michael j mcAghon photography

September 12, 2007

Alligator Tail

updated 9/12: found at Jockey’s Ridge State Park, NC....

I was never interested in photography as a form of expression, my artistic focuses growing up consisted of painting and drawing. However, a required “Intro to Photography” course in college ignited my addiction to creating photographic imagery, and film was the presented drug of choice. With a Nikon N70, I cut my teeth with the intricacies of processing your own film and developing your own prints. This involved hours of tedious work in shrouded in darkness, emerging to squint at the natural light, smelling of chemicals on your stained clothing. If you’ve seen a good gelatin-silver print in-person, you know the time and effort invested is well worth it. That's what I learned photography was, and that's what I fell in love with. I didn’t own a digital camera, nor did I have any interest one.

Soon after graduating, I found myself earning a living in the industry of web design and development. The transition from college to the proverbial “real world” is a big one, and in addition to that I found my profession was at odds with the traditional introduction I had to photography. Low resolution imagery dominates the fast, ever-changing landscape of the internet. There wasn’t time to pour over the photographic process of film, regardless of the benefits of better quality it had. Honestly, in the web world it worked well then and for the most part, it still does today.

So not too long after graduation, this forward-looking industry encouraged me to move my photographic efforts to a digital platform. I packed up the prized SLR camera that had seen me through my college years. The time involved just didn’t make sense anymore as I struggled to grasp my new profession on the web. I justified this betrayal by deciding that “film is dying”, it was a deprecated media. Downgrading to a simpler, less capable digital point and shoot was something I decided was “progress”. The old dimly lit darkroom environment remained similar, only now it was illuminated by a laptop screen. Of course at 8×10 the prints didn’t look as good, but the faster digital workflow made it superior and put me on the cutting edge of photographic technology. I was an early adopter, and someday digital would certainly eclipse film.

A couple years later, I acquired my prized DSLR, and confidently patted myself on the back, “film is dead!” I had bridged gap, the benefits of that old powerful SLR was united with powerful digital technology, my compromise with quality was evaporating. Since then, I’ve made thousands of photos with it, it’s fun, easy to use and produces wonderful images. Although my DSLR is my favorite and most-used camera, something was missing. Initially as a tech-nerd, I just thought it was the megapixels.

Continued here, Alligator Tail Revisited…

tags: landscape  obx