Double Bass

Last night I was out at Sir Benedict's Tavern having some drinks, and there was live music being played on their stage. One of the performers in the group just happened to be using a double bass. While watching him play, I thought about what would happen if I went up to him, in the middle of his performance and said "You know that they make electric version of those now that are much smaller, and sound pretty much the same. Plus they have these things called 'frets' on them, so you don't even need to know what a C# sounds like to play it. It is a much better system that you should switch to."

I'm pretty sure that we can all agree that I'd have looked like a complete jerkface if I'd have actually gone up and said that to him.

I also think that I'd be drawing a very close parallel to every digital shooter who approaches myself, & other photographers around the globe who haven't switched to digital and drops comments like "Where do you stick the memory card in?" or "Does that have a shutter, or do you just use a hat?" in a tone that sounds like they think we are somehow dumb for not advancing into the modern age of photography. Or that we have somehow managed to remain oblivious that such wonderful new gadgets exist, and need to be enlightened.

Guess what? We don't. If you happen to be one of the people who have made such comments, and happen to be reading this, pretend we are the guy playing the double bass, and things should be clearer.

For the record, I do give elbow jabs back to my digital shooting friends with comments like "Batteries? Your camera needs those things to function? Weird?", and actually do have special situations where I'm going to start bringing a hat to function as a shutter. 98.341% of the time it is all in good fun both ways. The norm that I've experienced is that people who make the small comments are often just breaking the ice, and and are actually interested in the equipment I'm using. This post is mostly directed at the more rare instances of actual attempts of belittlement that happens by some pompous shooters. (Mostly on Internet forums) I just want to try to put it into perspective on how silly they come of sounding to all of us on the traditional side of the fence.