Blade photogs have finally turned into bonafide platypuses!
We've been shooting video stories for our website, toledoblade.com, for a year now. All of us are equipped with Canon FS100 camcorders, the camera Jeremy is shooting with in this photo. They do the trick for a website, but I wouldn't use them for making a movie that would be blown up on a large screen. The photo department also has two Sony video cameras. We edit audio and video ourselves, using Final Cut Pro (a mac editing software).
The term platypus originated years ago by forward thinking photographers who knew news photogs would be delving into the world of moving images and natural sound.
Blade photographers eased into the platypus role several years ago by first shooting Soundslides projects. Soundslides is a slideshow software that marries audio with still photos. If an assignment has video/audio potential, we video shoot it for the web. Needless to say, we can be pretty weighed down with camera equipment - doing way more for less.
There are times when a photographer just can't do both, though. If we're at an event that happens only once, meaning it can't be repeated, then it's better to have a still shooter as well as someone capturing audio and shooting video. Our ethical code doesn't allow us to re-shoot or set something up. That's what Jeremy's doing here, while Dave is shooting the stills.
These multimedia skills are essential for photojournalists to find jobs these days. So get on the bandwagon!
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