I recently went into my local Border’s and purchased three books on photography. They were 70% off; for a little more than 26 bucks I was able to get $90 work of reading material. Not too shabby, you ask me.
I’m sad to see Border’s closing. They're yet another victim of bad economic times, bad corporate mistakes and the digital revolution. There’s a Barnes and Noble over near Valley River Mall, but it’s not as convenient. Powell’s doesn’t have a local shop, and Smith Family Books and Tsunami books are also not as convenient. (And living here, I really miss Moe’s.)
But my trip to Border’s books-and subsequent purchase-got me to thinking about another loss to the digital age: good photography-and the stores that supported it.
It’s my opinion that the web is full of bad pictures. Not evil, not adult-though you can make an argument for that as well, and you’d be right-but just simply bad. For every five good pictures, there's at least a dozen bad ones. Sometimes they're blurry or out of focus, sometimes with no thought given to any sort of composition...and sometimes they look like they were taken by a three year old. Tops of heads missing, cut off at the knees, etc. Add to that the fact the most cellphones are the functional equivalent of an old Instamatic-or my Ektralite 10. They really weren’t designed to take photographic art...they were designed to take pictures of Uncle Art at the family picnic.
Please understand: I have used my iPhone’s camera on more than one occasion, usually when I don’t want to haul my Minolta DiMage Z6 around. The iPhone’s okay-with 5 megapixels it’s better than many-but still no substitute for a real camera with a viewfinder. It’s hard for me, on a bright day, to shoot without a viewfinder-and I find I can’t compose the shot quite as well. (You can read about some of my cameras here.)
In the old days, there were stores that helped you with getting your gear, and at the very least showing you how to get going with it. When you were tired of that Instamatic and its fixed-focus lens...or of that Starflex with a fixed focus lens...or of that Polaroid that ate film like I eat pizza, you went to these stores and got better equipment. Once you had that, you went back for film, developing, additional lenses, flash equipment, camera bags, tripods, and so forth. There were books that showed you how to take better pictures, and things like gray cards and light meters. Fotomat kiosks dotted the landscape; if you were willing to pay for it you could get your prints back in a day.
Then larger chains started eating away at those businesses, and when digital cameras really took over, they vanished. Fotomat was the first casualty; some stores started offering your prints in three hours or less...for less. Which was great when I was shooting 110 in high school; I took my film to Safeway because I could afford it on a high-school budget.
But that came at a cost. Now places like Reed’s Camera in downtown Walnut Creek and Gerlach’s in Eugene, over by the UO-gone. Wentling’s in Concord, where I grew up, which still exists-but mainly does studio work, as near as I can tell. Dot Dotson’s in Eugene has made the transition to the digital age, and is still going but it isn’t quite as large as it was even a few years ago. Some places survive by having a broader appeal: Adolph Gasser’s in San Francisco, Helix Camera in Chicago, Pro Photo Supply in Portland, and B&H in New York are some great examples.
But what’s sad is that people are taking scads more pictures. They take them, then attempt to photoshop them into something decent. News flash: A bad photo is still a bad photo, even after you’ve cropped it, colored it, added effects to it, and massaged the thing to the point where it no longer resembles the original work. Note: I do not have Photoshop. For the time my shots are on the MacBook, they reside in iPhoto, where I may on occasion crop a shot, lighten a dark shot, or color-correct a shot. I’m not against things like Photoshop...I am against taking something really bad and attempting to make it into something great online.
In short: I’m the same way with cameras that I am with computers. Learn to use your equipment, please.
Which brings me back, in a roundabout way, to my final trip into Border’s. I went in there originally to see if they had one book on Applescript. They didn’t; the one copy that they did have before the chain tanked was sold at full price. Interestingly enough, many of the books on photography were now right in the computers section...which is why they’re now in my possession.
Seems appropriate enough, somehow: both books and photography are victims of the digital revolution.
Enough for now.
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