Wow, sounds like you've been in places & conditions I've only witnessed on the news...
I've been attacked, chased with a gun, charged by dogs (and a couple bulls), trapped in a flood with water past my waste, almost hit by several cars, got stuck on a mountain with a -30 F temperature (not wind chill), and more of the like - it was anything but boring. Though I think the most dangerous were the girls that are attracted to that lifestyle
So what did it take for a veteran like yourself to walk away from emulsion and embrace the 1s & 0s?
Here's a quick breakdown of the issues I came across:
- Time
- Deadlines - I've missed deadlines because there wasn't time to process the film.
- Quantity - Developing one roll of film doesn't take that long, but on a busy day I would burn through 20 rolls easily, that's where it really starts taking too long.
- Missing Shots - Even with two cameras, moving as fast as I could, there were times I would miss shots because I hadn't had time to swap out rolls. You don't win awards while changing film, I can tell you that for a fact.
- Money
- Film - Good film isn't isn't cheap, even in bulk it adds up fast, even moreso when you have to buy then wait to be reimbursed.
- Processing - Developing 35mm black and white is fairly inexpensive, C-41 (color) is another story though, to do it right it gets quite pricey - so for color you pretty much have to use a commercial lab.
There's also the fact, I'm a geek. After leaving photojournalism I went back to an old hobby and turned it into a career - I'm currently the Application Development Manager at a fairly large telecom services company. So me and the 1's and 0's already had a long standing friendship
I'll never forget the incredibly stirring images brought to the public by
LIFE and the photojournalists that stood behind that iconic label... :bowdown:
I've met some amazing people, seen images that will be permanently engraved in my mind, experienced things that I never thought I would along the way. I've had some success, won a few awards, made some friends, and hopefully impacted a few lives. Though I am but an ant in a land of giants.
There are many that deserve the title of hero, though it's those that fell holding a camera that have a place in my heart. It's those, and many others that made me feel so proud and yet so small to bear the title of photojournalist.
