Current mood:	working
Current music:	Beatles - One after 909

Gosh, you are creative! “No, I have a digicam!”
Disclaimer: Digital Photographers, please don't take any offence. All offences have already been shot, none left to be taken.

When I was 12, a technological marvel made its way to my house in the ‘wilds of India’, the third such marvel to grace our house be precise, after the vaccum(vacuum) tube radio and the mixer(blender) – it was a manual Yashica camera (GTN). A family friend who had business connections with Japan and our neighborhood introduced this camera to my father as the ultimate next generation gizmo which due to some blind luck of the prospective owners (that is us) had been around for the last 15 years and had only had 2 previous owners.

To cut the story short, let me just say my father felt honored that this family friend even considered making a deal with us and promptly bought it without second thoughts. (My sweet gullible father!). As the self-styled tech support in the house, I hastily assumed the charge of the camera under the pretext that a growing intellect needed a Yashica as much as it did Complan - the complete planned food.

Shortly afterwards I started to have those untamed dreams which I’d act out in broad daylight (yeah yeah I hear you, pre-teenage tsk tsk tsk), of being a National Geographic photographer/journalist, - I’d take the Yashica around and frame shots. Frame shots, not take shots. Since taking shots meant using up the film - one film(36 exposures) was supposed to last a year and was reserved for important events like uncle’s marriage, second cousin’s birth, once in four year family trip to Bangalore etc. Learning to use the camera was a process of trial, trial, trial and not much error, as no one in the family understood how I could waste such precious film and blame it on the camera, after all the camera was the finest of Japanese and I was a lowly Indian(so it was obvious who made the error). I did learn a li'l though – how to focus, adjust exposure and shutter speeds along with a whole load of technical jargon to floor the unsuspecting audience (he he that was the main part!).

But here’s the catch – learning to photograph doesn’t translate to being a creative hot shot. Nowadays, once in a blue-blue moon, I get a compliment (for a photo) like, "gosh, you are creative!", mentioned like something horrible they didn’t expect from a predictable moron like me ;-) My current stock reply is, "I have a digicam." That’s right, lots of wannabes including me could taste fame for the blink of an eye, thanks to digital cameras.

Advantage Digicam: I used to frown at those newspaper reporters who emptied film cartridge after cartridge off their camera as if they were wielding an AK-47 from the front lines. Many a time I had wished that their employers would fire them for creating such expensive overheads and hire me instead – all sensibility and prudence with a fair measure of photographer thrown in. Not any more. The maya of memory sticks has made me abandon all restraints on the number of shots I take of the same subject, no cares about the price of film.

The LCD screen - the magical mirror that reflects your exposure and light adjustments as you make it, the framing, the angle and the shadow before you take the picture. If you want to get full marks for composition, know how to read your LCD. Many people still recommend using the (electronic) viewfinder instead of LCD while taking pictures with a digital camera, though my best shots came from the ones I relied on the LCD (that proves it - 'am still an amateur).

And finally, I have to talk about ‘the power’ – the power of zoom. With a film camera I’d have to go bust and spend most of my savings before I could buy a lens capable of capturing that singular drop of dew at the end of a grass blade three floors down and 50 feet away. Now I take the same shot, lounging lazily on the balcony, shooting under-arm..ha ha.

Thus a digital camera gives you the aura of creativity, before you know, you are the new hotshot in town and everybody loves you and they will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along...(that was the Eagles hailing all digital photographers.)

Advanatage Film Camera: A film camera is easier to use than a complex digicam with menus, nested menus, drop down menus which is a continuation of the struggle of juggling with five remotes when you have to play a movie on your home theater system. Ah…technology!!!

DEUCE : This style of writing is to keep up with the Wimbledon spirit. Well… isn’t this ‘clash of the cameras’ a part of the same old battle between the Radio vs the TV, the TV vs the Movies, Men vs Women, Real-life friendships vs Virtual friendships, one more to an already long list, eh?