Finding the "God" particle

I have had a cold for the last two days and, as usual, I get philosophical when put down for a few.

So forgive this Socratic rambling, but I think I am going somewhere with this one.

An acquaintence of mine across the "Big Muddy" in England wrote and asked my advice about film/developer/film speed combinations and, while I was flattered it got me to thinking about several issues in this photography business.

The actual difference between film and digital, convenience aside, is not quite as dramatic as we might all think. Whether or not film is dead is an argument still ongoing, but the truth is that we really still boil images down to how much information can be captured on pieces of film grain (read, pixels). The tighter the grain, the more capable film is to enlarge...to a point. That point, like all things photographic has a trade off. Usually, the finer the grain, the less acutance and the shorter toe and shoulder. In other words, the ability of film to record delicate nuances of tone diminishes in proportion to the fineness (and amount) of the grain.

The same holds true for digital. The more pixels we cram into a sensor, the higher the ability to enlarge. But, with the law of diminishing returns, the larger the pixels the more information can be recorded. That is why larger sensors (like the Phase One, Leica and Mamiya) can get better detail and color rendition. The pixels are larger and can record more information.

In the mid life crisis of film, back in the 60's, we were pushing the limits of 35mm enlargement capability with ASA (remember that term now replaced by ISO?) numbers of 10 and 15 and several companies were touting super duper developers that did indeed allow huge enlargements. But, the law of diminishing return reared its head again and the tonal scale was terrible no matter how hard we tried to compensate.

Today we face the same mid life crisis in digital, albeit a bit faster. In less than 10 years digital has overtaken film, but the mid life crisis is hitting hard. Back in the day, you could shoot your Nikon, Canon, Leica forever, only changing film and developer combinations for a few pennies.

Today, to do that digitally means trading in a car! (Somebody give us affordable interchangeable backs for our DSLR's at a cost that won't require a down payment on a house.)

But, be that as it is, gravity still works here in San Diego the same as it does in NYC. And I think the reason that pinhole photography has seen such a resurgence is the "God" particle. We can't quantify it, but we can enjoy it.

When the $30 billion dollar CERN atom smasher was fired up in Switzerland earlier this year, it was because the numbers, the mathematics, the laws that explain the Universe don't really explain the Universe anymore. In face, 96% of the Universe is missing!

Now, I don't pretend to understand that, but a physicist friend of mine explained it to me. After he watched my eyes glaze over, he put it this way; "The numbers don't match." Damn. That was easy.

But, when they fired up the CERN to find and/or create the "God" particle something went wrong. My suspicion, being the suspicious type, is that they realized they wouldn't discover the particle anymore than they would discover God in a particle accelerator. We will never discover the perfect film/sensor either, but pinhole comes close to it all.

Pinhole satisfies my creative eye, captures things my eye can only guess at and makes my world a bit simpler.

Here in San Diego we have seasons named by psychoses; May gray, June Gloom, etc. My favorite is surf and turf at Del Mar race track but that's another story. So, a bit prematurely for May gray, I shot the above photo on my Zero 2000 in a fog (no not me, the weather). I shot, as usual on Fuji Superia at ISO 100. The exposure was about 8 seconds from the Oceanside Pier. The photograph reminds me that, in the words of Father Oocham, "When all things are considered, the simple answer is usually the solution."

The result is pleasing and sort of reminds me that we are all God particles moving ephemeral on the crust of this big blue marble.