I've probably mentioned at some point that I'm a big fan of Joel Meyerowitz's photographs. Back in...um...1979, his book "Cape Light" came out. I'd never heard of him before, but that book just knocked me over then, and it still does today. The photographs are amazing. Since I'm a lousy critic, I'm not going to wax all poetic about it but, trust me, if you haven't seen it, you really should. I just bought two more copies (I'm planning to give one away. The other one...well...I don't know. Wrap it in plastic and keep it for posterity beside the copy I bought in 1979?)

What's brought Mr. Meyerowitz up, again, is this documentary from 1981. The conversion to digital leaves a bit (O.K., a lot) to be desired, but it's definitely got its fascinating moments. Meyerowitz was originally a street photographer, beginning, as tradition dictated, with black and white, then moving to colour. He then took the, to put it mildly, gigantic leap from working in 35 mm (with a Leica, of course) to working with an 8x10 view camera...in the same style! In colour, still. The documentary is something photographers who've only worked with digital should really watch. White balance? How about taking your photograph (a nine second exposure), then sitting down and making notes (you know - pen, paper, writing?) describing the colours of the various elements of your photograph, so that you could then reproduce, as accurately as possible, those colours when you actually print (in a darkroom) the negative you just made? Does that put things in perspective, at least a little?