The balance of past and future

   I remember the first time I watched a company advertise their website during a TV commercial. I wondered what the heck .com meant, and how do you find and use it?

   Digital cameras were just beginning to be the rage then, too. I think it was in the late 1990s. The first true digital camera for photojournalists was the Nikon NC2000, valued at more than $14,000. The  Toledo Blade purchased two for a staff of 12. It didn't have an LCD monitor, so you had no idea if your photos were properly exposed. Another challenge was that it was like shooting slide film. Your exposure had to be perfect.

   We were handed the camera and given a quick lesson on using it. Fortunately, the digital Kodak part was mounted on a Nikon N90 body, so the learning curve wasn't too drastic. But with that camera came memory cards, scanners and computers. We all knew these cameras were game changers.

   It was the beginning of my digital age.

   I now marvel at my journalism roots. I came from X-Acto knives, counting headline lengths with my fingers, and processing black and white film in my bathroom.

   Does a traditional past make for better teachers, or does it make us dinosaurs?

   The answer depends on what we're teaching them now. Students need to know the history of journalism, and that some things shouldn't change while other things need to change.

   Ethics really haven't changed much. Photojournalists still need to verify caption information, not set up events, not take free stuff, and not manipulate photos. But what has changed is the delivery method. Teachers who don't learn current multimedia skills and social media tools are doing their students a serious disservice.

   So, young journalism teachers need to brush up on their history, while us seasoned ones need to keep up with the times. It's this balance of the past and the future that makes for the survival of journalism.

   I have a small collection of Brownie cameras that remind me of those who came before me.
   In about 30 years, working photojournalists might have in their historic collection the cameras of today, which for me is a Canon 1D Mark IV that also shoots video. It also captures audio with a Sennheiser mic fitted into the hot shoe.
   But you know what? The shutter speed, aperture and ISO still work the same way.