A coworker and I were having a discussion the other day about hobbies. He’s really into archery. From what he tells me, he’s got a pretty high-tech compound bow. As I am curious about a number of things and, as a kid, we used to make ‘bows and arrows’ out of sticks and strings, I asked him all manner of questions having to do with bows, arrows, and technology.
Not surprising, there are different types of sights and all manner of gadgets that you can get to improve your shooting accuracy as well as your distance. He had just purchased and was waiting for such a sight to arrive and was quite excited about it. I asked him was there a group of people who ‘go the other way’? That is, they dispense with all the technology upgrades and decide to shoot a bow and arrows of their own making. He indicated that there was a whole subculture that make their own bows from wood that they choose and cut themselves! Also, they make their own quivers out of leather, as well. In tournaments, they compete against each other at much shorter distances because home-made non-compound, or recurve bows, can shoot only about 20 yards or so with accuracy and hitting power. He admired these guys, too, because they were deadly accurate at 20 yards all without the use of sights or any type of technology. I guess that this would be akin to a photographer who makes his own emulsion, coats his glass plates, and mixes his own chemicals.
I guess that I’m fully ensconced in my ‘retro’ period. Thanks to Paul Maxim for pulling out that word retro, but it fits so perfectly. I do feel as if I’m turning in the opposite direction and seem to be walking away from technology. 
It’s funny how easy it was for me to give the left hand something to do. Focus. On many of the new lenses, built especially for digital cameras, the focusing ring is sort of an afterthought, or perhaps is not much of a thought at all. It seems to be there as a ‘just in case’. Manual focusing is fast and easy. I guess that this goes back to my roots.
I know that there are many of you out there that use the manual mode in your camera almost exclusively. I was never one to use manual mode very much, preferring instead to use aperture priority and let the camera choose its own shutter speed, and let me take care of the depth of field. Now, I find that I shoot manual a lot more often, especially if I’m taking pictures in light that doesn’t change much at all, like in the middle of the day, or perhaps inside. I choose an aperture and shutter speed combo and that’s it, the rest is shoot, shoot, shoot.
About the only things that I use on my D300 with any regularity, technology wise, are the ISO, custom shooting banks, white balance, and auto focus. The AF is easier to use than manual focus because that’s the way the camera was built. There’s not split focus screen, but if there were, I’d probably use it!
Just so you know, I’m not ditching my computer, cell phone, or other conveniences. I’m not going to start making my own clothes out of the skins of animals that I hunted with my home made bow and arrows, nor will I move to the country, bring up water from the river, and chop my own wood. But, at least for the foreseeable future, I will keep shooting film and focusing manually. My left hand likes to have something to do!
As a matter of fact, the image at the top was taken with my cell phone. My wife and I were walking in downtown Charleston yesterday and it was so hot that I didn’t even feel like carrying my camera. We came upon this scene when we first walked out of the parking garage. I took a quick picture in the glaring sunlight. When I got it onto the computer I could see that it was total crap. It was blocky and had blown highlights everywhere. I brought it into Photoshop added some filters here and there and made it an ‘interpretation’ of summer fun! See! I still know how to use technology! I didn’t carve this out of stone!!!
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9 Responses to “All retro and what not!”
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If it was a stone image there will be those who would ask what size chisel and mallet did you use.
I’m smiling this morning because your posting reminds me of a line the comedian, Larry the Cable Guy, uses, “Get ‘er done.” Our tools (toys) allow us to work our art, to be creative and and get ‘re done. For me is helps to grow as a person and as a photographer. No matter what the media I learn to see the world anew. Well said, Paul and have a great day!
I love techology, whenever I screw up a shot that isn’t focused I run it through Photoshop using a Dry Brush and turn it into a painting and have found some people who love my “art” work.
Paul, fiberglass laminate recurved bows replaced the classic English longbow because of greater range and accuracy, but the notion that the plain wood bow was limited to an accurate range of twenty yards or so is mistaken. Tournament archery was conducted with classic yew wood bows at least up into the 50s. I grew up immersed in this because my father, Carl “Dutch” Weese, held the world records in all archery rounds off and on through the 30s and 40s, using hand-crafted yew wood bows. His specialty was the long-distance York round, which consisted of seventy-two arrows at 100 yards, forty-eight arrows at 80 yards, and twenty-four arrows at 6o yards, shooting at a 4-foot diameter target with concentric scoring rings. Accuracy? Near the end of his life, Dad told me his one discontent about his archery was that he had never managed to shoot an entire York round without a single passed arrow–a shot that did not hit the four foot target…
The equipment does matter, though. In the mid sixties someone broke Dad’s decades-old York round record. He bought a recurved bow and aluminum arrows, went into training, traveled to the New Jersey state championship tournament in 1966, which featured an officially sanctioned York round for its first day, to take the record back, at the age of 56. That round put him so far ahead of the field that nobody could catch him in the second day’s shooting and he won the tournament. OK, I’ll stop bragging about my ancestors and let you get back to photography.
@Carl: A fantastic story! Thanks for sharing it, seriously! The one thing about the Internet is that if you make a remark about something and someone else knows about it, you will get corrected. Thanks for setting the record straight!
Very enjoyable post. I love reading about retro bloggers.
I think these comparisons to going old school can be found in so many different hobbies. What I find interesting to think about is what you mentioned about how the old school archers seemed to be “forced” to compete on a different playing field because they are using “outdated” technology. I don’t think photographers are as willing to segregate.
Mark, there’s an issue about what’s simply old and what’s really obsolete. I use digital capture and printing for some work, but I still use ultra large format cameras to make big film negatives for contact printing in platinum. That’s because those Pt/Pd prints have qualities that can’t be matched by more modern methods, including the latest digital. Pt/Pd is classic, not obsolete.
Shooting the old yew bow and wooden arrows is a very different aesthetic experience from shooting a compound bow and fiberglass arrows. Someone might greatly prefer the old way as a recreational activity. But *if the archers keep score* those with the new tackle will clobber even better archers using medieval technology. If there is going to be a marksmanship competition, the groups have to be divided.
It certainly is entertaining and informative to follow along as you shift your priorities and find more ways of combining the old with the new. I hope you won’t consider giving up your computer. How else could we follow along?
@Anita: No way! The computer stays!!!