Updated site and exciting film news.

Wow, it's been over a year since I posted something here. What a shame! I've actually still been shooting and working...some of which is featured on my updated website. I went with a clean, uncluttered approach with a brighter overall feel than I had previously. I'm happy with its simplicity. It lets my work speak for itself...for better or worse.

Oh yeah...photography. Right. I've been shooting a lot of film lately, forsaking my digital cameras for all but those situations where a check is waiting for me at the end. I'll spare you the digital-vs-analogue discussion because for anyone who uses both, it should be obvious where both shine and where they don't.

Early on, my biggest reason for shooting more film was simply that I never really got to know it. I've taken pictures most of my life–working to achieve more professional results over the past four years—and I didn't want to take my new-found enthusiasm to the digital world without getting to fully know what film has to offer. I'm glad I did this because I've really grown to love film, specifically color negative film. The tonal range you can squeeze onto a frame of color neg film is a beautiful thing. I know you can get into the HDR (High Dynamic Range) thing with a digital camera and build images that cover an incredible tonal spectrum, so my argument isn't that it's impossible to do this with a digital camera, but I will argue that it's impossible to do it in a single frame on a digi cam. HDR images are combination of as many as three or four images, taken at different exposure values, then combined with computer software to produce an image with a spectrum of tones from highlight to shadows that digital cameras are incapable of capturing with a single click of the shutter. Print neg film isn't capable of producing this range of tones, either, but when you hit that sweet spot with your exposure settings, it gets close and it's quite lovely.

Kodak seems to think there's still some life left in the old film horse; they've recently released a new color neg emulsion called Ektar 100. The comparisons immediately being made are that it produces images comparable to those produced by a digital camera at ISO 100...virtually grain-free with great saturation and sharpness. Very cool. A great example of how digital cameras have changed what photographers expect in terms of image quality. I haven't shot any of this stuff yet but I'm planning on picking some up any day now. I'll post the results here.