The New You - Choice Agent Extraordinaire: Guest Post by Arthur Rainville

"Arthur" by Arthur

Once upon a time, long long ago.....life was simple.  There was film.  There were nice black boxes to put it in, all pretty much the same – they made pictures.  There were nice labs that processed the film and made really nice pretty prints...presuming we gave them latent-ish (that’s a word isn’t it?) images that were relatively well exposed and cropped.  And we were Professional Photographers, revered by one and all and we saw it was good and we rejoiced in it for a very long long time.  For this was the time of BC – Before Computers.

And then, out of the black n blue, it was a dark and stormy night.  The time.......AD – Adobe Dependent.  There were pixels – millions of ‘em.  There were incredible new boxes to put them in that focused for us in a hundred ways...all at once... and exposed in even more ways... better than we ever could with 20/20/20/whattheheck20 vision....and had untold bells and multiple whistles and cost a whole family of arms and legs.....

But wait...there’s more....

And because times they are a changin' the need was felt to make hundreds, yea, thousands of exposures....just because we could.

And because times they are a changin' pixels couldn’t just get shipped off to the lab like film...we had the good fortune to be able to “Play With Them” and our world thought.... life was good.  And Photoshop led to Painter led to LightRoom led to NIK Filters led to godknowswhat...and life was good...wasn’t it?  And the poor labs could print on paper and on canvas and on plastic and on metal and on godknowswhat...and life kinda was...whatever.

And now it’s time for the inevitable sequel... THE REVENGE OF THE LAND OF THE LOST.... and the life of the photographer – strike that – Image Creator – is perhaps becoming less grand.

Yes technology has marched on, society’s likes, dislikes and demands have, paradymely (is that a word...it is now) changed, and, well, the view of the world of what a “Professional Image Maker” is has all but crumbled into the proverbial potty.

But wait..... what’s that streaking across the horizon?  Is it a grain...NO.  Is it a pixel....NOOOOOOOOO.  It’s a streaming gleaming full blown HD-ta-Boot VIDEO!!! And it landed on You-Tube and on someone’s Face....book and is tweeting ta boot and we again saw it was good and we rejoiced in it for who knows how long (please God cut us some slack here, amen).

Ok, I know...the last thing you needed was to have to embrace change once more in your lifetime.  But as they say, whoever they are...

You can’t stop the waves; all you can do is learn to surf the inevitable.

Please understand, I have no desire to be a naysayer, no doom and gloom a-la-carte in the throws of despair deliverer of bad tidings here.

I only offer a watchful eye, a coy smile and the pledge of being a hopeful romantic and prognosticator. 

Our precious ‘stills’ on our precious ‘paper’ will  - and I do believe this with all my heart – never go away.  But the world of technology is of course here to stay.  And a whole new audience of short-attention-span-theatre consumers will more and more cry out for the latest and greatest....and sure as I’m spoutin off here – that could be a wild and woolie moving picture show on their new fangled IWatch or maybe a nice little Hologram of a loved one sleepin’ in the corner lazyboy.

Does it truly matter if it’s film or pixels or flickering fancies on the screen?

Isn’t it the message that counts?  Were you not put on this earth.....

To leave a tender trail.....by whatever means the day and age affords?

So this is our challenge, our quest – to be revered (and paid) for the taking like the alchemists we should always be viewed as.

We can of course, choose to ignore the obvious.  Or we can start now to set a course for the next generation of Professional Imagery, there will be a tomorrow.

You have been empowered with God given rights to make choices.  You can build a stone wall as a laborer or an artisan.  You can choose to duke it out with the peasants for a 99 cent photoburger or you can choose to become the Kobe Beef of the image world.

It’s time for a New You – Choice Agent Extraordinaire !

By Arthur Levi Rainville M.Photog., Cr., CPP, API

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And that's why I love talking with Arthur! I became a diehard Arthur follower years ago after hearing him give the very best presentation I'd ever heard on creativity at a program in Boston. Take the time and enjoy his podcast, his first guest post here at SCU and a classic video thanks to Tamron on classic posing. And if he's speaking at any convention you're attending - RUN don't walk to get a seat!  

His quote on his faculty page sums it all up...

Live, Love, Laugh…you were put on this earth to leave a tender trail.

Skip Cohen