Originally published January 24 2005
Digital cameras revolutionizing the 165 year old photography industry; amateurs now capable of professional results
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
United States consumers bought twice as many digital cameras as conventional film cameras last year. And, with cameras fast becoming a standard feature of cell phones, digital photography seems to have hit critical mass. And that means amateurs can do plenty of things once reserve for pros. It's now common, for example, for families to turn their family memories into digital files with a professional look that can be easily shared across the internet.
The true power of digital photography never really hit me until I came face to face with the dashing young Australian grandfather I had never met -- on my 21-inch computer screen.
A home scanner, coupled with a cheap photo-editing program, allowed me to blow up the few tiny images of him my family had saved so I could get my first close look at his melancholy face.
The encounter highlighted for me the magnitude of change digital technology is ushering into the 165-year-old photography industry, creating turmoil and excitement as people buy digital cameras at rates far exceeding industry projections.
This past year, people in the United States bought twice as many digital cameras as film models, according to the Photo Marketing Association.
Consider the photos snapped by National Guardsmen showing abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, which were e-mailed widely and shown on national TV.
Or the Nashville man who helped police nab the mugger who jumped him at a carwash, by using his cell phone camera to photograph the mugger as he fled.
I bought the scanner as I began to learn how much you can do with photos once they are in digital form -- clean them up, lighten dark areas, blow up small sections and inspect details you might otherwise never see in a 4-by-6-inch print -- all using entry-level photo software.
At Thanksgiving, I watched as my sister's 15-year-old daughter, Angela -- named after my mother, who was her grandmother, and who died before Angela was born -- flipped through every page in the book.
It gave me great joy to watch her study those old photos of my mother, and read the documents chronicling her brief career as a TV actress in London.
Like me, Angela was getting her first close look at the grandparent she had never known.
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