipated. There is nothing like shooting two hundred photos in a row, without pausing to reload. You can't do that with film.