Smartphones would have killed Kodachrome, anyway

Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

Paul Simon

Time was you needed serious glass to take a photo like the image above and a long apprenticeship burning miles of film stock, tons of money for processing and hours pouring over a light table with a loupe. Point and shoot has caught up and now anyone with an eye can produce this level or better. Any genius is in post-processing and cropping.

© 2009 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/4180619921/, licensed under CC2, image unmodified

And everything looks worse in black and white

Also Paul Simon

The Great Chain of Being

Well, maybe Paul wasn’t a big fan of Ansel Adams and his 8x10" photo plates capable of resolution equivalent to 1200 megapixels on a digital camera. (A little less than 12 times the sensor on the Fujifilm GFX is capable of producing.)

On the other hand, however, the camera body on a large format is about the size of a pair of large toasters and need a heavy surveyor-grade tripod to support. Plus grey cards, light meters, a keen eye and a steady hand. And throw in a mule train to go off-road. Not to mention one-pound lenses and shutters that are separate parts. And the cost of all this. Plus the photolab to go with it all.

Old school large-format is not a hobby option — the only people who can afford it as a hobby are too busy trying to hold onto their wealth and up their bragging rights on the Forbes 400 that they don’t have the time. Even the 4x5" format or the medium-format 2x3" require some serious commitments to mastering the mysteries of the Hasselblad (the most expensive disposable camera in history — it was left on the moon after Armstrong and Aldrin finished their snapshots). Richard Avedon memorialized or made ordinary faces into celebrities with his Rolleiflex. Annie Leibowitz put faces on scores of covers of The Rolling Stone with her medium format.

Still a photoshoot, not a walkaround, set of gear, especially with having to change films every dozen shots or so.

Cameras for Mere Mortals

In the 35mm format, there were two ways that an aspiring young photog of the 60s could go — rangefinder and single-lens reflex. I had the use of a Nikkormat FTN, an SLR with split image focusing which sort of bridged the divide between the Yeah, In Your Dreams, Kid bookends of the mythical Leica M4 and the aspirational Nikon F, both of which were, sadly, out of the reach of an impoverished student. When I finally did have the money, I settled for the Nikon FM, which used the same lenses as its big sister and was probably even more rugged and reliable.

I learned quite a bit by the time I became overwhelmed by career and handed it down to my son.

Goodbye to the Silver Halide

Then, with the new century came some casual re-entry with digital point and shoot. Fun and didn’t produce shoeboxes full of curling snaps. Electrons are free! I had a couple of desultory cuts at more serious digital cameras until recently I took it up again to get me off the couch and outside in my final decade (actuarially).

My embarrassment of riches

The difference between an amateur like me and a pro photographer is not that only a pro can take good photographs. Anybody can do that. Eventually, anyway. The difference is that a pro can do it on purpose, and the rest of us have to stumble toward the promised land of a photo that can make you look.

Strangely, either type of photographer can make great photographs with enough shots. A great photo makes you see. To make a great photograph requires a discerning eye and a mastery of technique or an instinct for scenes that present potential, taking an approximately right run at it and exploring the possibles in processing until recognition clicks.

Found images

Dropping a bundle on a capable kit posed the question: What does it get you that you couldn’t do just as well with your late-model iPhone? What, indeed?

I decided to set aside my Kodachrome color receptors, and resist the temptation to chase the pretty. Like this