Plus photoshop is a complete art form that also needs to be mastered. Whenever people talk about photoshop, they make it sound so easy. Just photoshop it, like clicking a mouse button. Well can you create image such as this http://www.patrickmonkel.nl/? You think it's that easy?

Sorry guys, this is the digital age, and we need to update ourselves, and adapt to the new art forms that exist. Plus dropping off images for development is not the art of photography, the art is developing it on your own in a dark room.

I have been taking pictures all my life, I have a storage room just for my contacts and negs, I had my first darkroom at 14, I went on to assist every photographer for over ten years, moved to New York got an agent, got published, advertising clients..etc then digital came, it was not required to have any experience anymore, everyone is a photographer, a blogger, some with talent of course but too much photography killed photography, I am lucky to be able to make a living but when I am not working like you I leave my camera at home having lost the excitment…

My sense is that the bar has been raised for artists, and when the medium shifts and evolves, the art does as well. Shouldn't the pleasure of making a fairly good photograph be shared with everyone? More people are taking photographs because it is more accessible (and the process is less frustrating). Perhaps the 'mystery' has just shifted a little, to a new location. I don't think any of the 'real' artists are complaining about the medium; they work with what they have to make great art regardless. Actually, I thought that was what the quote was about?

Maybe a similar example: surfboards are everywhere nowadays, and while there is a resurgence of the traditional wooden boards by very small niche groups, the sport has been pushed to new limits by the technology offered. Yes, it's pretty crowded out there on the ocean these days, but who am I to stand in the way saying that something is too accessible to regular people? Surfing and Photography isn't all about the end product, it's also about the experience.

Thanks again for the article, I enjoyed it. I'll take your camera if you're not using it.

My soon-to-be ex-wife felt threatened by the many photos I presented to the Court demonstrating the great, fun, enriching times I have with our kids, so she swiped my Kodak EZShare camera when I wasn't looking. You see, those photos contradicted her bogus claims that I was an 'unfit parent' (because, alas, the evil woman was hoping to be awarded an insane, exorbitant amount of child support). But–tsk, tsk–too little, too late on her part: I will soon to have the kids a full half of the time.

So my advice: spend $100 a digital camera, and $50,000 on a divorce attorney, and you'll be sitting pretty.

No, rather, simply saturation, so much noise…harder to find the gems…