Generative AI Will Destroy Most Photography
I discovered film photography in 1999 when an old college friend appeared on my doorstep in Albuquerque. I was in a bit of a lull with my life, feeling uninspired and overworked, and he showed up with all this energy and zeal to live. He asked if I could take him on a scenic tour of the surrounding mountains, mesas, and valleys.
We climbed into my truck and headed off down dusty trails that only a 4x4 truck or jeep could traverse. "Pull over!" He'd yell and I'd jam on the brakes. My truck door would open and he'd jump out, run up some side slope or squeeze his way into a canyon, and snap the shutter on his camera. His energy and purpose to find beauty in plain sight inspired me. A month later I bought my first film camera, a Canon Elan 2e.
That fateful encounter led me to many years of joy being an amateur photographer. I shot transparency film till about 2002 when I met my partner, she had a small digital camera and I loved how easy it was. I didn't have to drop the film off to be developed, I could shoot and see it right away. It felt too easy and I struggled with buying a fancy digital camera, a digital SLR (dSLR) because it cost so damn much and felt so wasteful.
Why wasteful? Because every year an updated version of the dSLR came out and all my photography friends would rush to buy it. Their year "old" camera became a paperweight and I felt like they were throwing good money away because there were all these great film cameras around that no one wanted.
Did I completely abstain from digital cameras back then? Not at all! By this time I was married with small kids. The ease of snapping family photos and sharing them with family members easily overcame my desire to shoot film, so I gave in. I bought a Canon 50D back in 2009 and put my film cameras to rest.
