Tom Hanks, we found your sign
London, ON, July 2010
About this photo: It's orange week all week long. We call it Thematic Photographic. Whatever you choose to call it, we hope you'll give it a shot. The fun starts here.One of the joys of digital photography lies in your ability to break free of the traditional cost-benefit analysis that used to accompany every exposure on conventional film.
If you've been shooting long enough, you'll remember loading up rolls of 24 or 36 and then doing the math for each shot. Between the cost of film and development, you thought twice about shooting frivolous images that stood a better-than-even chance of not working out. And my dismal success rate shooting light sources like neon bulbs eventually forced me to stop trying altogether. No matter how much I read and practiced, I just couldn't dial in the right exposure for scenes like this.
Digital makes this conundrum delightfully moot. As long as you have enough time, battery and room on your memory card, you can shoot as much as you want and review and adjust as you go along. It gives you significantly more opportunity to build the kind of muscle memory that allows you to subtly navigate these types of challenging scenarios. All of which means I'm now free to take pictures of whatever the heck I want, without worrying about cost.
My wife, on the other hand, may have a somewhat different perspective on this. But that's a story for another time.
Your turn: How has digital photography changed the way you approach the craft?
