Sandscript goes Digital

Shelves full of them; barring a house fire or aircraft crashing onto our roof, a large collection of photograph albums could be passed on into history. Black and white pictures on black pages, sticky pages unpeeling, flip up albums of 6x4 prints. But the days of calling at the chemist to collect a packet of prints, the hoped for best shot out of focus, are a mere memory.
When we joined a camera club a decade ago, only half the members had converted to digital, now the colour slide show has been replaced by digital images projected onto a screen. Charity shops are full of old cameras. The real enthusiast used to be someone who had his own dark room, now he has a computer, sophisticated software packages and a good quality printer. Digital photos can be printed out by anyone, a trip to the supermarket machine, put in your memory device and collect.
But unlike a roll of film, digital never runs out. Many computers are full of thousands of unseen images, lost to history as technology changes.
From pictures taken on mobile phones of news as it happens, to bumble bees captured with the most expensive macro lens; everyone is a photographer now.
I prefer small cameras that point and shoot. But for the 'technowhiz' with the right software and a lot of patience, there is nothing that can't be done to a digital image; cut down to size, lamp posts erased, colours altered, several snaps melded together or the photograph turned into a painting. My book covers are all created with original photographs digitally redesigned by a family member.
All authors are advised to have a website and realising I could put pictures on mine, I became obsessed; the means to an end had become an end in itself. Then I turned to Facebook. Time waster or social interface? It does not need to be filled with family photos, I try to post interesting pictures, often as a quiz. My friend's mother identified a place she had visited in 1939. Now, when out and about, I'm not just recording holidays and family events, but looking out for the unusual.
Despite this revolution, people love black and white photographs; most of us are intrigued if we visit an exhibition. We enjoy the iconic historic images, but the best photographers of that era took beautiful pictures. There is a clarity and sharpness in black an white photographs that is not present in colour images. Ironically, modern photographers use their computer to turn digital pictures into black and white; they are impressive, but never quite the same as the real thing created with chemicals in the dark room.

Visit my website to see what pictures I have been taking recently.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/