This digital stuff is all very well, but as I've said before, you lose skill and craftswomanship if you wander out and knock off any old pic because you can doctor it up on the computer at a later date.

I once saw the work of a photographer who'd done exactly that; he'd taken some poorly composed, and quite frankly, shite pictures, saying 'Oh it doesn't matter, I can do something in Photoshop with it later'. Whatever happened to standards? Eh? Eh???

I like the challenge of crafting something from what's in front of me; and if I produced a wonderful shot every time, where would the joy be? I accept the comments about chemistry-free atmospheres, but if you have adequate ventilation, this shouldn't be too much of a problem (and I'm hooked on the smell of darkrooms; feels like coming home to me). I like crafting my own prints with an enlarger. I can 'feel' what I'm doing, much like making custard. Any cook will tell you that you need to 'feel' the dish to see if it's right or not. I'm sure the Cheese Empress (Rhiannon) would agree with me on that one!

And it wasn't a digital SLR, it was one of those small square things.

Yours,

An old stick-in-the-treacle xx