To say that the still photographer will become increasingly rare isn't true. Of all the photography done, youre talking about such a small percentage of paid projects.
The motion/stills convergence, completely mirrors the process of film to digital in commercial photography production.
Exactly mirrors it, in that at first it's slow, some people warm up to it, some resist it, most say they are "photographers" not film makers, like they said they shot film not digital.
Right now in every major market, hundreds of photographers are wagging around a 5d2 and pointing them at anything that moves or is static, trying to come to grips with how to set up a workflow, color correct, deliver and most importantly how to get paid for it.
Some clients ask for video during a still shoot, some demand it, some hire a separate crew, but don't think for a single moment that when it hits it will be like the cross over from film to digital.
Today it might just be a few waves, but soon it will be a tsunami.
It wasn't but less than a decade ago that the busiest lab in LA told me, "our photographers shoot film". That lab is now closed, so I guess their photographers stopped shooting film.
Personally, I don't care which direction it goes, as long as I can shoot something interesting and turn a profit, but every project I estimate today has some form of video component.
And don't think the back end process of motion will also not parallel still digital production, because it wasn't that long ago that a retouching machine (scitex) cost a million bucks, (think motion and DiVinci 2k) and today everybody retouches in $600 photoshop.
You'll see the same with motion imagery, in fact we already do some base color grading in cs4 extended, soon I'm sure lightroom or some program like it will also do motion footage along with the same functions as stills.
Regardless, it's changing, it will continue to change and you either learn it, hire someone else to do it, or get passed by, at least in the imaging for commerce world.
Personally, I don't like labels, don't really care about the past and dread getting caught up in the way things use to be. I also don't believe in the "system", never have because regardless of what anyone tells you, you can be anything you want to be if your good at it.
BC
P.S.
Read this interview from Robert Rodriguez
http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/articl...s_new_toy_3000/"And it's only because creative people are notoriously the slowest to adopt new technology. That's just how it's always been. Creative people on one side, technical people on the other. Creative people aren't technical, technical people aren't creative and they always need each other. New technology comes up, creative people run away from it and it takes them so long to adopt it. But when they do, they never go back."
