Green mentality is taking over, at least at the personal level. Everyone I know favors products packaged in recyclable materials, buys energy-saving electric bulbs and rechargeable batteries, tells ConEdison to switch them to an alternative energy supplier, etc.
I am proud to say that I created paperless work environment for myself five years ago. It took some effort to get into the habit of charting down those notes-to-self on the computer screen instead of paper and saving digital copies of magazine articles, but it was totally worth it: I can always find them. My aspiration was an efficient work environment but, as a side effect, I reduced my carbon footprint too.
This is a logical chain: by being more efficient, you waste less and become greener. Technology makes us more efficient, so technology can make us less wasteful, especially digital technology.
I realize that by saying this I make a lot of enemies among the defenders of analog photography, and you would think that quite familiar with digital post production.
Digital is more efficient, it’s a fact. You can shoot thousands of pictures with no additional expense and then weed out the bad ones, view them on your computer screen in full format without printing and have them retouched right away by yourself or through online service like PhotoHand’s service;-) No emulsion or chemistry, no scanners, enlargers, timers and darkroom supplies, no transporting. You are not only saving your time – you are saving the environment.
Online proofing is another way to save on time, expenses and environmentally. Instead of 400 cheap prints that poorly represent your work, post your photos on the Web in a FREE online storage. Your clients would be able to review the proofs and give you directions before you have invested in post-production. I usually recommend our photographer clients to check out MediaFire.com that offers unlimited storage with up to 100MB per file and image galleries for free. If you know of a comparable service, let us know and we’ll spread the word for the good cause.
