Routine and repetition — another Sunday morning ride on the Vespa to Saint’s Cafe to meet Paul and Gordon. The snow has vanished amidst a 60 degree December heat meaning more days to ride. Even though winter is decidedly not considered motorcycle riding weather the reality is that most days through the year are rideable.
But who cares…
Hints of Christmas are everywhere but still something is missing. Not feeling the magic at the moment but there is still time.
Each encounter at Saint’s Cafe has a unique flavor. This week the discussion, in part, focused on The Death of Photography. Sitting here now I realize I don’t care if photography is alive or dead.
This picture of my food, or rather the detritus of my breakfast, indicates that photography truly is dead.
Oh well…
No Steve, photography isn’t dead, it’s just been democratized. The problem is that people are loosing the distinction between good photography, and bad photography. That will change back though. It did after people realized that having a Mac in the 90’s didn’t make you a graphic designer.
A picture is still worth a thousand words Steve. Good to see you’ve got such warm riding conditions….being sans sidecar rig and all. 😉
It was +15F as I rode in this morning, a bit dicey once I neared the downtown area due to built up snow/ice but only felt the pusher tire on Valencia slide once from a standing start. Cagers of course rode as if the roads were dry….oh well.
That was an interesting article, thank you. The question has come up many times over the years anytime some new bit of gear came up which made creating photos available to more people. I suspect that the old Brownie camera would have generated the same discussions but there was no Internet or even anything like “online forums”. All of the discussion happened in small shops like the Saints Cafe.
There are some phenomenal photos being taken with small sensor cameras with mediocre lenses but it says more to the eye, imagination and skill of the photographer not their tools. So I would agree with Mark Myers comment that photography is not dead but has been democratized.
SInce I didn’t clear the snow off of the driveway last night, I just drove the truck in this morning. Almost 8″ of fresh snow since yesterday mornings ride. BTW, it was much colder driving the truck than the sidecar rig. No heated gear!
RichardM, fwiw, I read somewhere that electric car owners plug in motorcycle heated vests and such for their driving….apparently, running the heater in their electric cars draws down the onboard batteries too fast otherwise. Ironic.
8″ of snow, send Kyle out there with the snow blower! 🙂
Steve:
There are similar discussion on many photo forums: Death of SLRs, Phone cameras destroying the P&S market, How much is good enough (referring to Pixels), diminishing returns of higher priced cameras, etc . . .
The main reason is that the average person is willing to accept lesser quality, and just make do with inferior images as they are good enough for web display. Many discussions of advanced amateurs switching from big dSLRs to Mirrorless or M4/3s
Merry Christmas to you and your family
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Merry Christmas, Steve…and the best of the new year!
Karlu
Las cruces, nm
Mark Myers: I agree with your appraisal. MS Word didn’t make writers and digital cameras haven’t automatically turned everyone into professional photographers. The technology has changed the business though — being a photographer today is much different than it was when I began in the 1970s. But it’s still exciting and you can do amazing things today.
Charlie6: Sidecar? Sometime you’ll have to explain what that is. Does it having something to do with a double-wide garage and car placement??
RichardM: Yes, photography has been democratized. I see it in places like iStockPhoto.com and other internet based outlets where amateur photographers can compete head to head with pros.
And the stuff I see on Instagram and Facebook is often astounding. There remains an important difference though in the process — pros can produce good work on demand. Amateurs not so much. Assignment photography is really tough work creatively and scares the hell out of a lot of would be photographers.
bob skoot: Quality is a slippery question. For me my ideas of quality have drastically changed over the years and I am far more accepting of a wide range of quality. Fine grain, long tonal ranges and razor sharpness are no longer my guide…
karlu: Merry Christmas to you!
In answer to your query as to what is a sidecar…..I see one in your future: click me