Photography, The Perfect Hobby

Photography is a fascinating blend of art and science/technology. Add in aspects of History, Gear (old and new), Collectability, Chemistry, Electronics, and Software all glued together by a neverending journey of perfecting technique and searching for that "great shot" and you end up with Photography. This is without even considering the many valuable and practical uses of photography -- the most domestic of which is priceless family photographs.

An example of very simple analog photography. Camera is a Plastic Filmtastic Debonair (yes it is a toy camera made of plastic -- even the lens). Image exposed on TMAX 100asa B&W 120 roll film.

Let’s take something as simple as grabbing a Nikon F4 and snapping a few photos around town. The Nikon F4 -- an excellent vintage 35mm film camera [Gear & History, vintage ~1988]. Taking pictures on the street -- homage to Henri Cartier-Brasson, one of the fist street photographers [Art & History]. Develop the exposed film -- at home using minimal darkroom equipment [Chemistry]. Scan the negatives into the computer -- by way of any number of film scanners [Electronics]. Touch up the images on the computer -- using Photoshop for example [Software]. Print out the image and hang it up on the wall [Art]. Of course, the Nikon F4 isn’t the only interesting vintage camera available. There are the Kodak Brownie box cameras, Polaroid cameras, medium format cameras, large format field cameras, miniature “spy” cameras, and of course point & shoot film cameras among countless other types [Collectability].

Photography as a hobby can be as much of a “bottomless pit” (if you ask the wife) as you wish to make it. I prefer to think of Photography not as a pit, but as a world of limitless possibilities and unbounded fields of exploration that creates visually pleasing results all along the way. The perfect hobby.