I list myself as one of those lucky people that has made a career out of digital imaging. Over the years I have shared the experience across RPS events, international conferences and camera clubs. Over the last few months I had the chance to pull the threads together and put the story into print.
The most recent article has just surfaced the Digital Imaging Group magazine DIGIT, entitled “Long Road to Digital”. The road started with my first digital “camera” – a floor standing device called a microdensitometer.
A child of the spy satellite industry the role of the microdensitometer was to digitise photographic negatives. In terms of throughput the downside to the technology was it did it pixel by pixel, moving the negative step by step under a microscope. So while it could do the job with the resolution of a modern DSLR it may take a full day to digitise one 35mm negative.
The article also covered my work on Orotones, prints on glass plates made visible by reflection by a gold paint backing. The Curtis Centennial Collection was a reproduction of the original Edward Sheriff Curtis Orotones made on specially produced Ilford glass plates. This story appeared in The Journal in October as a collaboration with Alan Elliott ARPS in Australia.
Why not share your experiences with others in one of the RPS publications? We all have photographic stories to tell…
Image; A PDS 1010 microdensitometer. Flatbed scan of a silver halide monochrome print from a conference paper by Alan Hodgson