Stretching the Canvas

From the outside you might not notice it. But in the newspaper world things are moving toward multimedia at a lightning pace.

Photographers at my paper, The Baltimore Sun, are routinely taking expanded edits from shoots and creating A/V packages for the web from their daily assignments. We are not talking Big Special Projects, either. This is day-to-day stuff.

For a couple of recent examples, check out Barbara Haddock Taylor's behind the scenes look at the canine stars of the touring Broadway show, Annie.



Or André Chung's package from an afternoon with a group of steppers.

This stuff is quickly becoming the norm.

For all of our recent A/V presentations, you can click here. We are significantly upping our video content, too. Things are moving fast.

If you are thinking about moving into the world of photojournalism, you want to be learning this stuff. With Soundslides, Audacity, and an Olympus DS-2 recorder, you can be totally equipped to start playing in this sandbox for about $125 US.

When you get serious, the full pro package (high-end sound recorders and Final Cut Express) will set you back about $1,000.00. Not much for a whole new world of opportunity, IMO.

This stuff is not going away. The days of news being delivered on dead trees are numbered. Do not think of yourself as a "print" photographer, or you will miss the train.