Digital Magic?
- D.E. Bentley
Art as a personal passion has hovered graciously throughout my life as other aspects of daily existence have dominated intrusively. I am now at a time in life with few commitments, a place where artistic exploration can take center stage—I am loving it!
One of my earliest artistic passions was capturing images on film—real film. I loved the experience of stalking subjects, isolating a specific moment; then watching the captured scene emerge on a page floating in a chemical sea. One of my SLR cameras was a fully mechanical Argus. The entire shot depended entirely on me. As film photography faded into the mist of the digital age, my 35mm wonders were packed away, traded for periodic snapshots captured on a second-generation Canon Power Shot.
That nostalgic past is lost forever yet I yearn for the days when I rarely ventured out without a camera around my neck. While my nostalgia harkens back to my B&W street photography days in the 70s and 80s, younger photographers seek out the nostalgia of these early point and shoots—why I can’t even begin to imagine. I still have my Power Shot although my newest phone rivals it in quality (I was content, briefly, with capturing images between beeps).
I had all this in mind as I combed the internet for a new camera, determined to cross that digital divide. I don’t listen to machines well and all the bells and whistles that the newest gadgets offer are most useful for those intuitively inclined to screens, which is not me. I started looking for a point and shoot upgrade and ill-content with the lack of control and creative potential eventually landed (special thanks to David Fleet – The Cotswold Photographer for his informative reviews and kind follow up support) on a micro four-thirds OM 3, which I ordered online (are there still brick and mortar camera stores anyway?) and had delivered conveniently to my door.
I have seen young children reading illustrated picture books instinctively touch the page, expecting an instant response—like so much of the world they were born into. Our current geological time is characterized (in part—let’s ignore the rest for now) by fast paced change. Perhaps some people enjoy the rush of the current that demands immediate action. I do not. As I unpacked and started exploring my new acquisition—despite being well aware of my digital phobia, anticipating a challenge—I could feel the digital waves crashing inside my brain.
For the most part I am content to live in the world of tactile arts. Most recently, my artistic passions have cycled through a myriad of genres, coalescing into a return to the art of puppetry, via an exciting and invigorating foray into wood carving—the drawing out of characters from former living trees. Yet, our age of change makes a digital dive a necessary evil. The truth is that I need still and video images if only to inspire, facilitate, and promote other more hands on artistic pursuits. I want to master (or at least effectively use) this new tool. It will not be easy!
What passes for technology now leaves me wishing for another time, a slower, simpler time. Like back when I stood for an hour, waiting for the light to be just right, for the perfect subject to drift into view. Admittedly, some of what drew me to the OM 3 is its resemblance to those earlier, simpler machines. My dream would be to again discover the thrill of capturing that perfect moment—even if a different magic takes me there.