The digital camera is one of the most economical ways to take pictures. Most digital cameras come with an LCD display on the back of the camera. The complaint about these LCD display features is that they eat up battery time. The praise is that when a person takes a picture that, for one reason or other does not work, the offending photo can be deleted on the spot as if it never existed. Then the photo can be redone or corrected as the artist determines. In a regular 35 MM camera that photo would have had to have been developed, costing the person more money on top of the film. THEN the photo would have been discarded - even lost if the person did not know the photo that was snapped was unacceptable. Sometimes you get a 'feeling' that a photo did not work, but often you have to wait until it is too late to re-do it. This way - also - you can choose what you want to print. You can also use your own photos for your computer wallpaper.
Thinking about this, a digital camera is one of the BEST ways to learn to take pictures. The photos are downloaded on your computer and the composition can be analyzed and improvements suggested. All of this done without having to step foot into the local 1 hour film developer. The student and the teacher can view the photos together and discuss the composition even during the lesson if they want. My dad taught me the basics, and working on the computer together would have been a great way to sharpen my skills. He even sometimes says my pictures are better than his :).
I take my digital camera and my lap top with me on vacation. The last time we went to Big Bend, my digital camera was in the shop. The film I took cost me well over $100 to have developed. I also felt very slighted in the number of pictures I took. I have about 40 mgs of cards to take pics on with my camera. I have ten cards at 4 mgs each. My camera is a Minolta Dimage V, a little older and the largest card I can get is 4 mgs. I just under load all the cards each night and delete those that looked ok on the LCD screen. The only thing that really 'costs' me is lugging this stuff in and out of the truck into the hotel rooms. I like driving vacations through lots of scenery. Taking a lot of digital pictures is a way to "take my students with me." I would think about what ways I can use the photos I take on my vacation in my classroom. If nothing else, in the past they have had a personal connection to the pictures, knowing that I had taken them.
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