dv over dt - catch up time!'s photostream  

Greetings world!

After using this site as a sort of repository and backup of some earlier scanned work I finally decided to start running some work up the virtual flagpole and see if anyone saluted it.

I am a full time electrical engineer, and a part time photographer since the 1980s, rekindling my interest in the hobby at the dawn of the digital era as I realized the potential of electronic image capture and storage.

I am amazed at the extent to which the digital revolution has democratized photography. Making fine art quality prints at home was once the domain of people who were dedicated enough to spend their waking hours in tiny little closets which reeked of some rather toxic chemicals. When I got my first 35mm camera, 4x6 prints carried a premium in price and enlargements to 8x10 were costly enough to remain a luxury which few images justified. Splurging meant taking the film down to the Dallas Kodak lab instead of using the one hour service at the drug store. Night photography was a special act of faith without an lcd screen for instant review and with no good way to predict the reciprocity failure of color film at long exposures.

As an engineer I am hard wired to be a gadget freak, always wanting to try out a new camera body, lens or other toy -- but the real magic of photography lies in its power to capture and freeze a fleeting moment in time; an old 620 Brownie can do that as well as the latest $$$ toy from Nikon or Canon. Early digital cameras were expensive and offered comparatively awful output, but that old Kodak DC4800 of mine took some of the last images ever made of my Mom before she passed away. That alone made the little Kodak priceless.

On a broader scale the world around us is changing rapidly, but thanks to the miracle of instant digital photography we are able to capture things as they are at the instant the shutter clicks to the benefit of a world that no longer has room for things like googie coffee shops and enameled metal neon signage -- and since joining Flickr I have found many kindred spirits who feel the same way about those old relics....what a relief, thought I was the only weird one!

Looking backwards from the middle of life I realize how much I would love to have some images of what would have been any ordinary day in the still vital downtowns and town squares of the small cities I recall from my formative years--the family owned grocery stores, the Western Autos filled with untold treasures, the Otasco stores with the rows of shiny bicycles, the General Electric dealer with radios which could pull in signals from around the world--all gone now, but perhaps poised to return in some form with the reeling in of urban sprawl? In any case, I don't think it will be too hard for the future 40 year olds to obtain images of the world the way they recall it thanks to people like us and sites like Flickr....do you suppose today's ten year old kids will wax nostalgic over Walmart Super Centers :P

Just as digital capture and affordable photo printers democratized photography, the advent of the WWW truly democratized the sharing of information and of images, taking that function from the domain of a few photography clubs in larger cities and opening it to literally the entire world. I am especially grateful to all the talented people who are willing to share their work with relative hacks like me. Seeing the good work of others is an inspiration which not only pushes me to do better, but also pushes me to simply get the camera out there and capture some photons--you can't get the shot if you're not out there in the world, camera in hand!