Quanta

"Energy comes in discreet units called quanta."  Who knew?  Physicists, linguists and others smarter than I know this, but I discovered it through a dictionary check.   I'd been thinking that a 'quantum leap' had occurred in photography because I am faced with a real dilemma:  I still have many valuable 35 mm negatives I've never managed to process and print!  Searching out the means and methods is possible, but will involve costly expenditures of time and money.  And the several 35mm cameras and lenses I still have? In a digital age, they are definitely not state of the art tools!


But what about the quantum leap thing?  My brief dictionary research suggested I'd be using the term correctly if I described the jump from 35mm to digital as a quantum leap.  Maybe it is obvious, but I wanted to be sure.  The definition said that "quantum is a specified amount or portion" and,  giving an example of this noun, said "an example of quantum is 12 sheep."  Hmmmmm.  This was a curious and surprising example because 10-12 sheep were actually a quantum  in my past for at least one summer.


Nevertheless, my past keeps imploding on my present, usually and thankfully in a good way. For example, in recent weeks I was  recalling  some timeless snippets of wisdom learned as an undergraduate in the fine arts department at UCLA.  And I also learned that a young relative has applied to the Art Institute  in Minneapolis and is hopefully anticipating acceptance there.  I do know a lot about that hopeful anticipation.  And in that kind of moment, none of us know all that we will learn! Nor even the importance of making a daily effort (as Yo Yo Ma said of himself) to go toward what we do not understand.  


So what timeless pieces of wisdom have become precious to me?  Undoubtedly, my young relative will learn some of them on her journey, but here are a few of mine:  in performance art, the instructor (an artist then known for wildly creative and controversial work)  highlighted the importance of having a beginning, middle and end for the piece.  Otherwise the audience will be confused. In painting, one tactfully kind and able instructor encouraged me to take a risk when i was stalled and afraid of ruining a work.  Another color and shape did make it better!  And the arrogantly condescending painting instructor full of conceit in his new status? I surprised myself and him with my best, most creative work!  Art history? That mountain of research for my first paper nearly buried me, but I also followed the instructor's advice and went to experience in person the cultural phenomena of the Pasadena Rose Parade.  He had likened it to other cultural displays in Africa, Oceania and Native America, which placed it in a wider context than I would have.  Sculpture studio?  I liked working big and I liked working with wood.  Railroad ties were out of the question because of space issues, so I made a box with rope handles and a separate lid.  Tongue and grooved cedar fencing served me well, and the box was mostly doweled together.  Inside the box, the roughness of the boards made a nice contrast to their smooth  exterior.  And my box was certainly an attention getter, provoking curiosity, disbelief and questions because it was, after all, a coffin-box!  And it was fun explaining all the what's and why's of it.


But getting back to the photography quantum leap issue.  Coursework in photography was my main focus as an undergraduate.  Elective courses in the film department really blew me away, and learning about the intentional visual work with cameras and lighting, demonstrated in fascinating lectures, was just part of the pleasure; studying Hitchcock films and having them as homework was another plus!   But, even more than films, the many possibilities of fine art photography intrigued me.  Encouraged to shoot lots of photos, selecting the best, printing them full-frame or manipulating them in the darkroom, and being critiqued in class: it was all part of learning.  And then an instructor, quite renowned for his work, taught me about the many shades of gray in black and white photography.  A breakthrough came, the grade of photo papers I used expanded and voila! the negatives had entirely new possibilities!  And my eyes learned to see more and better.


So that quantum leap from 35mm to digital matters to me.  And because i know there are still possibilities for processing and printing my black and white (as well as color) negatives, even if the leap is sort of backwards, the quantum of solace (my dictionary research included some light on that James Bond title)  regarding my negatives will NOT be zero.