Nostalgia is for good memories!

 We are used to ear that the past was better than the present time but in the far back of our mind, we know already that is most likely never the case, that today give you better chance to live in better conditions that will be difficult to simply ignore. Photographers experiment the same attitude toward the analog past era compared to the actual digital world. And most of them have a limited if not at all experiences from those analog times.

I was born into the analog era and have learned and worked to use those photo gear that everybody seems to cherish today as collectors and, sometimes, as users. And many of them rediscover the "magic" of the film-analog but as every magical field, there is a lot of secrets to be unfolded before getting the "picture" you are looking for. Because analog techniques are more demanding and obviously much limited at the same time. And they are not particularly forgiving.

I remember clearly the first time I have literally seen a picture apparition from the developing tray of my school photo laboratory. And yes again, it was so magic! At those times, we were accepting any picture as extraordinary even if they were (very) far from perfect. By today's standards we will never consider them as interesting or to be preserved. If you want to be convinced of the complexity to produce nice film analog pictures, I recommend to you the lecture of these three excellent books from the American master photographer Ansel Adams, The Camera, The Negative and The Print.

Acting as a photo reporter during several years, I can testify about the difficulties and the insecurity of doing analog photography. With time, I have experimented many frustrating situations in regard of the picture taking contexts, film and print failures and imperfect results. The event of the the digital photography was an outstanding liberation for many reasons not only technical but also practical (especially for documenting and sharing your pictures) and psychological in term of security (you see what you are taking).

It happens time to time that some personal souvenirs are popping in my mind recalling the good days of analog photography but then I pick up my digital camera just beside my keyboard and fairly appreciate its instant availability and reliability to do and create beautiful pictures that I can look and share easily. Yes, nostalgia is really for good memories!

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© Photo Daniel M: OM-D E-M1 II/ED 40-150mm Pro