Thanks. Awesomeness per unit time spent photographing is constant. Awesomeness per unit time spent editing those photographs - sadly, is going down, given that it takes a finite amount of time to consider each shot and pitch or keep.
Not if you apply the same
shooting psychology as you might have done with film.
For me, it's currently impossible to make a comprehensive comparison for the simple fact that when I was working at my peak, my work was my hobby, too, and even though it was expensive film, cost didn't affect me one way or the other: clients always paid.
Today, 'working' as an amateur, I am in the digital world, and that costs nothing but time which isn't earning a penny for me either way. In fact, when I'm not 'working' today, I am spending more money than when I am 'working' because photographing is cheaper than hanging about buying coffee somebody else makes for me.
But, as I always had a good idea where I wanted something to go, that hasn't changed with the mediums. I shoot very little per idea now, because I don't need to coax faces - just have to have the idea. In fact, I stopped chimping a long time ago, and find that Matrix is so good that pretty much everything I shoot gets kept and galleried; having said which (about having the idea), it's even easier than I thought: I have realised that the idea arrives all by itself now, because it's alread there waiting for me to see it, to recognize its presence. Unlike the world with models, the world without them already exists with or without my input.
So you see, photography actually saves me money and fills the voids that drift along all by themselves, just as death comes along in the end and solves everything completely. Life has a beautiful equilibrium, on balance. ;-)
You just have to accept the truth about existence, to stop fighting it, and to enjoy the ride for as long as the music plays. When it stops, you either find yourself in your idea of heaven or there's nothing, in which case you'll be none the wiser.
Life is a wonderful gift, if you let it be.
Rob C
