Long time away from the blog.. but I was busy shooting videos for a tourist operator mainly between Laos and Cambodia.
This is confirming some ideas I had about this dual productions (photos and videos): or you do the one or the other. The way you think is completely different. The searching of situations, the concept, the approach, the planning of the final work, require a very different thinking and, at least for me, switching from one to the other on the spot, is not easy. In front of a landscape, or a monument, you have all the time you need, but when it comes to people you need to make a choice.
Video has great advantages on photography when movement is involved; it's weaker when the situations are static. Still you have to combine the various components in one, rational and comprehensive message.
On the other hand there are some great opportunities for creativity here. Even during this very commercial assignment I came to realize that there is space for what many people call "videography": applying our photographic skills and visions to the movie. Using a digital camera and it's fantastic lenses is compensating for the tech limits of a videorecorder (even if the sensor is not as good).
Many people that live photography as a purist art will object that this is just another thing. And I agree. All the same I think it's time for the creative photographer to move forward and explore new opportunities. When I experimented with videos around ten years ago the tech options were very basic, and the presentations were limited to short, small movies visible on CDs. Nowadays the web revolution is making video a universal language.. Time to explore it, with the brain, not just the eyes..
