I posted a story today on TDS about a free set of film profiles from VSCO. They allow Lightroom users to apply the look of TRI-X and Kodak Gold 100 emulsions to their digital images.

Just minutes after going live, a tweet came my way stating, "Why not just shoot the real thing if you want the look of film? Lots of us still do!"

OK, fair enough. But I actually have my reasons.

In my own twisted, making obscure connections way of thinking, I thought this was a perfect topic for Earth Day. Because one of my greatest concerns as a film shooter was dealing with those nasty chemicals that eventually found their way into our sewer systems, or even worse, our ground water.

Even as a teenager working on the school newspaper, I had concerns about those chemicals - which was interesting, because I rarely cared about much outside of my own sphere in those days. Of course I know there's proper handling guidelines for photographic chemicals. But I also realize that not everyone follows them.

Yes, I love film. But I like digital even more. It's faster, cleaner, and more versatile. My computer is a laptop that manages energy quite efficiently. And the gear that I'm not using, I sell to others so it doesn't go to waste - and that includes me buying used equipment too.

I know I'm not the greenest person on the planet - far from it. But I do try to conserve water, fuel, and electricity. And I don't like careless pollution. And even though I love the look of film, I make no apologies for using lines of code to produce my images instead of celluloid, D-76, and rapid fixer.

So, hello planet earth from this digital photographer. I'm thrilled you survived another year, despite our callous efforts. And I promise...

I'll try to do even better moving forward.

-Derrick