Sand dunes, Xiang Sha Wan, Mongolia
Digital cameras are ubiquitous. Apple tells us more photographs are made with telephones than any other device. I have seen commercials for a camera (41 megapixels – yeah, that’s right) with an accessory telephone. It’s the reducto ad absurdum argument, but did we ever think that was not going to happen? Digital cameras are easy to use, auto everything with a PhD (for Push here, Dummy), with refined auto focus, auto exposure and image stabilization for creating technically perfect photographs every single time. Technically, creating photographs is much easier than it has ever been. Image recording devices are relatively inexpensive, compact, and easy to operate. Once the image file is created, it’s possible to do basic editing right on the capture device and share the results with the world immediately. Should you go “old school” and desire to process the image file on your computer, open source image processing software is available for free. The barriers to entry are reduced to almost nothing beyond the cost of the camera phone and a computer that are necessities for existence in the twenty first century.
There used to be one path to creating photographs with a significant barrier to entry. Now there are many paths, and very little expense. But more importantly, the approach to teaching and creating photographs has dramatically changed.
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