A pro photographer has created an application to enhance picture taking with an iPhone. As he says, the best camera is the one that is with you. Chase Jarvis is right, capturing the moment is the thing. This may be a photo of your kid at a ball game or a shot like this one fifty years ago along the then newly constructed Berlin Wall.The photograph is a visual statement that no matter what the Eastern Block did, there was no putting a lid n a person's desire to be free. The fact that I easily found the image speaks to its timeless nature.
Where am I going with this? When I was trading the bond market in the 1980s. computerized charts were the purvey of only the high end firms that could afford such technology. Indeed I spent a day in the Merrill Trading room in New York City and saw a computerized real time graph of the bonds as traded in Chicago. But back then such tech was only found in exotic spots like the Merrill trading room.
Now I have have the same technology for a few bucks a month. But did I get any better at trading? Uh, no.
Back then I subscribed to a paper chart service that was updated once a week. During the week I would study the last week's chart, mentally or possibly making a few pencil marks for the progress of this week. Perhaps that level of concentration made me think more about what might happen that week. I did not have computer updates, this was 1984-87. So to stay current I bought two 19 inch tvs, and put CNN news on one and FNN (the forerunner to CNBC) on the other. FNN updated the bond market every half hour and I knew if anything really big broke, one or the other would tell me about it. That system worked. Let's remember that Newton had neither a calculator nor a computer when he essentially invented calculus. The Greeks had no cad cam computers in designing the parthenon, the Romans likewise lacked computers in designing the coliseum, the cathedrals in midevil Europe were likewise constrained.
Kirk Tuck a pro photographer in Austin makes the point that a zoom lens makes us lazy as a photographer. With a zoom the photographer does not have to move A fixed perspective or prime lens forces us to move is we want more or less in the picture frame. (35 mm cameras used to come standard in film days with a 'norman' 50 mm lens) Kirk makes the point that forcing one to move forces one to consider different perspectives in a way that a zoom lens never will.
Power Point has more possibilities than I can learn. But dazzling the audience with various fades and dissolves will not likely make the lasting impression that say either of these images do above. For example, a Navy Vet in my class one showed us a night satellite photo of the Far East. One could easily make the outline of Japan and the coasts of Korea, China, Russia. But when one looked at the area of North Korea, all was dark. His point was dramatic and clear, there is no light in North Korea. That was literally true, and metaphorically true for its oppressed citizens. To this day that was one of the most memorable presentations in the ten years I have taught college.
So go for a statement, keep it simple, Hannibal used elephants to cross the Alps, Matthew Brady photographed the Civil War with a giant still camera, both made history.
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