it’s an overused phrase in our culture. above and beyond. it means we’ll surpass competitors in all metrics that matter. or that we’ll do more than what is customary. raising the bar and pushing the limits.
but the bar is moving and the limits are arbitrary. expectations are higher than they’ve ever been when it comes to photography and video. engineers are designing products that can do automatically what used to require whole teams of highly-trained industry-honed experts to accomplish. what once required tens of thousands of investment can now be acquired for a few hundred bucks.
a smartphone with a decent lens - a moment wide or a moment tele, for example - can produce better results than a lot of entry-level dslr cameras, and because engineers have built apps that tap into the full potential of the onboard computers and lenses on these phones, dslr-like manual control is at our fingertips. there are even smartphone manufacturers teasing 48-megapixel cameras with built-in zoom.
so why am i still tied to the old paradigm, packing around several pounds of lenses and a giant full-frame camera?
in my case, the answer is simple. i have been using my canon 5d mark iii for six years. i know the shit out of it and can manipulate it to produce exacting results without having to fumble around with quirky touch screen and slider nonsense. because of my familiarity with my equipment, and the fact that it still produces images that are far higher resolution and with more character than my smartphone is capable of, i’m still in the game.
but that won’t last forever. a time will come that these pocket cameras will surpass the capabilities of their predecessors. as long as it’s still able to snap off an image, i’ll continue use my old dslr dinosaur. even if i can see the asteroids in the sky that herald the end of its era in the form of mirrorless and smartphone cameras, i’m not sure i’ll ever fall out of love with the way it feels and functions, but i know its star is fading.
going back to the point i was circling around at the beginning of this post, i can’t help but wonder, in this era of technology flux, what does it mean to go above and beyond? is it enough to be friendly, accommodating, and have a good eye matched with a decent camera anymore? or is there something else we need to be? where is the bar and how far away is the outer limit? where will these boundaries lie in three years? five? ten?
in the same way that i am anxious about putting myself out there in new channels that are eating away at my revenues despite my conviction that diversification is paramount to survival, i wonder in what ways i need to diversify my skill set in order to ensure i survive the tectonic technology shift that is happening under my feet. what are the photography customers of tomorrow going to expect from me? what types of photography will become irrelevant as pocket cameras become more capable, particularly when it comes to low-light performance and AI-driven assistance mechanisms that help with things like color corrections, orientation, and framing that have been the bread and butter of the professional camera world for years.
will portraiture be a thing of the past? what about event photography? will anyone hire professionals for family photos anymore when they can just get a friend to snap a few images of them sitting in a field smiling?
is it stupid of me to hold out any hope that professional photography will survive long enough for it to be a meaningful piece of my income stream in years to come?
i know that adaptation will be essential, but what to adapt in to is a looming question.
i don’t have an answer yet. but it’s on my mind.