OK, I'll bite - apart from imposing discipline on choosing your shot, and more human control over the process if you develop at home, what are the benefits of film over digital? My working assumption is that if you start with RAW format from any decent sensor, and comparable lenses, you can produce anything you could produce by choice of film, development process or similar - but perhaps I'm wrong!
Oh, if you've got a good printer (and ink for it!!!) then, yes, use them (especially if someone else is paying for it) - but I've pretty much given up on home colour printing these days - the ink is too expensive, and and runs out too fast. And the online equivalents are I suspect cheaper than home printing if you add all the costs in, and often better quality.
Getting high quality digital prints from digital photos is amazingly cheap these days (for example, I use https://www.photobox.co.uk/photo-printing/photo-prints-6x4 ) Which is also cheaper than professionally developed film - though you should avoid the temptation of photobooks, canvas prints, and so forth except in special circumstances.
So, get into good habits of quickly discarding bad shots (e.g. out of focus), and the worst versions when you have taken multiple shots of the same thing - either in pauses in your photography (avoid chimping) or when you get back home. Then do a round of basic cropping and any lighting adjustments. Perhaps add keywords or star ratings to the photos if that's your thing. Then consider what is worth printing, and what just kept digitally. Also purge functional shots (such as the pill photos of the video) when no longer useful.
I think with good habits, you'll spend less time on drudgery than film photography (whether you develop it professionally or yourself), you'll have moments of admiring your work as you do so (I hope!) and have better results at the end of it all.
Film photography can serve as a useful discipline in thinking about your craft, or be more rewarding as an act of creation, but it won't save you time or effort.
Out of interest, does he ever address the irony of using a youtube video (i.e. digital photography) - that in passing i found too long (i.e. too much digital content, completing the irony) to complete watching - to praise film photography?
Corvid, yes, Crow no.
If it helps, same bird from the side:
It's too hot and dry here, so most birds are in hiding. A few jackdaws were pecking around, and I rather liked this shot - I've not noticed iridescence on them before (only on some of their fellow corvids).
Prospect Park, Reading, UK circa 28 degrees C at 9am and getting hotter (OK, some of you have it much worse)
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800.
Most methods will be in effect optical or digital zoom in's so losing the material at the current edges.
I've never had one, but a fisheye lens might do what you want (expand the centre, contract the edges, but keep everything). I expect cleverer photo manipulation suites can do the same - however it will almost certainly look unnatural!
I saw no other Mandarin ducks of either species on my walk, so I'm guessing this cutie was off exploring new pastures.
River Thames, Tilehurst, Reading. Canon R5 + RF200-800
And a close up:
You're finding wisdom - have you yet reached the truth that the only true measure of whether your photo is good is that you like it, not the opinion of others? (dammit, there's a famous little book I want to quote and I've forgotten the title/where my copy is).
In your chain of reasoning, you missed the galaxy of things that occur between what your camera sensor captures (perhaps best reflected in the RAW format version), and the JPG image you eventually view. The whole luminance curve thing involves so much choice by you, your camera or your software. And then there's all the default sharpening and moiré correction and so forth that is applied without asking (unless you override it).
It also looks like you've understood at least some when B&W is worth using!
Tried quite hard to get a good crow photo for you, but my skills weren't up to it today, so this is as good as it got:
Now if you were posting from the UK that's from a selection of only eight (ignoring a vagrant), and at least two more of those are not seen in Reading (and I've only knowingly seen a Raven once here).
But still, what are your top two favourites?
Bit of iridescence, I liked the contrast with the weeds, and a lack of anything better in todays crop of photos...
Prospect Park, Reading, UK
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800
Deep green jealousy!
More posted as I was pleased to see anything the least unusual today at all (too hot even at 9am) rather than them being great shots. Can't expect much shooting from under an old conifer with bright sunlight on the far side (so +1 2/3 exposure modification).
Canon R5MkII + RF200-800
Rather overcast this morning, for all we're told we're about to have a massive heatwave... anyway, always happy to see a Nuthatch in Prospect Park, UK, even if they like the shade. Ring-necked Parakeets are escapes/introductions that have managed to survive and thrive in the wild in parts of the UK - but are seen as destructive & noisy.
Canon R5MkII + RF200-800
European Jay, Prospect Park, Reading, UK
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800
And I'm not kidding about shooting from the hip. I was sitting on a bench having a coffee break, and this bird hoped onto the branch maybe 3 yards away. Jays are shy birds at the best of times, and there was no way this one would tolerate bringing the camera to the eye that close. So I left it at 200mm, pointed it as best I might with as little movement as possible and snapped blind. So, in the circumstances, even if the twig in front of the Jay was the point of focus, I'm pleased with the result!
The Jay then flew a little further into the trees - so I got in theory a better shot, at full focal length, but alas in the shade:
... have this lot head towards you ... happily passing to my right but way too close - only a couple of yards, if that.
First time I've seen a (presumably) honey bee swarm on the move, and I've no idea what prompted them. The photos on the left are blown up segments of those on the right.
Prospect Park, Reading, UK
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800 (at 200mm in this case)
First onto a submerged stick and then onto a closer sawn off branch - very kind.
What struck me was the depth of yellow in the plumage - I'd normally expect paler.
Kennet Canal, nr. Reading
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800
Kennet Canal, nr. Reading UK
Just pleased to catch the sequence at all
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800, 1/1000s
In a cloudy Reading, UK
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800
(Technically, it's a crest that they sometimes raise, but since this one was just after berries or buds, it had no obvious reason to)
Having found an event in the park I thought was just yesterday actually covered today as well, I didn't expect to see any birds - instead I saw more than I've seen on several recent visits! This was taken on a dull day in the shade, resulting in an ISO12800 shot at 1/1000s, so I'm particularly pleased it turned out OK.
Canon R5 MkII + RF200-800
The mother had already disappeared behind vegetation by the time my camera was pointing ...
Reading, UK
Canon R6 MkII + RF200-800
Uh-huh, and the significant technical differences between those are?
(Hint: a digital video is a sequence of digital photos, usually with digital compression taking advantage of limited changes between adjacent photos, but mostly the same principles as, say, RAW to JPG compression)