Ugh. Yeah. I finally decided to let all my film stuff go - darkroom, camera, lights - and it turns out none of it had any value any more. My Nikon and lenses aren't worth the paper box they are in. Can't even give them away. It's hard leaving a fun hobby/side hustle behind, but if it is technology-based, you gotta keep up with the times. And that takes work. And I don't want my hobby to be work. On the other hand, I saw some quote-over-a-photo on Facebook that said something like, "You don't have to be good to enjoy making art. So just make art that makes you happy. You are not a product in competition with other artists... you are doing it for yourself. If it makes you happy, fuck it. Just do it." Or something like that. It's honestly why I still have all these guitars and synths. Am I ever going to write/finish a song? No. But I love playing with this stuff in my music room. So I'm going to keep it all forever! :-)
on darkroom shit I gave my Nikon F5 to my mother pretty much as punishment. Her piece of shit ME super cacked out and she asked for a camera so I got her one NO ONE could use. Primarily because I had a $2800 Nikon F5 that I couldn't give away for $150 because film sucks. I went to an asset management course in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five where the guy running it said "let's face it - at this point film is an alternative process." He wasn't wrong. It'd be another few years before all the hipsters and their tedious low-fi bullshit showed up but it was the point where who cares. My phone is higher resolution than my Canon. I'll replace it one of these days because (1) it's fun (2) I'm good at it but right now everyone is debating the death of mirrors and despite both Nikon and Canon swearing they'd never change their lens mounts they've both done it twice since then and I don't need to spend the money now. But I mean... I remember when you had to bathe your film in toxic gas for an hour to get it to respond well enough for astrophotography and now? That thing in your pocket is basically a neutrino detector with a phone number. I bought increasingly better gear because the limiting factor on my enjoyment was the gear. It's why I've never bought a Sony despite the fact that Alphas rip ass from an imaging standpoint - they suck to work with. I bought an Eos 5D because it was the only full-frame you could get for less than $8k but that's no longer true. You can rent. Figure out what you like. Figure out how you want to do it and then decide what it's worth to you. I'm halfway to going back to a Samsung phone 'cuz it was a better camera than my iPhone is."You don't have to be good to enjoy making art. So just make art that makes you happy. You are not a product in competition with other artists... you are doing it for yourself. If it makes you happy, fuck it. Just do it."