The dangers of night photography

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The full moon is here. Last night was going to be my best chance to make a photograph of a moonlit landscape -clouds are coming for the rest of the week.

I wanted to make a long exposure of the full moon above a nearby canyon. I thought it'd be a cool image.

This place is not remote. Still, the closest town is a few kilometers away. I drove there and parked the car in the empty parking lot around 11pm. There's a viewpoint where I was planning to make this image from.

The moon was still rising above the walls of the canyon, so it was pretty dark outside. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight, and opened the door.

As soon as I stepped out of the car, I heard it. It was a shot. I didn't know if it was a gun, or a shotgun, or something else. I didn't know in what direction. But it was close.

In retrospective, and having talked to some people, I believe it was a device used by locals to scare the wild boars from the vineyards that populate the landscape of the area. I'd never heard it before, but they say it sounds like a gun.

At that time, being alone in the dark in a place where I thought there was no one, it didn't feel that way.

I got out of there as fast as I could.

Probably a place I won't be visiting at night again.

My dream camera

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Have you ever thought about what your dream camera would look like?

Mine would look something like this.

I want a mini Bronica SQ. Smaller and lighter, using a new type of film for 5x5 frames, 16 exposures per roll.

The viewfinder would stay the same, a little smaller due to the overall size reduction. You'd be able to switch to a fully electronic viewfinder (very much like the Fuji X100 series) with a live preview of the exposure and the film you have loaded in the back. This preview can simulate pushing and pulling as well.

If you run out of batteries, it should still work using the optical viewfinder.

I'd like to have just one lens, a zoom lens with a range of 20-300mm. f/4 would be more than enough.

When taking a long exposure, it should be able to show you the image as it's being "built". Of course, simulating the effect film will have on it. This way, you could stop it once it looks good and not before or after.

This would be the perfect camera for a hybrid shooter.

What would yours look like?

The one and only reason why I shoot film

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It's not because of the "film look" - I can achieve very similar results from a digital file.

It's not because it's cool - although this is a good bonus, who doesn't want to be cool?

It's not because it slows me down - you can be as slow as you want with your digital camera.

It's not because it costs me money, thus it makes me think twice before pressing the shutter - I do shoot more with a digital camera, but I'm merciless when it comes to delete pictures afterwards.

It's not because I like the smell of the chemicals - I do not.

It's not because I like to develop and scan my negatives - I don't mind it too much, but sometimes I wish someone else could do it for me.

No, it's not because of any of these reasons.

The one and only reason why I shoot film is because it's the only way I can shoot with my Bronica.

The experience I get while making images with that camera is unique, and there's no digital camera (under $50k) that can offer me the same.

When I shoot with the Bronica, I'm a better photographer and a better artist.

And this alone, is worth the effort and the cost.

Photography's days are numbered

in

Look around you, it's going to happen.

From petroglyphs and polychrome cave paintings, to the smartphone 40,000 years later, humans have always used whatever medium they had available to capture a moment, a loved one, a thought, a story, so they didn't forget.

The more advanced the tool, the better humans could remember.

Photography is the best technique we have today, and smartphones are the culmination of almost 200 years of advances in photography.

Smartphones will also be the ones that will kill photography.

Technology is about to create a whole new world of tools to capture our lives. I'm no Nostradamus, I don't know if it will be augmented or virtual reality or holograms or something else, and I have no idea what those devices will look like.

I do know this: photography will die within the next 10 years.

The day that technology is able to capture that moment, that thought, that loved one, that story, in a way that we can relive it like we were there... in an affordable way for most of the people... that day, photography will die.

Artists have embraced all the mediums to express themselves for thousands of years, and photography will remain as an art. Like painting, sculpture or the printed word.

Moms won't be taking any more photos, though.

Look around you. It is going to happen.

April, 2000 -

in

My mom is a collector of memories.

For years, she spent a lot of money and time putting together photo albums with side notes: where we went, what we ate, how we felt.

"1985-90", "90-93"

They are images of the highlights of our lives: that wedding, that party, that birthday, that day at the beach.

"April, 2000 - ", says the label of the very last photo album.

As you turn pages on that album, you start noticing that whereas one from the 90s would have 3-4 photos per event, this one had 10-20, getting worse and worse towards the end.

No more side notes, no more anecdotes.

And one day, suddenly, no more photos.

There wasn't room for all of them.

Digital happened.