A big part of what I do these days is teach digital photography, and lately I've been getting ready to start my sixth year teaching the Nikon School of Photography classes. So each of the past six summers much of my time's been devoted to creating two new, all-day programs for the schools. And each summer I'm struck by how much our profession continues to be changed by digital.
I began shooting digital for a newspaper in New York in 1996. In 1997 our paper converted to all-digital, and I helped manage that conversion. We used a camera called the NC2000e (in photo), with 1.3 megapixels that cost $13,000, and was fairly low quality. By 2000, we'd moved to 2.7MP cameras costing $5000. Not only was the quality much better, they even had an LCD on the back and batteries we could change without needing a toolbox.
At that time I honestly thought it would just take three to five years for digital to become mainstream and things to settle down. Well, at least I was right about the mainstream. If it's not new cameras, it's new software and computers. Just when you think you've got everything figured out, something changes. And I'm not about to make a prediction again for what the future holds.
Right now I'm happy that while there are changes, I think we're through the biggest ones. All the newer digital SLR's out there today make very good images. The software and hardware available are allowing us to use an all RAW workflow if we choose. Printers can give longevity unmatched by the standard chemical process. And large hard drives, RAID arrays and DVDs let us sleep at night confident our prize images are safe.
All of this means that our focus (pun intended) can once again shift back to where it should be - conceiving, creating and sharing great photos. That means that when I teach, I don't just teach digital, I teach photography. And that's the way it should be. For despite everything that's changed over the last ten years, one thing remains the same - a good picture is a good picture, regardless of what camera, software, computer or printer were used to create it.
