Lightning's Last Dance

While I haven't been overly vocal, at least publicly, in the ongoing debate about the merits of newspaper multimedia, and specifically video as a tool for photojournalists, I have been consistent about one point.

The opportunity for photojournalists to step up and accept a greater role in our newsrooms, as journalists - storytellers, has never been greater.

For years many of us have struggled to be accepted as journalists and have fought against the "just a photographer" label. Many newspapers today, more than ever, seem more willing to give photojournalists time to work on stories because the new potential home for our works - the web - has limitless space, and papers are motivated to fill that space with content. The discussion about the quality of work we provide, and/or papers demand, and in turn the resources they are willing to commit to these efforts I'll save for another day.

Enough said.

My latest story, which was shot primarily in video, with some stills - I also wrote the story - was posted yesterday on theglobeandmail.com and ran on the GlobeAuto front, and inside on page five.


Much of my work in recent years has tended to be documentaries about social issues, but I felt I needed a break from the norm and thought I would try my hand at something completely different. Perhaps not completely, since it still deals with overcoming challenges, but it is certainly a "lighter" story than most people are used to seeing from me lately.

The two parts of the multimedia story, each a little over five minutes long, tell the story of a low-budget stock car team competing in the Nascar Canadian Tire Series.

Finally, a word about luck. This entire story seemed to be lucky for me, despite being about a #13 car. Many aspects of the story just fell into place, and then there was simply the odd "lucky" moment.

I was once told, and I firmly believe, that photographers make our own luck. We anticipate something happening, prepare properly, and if our instincts are correct we are rewarded with the image we'd hoped for - or better. You'll see what I mean if you watch Part 2 to the end.

Struggling......

It is mid-May and I've been struggling with the idea that I have yet to make any "memorable" photographs in 2008.

Contest season has come and gone, the winter snows have all melted, and by now I would normally have a few images filed that have stood out in my conscience. The fact that I can't think of any as I write this tells me to think otherwise.

Like many of my colleagues, my energies lately have been on producing multimedia; mostly video stories. The problem is, that the times I feel I am producing work for the newspaper seems to be the exception and not the rule. And even then, the assignments seem to read, "will need a video for the web, and some stills for the paper." Then of course there are the issues of when to do what?

It seems that everybody is so focussed on the "future of newspapers" and "where the industry is going" that the newspaper itself threatens to become an afterthought because of our very own efforts to the contrary.

I've been hot and cold on video for some time, but I think I'm starting to enter another "cold" period. That's not to say that I'm feeling any less enthusiastic about multimedia, but that I'm debating the pros and cons of doing multimedia with video or stills and audio.

Newspaper managers want multimedia because that's where everybody perceives the future lays. That's fair. But I honestly don't think that the multimedia we provide them needs to be video. It's exactly the same as when editors used to ask for the cheesy images of Christmas shopping, and we as photographers would do our best to give them anything but. They didn't care in the end as long as they had something for their pages, and we were happy because we were able to get real quality images into the paper instead of the old standard.

Times haven't changed that much. If our managers want multimedia, then we are certainly qualified to give it to them. But I think the choice does, and should, remain with us, how best to present our work. It should still be part of a visual journalist's job to determine which methods will best communicate the story.

The struggle now is to continue to produce great stories, while still being able to feed the beast which has an ever increasing appetite for our work. Everybody wants a part of the multimedia buffet, and who can blame them, but now the reality has to be driven home that more and more work requires greater resources. Without these resources the very quality of the multimedia which has given us early success will suffer, and we will no longer be able to maintain the standards to which we have so stubbornly held.

I hope that as we move forward in our industry, we will remain able to make quality decisions on a story-by-story basis of how to best visually present our work. I think in the end every story will be strongest if told using the most fitting techniques for that story. But as is historically the case, with this visual battle, I fear we will find ourselves fighting with managers and editors who are of a different opinion.

Years of experience have shown me that it is easier to make convincing arguments without any words at all. Do the work, do it well, and the strength of your stories will do the speaking for you. I think that when our direction changes, and the budgets begin to sag, the evidence will be more than apparent to everyone. Let's just hope that doesn't have to happen anytime soon.

Walker's Story

It has been an exhausting couple of months working closely with award-winning Globe and Mail writer Ian Brown, the extremely talented Assistant Photo Editor Jayson Taylor, and the super-creative web guru Chris Manza on a touching and honest story about Ian's 11-year old son Walker who was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder. Designer David Woodside, who was patient, thoughtful, and always willing to consider my thoughts designed the 7-page layout for The Globe and Mail, and David Pratt engineered the unbelievably effective A1 treatment. These guys have been great to work with! My thanks to them and many, many others have worked hard to present this story in the newspaper as well as online. Their unprecedented level of dedication, and cooperation at every level must be appreciated. Thanks to my boss, Deputy Managing Editor Photography, Moe Doiron for being the sensible quarterback throughout this entire process!

Today's is the first installment of the story which will continue over the next two Saturdays. Follow the link below to experience the story as it is presented on globeandmail.com.



There is also now a link to the collection of six videos only.

Juggling with a new skill set

I knew that getting into multimedia presentations of my work was going to be a challenge, and this has certainly been the case.

Figuring out how to use a recorder and incorporate sound into a slideshow was a big enough challenge. I had barely gotten my feet wet with Soundslides, and then came video.

Every day there is something new to learn, and new challenges to overcome.It would be so wrong to say that still photography has become boring, or that I no longer have anything to learn. Or that still photography isn't incredibly strong on its own for that matter! The reason people continue to improve at what they do is to continually strive to improve their various skills, and to learn new ones. To adapt to a changing world.

But by accepting the challenges that multimedia presents, I have an entirely new set of skills to challenge myself. My hope is to take my style of shooting and learn to do similar with a different type of camera.

Admittedly, I have begun to work with video sooner than I expected I would. Perhaps too soon. The elements that make up great multimedia presentations are great visuals(video or still), exceptional sound(voice or ambient), and knowledgeable editing and producing. I knew getting into simple shows with sound and stills combined there would be challenges, and I soon learned that although there is great potential in these shows, the new audio component is what will make, or break them.

AS things progressed at a torrid pace, I felt that the best way to combine the shooting of good images with the collection of good sound, was to begin to learn how to effectively use a HD video camera.

In a few weeks my first real foray into video will be presented on theglobeandmail.com

I'm sure there will be many things about this effort that myself and others will question in the end, but there will be no doubt that I will have learned a ton by time the last piece of this story is published.

I mentioned above that my biggest motivation for shooting video was how it can facilitate the gathering of good sound simultaneously. My largest error during the shooting for this latest piece of work was about forty-five minutes of screwed up sound. And it just had to happen during the most important interview of the entire project. Luckily it was an interview I was able to do again. Had it happened with any other subjects in the story I would not have been able to fix my horrendous mistake.

Here is the issue. Headphones. All I can suggest is that you invest in a good set of earbuds, or headphones....and you wear them. I knew this, and I had my headphones with me. I even had them plugged into the camera. I even went one step further and monitored the interview for the first few minutes. Then, unwisely, I removed them, assuming everything would be hunky-dory. Bad mistake. During the interview something changed, and where originally I had clean sound, there was now an unmistakable noise popping up throughout the interview, and always during the most important moments it seemed. We tried editing out, or around these problems, but the task proved to be unbelievably difficult and time-consuming. There was no other choice but to repeat the interview.

So, having learned a valuable lesson, I tucked my tail between my legs, put on my most apologetic face, and went asking for more of a person's valuable time, and emotional commitment for that matter.

Thanks to the good grace and patience of the interviewee, everything came together, finally, without a hitch. I wore my headphones for the entire interview, and you should too.

We're all going to make mistakes as we explore new ways of telling our stories. It is inevitable, especially when we're tripling the types of media we're gathering. Then take into account the extensive techniques involved in the post-production process and the plethora of possibilities that come with them. Screw-ups are unavoidable, but as long as we continue to learn from our errors, or others, and hopefully never repeat them, the manner in which we will be able to present our stories will be spectacular.

Breaking the rules - my own rules!

I only recently wrote a column for the new NPAC site about multimedia and what it should mean to Canadian photojournalists. The original column can be found here.

[NPAC stands for News Photographers Association of Canada and is the result of the Canadian News Photographers Associations - and Eastern and a Western - combining to form what will hopefully be a stronger, more unified organization.]

In the column I mentioned that through my limited experience with sound, and video to date, the thing that has been most obvious to me is that it is very difficult to shoot both stills and video at the same assignment. I was firm in my belief that if and when I decided to shoot a story on HD Video I would dive in whole hog, and shoot only video. One camera only. That was my intention.

I maintain that mixing the two, stills and video, can be difficult, and perhaps even counterproductive, but yet on my most recent assignment, a large project for The Globe and Mail, I've already broken my own rule.

The project I'm working on at this time, we're actually at the editing stage, will be quite extensive, with plenty of stills, audio, and yes, video. I can't speak of the story except to say that it should be published in the next few weeks(late November or early December).

Since the project is an important one for The Globe and Mail, I initially elected to shoot it only in stills, and to collect some audio. Management was okay with my decision, but I gradually learned that there were some who hoped I might come back with some video for the production as well. After only a short time shooting, and planning for a road trip for the story, it became evident that I might have enough time with some of the subjects to shoot some video. I figured I'd give more video a try if, and only if I was happy with the stills I was getting for the story. At least if I had a camera along I could do some interviews, and control the audio for voice-overs for slideshows, similar to what I had done for the Black Tickle story. The understanding was that we would use video only if I was happy with the visuals, and if I didn't feel comfortable, I wouldn't continue to shoot video. If I got some good footage that would be a bonus, and it might be a good learning experience. The grins from my editors weren't hidden very well as I headed out the door to rent a HD video camera for the trip I had planned.

Two weeks later, after many hours of shooting, my work was compressed into several hundreds of still images, about three hours of miscellaneous audio, and about six hours of HD Video. I stuck to my original plan, and shot video only for my interviews, and only after I was happy with the still images I was getting. I found that shooting video was beginning to really interest me, and I was getting into it far more than I wanted to admit to myself. By the time I finished my last shoot for this assignment last week, I was shooting about 75% of the time on HDV, and very few still images with my MkIIs. What was happening to me?

I have to say that I don't think I am anywhere near ready to switch entirely to HDV - yet.

My level of comfort with the HDV camera has been getting better, but I think that I chose to continue to shoot stills because I know that medium, and I am confident of what my results were going to be. However, as I continue to use the HDV camera I know that it too will become simply a tool in my hands. I will adjust over time to the diferently shaped frame, and the unusual ergonomics of shooting with a video camera. I will also learn how to best make use of the technology to shoot frames that can be used well later as still images, and continue get good quality video and sound for multimedia presentations.

While editing this latest story it has become very obvious to me that my taste still tends toward using my still images as much as I can. But the use of stills in combination with good video and sound can be very powerful, and there is an abundance of techniques that can be employed to enhance a story. The possibilities are very exciting, and I can see myself taking the opportunity again very soon to shoot more video.

This industry is changing, and many photographers will choose to change with it. Managers will have to realize that job descriptions will change as well, as will responsibilities. Work flow is changing just as it did with digital photography. Creating good multimedia stories does not mean a cheap way to add content to websites. If anything, to be done properly, people will have to be trained, and given more time to shoot, as well as edit and produce stories. If the photographers are not doing this work themselves, then production staffs will have to be increased.

There are definitely many challenges ahead for all of us as we begin to embrace what the latest in technology has to offer us.

I've already broken one of my own rules, and tried to shoot stills and video on the same story. I think I've gotten away with it this time, but I still wouldn't recommend it. I've broken my own first rule of creating multimedia, but knowing the way I have worked for the past two decades, my guess is that I will break several more rules yet with a video camera in my hand, instead of a still camera.