Are you Digital or Analog? I DON'T mean film v. digital - please read on

[Marianne]

Are you more digital or analog? I'm not talking about whether you shoot film, I know most here shoot primarily or entirely digital ... and have done so for more than a decade. 

 

I mean in your approach to life. 

 

I love the digital world but my approach to life still has a very strong analog component. 

 

For example, I love Lightroom and have used it since v 1.0. I started using it while working as  a digital tech for a photographer several years my junior. I love technology. But....

 

I expected that once I got all 80,000 or so images completely organized, it would make it easier to keep track of where everything was, which photos I uploaded where, which are RM or RF. That occurred around 2012, but while I  can find any photo in the blink of an eye, it still doesn't do everything I want. For organizing some projects printing out old fashioned contact sheets make the job easier. Sometimes I just need the ability to jot down notes.

 

 I've been using a computer for about half my life now, but those first 30 analog years still mean I sometimes feel better with paper and pencil in front of me - easier to jot notes. I also have been loving the concept of keeping a bullet journal, which I've done for about a year and a half now. I have one for everyday stuff, and a second with sections for stock and fine art photo ideas and processing notes when I do something artsy or learn something new in PS or other software. 

 

So, we know that a fair number of us belong to the 60+ crowd. That means in college a computer took up an entire room, but a few years later PC's were on the scene. My husband is  years younger than I am, so he used a computer (in a school computer lab) rather than an electric typewriter, though we are probably both equally proficient on the computer by now. He likes to keep a notebook too.

 

How about you? Interested to know how your organize your day, your notes, your work, your ideas?

 

e.g. I have a notebook with blank pages where I draw out photo shoot ideas. I do most of my reading (NYTimes, Washington Post, and various other magazines and newspapers as well as most books on my Kindle) but I love a notebook for writing in, even though I keep scores of notes on my laptop too. Still love the feel of paper and pen. I even bought a fountain pen recently. 

Edited November 24, 2019 by Marianne

[John Morrison]

In my working life (still not over; I will expire one day, but will never retire) I have combined writing and photography. The two disciplines, though very different, can work well together.

 

I’ve never been a photographic ‘gadget freak’, and try to keep my equipment to a minimum. Less is more. But writing really is minimal. My tools include a notebook and pen, though my ‘go to’ gadget is a tiny voice recorder which I always keep in my pocket. I use it to ‘jot down’ ideas, photo captions, snatches of overheard conversation, shopping lists, etc. It’s ‘analogue’ in that it just serves this one purpose (ie it doesn’t plug into my computer).

 

The ideas are what count (no editor ever asked me what kind of typewriter I used!). I write articles and books on a MacBook Air (because I’m familiar with the Apple ‘architecture’, and don’t want to spend time learning new ‘computer stuff’ unless I have to). It presents me with a blank ‘sheet of paper,’ a cursor and a keyboard. I turn off predictive text, and don’t want my grammar ‘corrected’ or my spelling mistakes flagged up. This is about as analogue as I can be… in a digital world.

 

It’s easy to allow the technology to get in the way (I watch people gazing at their smartphones: tapping, scrolling and swiping for hour after mindless hour). I read books, but also love my kindle. I’ve loaded up the text of a book-in-progress to the kindle… which helps me to read it with more objectivity. Very useful.

 

I try - but don’t always succeed - to keep the tech as servant rather than master. When the photography is going well, and I’m ‘in the zone’, the camera almost disappears. When I’m writing, and the ideas are coming, the laptop almost disappears (a book called Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes this happy state of mind)… 

Edited November 24, 2019 by John Morrison

[Ed Rooney]

I hear you, Marianne and John. 

 

I could almost use John's statement as my own. Almost. I used to take notes (still carry a small notebook). Then I carried a small recorder. Now days, I use my iPhone to snap a picture to use as a visual note and later Google the subject to find out more. At the moment, I find the digital problems I've been having to be very threatening. In the beginning, digital was helpful and had real promise. It has become almost entirely about security and updating. 

 

Living out of a suitcase is not compatible to a life that is either digital or analog. 

 

Edo

[NYCat]

I love books. I still prefer paper to read and hold in my hand but I have found some advantages to reading on my iPhone6+. When traveling with a friend I can read in bed without turning on a light. It is also easy to hold the phone in bed even if it is a very long book and would be bulky in paper. I hate to mark up a book but I feel quite free to highlight in my phone and that helps me to remember character names and things I want to discuss in my book group. My shelves are full of books and I need to send some on to the library so I can buy more!

 

Paulette

[Inchiquin]

It's perfectly possible to straddle the two worlds seamlessly. I've been fascinated by technology ever since I pulled an old radio to pieces when I was 14. At the same age I became hooked on photography (in the Kodak Brownie days) and tried developing my own films. By the early 70s I was building electronic kits and when microprocessors came along I was fascinated by what they could do and saw the potential of digital immediately. I ordered a Sinclair Black Watch the moment they were announced, partly because of the possibility of being able to build a digital watch myself. I've built my own hi-fi in the past. In the mid-70s when I was working for the Civil Service I asked for a transfer to the Computing Department but was told I would find it boring and once there I would be stuck there for ever. A mere 6 years later I got my first home computer and have been programming for a living ever since (including a spell at the sharp end of digital technology in Silicon Valley). So much for "boring" and "stuck"!

 

And yet... I don't use a smartphone, or a tablet, or a satnav, or a Kindle. I only adopt new digital technology when I actually have a use for it. I hate modern digital phones because the sound quality is simply not as good as analog. I love the possibilities of digital technology (back in the 70s I dreamed of the day when it would be possible to store all my photos and my music on a memory chip, because I recognised that was what would be possible with digital one day) but if analog works then I see no need to go digital unless it offers something that I can't live without.

 

Alan

Edited November 24, 2019 by Inchiquin

[DJ Myford]

7 minutes ago, Inchiquin said:

It's perfectly possible to straddle the two worlds seamlessly. I've been fascinated by technology ever since I pulled an old radio to pieces when I was 14. At the same age I became hooked on photography (in the Kodak Brownie days) and tried developing my own films. By the early 70s I was building electronic kits and when microprocessors came along I was fascinated by what they could do and saw the potential of digital immediately. I ordered a Sinclair Black Watch the moment they were announced, partly because of the possibility of being able to build a digital watch myself. I've built my own hi-fi in the past. In the mid-70s when I was working for the Civil Service I asked for a transfer to the Computing Department but was told I would find it boring and once there I would be stuck there for ever. A mere 6 years later I got my first home computer and have been programming for a living ever since (including a spell at the sharp end of digital technology in Silicon Valley). So much for "boring" and "stuck"!

 

And yet... I don't use a smartphone, or a tablet, or a satnav, or a Kindle. I only adopt new digital technology when I actually have a use for it. I hate modern digital phones because the sound quality is simply not as good as analog. I love the possibilities of digital technology (back in the 70s I dreamed of the day when it would be possible to store all my photos and my music on a memory chip, because I recognised that was what would be possible with digital one day) but if analog works then I see no need to go digital unless it offers something that I can't live without.

 

Alan

 

I'm similar: while I do dabble in tech for tech's sake, most of it is retro. I used CADD a lot when I was working in electronics, but now that it is more of a hobby I sketch out circuits with pencil and paper. My network drive has a large collection of datasheets in PDF format, but key parameters get jotted down on paper for quick reference. I'd say I have more than the average amount of computing power around me (not all active at the same time), but much of it is out-dated or almost vintage (a Dragon32 for example) and not used for modern apps. For casual reading I still prefer books or magazines, although being a low-order nerd/geek I do follow a couple of web comics. 

[hdh]

Being quite tech savvy with IT my main profession, I cannot escape the analog world. 

 

Photography is digital and also do I keep my pictures on computer for development and storage. 

For taking pictures I use my DSLR exclusively, also to capture additional information that is around, to ensure I can keyword using the information already in place. 

For example in botanical gardens  I take a picture of the available information  - usually for the latin name - first, then do the pictures of the plants. 

That way information and pictures end up next to each other on the "virtual film roll" 

Sometimes these informational pictures also land on alamy, below information about the bridge being build and the ready made bridge in background: 

 

I almost never use my mobile phone for snapping pictures and tried using a tablet for notes, but nothing beats pen and paper. 

To the surprise of my friends, I do not carry any copies of my pictures around with me at all - my phone is devoid of pictures. 

Hence neither Digital nor Analog, but an in-betweeny. 

Edited November 24, 2019 by hdh

[Inchiquin]

1 hour ago, DJ Myford said:

 

 much of it is out-dated or almost vintage (a Dragon32 for example) and not used for modern apps.

 

 

I've got a house full of retro kit (14 at last count including a Dragon32 but mostly Acorns) but I haven't used any of it for years. I'm partway through a project to refurbish them all with a view to selling but have difficulty finding the time.

 

Alan

 

[Allan Bell]

I enjoy using the computer but my office desk, walls, ceiling and floor are covered in handwritten notes. I even have notes mentioning notes, BUT WHERE ARE THEY?

 

Allan

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by Allan Bell

[Michael Ventura]

I do my best to keep up on the ever changing technology but it gets harder and harder as I get older and older.....not to mention that it isn’t cheap to keep up.  I do feel that if I take my eye off the “ball”, it will hit me in the face.

[MDM]

I am almost entirely digital. I never write anything down anymore - I can't read my own handwriting anyway. I use my iPhone or more recently my SonyRX100 to take pictures and make short videos as notes. Like hdh I take pictures of explantory signs and interpretation panels for info about locations. The video snippets can be really useful and are much quicker than making notes. If I was to make notes though it would be digital notes. I keep these images and videos in a separate Lightroom catalog from my images and can coordinate them easily with my images based on the dates and times in the metadata. 

 

I do almost all my reading nowadays on my iPad apart from a few hard copy photo magazines I subscribe to but I am even thinking of going digital with those. I love the convenience of having everything in one place and the iPad is very easy on the eyes - much better in general than reading on paper.

 

However, I am not entirely digital as I do love photographic prints and I like to print my own work myself - digitally of course using an Epson SC-P600 nowadays which gives amazing print quality. I love experimenting with different papers types and I have loads of mounted prints on the walls of my house. 

 

 

 

 

[geogphotos]

I don't have a mobile phone, have never sent a text message, have no interest.

 

Don't watch TV except very occasionally, but obviously am on the computer quite a bit.

 

I find that I can occupy myself with my own thoughts and wouldn't want to lose that.

 

 

[NYCat]

Definitely prefer my old landline phone at home. The receiver is comfortable and the sound infinitely better than my iPhone. Praying for my copper wiring because I know the phone company won’t want to replace it. 

 

Paulette

[Marianne]

On 24/11/2019 at 10:02, Allan Bell said:

I enjoy using the computer but my office desk, walls, ceiling and floor are covered in handwritten notes. I even have notes mentioning notes, BUT WHERE ARE THEY?

 

Allan

 

 

Allan, that was me... notes all over...and that is the greatest joy of my laptop, the search function. And I've even found a solution for those handwritten notes. 

 

The bullet journal is where I now jot down all those little snippets and since my bullet journal has an index in the front, I can actually find them. I have a small travel sized journal I sometimes take to the coffee shop or wherever, and if that's not with me, I use the Notes section of my phone (also wonderfully searchable from the phone, my laptop, and iMac). 

 

Here in the US, there is an office supply store called Staples. They had these TV ads with a big red button the size of an old fashioned hotel lobby bell that says "Easy" on it. Push the button and suddenly a messy office is organized, notes are found, etc. Wouldn't it be great?

 

[Marianne]

On 24/11/2019 at 11:23, MDM said:

I am almost entirely digital. I never write anything down anymore - I can't read my own handwriting anyway. I use my iPhone or more recently my SonyRX100 to take pictures and make short videos as notes. Like hdh I take pictures of explantory signs and interpretation panels for info about locations. The video snippets can be really useful and are much quicker than making notes. If I was to make notes though it would be digital notes. I keep these images and videos in a separate Lightroom catalog from my images and can coordinate them easily with my images based on the dates and times in the metadata. 

 

I do almost all my reading nowadays on my iPad apart from a few hard copy photo magazines I subscribe to but I am even thinking of going digital with those. I love the convenience of having everything in one place and the iPad is very easy on the eyes - much better in general than reading on paper.

 

However, I am not entirely digital as I do love photographic prints and I like to print my own work myself - digitally of course using an Epson SC-P600 nowadays which gives amazing print quality. I love experimenting with different papers types and I have loads of mounted prints on the walls of my house. 

 

 

 

 

 

I broke my reading glasses last week (my eyes are very different from each other, so I need to get prescription ones, can't use the over the counter kind) and it made me realize how much easier a lit screen is to read. I never thought I'd use my Kindle much but I actually prefer it.

 

I also love making prints. I have a Canon Pixma Pro 10. Love experimenting with different papers. 

[Marianne]

On 24/11/2019 at 03:29, John Morrison said:

In my working life (still not over; I will expire one day, but will never retire) I have combined writing and photography. The two disciplines, though very different, can work well together.

 

I’ve never been a photographic ‘gadget freak’, and try to keep my equipment to a minimum. Less is more. But writing really is minimal. My tools include a notebook and pen, though my ‘go to’ gadget is a tiny voice recorder which I always keep in my pocket. I use it to ‘jot down’ ideas, photo captions, snatches of overheard conversation, shopping lists, etc. It’s ‘analogue’ in that it just serves this one purpose (ie it doesn’t plug into my computer).

 

The ideas are what count (no editor ever asked me what kind of typewriter I used!). I write articles and books on a MacBook Air (because I’m familiar with the Apple ‘architecture’, and don’t want to spend time learning new ‘computer stuff’ unless I have to). It presents me with a blank ‘sheet of paper,’ a cursor and a keyboard. I turn off predictive text, and don’t want my grammar ‘corrected’ or my spelling mistakes flagged up. This is about as analogue as I can be… in a digital world.

 

It’s easy to allow the technology to get in the way (I watch people gazing at their smartphones: tapping, scrolling and swiping for hour after mindless hour). I read books, but also love my kindle. I’ve loaded up the text of a book-in-progress to the kindle… which helps me to read it with more objectivity. Very useful.

 

I try - but don’t always succeed - to keep the tech as servant rather than master. When the photography is going well, and I’m ‘in the zone’, the camera almost disappears. When I’m writing, and the ideas are coming, the laptop almost disappears (a book called Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes this happy state of mind)… 

 

 

John, like you, I write articles (as well as marketing and corporate communications) and it took me several years before I stopped printing out what I wrote to proof so I could revise it by hand before then typing up the handwritten changes. Now I can't imagine doing that, but then most copy is about 250-600 words these days, so I can pretty much see it all at a glance anyway. 

 

I love that feeling of flow, both when I'm shooting, writing or when I've decided to really transform a photograph into something else via Photoshop and other programs. If only I got into that zone while keywording or uploading photos. 😎

[Marianne]

Thanks to everyone for answering. It's so interesting to see how we embrace technology and yet we also enjoy sometimes taking the more leisurely way. I think that need for the tactile - at least in some aspects of our lives - is important to those with any kind of artistic bent. 

[John Mitchell]

I'm mostly analog. I keep a notebook in my camera bag for notes but do photograph interpretive signs, etc. for reference when captioning and keywording. I still don't own a smartphone, only an old talk-and-text cellphone that I'm now embarrassed to use in public. This reticence to embrace the latest technology is due in roughly equal measures to stubbornness and frugality. I simply can't afford to keep up with the high-tech world. It's so much cheaper to stay on the receding edge of technology. Also, there is something satisfying about doing more with less.

 

P.S. I've done a lot of freelance writing and have to say that I loved writing with a word-processor the moment I started using one. Being able to edit in real time, save drafts, etc. is fantastic. Typewriters were a pain. I've yet to read an e-book, plus my wristwatch (Remember those?) has a dial and three hands.

Edited November 26, 2019 by John Mitchell

[Marianne]

@John Mitchell  I think my iPhone would be the hardest thing to give up. Mostly because of all the photos of my grandson that my daughter messages me... not to mention the adorable photos I take when we FaceTime.  Amazing that I can take a photo of a child in Ohio from my home in NY.  Of course, the photos are all magically on my computers too, thanks to the magic of MAC. It will never replace my camera, but it's great little tool. I had my last one (a 4S) for 4 years and want to replace my 6S, but the price tag is holding me back. I think they do a price break if you get a slightly older version, but everything MAC, much as I mostly love it, is overpriced, even at a discount. 

 

I don't need the latest and greatest....though sometimes I think that as things get outdated so fast, maybe the latest makes sense rather than starting with something that's already outdated. 

 

The thing I liked best about tuning in my 13-year-old Ford for a shiny new Subaru was, admittedly, the gas mileage and the heated seats, but the link to my iPhone that lets me listen to audible books from my library and take calls hands free was a close third I've had it for nearly 5 years now and to me it's a new car,  If the Ford had gotten decent gas mileage I'd probably still have it. And those heated seats are technology...we don't have a garage, so they really are more of a necessity than a luxury in winter, and they actually warm your lower back so I sometimes use them even in warm weather when my back is achy or before it gets achy on a long ride. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Marianne

[Chuck Nacke]

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 23:48, Marianne said:

Thanks to everyone for answering. It's so interesting to see how we embrace technology and yet we also enjoy sometimes taking the more leisurely way. I think that need for the tactile - at least in some aspects of our lives - is important to those with any kind of artistic bent. 

Making images for me has never been "leisurely." I had written a rather long rant about the difference between Digital V.S. Film, but I deleted it.

I do Love my old K-14's (Kodachromes), but film can no longer come close to what you can get out of a NIKON D800.

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Chuck Nacke
grammer

[MDM]

3 hours ago, Marianne said:

Here in the US, there is an office supply store called Staples. They had these TV ads with a big red button the size of an old fashioned hotel lobby bell that says "Easy" on it. Push the button and suddenly a messy office is organized, notes are found, etc. Wouldn't it be great?

 

I broke my reading glasses last week (my eyes are very different from each other, so I need to get prescription ones, can't use the over the counter kind) and it made me realize how much easier a lit screen is to read. I never thought I'd use my Kindle much but I actually prefer it.

 

I also love making prints. I have a Canon Pixma Pro 10. Love experimenting with different papers. 

 

Staples went bust here a few years ago and closed all their stores which is a shame as I used to buy stuff like office furniture there. We had one about 5 mins away by car which is no more. I am hard on my computer chair and it is beginning to disintegrate. What I particularly liked is that they would assemble chairs for a small fee. I hate assembling furniture. There is still a company operating as Staples.co.uk but apparently it has nothing to do with the original. 

 

I have a Kindle Paperwhite but it gets almost no use now since I got my iPad as the Kindle screen is too small and it is black and white - fine for reading novels but not up to the job for my electonic book collection which is mostly photographic and entirely non-fiction. Same here with the reading glasses. Given that I spend probably 8-10 hours a day wearing them, I want comfort as well as excellent vision. I get mine optimised for about 60cm for computer monitor use. I need to get some new ones too. 

 

 

 

[Ed Rooney]

It took me just a half page of reading to move from paper books to a Kindle. I wish I had the Paper-white I left at Mulberry Street. My iPad is too heavy for readying in bed. 

[John Morrison]

8 hours ago, MDM said:

I have a Kindle Paperwhite but it gets almost no use now since I got my iPad

 

10 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

I wish I had the Paper-white I left at Mulberry Street. My iPad is too heavy for readying in bed. 

 

Hmmm... could there be some synchronicity here??

[John Mitchell]

11 hours ago, Marianne said:

The thing I liked best about tuning in my 13-year-old Ford for a shiny new Subaru was, admittedly, the gas mileage and the heated seats, but the link to my iPhone that lets me listen to audible books from my library and take calls hands free was a close third I've had it for nearly 5 years now and to me it's a new car,  If the Ford had gotten decent gas mileage I'd probably still have it. And those heated seats are technology...we don't have a garage, so they really are more of a necessity than a luxury in winter, and they actually warm your lower back so I sometimes use them even in warm weather when my back is achy or before it gets achy on a long ride. 

 

 

 

I don't know if electric cars are digital or analog, but I want one. Actually, I'd be quite happy if someone could just pop an electric motor in my little Toyota.

[Marianne]

i first got a Kindle Fire thinking it was the cheap woman's iPad - nope but good for reading magazines, newspapers and books at home (and playing those distracting video games). Fast forward to the summer and I realized you can't use it on the beach unless you get the beach umbrella just right and given how windy it is in New England where we go to the beach, it was a no-go as the umbrella often wouldn't stay up (we got a tent-like thing for the baby this year and it is far more solid and has room for two chairs) . After two summers of frustration, my husband's Kindle paper white gave up the ghost right before Mother's Day last year so I got us matching refurbished Kindle paper whites on sale for Memorial Day as Mother's and Father's Day gifts. So light and actually waterproof. Haven't dropped it in the tub  yet but good to know it's safe. 

 

The Kindle Fire is good for email (reading) but it's a bit hunt and peck for writing,. Now that there is PS for the iPad, I might consider getting one, but I blew my electronics budget this year on my mega laptop. Less than a year old and I need to bring it to Apple at some point to get the keyboard replaced as not just the "e" but about 8 of the letters have worn through. The E wore out in the first month. I just figured I'd wait and hope that they fix the problem before getting a new one  that will just wear out again so quickly. $4,000 for blazing fast innards, a beautiful light design, and a dime store keyboard. 

 

The inexpensive Japanese fountain pen I bought will outlast it by many years. 

 

John, I want a self driving car when I'm 80 so my daughter doesn't have to take my car keys away. Without a garage there's nowhere to power an electric car or I would have looked into a hybrid. I get well over 32MPG with my Subaru Forrester despite its large size (I'm on a private road and we pay for snow removal but the guy can't get there until fairly late in the day - our road is too narrow for the town's trucks - so we need to have one car with 4-wheel drive - it's also good for carting artwork to shows - and with all the huge SUV's on the road, it feel a bit safer- hubs has a tiny sporty Hundai Velocter which gets awesome mileage and is fun to drive).