Where the rubber hits the road. It's the print. It has always been the print.

Film grain is my friend and resolution is highly over rated for many types of photography. Digitally, I rarely try to remove noise, other than color noise and will even add some "grain" when the situation warrants, and not because I'm trying to make a digital image look "film like". Decades ago I attended an exhibition (long forgotten who the artist was) of photos done with 35mm and printed fairly large. I was impressed by how "sharp" everything was when even when a picture showed a little subject movement. I realized the impression of "sharpness" came from the use of high accutance developer (I.e.Rodinal) rather than a "fine grain" developer. Fine grain developers might actually have more detail but it always left me with the impression of "softness", and I guess a high resolution softness is preferable for some subjects. I had a friend recently show me some of his aerial work in Lightroom. It was taken near dusk and his iso was set high and his efforts to remove the noise just left his photos looking smeared. I suggested taking out the color noise but leaving in or even adding just a subtle amount of "film grain" to increase the perception of sharpness. It worked and the following day he told me that after sleeping on it and reviewing the adjustments, he was keeping them because it helped. I've even gone so far as to use the technique of adding a little "film grain" on a slightly out of focus family picture to salvage it. Now, don't get the idea that I disdain resolution, I don't, (my equipment cabinet also says I don't ) resolution can enhance many types of photographs but it is no substitute for the innate qualities of the subject.

The sadness of this makes me mad, or at least that's the best way I know to describe the feeling I have when I hear things like this. I don't know Sally Mann or her family except through her work and writing. But it makes me mad that people have to live through things that are so sad.

Well, I go back and forth between a Sony A7r2 and a Tech Cam with a MFDB. If I had to limit myself to a single camera I think the Leica S would probably straddle the benefits of the 2 systems I now use.

I read the quoted Christopher Columbus... I felt the need to verify this passage, not because am doubtful of the savagery perpetrated by Columbus, but of how sometimes the truth can get a little twisted. The passage quoted are not the words of Christopher Columbus but of Michele de Cuneo, an aristocrat that accompanied him on the second voyage. No consolation and assuredly not a vindication of Columbus and his methods. http://tinyurl.com/o2kdod9 There is no excuse for such behavior and no excuse to celebrate a man that permitted and condoned such treatment as normal.

I think the task of avoiding cliches will paralyze you as a photographer or certainly stunt growth. Even the struggle to avoid cliches is almost cliche itself. Just let go! We should be photographing and photographing a lot to allow our voice to emerge, to find confidence in our own vision unencumbered by what we think we should or should not photograph. The best advice I think we can give anyone trying to take photography to the level beyond record snapshots is to learn the art of those who came before you and then emulate those for which you have the most affinity. Be not afraid! Do not fear that you lack originality by imitating Ansel Adams or Weston or Friedlander or Eggleston or (fill in the blank), soon enough your own vision will creep in and begin to dominate simply because you are photographing without self imposed restrictions. The photographs will be yours.

Point taken.

Smaller than a 4/3 sensor? I think they missed the mark.