Going Digital: Better Cameras, Better Photos

(Continued from Return to Photography: Rekindling the Flame)

Featured Photo: “White Fence with Extended Root” Litchfield County, Connecticut—2003

I got my first digital camera in the spring of 2003, when I was 44 years old—a Canon EOS 10D SLR; it was 33 years after my first camera, from so long ago—my old Polaroid One-Step. I know for a fact I bought this digital camera myself, with money earned during the first half of my 32-year career in chemistry.

My new Canon 10D digital camera had the same type of lens mount as my old Canon Elan IIE film camera, so I was able to keep using the same two zoom lenses I had used the prior four years. Like my old Canon SLR, this new Canon SLR had both auto-focusing and auto-exposure capability. With my new digital camera—which had just been introduced by Canon when I purchased it—I could focus on a subject, frame the shot as I wanted, and press the shutter release; then the 6.3 megapixel CMOS electronic sensor, along with the newly developed DIGIC imaging engine, would convert light from the subject into a digital image—essentially just a long string of 1s and 0s—to be stored on a CompactFlash memory card.

I could view the captured image right away on the LCD monitor on the back of the camera. As with my old Polaroid One-Step’s incredible capability (pull-out-the-tab-and-wait-two-minutes-for-the-photo-to-appear), I thought my new Canon digital camera’s amazing capability (take-the-shot-and-look-at-the-photo-instantly) was nothing short of a miracle, at the time. I guess I still do.

If the photo did not turn out the way I wanted, I could delete it and retake the shot—as many times as I wished; or if I wanted to experiment with different settings, like aperture for depth-of-field, or shutter speed for capturing motion, I could take 10, 20, 100 pictures, and view the results straight away, to decide which produced the best image. This could all be done while I was still taking the photographs, without the delayed feedback and added expense of a non-digital camera: developing the film and getting paper prints to judge the results from the different settings—days or even weeks later—long after I had forgotten what effects I was even trying to achieve.

Back at home, I could connect the camera to my computer and download the images, where they would be organized into digital photo albums. I could view the pictures on the larger computer monitor, and even edit them, if I wanted to (although I rarely did). I could also print the pictures using my Epson color inkjet printer and glossy photo paper, if I wanted to (although I rarely did). There was no need for a darkroom anymore; and I came to prefer looking at the vibrant colors of my photos displayed on my computer screen.

Several years before—back in 1998, when I purchased my Elan IIE—I was unaware of Canon’s ongoing efforts to develop digital cameras. Having been raised on 35-mm film and printed photos, I’m not sure I would have been interested in their digital offerings at that time. However, I reconsidered this position, not long after the birth of our second son. Indeed, my two growing boys were the main reason for my transition from film to digital cameras—they were also my primary, initial subjects.

The very first photos I took with my Canon 10D were of my older son—2-1/2 years old at the time—looking up at me from behind the child-safety gate at the bottom of our stairs…

…and immediately afterward, of my younger son—10 months old at the time—smiling up at me from his crib.

The following months and years provided plenty of opportunities to capture and preserve precious moments from their lives, whether separately…

…or together, along with my wife, on a family outing.

When we went on family vacations, I usually took lots and lots of pictures, and when my family grew tired of me asking them to pose, I would photograph everything else I saw. In July 2003, we took a trip—one of our first vacations after getting my new digital camera—to visit my wife’s cousin, who was spending the summer in Connecticut with her family. Inside their house, I snapped the occasional photo: my older son in the bright, sunny kitchen, drinking from a clear-plastic cup…

…and my wife, about to walk down the stairs, holding our younger son in her arms; he seemed doubtful of the wisdom and safety of their looming descent.

And there were also pictures waiting for me outside the house. The Featured Photo, “White Fence with Extended Root,” was taken with my Canon 10D SLR on that Connecticut vacation. One afternoon, as I walked around their property—the historic house, a weathered shed, a beautiful yard and gardens—I was fascinated when I came across the white fence, otherwise normal, except for the opening to allow the root, near the bottom of the tree, to protrude. Indeed, I’ve always felt the engineering and craftsmanship in making the fence was far more impressive than my photo of it. But my wife and I liked the image so much that it became one of the few digital photos we printed, and it has hung in a photo collage in our study for many years.

As I continued strolling around, outside the Connecticut house, so many things caught my eye—colors, shapes, angles, shadows, reflections—so many images I thought might make interesting photos. What seems remarkable now—20 years after that trip—is I can still almost retrace (in my mind’s eye) the steps I took as I wandered there: first glimpsing the white fence beside the house…

…then turning back to view the sunlight and reflection in the window…

…finding a hint of art in a cracked brick wall…

…and later, seeing the house’s wooden siding and chimney in the shade.

I stopped to smell—and photograph—the flowers, near the steps…

…and in the gardens.

When I went back inside the house, I saw the sun streaming through a window, casting light and shadows on the stairs below—it seemed a simpler vision of the photo I had taken 25 years earlier at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Farther along, I found more sunlight and shadows in an antique glass bottle, set on a table beside another window.

Digital photography provided new possibilities through its innovations, and I still had good reasons for taking pictures: family and travel. But even with the technological advancements, it was still the same person behind the camera—it was still me looking though the viewfinder. Stopping to consider this point, I feel the title of this post needs a qualifier: Better Cameras, Better Photos…Sometimes. To take good photographs, I still needed interesting destinations and willing subjects. But perhaps, more importantly, I still needed the skill, the inspiration, the vision.

(To be continued…)