S for Shelly

IMG_9037, originally uploaded by ShellyS.

I've been going around taking pics of my initial, mostly to use for my flickr icon (which I change every few months) and also because they're cool.

I also wrote the following in answer to a few posts in a flickr discussion on the merits of film vs digital, a topic that gets rather heated and snobbish. I wanted to preserve what I wrote, so I'm reposting it here.
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I joined this group [for film pics only] because I was scanning all my old film shots from the 1960s through the 1980s and thought I'd post a few here. Even now, I occasionally pull out my Pentax film camera and take some pics.

But I love digital. I have a point and shoot. I'm on my second, a Canon Powershot SD800 IS. My old one, a Canon Powershot S30 still works and I'm trying to get my husband interested in photography. He's taken it on 2 business trips so far and has gotten some nice shots.

They're small and easy to carry. The SD800 fits in my pocket and the battery it came with lasts me a couple of days. I always have it with me so no longer do I lament when I see something I must have a pic of only to not have a bigger, better camera with me, be it a great sunset or a nifty bit of graffiti.

My most beloved camera was my Minolta Maxxum. I had micro lenses and a telephoto lens for it. I had it for 15 years. After the third time the manual rewind lever broke and it had to be returned to Japan for repairs, I gave in and bought my automatic Pentax. It was so much lighter. Now it feels so heavy to me. I couldn't use the Minolta lenses with it, and never did buy any for it. I should use it more, but the ease of the digi point and shoots give them the advantage.

Photography is a hobby for me. I'm more interested in what I shoot than how I shoot. I'm undecided about getting a dSLR. But I would never say film is better than digital or vice versa. They are different, serving different purposes for many people. For me, right now, digital works best. And I can shoot as many pics as I want, try different angles, pick the best, and not have it cost me anything for developing.

In the past, the cost of film and developing held me back and I really regret all the shots I never took, of things now gone. Thanks goodness I had some pics of the World Trade Center, but not as many as I could have. And some places I never got shots of are gone now. These days, with my little point and shoot digicam and a memory card that can hold a few thousand shots at a time, I get those shots. As I preserve my life and what I see on film, that's the thing that matters most to me.