Least you think I'm a Luddite, I own a number of digital cameras, including a digital snapshot, digital SLR and even a digital video camera. I think digital photography is great--it unleashes new possibilities that were either impossible or damn near impossible with film. It also makes it a much cheaper hobby (overall) which I think is great.

However, there's something really magical about a darkroom... part nostalgia, I'm sure. But the equipment, the smell of the chemicals, the process. It really appealed to an artistically inclined geek like me. When you are shooting and developing your own photos, it's more than just capturing the image: it's the process of creating the photograph.

I'll never forget the first time I was in a darkroom. My dad had converted the bathroom closet in our old house into a darkroom. He had a Bessler color enlarger in there, which was so cool. Of course, I started out with black and white. It can be a lot of fun, loading up the enlarger, exposing the image--once you've captured the image on film, it felt like releasing it onto the paper. The enlarger fires up, and there, for a few seconds, is your image. Then darkness. And standing over a tray of chemicals, swishing around the paper as an image magically appears... Downloading a file and printing it on an inkjet just isn't the same. Digital, in the end, will probably only help photography. More people can afford it as a hobby, it's probably safer not to be around the chemical fumes all the time, and the possibilities for image processing seem limitless. But that magic, watching the image appear physically before your eyes where before there wasn't any... that's lost and I do think that's a shame.

Posted by Dave!