Digital BW, The Print

Tom OConnell wrote:

important as the move from glass plates to film. If you don't embrace 
change, it will roll over you. period.

-----------
Um, that's simply not true. Not all change is good, and while there
are definitely events that represent real progress according to strictly
defined and measurable quality criteria, there is no necessary overall
historically progressive force that we are compelled to embrace.

Even in the technology industry, read Clayton Christiansen (HBS) on
the change in quality criteria as one technology succeeds the next. Newer
technologies (he studied the disk drive industry over a few decades) are
rarely simple straight forward wholesale improvements over former
technologies.

I remember back in the late '80s reading that one of the really hot Sci
Fi writers back then, William Gibson, lived a pretty low tech life well
outside of Vancouver and typed his novels on a typewriter. Go figure.

One of the cooler exhibits I saw this past year was Sally Mann's "What
Remains" down at the Corcoran in DC.  Lovely, eerie stuff shot on glass
plates. Wasn't "better" for using old technology, but neither are the
digi snap shooters' work "better" for using the latest gadgets.

I'm a weekend warrior guitar player, and the guitars, amplifiers and even
cabling of  decades past is highly sought after by those who can afford it.
Many, many musicians simply prefer the tones and build of the older
musical (guitar) tools and technology. Similarly, new instruments built
to the same "spec" as the older gear provides for a lively boutique
industry.

If you want to shoot digital (I do), go for it. But it's not like the Nazi's
are coming compelling you to keep up with consumer marketing
trends. Thank God!   If you want to shoot film (I do as well), then keep
shooting film.  As for printing, the same.

Just do what floats your boat, and have fun!

Scott