Shooting Simple - Jpeg instead of RAW

This should be a dead beaten horse but it isn't. The argument resurfaced in a couple of forums because of the demise of Apple's 'Aperture'.

So people started to compare alternatives in RAW development, and I mentioned that I didn't use RAW anymore. God forbid!

So they  whined that I didn't know the advantages, the extended Dynamic Range, the prodigies at high ISO.

I countered by saying that respected reviewers like Pekka Potka had proved that there wasn't 1/3 of a stop difference between RAW and Jpeg in the new Olympus' 16 Mpx sensor, mostly due to Olympus' v. good in camera processing.

Then one of them said: you shoot Jpeg because you shoot simple pictures, making me feel like a dimwit.

Another had the kindness to say that I did mere snaps, and voyeuristic ones at that. Point taken, I share the dubious honour with Tichy.

 However I am used to shoot slides since I was an active freelancer, and hence to set the camera on the field. No wish to correct and fiddle in RAW after the fact. With a mirrorless I can actually see what I am doing in the EVF: for instance I can change to B&W and see how tones fit the scene. Priceless!

 Since Olympus is so good with Jepgs I mostly archive my shots on flickr, and I don't need to upload  files 5 times as large. It would be a terrible waste of time - for what?

Giulio Sciorio is with me here, and I value him: 

http://discovermirrorless.com/hybrid-photography/top-5-reasons-why-i-shoot-jpeg-over-raw/

The Phoblographer has also some good motivations:

http://www.thephoblographer.com/2014/07/26/getting-rite-camera-important-now-ever/#.U9cLuSj9Lao

BTW I am not anymore a paying slave to Adobe, and that's no mean advantage.

Let's get to the second part: yes I shoot simple, realistic things, even tasteless like the following. It's my antidote to the tics of postmodern photography, which is really a re-photography, overprocessing, mediocre surreal stuff, which has little to do with the original Surrealism and its social concerns.

So having to go to hospital for a series of heart checks I decided to act my old reporter self, and with my toy E-PM1 to document just that. One doesn't think of hospitals as photographic matter, and for a reason. If I had been caught at that, with the Privacy Panic running high in Italian Hospitals, I would have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. 

Instead I succeded to take a few pictures, that I show below. They are nothing to rave about but they are important for me. I think one of those I shot on oxygen died, just one day later. Another had ruined his liver by drinking and his mother was desperate to convince him to stop. I couldn't document the fear of new viruses spreading in the emergency ward among the nurses. Next time.

There is a lot to learn in a large hospital, and mine were the first hesitant steps in an emergency ward. I add an old lady waiting at the dentist to lighten up. Yes I shoot simple things, and after reading about postmodern photography you'll understand that I do that by choice, and not only by accident. I soon hope to have here another photog. dealing with simple things :)

This appeared to me as 'The Entry to the Valley of Death', but it was just a fantasy.

The aged must be part of photography. In many affluent countries we are the majority :)

Note:

I have affixed a Flag Counter, both for fun and feedback. Unfortunately some flags of the most faithful won't come up, like Russia or Turkey. I am very sorry about that.

 By clicking on the App, however you can get your own Flag Counter, and verify if your country comes up. I have no way of setting it differently, and determine the countries that will appear.

Perhaps it's an IP matter? See here what Flag Central says.