The 36-Frame Discipline

When photographers shot film, a roll of 36 frames was a unit of work. You loaded it, you shot it, you finished it. There was no reviewing between frames. No deleting. No safety-netting. You made 36 decisions and you lived with them.

Digital photography removed the constraint and replaced it with infinite shots. This sounds like an improvement. In some ways it is. But the removal of consequence also removed the discipline that consequence creates. When every frame is free, frames become cheap. You fire off ten shots of the same moment instead of waiting for the right one.