The Backroads: Photo-video-journalism
By Sean Hart
Saturday, September 26, 2009 11:06 PM PDT
I held a video camera in my right hand, filming a group of kids dancing to music from the ’50s and ’60s, with a still-shot camera hanging around my neck, and somehow I managed to snap off a few shots with my left hand while still filming.
As cute as the Nyssa Elementary School students were, the best photo opportunity in the room was probably of me wielding two cameras at once. Not only would it be at least slightly humorous to see someone trying to pull off such a feat, it kind of sums up the difficulty of a journalist’s job these days.
I guess I’m a photo-video-journalist. Apparently, writing alone wasn’t enough awhile ago, so photos became a necessary supplement. Now, it seems, even pictures aren’t enough to capture the attention of a population full of citizens whose minds have been numbed by years of television.
But, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, I guess. I mean, who am I to pass judgment?
Even I watch a little TV, although I’m probably the only 25-year-old in the country who solely watches cable news (and, of course, some football this time of year).
Without TV, though, how would I keep up on national politics in real time — live speeches and what have you?
But I digress.
Even in our little corner of what’s left of the Great American West, amid the sagebrush and coyotes, we now have video feed. Or, rather, you have video feed.
We — or, rather, I — provide it to you, while continuing to take still shots for those who like the paper but don’t like to read and, believe it or not, while still managing to find a few extra minutes in my day to actually try to write something for the seemingly dwindling audience of actual avid readers (if any remain).
So, enjoy you’re journalism — however you’d like to do so. I’ll continue to provide it all as best I can.
Sorry if I don’t shake your hand while I have a camera in each of mine.
I’m a busy man. Goes with the job.
In the words of one of the greatest in the business in our time, a real journalist’s journalist, Hunter S. Thompson:
“We are, after all, professionals.”
Lifestyle Editor Sean Hart can be contacted at SeanH@argusobserver.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the Argus Observer.
