The video venture begins

The same reporter who served as an excuse to end my venture into multimedia self-education stepped up to my desk at the newspaper Friday and handed me a plausible excuse to reignite my interest: a Flip Video. This is a sleek little camcorder about the size and shape of an iPod. Frankly, I sneered at its lack of features and the likely quality of video it would produce, but this little gadget was being issued to our newspaper by the statewide webmaster who controlled our local website with the notion that "we" should start contributing videos for posting.

What I thought I knew about digital video production for newspapers was that it involved lots of complicated and expensive equipment and editing software which demanded even more expensive high-powered computers to run – none of which our little newspaper could afford.

Last November I bought my first digital camcorder just to record our only grandson living within range of weekly visits. I bought the Canon FS100 based upon its sole distinction of being the only point-and-shoot camcorder I could find equipped with an external audio jack. Soon after, I bought my first shotgun mic. Nearly six months later, however, I hadn't gotten past figuring out how to convert the Canon video files into viewable clips on a Mac. There never seemed to be enough time or energy left after work to scale yet another learning curve.

A couple of months ago my iMac died, leaving me at a crossroads on the issue of what direction to take in pursuing multimedia development. Should I simply replace my Mac with another budget computer and stick with the audio-slide show format, even though these seemed like more trouble than they were worth, or should I upgrade in order to give myself room to grow into video work? I upgraded with the best of intentions to new 20-inch 2.4 Mhz iMac with 2 Gig of RAM, but my camcorder has used very little, and the new shotgun mic not at all. 

I've managed to look over the tutorials on the iMovie '09 that came with the new computer, but the task of learning yet another software program just seems too daunting, given my work situation.

The unassuming little Flip Video, however, has prompted second thoughts in terms of the minimal equipment and software I used to teach myself the basics of audio-slide show production. Maybe my newspaper has given me a prime OJT learning tool.

I'm still here . . .

A lot has happened in the past seven months. It is time to consider whether to continue this blog, and if so, what purpose it might serve.

At the end of September, in the wake of steadily declining circulation and ad revenue, management at the newspaper made the inevitable cuts to its small staff: one from classified and two from editorial. Clearly there had not been enough editorial space over the past year to justify two full time staff photographers, but what I had expected was a reduction in hours for one or both of us, rather than outright elimination. Thankful as I am to be left fully employed, I am now left with a workload spanning six and seven days a week and the certainty that – given the grim turn in our national economy – the next shoe will land on me. When the newspaper's budget needs to be cut again, a seasoned community photojournalist will be viewed as a luxury in light of reporters with cameras and a steady supply of photos submitted from outside the staff that can fill editorial space so much more economically.

Like so many other community newspapers across the country, our newspaper is dying, and apparently management anticipates no future beyond newsprint. There appears to be no preparation in the works for a transition to a next life on the Internet, which is what most community newspapers are scrambling to achieve. I'm left to contemplate what future I have beyond this newspaper and what preparations I should be making for that inevitable transition.

I'm now working as long and hard as I did at my first newspaper job, but that only serves to remind me just how much I relish the role of community photojournalist and how much I will miss that work in the event I'm laid off or the newspaper closes. Apart from the prospect of finding another income, I need to develop a practical outlet for documenting my community. If this blog has taught me nothing else, it is that I don't want to devote the sheer production time and work necessary to produce decent audio slide shows. I'm not even sure I want to take the time and effort to write about my community. I'd rather be out in the community shooting.

Perhaps the blog can become such an outlet.