Instant gratification?

With the recent news that Polariod are ceasing production of their instant films and that many high street stores are now no longer even selling film cameras I was slightly surprised to find myself at 2 events this month where the disposable camera was being used by all and sundry.

I had assumed that the average person on the street was no longer interested in photography where you had to wait more than a few seconds to see the results. However, at these events (both weddings - one a relaxed, intimate garden party, the other a ceilidh at Edinburgh castle) people were all about the wait. They felt there was something quaint about not being able to see the results immediately (although the amount of folk who would take a photo on a disposable camera then immediately look at the back of it to where the LCD should have been was rather funny. People did also not understanding the concept of manually rolling the film on and thinking that the camera was simply finished...)

This got me thinking about the "lost" aspect of waiting to see how a shot's worked out now that we live in the digital age. There was always something very exciting about developing your own film in your own darkroom, or having to wait for a film to come back from the printers. Sometimes it could be incredibly frustrating - a shot slightly out of focus, a moment captured a second too late - but all too often it was a really satisfying, exciting experience. I miss traditional dark room methods but I find it increasingly impossible to think about how non-digtal photography can survive in this era.

Three or four jobs I have undertaken in the past few months (one for a public relations company, another for the Scotsman newspaper and the recent SAC graduation) have required that I provide an image almost immediately following an event. In the past, this would have meant couriering the film to an assistant in a darkroom, having them develop the roll, pick the shots and process those before couriering it back. Even at the fastest possible speed, this would still take the better part of 6 hours. Now, I can have a shot developed and sent to a client within moments of an event.

Digital makes my life easier, but in many ways far more intense. I can now freely experiment as much as I'd like with minimum costs to me but, on a commission, results are expected immediately.

It's swings and roundabouts really.