Rushing to every latest thing.

As the title suggests,this is an effort to probe why,as photographers, we seem to always be rushing after every new thing that comes along,rather than concentrating on what we know is successful. Not, that I am against having an open mind and trying new things, far from it, but lately it seems that a large number of us appear to have lost our focus and are drifting,so to speak, on an ocean of unproven and often unlikely ideas and business approaches. Take for example, the posting of images on such sites as Flicker, or Facebook. These sites are totally unsecure and they are notorious for image theft and other forms of plagiarism and abuse. Most recently, a family in the United States found that their family Christmas photo was being used in Europe as an in-store advertisement! When contacted about it, the shop owner did agree to remove it and apologized,but claimed that as it was on the internet,it was free to use. It is hard enough to protect one's images, on a secure web site,let alone on a public one. How any sane photographer could consider placing valuable images in the public domain, simply baffles me. In their defence, of doing so, most of them claim that it drives business to their own sites and so is worth the risk and even the loss of some images,which to me is bizarre. These same photographers will rant on about copyright infringement and yet will turn a blind eye to leaving the door wide open to just that, why? Even watermarking or applying copyright notices to your photos is of no avail really, as these things mean little to the thieves and even less to most people who,quite often, have seldom if ever, heard of either one. In fact, most people look at them as seriously annoying obstructions to their viewing of the photos. Even worse, some believe that they have a right to use anything they like,however they like, as shown by a recent article I read about someone who stole several images from a photographer's site and was using them to advertise their business,on the web. When the photographer discovered this and blocked the use of the images,prior, I hope, to suing the idiot, the business owner threatened to sue the photographer if they did not immediately return access to the images! Clearly, the entire internet thing is getting out of hand.

But apart from things of this sort, there are now, amongst us, those who are jumping on another new trend, video imaging. Now as the printed newspaper fades into the internet version, more and more photojournalists are being asked to shoot digital video instead of stills,so that the web version of the paper can be animated while the print version will use a frame grab instead of a still image. This may make some sense for this application,although the result will not have the same quality,it will be good enough for a newspaper. A term, by the way,that drives me crazy. Nothing should ever be just,"good enough"! But getting back to my point,professional video is a field unto itself and justifiable so. It takes years to become an accomplished videographer and it is a field that has little in common with stills. Several camera manufacturers, have started to bring out models that have a video capability. A video capability is not a video camera. Professional video equipment is far more sophisticated than still cameras and hugely expensive,just ask any true videographer. The editing equipment and all the subsequent support equipment is also pricey and the learning curve is steep.

So,why, would a still photographer ever need to venture into another professionals realm? Well, if you are a wedding photographer, video is very important these days. However, in most cases, it is not the video quality of television and Hollywood we are seeing here,but rather something between that and uncle Joe's home video camera. But more importantly, the still images sold to the happy couple are not frame grabs as far as I understand, but regular DSLR or even FSLR prints. As mentioned, if you are a newspaper shooter, they want video images, but otherwise, I see no reason to deal in video.

I still believe that there is a very strong market for and a very prominent role, for the still photograph in todays world. I even believe that there is a strong role still to be played by film today. There is an old adage, "Jack of all trades master of none", it is as true today as when it was first coined. Do what you do, to the very best of your ability and remain focused. By all means stay abreast of your changing world,but you can only wear one hat at a time and still be taken seriously. There is a place for innovation and diversification and there is a place for solid expertise and acknowledged excellence. Don't confuse the two.