Friday, 21 February 2014

Bird club, photograpghy and polution



21 February

I was due out to Bird Club last but come 4 o'clock I didn't feel like going at all so I mentioned it to Jan. Her comment was right - as usual. 'You might as well go cos you'll wish you had gone if you don't.' Well, I did go and sat through a slide show about birds of Iberia given by the club President. And it was great! Not only that I won the first prize in the raffle. Jan opened it when I got home to find a set of set VHS videos on British birds. Ah well, not sure what to do with them seeing as we've had DVDs for years now - lust like everyone else and their uncle!  A good night though, topped off with a pint of Wobbler in the Anker on way home.

Damage to the environment has cropped up in Amateur Photographer this week again. The reason for it this time is that after years of decline there is a growing number of snappers moving away from digital and going back to film with Japan leading the way it seems. Environmental damage comes into it right from the start with producing the acetate base of films and then on to the light sensitive chemicals that are then added to the base. The same then happens with printing papers. But what the writer of the letter on this subject missed by claiming that digital is far less damaging to the environment, is that from the  very start of manufacturer energy is used, and a lot of it over the whole build process. He also forgets that there are PCBs with in today's cameras, and they have plastics in them. Solder is used, as is copper and then more plastics on the coatings of cameras, memory cards, battery cases. After that comes printing of images and energy to charge batteries, run computers and printers ... ... ... But as the editor replies, film photography will now only be a niche activity now and the environmental impact will be small compared to digital.

At one time I used to do both digital and film photography and I found the film method a lot more satisfying. However, I was also studying with Open University at the time , and here's where I was forced into a choice. I had an assignment due but my printer inks needed replacing. On top of that I was running out of film and chemicals and we couldn't afford to buy it all. So what was to go? The printer inks won and we bit the bullet, sold all the film kit we had and concentrated on digital. Now I will never go back to film simply because of cost.

Today's photo then is of a flower... 

I got this one at Brandon Marsh sometime ago. It was taken with a Nikon Coolpix P4500, that was the one that could be swivelled 900. Not a bad camera, in fact very good but not very reliable. Mine kept on breaking down.

Funny time ...

I took my wife fishing to teach her a valuable lesson. I soon caught a fish, l laid it on the ground and smashed it over the head, killing it. She screamed "What kind of lesson does that teach me?" I replied "it would still be alive if it had kept its bloody mouth shut!"         

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