Chicago sun times gets rid of all photo staff

[Michael E]

After that ,most news and sports photographers started using digital cameras , ( if you search online you will end up find a prediction i made about 10 years ago that they would loose their jobs ) .

Really? And if they kept working on film, schlepping their exposed rolls to a lab, spending time and money on scanning, they would keep their jobs? I don't think so. This is not a question of camera technology, this is a question of money. It would have been possible to replace Margaret Bourke-White with a noob with a box camera. But back then people actually PAID for magazines, they actually put MONEY down to subscribe to a newspaper. How do you pay for photographers (or HD video camera people) if everybody expects to get their news for free?

But, on the other hand, how do you expect people to pay for your product if it is not made by professionals?

Michael

[jonreid]

When I wanted to watch the Boston Bombings, I looked for cell phone videos and found them.

When I wanted real images of the Syrian civil war, I looked at the candid photos of a Japanese Trucker War Tourist.

Joking right? There were heaps of pro photographers that covered the Boston bombings, you can see them running in right after the blast, and I think their images will stand the test of time better than the grainy security cam footage.
Likewise, there are dedicated pros risking all to bring coverage out of Syria. Buy a good newspaper Nd you might even see some of their work.

Jon

[Greg Miller]

Neither does your 35mm ,6x7,4x5,5x7 ,8x10 decides where to stand , where to point and when to press the shutter ! Guess the field in these areas are already leveled ! I guess you missed my point completely , just wait and you shall see ! No offense but when you say a shutter speed for a video is 1/50 or 1/60 you thinking 1980's . If you are into shooting sports for a living , save as much money as you can , sports photographers still have a few years ahead of them before they become obsolete just like the newspapers photographers .The concept of "Frame Grabbing" from video is old , sports photographers have been doing it since motor drive but, now with digital hd high speed video recording and cameras like RED ONE ... just wait and see .The picture bellow was taken from a video .Not perfect ,but we have to start somewhere .

If you think that all thee is to being a photographer is enough megapixels, being in focus and exposed well, then yes you should worry about cell phones. The real threat to professional photographers has not been cell phones, or digital technology. It has been the economy and the internet. Lower advertising budgets and alternative news sources (whether you like them or not) have led to newspapers and magazines to go out of business or tighten their own budgets. So the money to pay professional photographers is severely constrained. You can bet that if the CST was thriving financially there would be no layoffs. Arming reporters with iPhones just happens to be the least unattractive solution to their financial problems. If digital cameras did not exist, then they would be arming reporters with Kodak 110 instamatics.

There is a reason that video is shot at 1/50. Most video in the US is played at a frame rate of 24 FPS )or sometimes 30 FPS). People have figured out that the optimal shutter speed (shutter angle) is FPS x 2. Faster or slower than that and the video does not look natural. So your reference to the 1980's shows you don't know what you are talking about regarding history or the present, so maybe predicting the future is a reach.

[Pat Kearns]

I'd hate to lose all newspapers, something about having that first cup of coffee while reading from my computer monitor just isn't quite the same.[/QUOTE]

Brian, the newspaper in Mobile, AL now has it's print edition only 3 days a week, Sunday, Wednesday, & Friday. It's pretty sad having that cup of coffee with 3 day old news.

[ederphoto]

If you think that all thee is to being a photographer is enough megapixels, being in focus and exposed well, then yes you should worry about cell phones. The real threat to professional photographers has not been cell phones, or digital technology. It has been the economy and the internet. Lower advertising budgets and alternative news sources (whether you like them or not) have led to newspapers and magazines to go out of business or tighten their own budgets. So the money to pay professional photographers is severely constrained. You can bet that if the CST was thriving financially there would be no layoffs. Arming reporters with iPhones just happens to be the least unattractive solution to their financial problems. If digital cameras did not exist, then they would be arming reporters with Kodak 110 instamatics.

There is a reason that video is shot at 1/50. Most video in the US is played at a frame rate of 24 FPS )or sometimes 30 FPS). People have figured out that the optimal shutter speed (shutter angle) is FPS x 2. Faster or slower than that and the video does not look natural. So your reference to the 1980's shows you don't know what you are talking about regarding history or the present, so maybe predicting the future is a reach.

If you think the real threat to photographers is the economy and the internet ,well , the economy is getting better does that means they will keep their jobs ???How does the internet poses a threat to professional photographers ??? Isn't in the internet and social media where we get to reach otherwise un-reachable audiences ???Isn't in the internet where we get free advertising globally ??? As for the whole 24fps or 30fps , you can skip it . As for the " So your reference to the 1980's shows you don't know what you are talking about regarding history or the present, so maybe predicting the future is a reach " , well, I've shot professional super 16 and i've shot with high speed cameras as well and i know what i'm talking about .And for the
" Maybe predicting the future is a reach " , well , i'm yet to make a wrong prediction in this field ! You are free to believe whatever you want ,but , time will tell who is right .Unless this thread is deleted , every word will remain here for all to see !

[Greg Miller]

If you think the real threat to photographers is the economy and the internet ,well , the economy is getting better does that means they will keep their jobs ???How does the internet poses a threat to professional photographers ??? Isn't in the internet and social media where we get to reach otherwise un-reachable audiences ???Isn't in the internet where we get free advertising globally ??? As for the whole 24fps or 30fps , you can skip it . As for the " So your reference to the 1980's shows you don't know what you are talking about regarding history or the present, so maybe predicting the future is a reach " , well, I've shot professional super 16 and i've shot with high speed cameras as well and i know what i'm talking about .And for the
" Maybe predicting the future is a reach " , well , i'm yet to make a wrong prediction in this field ! You are free to believe whatever you want ,but , time will tell who is right .Unless this thread is deleted , every word will remain here for all to see !

The economy is fractionally better, and the internet is healthy as always. My comment was in regards to professional journalistic photographers, such as those at the Chicago Sun Times. The advertising dollars have dried up. Magazines and newspapers have closed shop. So less work for the same number of photographers. Because people consume their news differently theses days; not because of cell phones. Newspapers and Magazines used photos to sell copies from the newsstand. That doesn't happen any more. Your premise that cell phones as cameras will put photographers out of work, only makes sense if you believe that doing high end work is a matter of letting the camera do all the work. As I mentioned before, the cell phone does not decide where to stand, where to point the camera, and when to press the shutter. Photographers do that, and good photographers do it better than the average Joe.

And how do you skip 24 & 30 FPS? That is still how 99.999% of video is still played today in the US. The Red One is not a High Frame Rate camera (although Red has higher frame rate camera where the high frame rates are used for niche purposes). It is a high res camera that still uses 24 FPS. The Hobbit was shot at 48 FPS and half the people who saw the move complained of headaches after watching it. At 48 FPS their shutter speeds were likely 1/100. Still far shy of the 1/1000 and faster shutter speeds that professional sports photographers typically strive for. And which photo editors have time to watch thousands of frames to pull out a single still? That just is not an efficient workflow.

How does your prediction from 2008 still sound? "I don't know what will become of Nikon and Cannon if they don't start making cell phones pretty soon !" Any sign of Nikon and Canon making cell phones or going out of business? Cameras such as the D800 and 5D MIII, both higher end DSLRs, were both huge hits despite the presence of cell phones.

[Jim Jones]

We've progressed from news imagery being presented as laboriously produced wood engravings, and words from being transmitted by well-trained telegraphers to Teletypes to cell phones. It doesn't take a Eugene Smith to make photographs fine enough to satisfy people whose appreciation of photography is formed by Facebook.

[ederphoto]

This is a reply to GREG MILLER :

Haha ! So i don't know the field i'm in ??? And i can't predict the future ??? Too much for you maybe ! Here is a quote from you on July 4th :

" How does your prediction from 2008 still sound? "I don't know what will become of Nikon and Cannon if they don't start making cell phones pretty soon !" Any sign of Nikon and Canon making cell phones or going out of business? Cameras such as the D800 and 5D MIII, both higher end DSLRs, were both huge hits despite the presence of cell phones. "

Now here is a quote from Nikon's CEO on July 7th :

“The number of people taking snapshots is exploding by use of smartphones that sold 750 million or so last year and are still growing. We’ve centralized our ideas around cameras but can change our approach to offer products to that bigger market.”

Don't believe me ? You don't have to ! Read the article from July 7th from Nikon Rumors :

NikonRumors.com: http://nikonrumors.com/2013/07/07/ni...#ixzz2Ynch1lOr

Well , when i said time would tell who was right i expected it would take about a year or two not 3 days ,but hey , nobody is perfect ! Keep living on your bubble !

[ederphoto]

By the way , i don't know anybody at Nikon or Nikon rumors or have ever written anything for them .So how is my prediction from 2008 still sound ??? Pretty good is my answer !

[Tin Can]

http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/...lution-begins/