CHANGE is happening IN,
Cost, People, Technology, Internet.............
Yes the average age of members in many camera clubs appears to be climbing here as well, and in cases memberships have fallen across the board, be it because of any of the above reasons.
A smart phone is a extraordinary sophisticated tool, its vertically integrated from the manufacturer to the user, to the wholly grail and mother ship the internet.
Just a simple example,
I do professional surfing events as just one of my shoots, i would have a runner go to the Van use the lap top to download and stream selected JPEGs to the required stakeholders, yeee, good gig, well it used to be.
Now i see quality drones riding virtually parallel above ahead or around the surfer or action, streaming video clips or stills directly in real time.
So standing on the beach with a 600mm lens and exotic camera gear has become a little, well not really wanted or purposeful anymore.
The stakeholders are asking for video footage, they actually don't want stills anymore because the platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok and U Tube all want video so they can slot in adds.
One of the greatest versatile little tools for so much of that is you guessed it the Smart Phone that fits into the control console of the drone.....and the rest we all know.
Another
People watching, you see a couple with a very young child 2 or 3 in the park, the child is walking around the flowers talking laughing, the parents are not out with a DSLR or Mirror less camera with a lens, there not taking stills on their phone, they taking a video on their in this case I Phone, why the preference for video, well firstly it has sound of their child and movement all so powerful especially with the instant connection and evoking of emotion and so superior to a static frozen image called a photo, the vidoe it has a living subject or sound moving record moment, streamed to the grandparents or up loaded on social instantly and shared. Hence the camera industry has mooved to hybrid cameras and is focusing on connectivity and stremaing.
There are cases where professional nature and wild life photographers are actually doing video and pulling good perfect moment still images from that video, yes believe it not even on the Z9 LOL.
I mean which would be more pleasing to the vast majority of people looking at a static frozen image of a bird, or watching it flying and doing what it does naturally along with possibly sound, Instagram i was told rank video clips at 1000 to 1 views compared to a still shot.
There is a general movement of chnage for many reasons............. i guess we go with it it or let it go.
The camera makers like Nikon Sony Canon to mention a few are all moving along with it hence the hybrid gear of today.
For the traditional still photographers they will fit into a smaller and smaller niche area, even wild life nature etc.
Many still photgraohers are looking an embracing video and rebuilding their systems to process and view.
A Twist
My girlfriend and I went and saw the amazing Taylor Swift concert hosted in California, we watched it here in OZ at our huge G MAX cinema, it was like we were there, we had far better viewing than actually being at the concert physically, the cameras were on stage and all around Taylor and the dancers with amazing interaction you couldn't get live being there. One thing, there were NO photographers we noticed, maybe we were to engrossed in the concert, there was a lot of drone footage, i guess it had to be drones.
On line now when booking tickets to see a major concert you have the choice of seats, or streaming, streaming to you home theater system, so many new homes now have standard a built in home theater or entertainment room. Elon Musks 40,000 more satelites he wants up there better get done in a hurry LOL.
The world is changing, in many case for the better in some cases not so.
Video killed the radio star, video is now killing the still photgraphy star.
Becoming a videographer or not is for many the question, the video gear product rangeexpanding over still gear in B and H and on the internet alone talks volumes.
Is it right, good, wrong, or for everyone who knows, we all have choices and passion for what we like to do.
My self i am doing less to little still photography, thinking about video, but have expanded my passion for cooking, mostly plant based foods, or sea food.
Still photgrhay as we know it will allways have a place, but the use by date is clearly getting shorter and shorter with change that is happening religating it possibly into a smaller neich area over time.
Only an opinion
