Film or Digital?

It seems this is the question I have been asked the most over the past few years. My answer is always "both" but I mostly shoot digital these days. Yesterday I re-shot an exterior photo of the Seattle Public Library Central Branch because the area had changed a bit. As I was working on the new photo I opened my original shot which was made with slide film and scanned at a higher "theoretical" resolution than my current digital camera. The old version was beautiful but I was shocked at the difference in the two. You can judge for yourself, the crop below has the older film image within the black box (click for a larger view):



Having said all that, I must admit that I do still love film, it can be so beautiful and has qualities that can't be duplicated with digital processes. For example, there are colors that I can get with Fuji film that I can't see in my digital files....

Anacortes, WA 98221

Sometimes I am able to do a little shooting at a location before and after a commercial shoot. Last week I went to Anacortes and left early in hopes of getting some shots of Snow Geese in the Fir Island area but there weren't many around so I had extra time at my location. I also stayed late and did some night shots of the refineries at March Point. More Tesoro refinery photos in my photoshelter archive- http://bit.ly/aqk0li

Refinery at night-


Oil tanker at dock with derelict dock in foreground-


Pile of chain-


Heron fishing in harbor. This is a testament to the Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR lens. I was hand-holding at dusk at 300mm and shot this at 1/13th of a second. This is 4-5 f-stops less than what one would usually need to get a sharp photo, amazing!


Guemes Island Ferry-


Three old rusted buoys-

iPhone Friday

More iPhone shots for you today... I am taking fewer pictures with my iPhone these days but I am getting more practice with the apps, I hope it shows.

Seattle has the coolest library in the world

At least I think so. And when my son was out of school last Friday we did a grand tour. When it was completed a few years ago I wasn't sure, it wasn't love at first sight, but now I love thee so much Central Seattle Library! Thank you people of Seattle, thank you Rem Koolhaus and thank you Hoffman Construction for building this masterpiece!

From Herbert Muschamp's New York Times review- "If an American city can erect a civic project as brave as this one, the sun hasn't set on the West. In more than 30 years of writing about architecture, this is the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review."

I had my point-and-shoot digital with me as we explored-