1. Rob, I like you a lot but don't miss my point.
2 I'd be quite happy if it was only a still shoot, or a motion picture (covers a lot of territory) . . . but the world has changed and no offense but in the commercial side, your not busting ass to pick up business.
My brain runs at 100 mph, thinking of what's good for me, my client's the time and money I want or should invest and where I should do it. But I'm made for commerce especially if the creative brief is exciting.
Look at how a still camera and most products are introduced, through a video. Not my rules, but that's the way it's done, because everybody has a little tv in their pocket.
Personally I don't believe in limitations. To me great image makers, can make great images, period, if they apply themselves and are willing to invest and the budget allows.
But two cameras, one brain, one set of hands. It's difficult, but so often requested.
Personally learning to edit, made my still photography better, or the ability to piece together a story even a simple one, so unless you get bogged down, knowledge is always a plus.
A few years ago I had a camera maker ask me what I would like to see in a camera. I said don't ask me, ask my clients. They might not know technique, but they know what they want to present.
What's different today is not the creative briefs, they're still pretty much the same as they were in the film days. It's the compression of time, money, expectations and options.
It's also a matter of familiarity and speed and traveling with two cases of cameras instead of 5 or 6.
In regards to Nikon obviously they have a sales issue and obviously they need to find a solution. The low end doesn't work because that's a race to the bottom. The option is to be better at everything, from capture, to useability, or giving the customers more than they could anticipate.
I think Sony is doing that, though they throw a lot of stuff out there to see what sticks, usually not fully cooked.
But camera sales holds little interest to me. I just use them.
In the film days I used Nikons, in digital I've used them all, but my favorite is the Canons because they cover a lot of territory and the REDs because they shoot the best motion file I want to invest in.
10 years ago who would have thought that a sunglass guy would build a camera company? So if Nikon makes it good, but my brand loyalty is based on my needs, not my wants.
IMO
BC
1. Thank you for that, and it's reciprocated for many reasons, not least the work that you do and the way you do it, but also how you treat people.
2. You're absolutely right - I wouldn't have the energy anymore, however much I might wish that I did. But it's not just that: my main interest in becoming a photographer was to pass my days shooting pictures of beautiful women. It took a long time to get there, but I did, and enjoyed it very much. I
had flirted with the idea of movies before I got my first reasonable stills camera, but I lived over 400 miles from London, was a boy, and had not a snowball's chance of supporting myself away from home. I wrote to David Lean asking for advice on how to get into the business, and he was kind enough to write back and suggest the tea-boy route, but obviously that didn't do anything to solve the money problem I faced! BUT, it was damned nice of him to bother answering some kid in Scotland!
Yeah, probably unrealistically obsessed with
one kind of photography, but that's the mindset I came with, I'm afraid. I sometimes thought of getting myself a 4x5 kit and going after the whisky trade - of which, locally, there was lots - but I never could convince myself I wanted to do that kind of work. Financially blind of me, but as I said, the mindset.
However, I do realise there's the demand for motion with stills, even fashion shoots seem to be covered by 'making of' videos, but I don't know if they are made on still/motion hybrids or on normal video cameras.
Basically, it's become too complicated a world for me now, and I would probably have lacked the ability and patience to cope with/learn so much additional stuff had it been the same in my day. No regrets really, just wish I'd been tougher!
Rob