Quote Originally Posted by Sebastian
That statement alone tells me you have no idea what these communities are about. There is nothing more important to us than the shot. We just look past the equipment and we share tips on improving. YES, that means telling each other to crop areas out, or to sharpen, or to soften, or whatever else we feel would improve a photograph. Just because the tools of choice have become digital instead of chemical means nothing. The process, the image, the vision, it's all the same. There are many shooters here that use chemical processes as well as digital. Many of us have chosen digital for many reasons, many of us stick to chemical for other reasons, it doesn't matter, it's ALWAYS about the image. Sounds to me like you are too hung up on the process, otherwise you wouldn't care if it was digital or chemical. I think this would be a great place for you to move past that and to truely start focusing on the image, not the sound your camera makes.
Do I have to get past being passionate about what I do. I'll never get over the feeling I get when I snap an image, it's a joke for you to even suggest so! A lot happens when that quick snap takes place, all right then [CLICK!!!].The day it becomes another image, I will sell my equipment and get a better guitar. YES there's a huge difference in manual, traditional photography and an image enhancing program that can alter any image to your desire by a simple click (not to be confused with the same "click" that takes place with a camera). We're NOT all the same here, regardless of what most photographers tell themselves, we're all different! You can have very little skills as a photographer and still be able to patch things up well in photoshop. I'm not bashing either of the methods, I'm saying they are different. I use photoshop every day for web design and fancy graphics and see nothing wrong with others doing it. I just feel like I've cheated myself out of a great experience when I see an image I want to share with the world and then digitalize it to make the image appear acceptable. I figured a response as such from several of the board members as like I say, we're not all after the same thing and NONE of us are wrong. Good thing I'm not seeking acceptance from everyone, I'm sure someone here already got there mind made up that I'm unacceptable. I'm only looking for something to pass the time between shots and hopefully get knowledge, give a little and possible even make friends.

I been looking into maybe opening an online forum for such of us that still have a passion for traditional photography if something don't give soon. Something like I got at http://thebluessite.com/community or http://winemakersworld.com but for us film loading junkies. I've polled a few, really active photographers that still load film, they say they've looked for the same forums - no luck. Maybe this site could start a traditional photography section, something for the non-digital photographer exclusively. We're no better, just very different! I can help with the forum, I'm the Admin of 2 other forums online (none photography related).

I got to go take a few shots of an old store I found today, better hurry before the sun fades... I'll post some of my pics soon.

I hope to always be an armature, never to grow to be the best, then who would inspire me? But I don't look at a ton of images all day, they're are images everywhere waiting to be captured and introduced from my perception to yours. Sorry for the longs posts, I'll stop now, lol. Thanks for this forum, it's great! And thanks for the kind words all. I feel welcome, everyone here is quick to help, that's why I joined. Thanks for the kindness!