So much has changed
by Mark ~ January 12th, 2010. Filed under: art, artistry, inspiration, landscape, nature photography, processing, switch to mac, underwater photography, wildlife, wonder.As we enter a new decade, I am sure it will bring just as many revolutionary changes in the technology of photography, as well as in my own development as a photographer as the previous one. Photography has so many facets now beyond the photographer, camera, and lens. As a trip down nostalgia lane, I thought it would be interesting for a quick look back on the top 10 things that affected me, and probably many other photographers, in the last decade. Some things have changed, some surprisingly not so much. In fact, when I pull up some of these images taken nearly 10 years ago, it is hard to believe it was that long ago now.
10. Cameras
Tri-colored Heron c.2000
Back in 2000, I was photographing mostly with a Nikon F5 35 mm film camera, considered top of the line at the time, and probably one of the all time classic 35mm film bodies now. It fetched a pretty penny back then, I can remember saving and saving for it. A recent check on Ebay has them selling from anywhere from $59 – $200.
Of course now with DSLRS – their value seems to plummet after 2-3 years when the next generation comes along. I am hoping the F5 will someday be a classic collectors item since I never sold mine. Throwing out images doesn’t cost me anything now, but keeping more of them does in hard drives, backups, etc, etc.
ISO3200 Wolf
ISO3200 Wolf
9. ISOs
The film of choice back then, as with most nature photographers, and used in this heron image above, was Fuji Velvia 50 slide film. The color saturated image were favored by many, considered too “DisneyChrome” by others. I loved it except for its slow speeds. A lot of rolls of film directly went into the trash in those days. ISO50 seems so ancient now considering nearly 10 years later in Alaska I was photographing at ISO2500 with less indication of “grain/noise” than I would have with Velvia at 50. Shooting at much higher ISOs will definitely become commonplace in the next decade. The wolf image here was at ISO3200 with ZERO luminance noise correction, and only a setting of the default 25 on color in Lightroom.
8. Organization
I implemented a filing system when I started shooting slide film that helped me greatly in finding images and organizing them. I created a Microsoft Access database template that eventually became a decent seller for me as a way for others to. Here is one of the articles that was published on NPN about it. I carried this filing system over into digital, but only now with hard drive folders instead of physical filing cabinets. With tools like Lightroom, finding images is easier than ever. It is so much easier now to sort and pick out images for any year, camera, keyword, or theme. This certainly helps in creating projects like yearly favorites, special themes, picking images I shot at ISO3200 
, etc.
7. Beneath the waves
Scorpionfish camouflage c.2001
I was doing a lot more underwater work at the beginning of the last decade than I have been able to do now. It was all film based of course, and I never did convert my underwater gear over to digital. That will certainly be an expense I need to consider before my next underwater trip. Digital photography has been such a boom to underwater photographers as it takes out so much of the guesswork involved. From strobe lighting and checking backscatter to having more than 36 shots to work with on a dive, it is a no brainer. I would be curious to know if I am the last remaining underwater photographer who hasn’t gone digital.
6. Computers
Of course computers are always changing – updates are always needed, but they are integrated more with photography now more than ever. My biggest change was probably my switch to Mac back in Feb 2008. I guess I could be considered a fairly seasoned user now. I still consider it a great decision as my technostress has been so, so much less. Having used them now for nearly 2 years, I know that Mac’s are not perfect, choices can be limiting, cost is typically more, and the Apple marketing machine is a tough one to resist. They know how to pay attention to the user experience. I can count the number of crashes I have had on one hand. However, Steve Jobs now controls my computer, my phone, my music archive organization and for some strange reason I love them for it. How’s that for effective marketing! Quite frankly it is a little scary. In the next decade I have no doubt he will try to get my magazine subscriptions and book collection, my TV, control most of the appliances in my house and probably an iChip in my head. But – it will be in a cool way.
Shelikof Cormorants
Shelikof Cormorants
5. Post Processing & Control
Processing tools now seem to evolve as quickly as the next computer chip. Film seemed to change and evolve so much slower. Even when scanning, most of the effort was just to try to get the digital scan as close as possible to what the slide looked like. For me now, initial capture is simply just a starting point. Photographers have control from start to finish, capture to print. Despite the advances in technology, I think the steps are much more similar to the old days of self developing negatives and working an image in the darkroom than simply taking a slide as the final product. It has helped me see potentials beyond initial capture.
4. Self publication
Ten years ago, although some photographers were taking advantage of the internet to publish their portfolios, it was still a new thing. Photographers largely needed to rely on larger companies to distribute their work. Book publishing wasn’t as accessible as it is now. In fact a photographer can self-publish a photo book for a fraction of the cost. Website templates and portfolio hosting sites are now plentiful, offering an unlimited number of ways for a photographer to get his/her work out there with very little web design skills. It is hard to believe my site has been online now for over 10 years.
3. Social interaction
Local camera clubs , workshops, and the local camera store used to be some of the only ways of meeting other photographers. That is now opened up to the entire planet. Through the growth of internet forums, photography blogs, conglomerate sites like Flickr, and of course the social media networking sites – we now have contact with more photographers than we ever dream of being able to keep up with. It has given us exposure to many more styles from across the world, and an endless supply of inspiration for our creativity. I have made some good friends as a result of this change. From former buddhist monks in Norway to some crazy guy that holds up in the middle of the wilderness in Alaska – the world is a much smaller place now.
2. Attitudes & Growth
My attitude towards photography has certainly evolved. I am much less influenced by judgements about my own work, and have opened up considerably towards appreciating the vision of others. This was certainly helped along by #3.
There is a great post by Bob Cornelis talking about learning photography is like entering a vast wilderness with no map. You can learn the basic essentials of identification and how to use tools – but you are essentially on your own to find your own path. Some follow the path others have left behind, others forge new ones. In the past decade I have done some of both.
Worth preserving
Worth preserving
1. The Environment
Most of all, my cares and concerns for the environment have grown exponentially, and probably to the point of becoming a little cynical about hope for change in our course of direction. As a nature photographer, one cannot help but feel frustrated at times by how little people see and appreciate around them. The world has certainly seen a lot of change in the past decade, and will no doubt experience more in the next.
Feel free to share how things have changed for you in the past decade. Either leave a comment or post on your own blog with a link back to this post.
January 13th, 2010 at
[...] More: So much has changed | Graf Nature Photography | Notes from the woods [...]
January 13th, 2010 at
Interesting post to read. 10 years ago I’d been out of photography professionally for about 8 years and was working as a fibre artist. The only photographs I took were of our livestock and fibre art products for marketing. 2000 was the year we decided to sell the livestock. It was also the year I bought my first digital camera, which started the pendulum swinging back over to the photography side of life!
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Mark Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at
Thanks for the comments Roberta.
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January 13th, 2010 at
What a cool look back, Mark. It seems as if digital has been around forever, but I really just got into it back in 2003, with my Minolta Dimage A1.
I certainly can agree with number 1, too. I’m very much more into the environment, now. I think that photography and age combined to make me care more.
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Mark Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at
Thanks Paul. It was around the same time for me as well.
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January 13th, 2010 at
Good post Mark,
The ISO one is huge. I remember pushing a lot of Velvia one stop, and even Provia just to get up to 100 or 200! This has really expanded the opportunities, especially for wildlife photography.
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Mark Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at
Thanks Ron. Pushing – what’s that?
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January 13th, 2010 at
Excellent list, Mark as all 10 resonate with me. I totally agree with number 1. Even today I took a walk around my hotel and was appalled at the amount of trash along the walk. We have a disposable thinking society and that needs to change. It does start with each of us doing our part. Over the past 3 years I have started collecting images of trash, ugly and disgusting as it is, with the hope of awakening peoples eyes.
The social aspect of the internet is also amazing to me. We find ourselves conversing on an almost daily basis with some of these people. Many have become teachers and guides, critics and wonderful resources. I would also include workshops for learning experiences and meeting new friends.
I’m a new convert to the Mac and feel it was a good move for me and my photography. Along with the new Mac I also started using Lightroom. I was blown away when I imported all my archives images into one catalog and discovered I had 27,000 images. I was able to cull that down with images I really did not need and now can search so much easier.
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Mark Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at
Good points Monte. Sometimes I am quite amazed at the amount of waste spent on packaging and have grown quite sensitive to it. I think a “wasteful packaging” set of blog posts are in order.
Congrats on the Mac, and welcome! Lightroom has really revolutionized the way I manage my image collection.
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January 13th, 2010 at
Mark, a wonderful post and interesting list of changes.
I switched to Macs several years earlier and have never regretted it or looked back. I recently converted my wife to Macs and all my home computer support duties disappeared. Yea, Macs are different as is Apples approach to users and user issues…it certainly works for me.
Like everyone else the environment is a great concern. However, I think we as photographers have a wonderful opportunity and perhaps duty to record and document this scary time.
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Mark Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at
Thanks Earl. I am still working on my wife. Her old Windows laptop is showing its age and due for replacement soon.
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January 13th, 2010 at
Wonderful, insightful posting! You’ve done a great job of pulling together these critical changes.
It has been a remarkable decade in photography. I wonder whether any other art form has changed so much in such a short amount of time in history? We can do photography that we couldn’t even contemplate in 2000. I’m reminded of when they figured out how to put paint in tubes, enabling the rise of plein aire painting – an entirely new way to paint. With digital capture and high ISO, in particular, we have at hand a whole new way of photographing.
Good candidates to make it an even dozen might be 1) the rise of the inkjet printer and 2) HDR. Not only has the quality and size improved exponentially, but the range of small and midsize inkjet printers has enabled more photographers to do their own high quality printing. Regardless of how you feel about HDR photography, I believe it’s here to stay in some form or another, and it also enables a whole new range of photographs nearly impossible to pull off 10 years ago.
Thanks for the mention of my recent blog posting!
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Mark Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at
Comment fixed Bob!
Those are also some good candidates. I had the whole “total control of the process” in mind when I was writing about self-publication, but I suppose I overlooked the particular point of inkjets. They really have come a long way in 10 years. My prints do not fade or discolor after 3 days exposure to light, ozone, etc. 
HDR is a good one also – it has created an entirely new style of imagery.
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January 15th, 2010 at
Thanks for putting all this together, Mark. I am still a novice in a photography area so it didn’t influence me throughout all these years so much as many others. There is one think I’d like to point out and that is technological progress (your number 10). On one hand it’s great that we have new cameras from the biggest camera producers every work or two bringing us some new and cool features that we can’t live without (sarcastically meant
) and this can be seen not only in photography world but it’s the same with computers, TVs, mobile phones and basically any consumer technical devices. We became a disposable society and this is the other edge of the sword. We tend to buy new things even though those we used so far are not old yet and fully working and we are in fact forced to do this by producers and their excellent marketing. This is the bad side of it and it really horrifies me. The good side is also that cameras, and all other technical devices, are available for such affordable prices that even those who couldn’t afford it couple years ago can easily afford it today. Thanks to this we can see many talented photographers nowadays. Socialising and publishing our photos is much more easier than couple years ago. I’m pretty sure that without all this I wouldn’t have my camera now. I’m really interested in seeing what next decade will bring us.
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Mark Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at
Thanks for the comments Tomas. There is one way to send a message to the manufacturers that they don’t need to keep producing new cameras – stop buying them. I am quite certain they track sales numbers very closely compared to previous models.
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January 15th, 2010 at
10 years ago, I was just getting started — using a point and shoot and wondering why so few of my photos were any good
Today, I’m trending back toward 4×5 and film for more and more of my landscape photography. Like you I’m also becoming more and more aware of the environment and the plethora of conservation issues surrounding it, particularly since I joined the Sierra Club. I wouldn’t have known about the Superfund site in the North Cascades otherwise, not to mention getting introduced to the Wild Sky Wilderness by some of the people who lead the Sierra Club’s efforts to get it established!
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Mark Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at
Thank you for the comment Rakesh. Sometimes I yearn for going backwards to a point & shoot!
As you can see from the other responses, we are not alone in our concerns for the environment. Quite often I simply get overwhelmed at everything that is going on. It is hard to keep up with.
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Rakesh Malik Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at
I suspect that most nature photographers are also conservationists at heart. After all, we photograph what we love, and people want to protect the things that they love, so naturally it means that we want to protect what we photograph.
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January 16th, 2010 at
I totally hear you on the environment. I guess that’s one thing that changed the most about me in 10 years. Well…slightly over 10 years. Back in the late ’90s I held out the slightest glimmer of hope & did everything I could to be environmentally friendly (inc. encouraging friends to do the same.) These days that hope is gone. I’m resigned to watching things deteriorate. I appreciate seeing things like polar bears & longleaf pine trees because I know that generations are coming that never will…
But enough depressing reality. Another, big change was from “film” cameras to digital. Now I’m totally spoiled & can’t go back.
My move from Canada to S. Louisiana was a big change, too, allowing for more time & different subjects to shoot–an entirely new & unfamiliar landscape to experience & learn. There was the whole Hurricane Katrina thing, too, but I vowed not to take pictures. The real memories in my head were more than enough for me.
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Mark Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at
Thank you Lana. There is hope out there that things will ultimately get better, I try to force some positive thinking into my normally cynical view. It just doesn’t seem to happen fast enough.
I can see how your move definitely created a learning situation for you – quite different environments!
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January 23rd, 2010 at
Great post Mark. I picked up a camera for the first time 10 years ago so I can’t say much for anytime prior to that but even in these past ten years I would say concur with just about everything you listed. I wish I didn’t have to use the computer to view images from my photo shoots and could just be done with it but digital not evolved past film I probably woudln’t be selling anything. Making dupes and snail mailing slides just doesn’t seem like an efficient way to sell images (I can hear all the older photographers groaning…).
I really love the higher ISO capabilities these days. We can shoot things that we could never imagine.
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Mark Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at
Thanks Richard.
You are right, making dupes was a major pain. Mailing submissions isn’t quite dead yet however.
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January 24th, 2010 at
Hey Mark,
Great post.
I was talking today with a guitar student of mine, and he mentioned starting out photography when he was a kid with a Nikon FE2 .. and he still owns it. That simply doesn’t happen any more; 20 years from now, I doubt anything I currently own will still work, let alone actually be able to be read via the software of the day.
Cheers
Carl
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