JSouthworth wrote:
With the modern technology of digital cameras, almost anybody can be a photographer. Or a journalist. Isn't that wonderful? Yes it is, from the perspective of retailers and TV networks. They don't need to pay these people any more.

I actually do think that the pluralization of photography is a wonderful thing. I love photography, and I am happy that so many more people can enjoy it nowadays than when I started developing and printing black and white film, in my early teens, back in 1974. I think it is a great thing that people can capture quality images at any time with their phones; and these are the same people who once upon a time would bring in a roll of film to be developed with two separate, consecutive Christmases on the same roll.

There is still lots of room for people who do high quality work, and digital capture and editing makes this a more practical area to enter into for those who so desire. But some things are never going to change; for instance, I can tell you that in the OP's home town, people are more likely to save a memory by paying for a tattoo than for a photographer (camera phones notwithstanding)!

TaiChiJohn wrote:

I actually do think that the pluralization of photography is a wonderful thing. I love photography, and I am happy that so many more people can enjoy it nowadays than when I started developing and printing black and white film, in my early teens, back in 1974. I think it is a great thing that people can capture quality images at any time with their phones; and these are the same people who once upon a time would bring in a roll of film to be developed with two separate, consecutive Christmases on the same roll.

Digital photography and the internet have disadvantages as well, as in Ukraine where the authorities have had to severely restrict their use, because of people photographing military personnel, vehicles and bases and then streaming the videos and images, thereby proving the Russians with valuable intelligence. The grass is always greener.

JSouthworth wrote:
Digital photography and the internet have disadvantages as well, as in Ukraine where the authorities have had to severely restrict their use, because of people photographing military personnel, vehicles and bases and then streaming the videos and images, thereby proving the Russians with valuable intelligence. The grass is always greener.

True, there are many sides to these dice. There are things I wish I had the ability to capture digitally back when they happened and before digital capture became widely available; for instance, it would be priceless to me to have a digital video of the 1988 Augusta Township Council meeting (where Prescott Ontario is located), held one month before the next council election, where they announced that they had sold land in their industrial park to a company named ENSCO — for a toxic waste incinerator to be built. Having assessed the prospectus for the Swan Hills, Alberta toxic waste incinerator while working in Calgary for Greenpeace two years earlier, I had a good working knowledge of these facilities; so I grilled the council members on their intentions, and the state of their actual knowledge (which was sorely lacking) about what they were bringing there. Happily, the hodgepodge of environmentalists I was working with managed to spearhead a campaign that saw every single member of that council kicked out of office one month later, and the sale of the land to ENSCO rescinded; but it would be great to have digital video of those events to reminisce over! That was a far better outcome than the elevated cancer rates which the entire area would now be experiencing, had that toxic waste incinerator been built.

Lots of environmentalists (who never get paid for they work they do anyway, by the way) are using digital photography and video to great advantage, and to the benefit of us all. Nowadays, living in New York City, I mostly find myself using these media to help musician friends document and promote their work (since they seldom get paid very much for what they do, either); but in my opinion  it really comes down to people acting responsibly with the tools they now have for digital image capture.