I remember myself in the seventies developing a vast last piece of expired photo paper in the bathtub, previously exposed for several minutes in the opposite wall of the living room.
Self composed chemicals, Ilford b&w by the meter, endless discussions, lack of sources, rushing youth, ambitions, mistakes, foggy future… and then, for unspecified reasons photography was gone.
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I have reasons to believe that many of you out there (I mean not yet in the front page as I was recently for several months) fit somehow in this frame already described; I have been around a topic about the ages of the members of 1x recently.
Remember my friends that photography is like riding a bicycle; cannot be forgotten! Insist on your passionate side of your life endeavouring creativity, self evolving, maturing and so preserving youth and freshness.

The game of chasing “power” and “money” derives from instincts. Seeking for “glory” has to do mostly with culture. Be sure you are on the right side. Keep on and you will be compensated (in a way or another)!

Good shooting, you have my regards
Stergios

I remember the first time, as a teenager in the mid-70's, I stood over a set of trays watching a crappy and over-exposed photo I'd taken of my bike loom out of the developer before I was told to drop it into the stop-bath en-route to the fixer. That was one ugly photo but it was the start of a journey that took me, a few years later, to the point of almost giving up my fledgling career in insurance to go full-time into weddings and portraits. I didn't, though, as I was planning to wed and regular 'guaranteed' income was the order of the day. That and the fact that I hated the process-driven monotony of wedding shoots.

For a while after being married I gave up photography. Well, the cameras had gone to part-fund a deposit on a house and my priorities were different. I never stopped looking at things as if they had a 35mm viewfinder round them, though. Even now, rapidly approaching the final year of my 40's, I can't help wondering what would have happened had I 'gone for it' all those years ago. I don't really regret it. These days, everyone with a digital camera is a wedding photographer and the real 'professionals' are struggling against a tsunami of inexperienced snappers wielding over-specified and too user-friendly digital imaging machines that the bride and groom won't know are inferior as they've never seen a properly composed, exposed and printed image in their short lives.

What price quality over convenience? Was it always like this? Is it just me or is the perceived 'democritisation' of photography through the digital medium just a sham? A way to sell units and stimulate an ailing industry? Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of everyone having a camera but camera companies, photo magazines and, dare I say it, even some web sites seem hell-bent on convincing Mr Average that he's the next Ansel Adams if only he can learn how to use 'layers' and 'masking'.

Paul, I very much understand your mixed feelings about photography as being some kind of a 'first love' never forgotten neither fulfilled.

Continuing your thoughts let me think about average quality that is dominating photography (as well as era)... The fact is market-driven, we can easily see that. I think that the bet is to add our value in order to set the quality level higher, at least for our personal traces.

And even further, to preserve our diversity over the occurring globalised mediocrity. Globalisation is like Janus, the ancient Roman god, it has two faces. By the time being we are likely experiencing the one face. But the other is still there... we are sharing our thoughts, you see?

And we continue to click the shutter, well... in a different way. Ok, let's take advantage of what we have in hands

Wowww ... i just came from my bathroom from develop 4 sheets of 4x5" Kodak Tri-X Pan 320 ... :)))