[Leica] Daved and confused

[drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers)]

Perhaps this is too deep a subject for a shallow mind such as mine, but
when I first learned photography I was taught that visualization -- the
process of imagining the final print before snapping the shutter -- was
essential to good photography. It was difficult, but made a little
easier because your scope of visualization was more narrow. For
instance, you were pretty much locked into the type of film you were
using. 

Certainly you could cross over from BW to color using Marshall Oils or
the opposite direction using Panalure, but how common was it to do so? I
think I used Marshall Oils one time and I still have leftovers from my
first and only box of Panalure. 

Now we can switch back and forth -- and I do it often, from color to BW
and back, at least -- with a mouse click. Since nearly all digital
begins in color (I'm not diciplined enough to shoot in monochrome mode)
it's almost like I'm admitting defeat when I determine that an image
can't make it as a color image so I try and dress it up a little in BW. 

Thus when I shoot digital I feel like I'm a color photographer who uses
BW -- aka zero saturation -- as a crutch to make bad photos that have
some compositional merit but are colorly challenged, into mediocre
photos; sometimes even really good BW photos, if I'm lucky. I can even
hide unwanted artifacts....even noise.

Has happenstance replaced visualization? Is this even something worth
discussing? WWAS? (What would Ansel say?) Was visualization merely a
fancy metaphore for "you're stuck with what's in your camera, so make
the most of it".

There was a day when I'd have given my eye teeth to have someone come up
to me and offer a magic film that could be either color or BW at the
snap of my finger. After all, visualization was a tough thing for me to
grasp. Sadly, now that I'm an old dog I can't ungrasp it. I'm conflicted
and confused. What's that old saying? Careful what you wish for..... 

DaveR