I understand your friend. Many years ago now, I made my own camera. I had some walnut around and built a 4X5 with a long bellows and lots of shift, tilt, backboard tilt, etc. I would pick up my camera and feel the wood in my hand and it set the mood for my photography. I would travel where ever and look for photo opportunities. I would make a mental list of them and try to guess the best light direction and time of day. Then the next day or 2, I would check them out at the proper times. After 2 or 3 days at a place, I was ready to take a photo. I loved that part. Set up the camera. Then crawl under the cloth with a loupe and adjust the camera. I would do the shift for the proper prospective. Adjust the tilt for perfect focus over the entire image. This would take 1/2 hour unless there were people there. Then I would put on a show.
. Finally when all was done, I would set and smoke my pipe waiting for the light. As the sun got in position, I would open the cooler get out the film and load it into the camera. Then at the right time. I would release the shutter. Put hte exposed film back in the camera and pack everything up. It was a labor of love that included much thought and consideration. I had to sell that camera. Now I have a digital camera and I push a button once or twice a day to take a photo for PaD. There is not the heart and feeling anymore.
But digital photography and sharing photos over the internet is not about art. It is about community. About the sharing pieces of your life with others. And learning about their life from their photos. Photos are intimate in they are what a person considers important enough to take and post. So you learn about a person very intimately through their photos. It is a form of communication. The day to day life makes good subjects as it lets other people see a little of your world. Historians look for the day to day photos to see how life was in the past century. The art photos are of little use to them. And it is the same here. The WOW photos are nice. But the ones showing a child, a pet, the drive to work, a meal, and all the other scenes from daily life are the ones that say the most. The tell people who you are. They enlarge your circle of friends and people who know the real you. Not what you do or what you look like, but who you really are and what your world is like. This is the greatness of digital photography in that is makes the world a smaller place and lets people from great physical distance all be a part of the same community. PaD is a concentrated form of this. The heart is not in taking the photo, but in it being seen. The heart is the wonderful people here who share their successes, pains, joys, boredom, etc. And that is where it should be - in the people. And for me, that is all the inspiration I need.
Demmy