Ask Lemmy

You can take photos with regular cameras you know…

I've been doing photography since 78 (still a kid, back then) when, while I was spending holidays at his big home in a big city, my photographer of an uncle gave me my first reflex camera and two rolls of Ilford (so far, I only had been using a tiny kid Kodak pocket camera, loaded with tiny cassettes), telling me how to load the camera and how to use a lightmeter to get a correct exposure (and what that was), and then he gave me some cash and told me to get the fuck out of his office and go out to shoot random stuff on the block until there was not a single frame left. Only then, I could come back home and we would develop said rolls together in his darkroom, printing whatever he would consider to not be complete trash. Yes, he spoke like that to his dear pupil, and yes he was the kind of adult encouraging a little boy (be it me, or his own kids) to go out and explore the city around us alone and unsupervised (back then, people were a tad less paranoid). He kinda had his own very personal way to motivate me and to get my attention.

Back in the darkroom, while I assisted him (technically speaking, I mostly watched him do his magic and pressed a few buttons) I was in awe when I first saw the image appear on paper in his bath under the red light. That was real superpower (so far, I had never witnessed developing or making a print out of it, it was done by some random lab handing me back a pile of prints in place of the cassette).

If anyone wants to know, I managed to get a few decent pictures for my first time. Using the Nikkor 55 f2,8 lens (a macro lens) he gave me with the camera (the dude had some taste, I would still love to use this lens) I used to get a decent picture of a... fly, sitting still on a window. Another one, of the entire block that was taken from... the very top of the big ladder of a firetruck (I simply went into the nearby firemen station and they were kinda cool with kid-me and ended up inviting me to climb the ladder with one of them (something nowadays parents would sue them into oblivion for... that probably decided my future career). It was a blast. I was seeing the town around like I had never seen it: I was standing on the fucking top of the buildings! I was in love with what happened that day, and with myself feeling, no it was more than just a feeling, me being that tiny version of a reporter and being not just allowed but encouraged to do incredible stuff I would otherwise not be allowed to. I was also very much liking the dude that climbed with me and moved the ladder slightly for me to get a good shot, and I liked his friends for being so welcoming to silly kid-me... I made a group picture of the four of them and that was the third print worth keeping. If I got rid of the fly print very quickly, I dearly kept the block shot and the one of the firemen, in my various offices until... i quit photography, a few decades later.

So, yes, to answer your insightful remark, I think I know I can do analog. I also think I know how to do digital, I started in the late 90s as an out of curiosity experiment (that was quite fun too). And I think I know how to make backups of both media. But, replying to the OP I did not imagine he was considering doing backups of analog photography at all, I may have been wrong.

Just so you know: analog-wise, I've had zero issue keeping prints in archival photographic boxes for almost half a century, and archiving my negatives and slides in paper sleeves. Prints are also great to share with friends and people as they're long lasting even without much care... I kept the same way much older prints, I purchased from galleries or from fellow photographers, without any issue.

edit: typos.