New Camera Technology Changes the Game at the Eddie Adams Workshop

Vincent Laforet took his recent proselytizing on behalf of emerging camera technology to the Eddie Adams Workshop this past weekend. On the back of his much-talked-about test run of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II prototype, during which he created a faux commercial for just over $4,000, Laforet, a Canon shooter, got Workshop sponsor Nikon to lend his students recently released D90 cameras to shoot their project.

The assignment of Laforet’s Silver Team was to create a seamless multimedia presentation from still photographs, video footage and audio interviews gathered by the 10 students over the course of the weekend. Laforet’s team had the help of two editors—Detroit Free Press staffers Nancy Andrews and Kathy Kieliszewski—and also had suped-up technical capabilities to help them handle the workflow. As of early Monday afternoon, Laforet was still unsure whether the project would come together in time for the team presentations that night. A couple of hiccups aside, the group was able to present their work.

Earlier in the afternoon, Laforet suggested to me that the new cameras, which allow image makers to create commercial-quality still and video images working on their own in low light, were a major technological advancement along the lines of the daguerreotype, the Brownie and the 35 millimeter. However, he said, the technology in the Nikon D90s and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II’s would be a bigger advancement than those preceding landmarks, because, he said, it would “redefine what our jobs are” as photographers. Given their technical skill sets and stylistic sensibilities, photojournalists, Laforet thinks, are the people best equipped to utilize this new imaging technology.

Whether or not you agree on these two points, the Silver Team experiment was certainly an interesting look at how multimedia reportage and the work of photojournalists might evolve. It’s conceivable that a group of several multimedia reporters working alone could cover an event—a military action or political convention, for instance—each collecting high-quality still photography, video footage and audio material from different perspectives. That raw material could be delivered each day to editors and multimedia producers, who could then create an integrated, in-depth, multidimensional narrative to deliver to their audience.

Comments

[genex]

Wow great to hear - got a few friends at EA right now so will have to pick their brains afterwards. Excited but at the same time nervous about this change. Of course that's the name of the game of late - change, change, change!

[Jeff Whitley]

So, Could we see some footage of what was created with the Nikons?

[Gordon Moat]

So is Laforet the next Dirk Halstead? Somehow I doubt it. I'll be waiting to see what RED have next.

[Michael]

Would be interesting to see some of the footage taht he students took.