So far Photo in Society has proved to be quite the engaging class- I enjoy the readings (because they’re all about photography, natch), and we have good, varied discussions pretty much every period (this is much preferable to classes when nobody wants to talk and there are overlong intervals of awkward silence. You don’t get much out of that). Anyway, we were talking about a chapter from Susan Sontag’s On Photography, and the importance given to the actual, tangible photographic print- which has faded considerably with the advent of digital cameras. It reminded me of this article from the Boston Globe ( http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/twilight_of_the_color_photo/?page=3). which I read over break (I love reading the Globe. It’s my favorite newspaper, and there is absolutely nothing comparable to its Sunday edition). The article actually spurred me to embark on the epic task of putting all of my pre-digital photos in real albums, and I made a pretty sizable dent in the project over the four weeks I was home (hooray!). But ideally, when I have the money to actually do this- I really do want to make prints of my digital photos, and put those in albums, too. Or, barring that, just make an obscene amount of Shutterfly albums. Anything to have non-virtual copies of everything. I suspect this makes me a dinosaur of sorts, but then, I freely admit to being a dinosaur of sorts about print newspapers* versus digital ones, so I am nothing if not consistent.
In somewhat related news on the digital technology front, this article: http://www.slate.com/id/2209884/ was posted on Slate a few days ago. First of all, Microsoft having photo technology that Apple hasn’t come up with yet? Odd. But seriously, the idea of Photosynth- and the fact that they actually manage to execute it! -is a little mind-blowing to me. I’ve done the GoogleEarth and Flickr thing where you click on a location and view other peoples’ images of it…but I haven’t ‘flown through’ them in a three-dimensional way.
I got my new flash the other day! I feel all fancy; I think I’ve used a flash once, shooting improv at Rice (and I would be lying if I said I actually knew what I was doing that time). So. Definitely looking forward to learning all about the power of the strobe. I am kind of antsy about how conspicuous I’m going to be with it hooked up to my camera, but I guess I’ll have to learn to deal with that.
Meanwhile, who knew Midwestern winters were worse than New England ones? I don’t remember it ever getting down to FIVE degrees in Connecticut…rargh.
*I have nothing at all against digital newspapers, and I read them daily, but the experience of reading a dead-tree edition (especially on a Sunday) is something that can’t be replicated (I’m also a little uncomfortable with digital shutting out older people like my 70-year-old grandfather, who is not exactly Mister Technology).