16 May 2020

Back in HLD #9, I did ramble on quite a bit about modern technology, and there will be elements of the same topic in play today, so if you’re feeling a bit of deja vu I apologise.

As part of the “move the contents of one room to a garage in another suburb” (that I am doing to facilitate a bathroom renovation in the nearish future), I got someone taller than me to lift down a large heavy box from the wardrobe to sort out. I purposefully married a tall bloke and bred tall children so this would always be someone else’s job.

I have also previously talked about my Dad’s ‘collecting’ (aka hoarding). In the sorting out of Dad’s stuff after he died, I couldn’t let his camera collection get thrown out. Hence the very large box in my wardrobe of pretty much every camera (and video camera, and lenses, and miscellaneous camera stuff) that my Dad ever owned.

Again, today, in the ‘sorting’ mode, I considered whether all this stuff was worth anything to anyone, and whether it should be donated to a charity bin somewhere. Ultimately I couldn’t part with any of it just yet, so it has been relocated to our sons garage for storage with everything else 🙂

But in the process of going through the box, I started thinking about the technology that has evolved in the photography world. From the box brownie style camera, through the obviously costly-at-the-time bits and pieces that went with this obsessive hobby, the light meters, the spare lenses and so forth – it was all there, a testament to my Dad’s love of photography (and also to his habit of not throwing anything away….). Special mention should also go to the darkroom* my Dad set up by subdividing a large toilet (with a hand basin!) in one of the manses we lived in growing up!!!

I dragged out a few of the pieces, and took a photo of them to show you.

With my phone.

…My phone, that I would primarily take on holidays nowadays, with the ability to do video, take panoramic photos, time lapses, slow motion and so more, in preference to my heavy DSLR camera with changeable lenses!

…My phone that I also write these blogs on. That I connect to the internet with. That I play games on. And do my banking. And send messages with. And actually also phone people with.

There is still a place in my world for the proper camera. Footy games, for instance, are not places to take photos with your phone. A safari in Africa I would not dream of doing without the real camera with a proper zoom lens. Occasions when you just want a better quality photo, then you are better off with a real camera. And for the camera nerd, the knowledge of the things you can do with a phone camera are fun, but they aren’t photography. They are just taking snapshots.

Heather’s travelling camera museum will be coming to a convention centre near you soon 🙂

*Just in case you have never heard of a darkroom – it’s where photo processing took place. Back in the days…