The March of Technology

Some weeks ago, my camera took a dive.

No, not literally, as in fell off the table... but it did stop working, after some 30,000 images. I bought it about six years ago, specifically because it had excellent macro settings, allowing me to get within an inch of a piece of glass, and still keep focus.

The good folks at Fuji seem to think that the camera needs a new motherboard. Or some kind of circuit board. These days, nothing is "mechanical." That was another thing I liked about the camera: The zoom and focusing could be done manually.

Call me old-fashioned.

Hearing about the "tehnology" needed to fix my camera made me think about the "old days" of photography. Film. Anyone remember FILM?

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the digital age. I can't even begin to imagine the cost of shooting and processing 30,000 images on film. And I really like the fact that I can take pictures and scrap them, and redo them till I get the exact result I want.

Anyway, while my "good" camera is in the shop, I decided I should have a backup. A "Plan B," if you will. I make my living with a camera... well, at least, a camera is part of my living, and as an eBay seller of collectibles (and sea glass), I'm basically out of business when I don't have a camera. I became very aware of this, when my camera went in for repair... and I found myself stuck with using a scanner. Not good.

So now I am learning a new camera, with all its intricacies.

It is amazing how much technology-- and not just in computers-- has moved along in the course of just a few years. I bought my old camera in 2006, and it was state of the art, at the time.

In many ways it still is, given the price they still fetch, on the aftermarket.

Although the image quality on my new camera-- another Fuji-- is perhaps not as sharp as I would have expected, the gadgetry and add-ons are mindblowing. So is the automation... seems like the term "point and shoot" has reached new levels. You literally don't have to have a brain, nor know a thing about photography... in order to create good pictures. I'm not entirely sure whether or not I consider that a "good" thing.

Still, there's a learning curve. Macro photography of sea glass is not as easy as it looks... and often involves a process of "lying to the camera," in order to get the desired results. It took me several months to "get good" with the old camera.

The process of lying to the camera gets harder and harder, as these pieces of gear become more and more automated. There may be quite a few instances when the camera knows more about taking a good picture than I do... however, close-ups of sea glass is NOT one of those.

And so... that's what I am doing, at the moment... learning to overcome the automation, so I can take good pictures of sea glass.

Sea Glass Photo Albums

I have been considering how to create a kind of online encyclopedia of sea glass, based on the many photographs of sea glass I have accumulated over the years. I've been sharing photos with collectors for a very long time, and have often heard things like "Oh, you should publish those!" or "why don't you create a book?"

Truth is, it would be nice to have an online reference of different sea glass colors and unusual pieces. There have been times when I could have used a reference, myself, when I have found something unusual.

For the moment, Flickr seems like the most useful option, as a lot of people already have accounts, and it would be relatively easy to organize the photos by color. In addition, people can view basic Flickr photo collections without having to have a Yahoo or Flickr membership.

I currently have more than 10,000 photographs of sea glass, most of them close-ups of individual pieces, in almost every color imaginable. These include a lot unusual rarities and unique pieces, including my collection of sea glass marbles.

Of course, this will very much be a "labor of love" and will probably take months-- if not years-- to complete. I just doing what often helps me get a project rolling: making a public commitment to the idea.

Looking at colors: Kelly Green

Green sea glass-- alternately referred to as "common" green, "Kelly green" or sometimes "Heineken green"-- is the third most common color in sea glass collecting.

Although quite a common color, it is actually also fairly "new", when it comes to collecting sea glass. Green, as a color for sea glass collecting, comes in a great many different shades some of which can be extremely rare. Most sea glass experts and collectors limit the "distinct and named" shades to about 6-7, but I have identified close to 30 distinct (repeating) shades of green in my own collection.

If you examine antique (100+ years old) green glass , you'll find that most of it comes either in very bluish or olive green shades. The "pure" kelly green we typically find on beaches today has mostly been mass produced during the past 60-70 years, most often for beer and soda bottles-- it is more common in some countries than others.

To see more pictures of green sea glass, please visit my Green Sea Glass Photo Album on Flickr!