Who you are

Went to my eldest son's art exhibition last night. A friend - also a photographer - went along to document things. We had a wonderful evening. Being a proud parent, I thought my son's work was great and when he made a short speech - he was given the school's art prize - I was very pleased at the generosity he showed in thanking all his friends and teachers for playing a vital role in helping him accomplish his achievements.

My friend snapped away with happy abandon and then handed me the card from his camera and said: "Download 'em, copy 'em and do what you like with them, I've had fun tonight!".

Not too long ago that would have involved quite a bit of work and good luck. The film would have needed developing, contacts printed up in a darkroom with the chances of incorrectly rating the film by setting an incorrect shutter speed/aperture quite high because of the less than focused state of my friend . . . and yet, none of these things happened. I got home, downloaded the images and was working on them within minutes. The state of digital camera technology is pretty sophisticated!

It was demonstrated to me again ( this isn't the first time I've touched on the subject, nor will it be the last ) that a photographer's compositional eye and their ability to create rapport, is what it's all about. The technical side has been sorted, as the saying goes. No longer are there arcane chemical formulas to learn and complicated lighting set ups to discover or invent - software has taken care of those conundrums.

Who you are and how do you relate to others is the bottom line now.