Damn! Now Everyone Can Do It.

As a photographer, videographer, or musician, there is always some product that is being announced in your favorite magazine or on the Internet that makes you think,  

“Crap! Now everybody can do this!”

It could be a hot Digital SLR, a low cost editing system, Garage Band or a program like Photoshop.   You’ve spent years honing your craft and suddenly, everything you’ve mastered seems to be available in a blister pack at B&H.   With all your hard earned experience it is possible that you feel threatened by a plug-in.

Of course, there is some truth to this.  There will be hot talent out there with newfound access to resources previously unavailable to them.  Stuff, that in their wildest dreams they couldn’t afford to get there hands on.  And you can be sure that if they have the talent, their drive isn’t far behind and they’re going to take that opportunity and run with it, fast and far.

Can this affect you?  Of course it can!  But how it affects you, will be up to you.

There will be some, well established professionals whose business might tank.

It might be the owner of an editing facility that was convinced and insisted that, “This Final Cut garbage will never catch on.  Or the photographer that claimed film could never and would never be replaced by digital imaging.   

Hmm.  Getting many calls lately?

That fact is along with every advancement, a new seed has a chance to sprout while at the same time, a lot of the dead wood will be toppled in the forest.

I find it refreshing and necessary. 

Some of the inventive and brilliant images appearing on YouTube and Vimeo are enough to make an established professional wet his or her respective pants.  

If the reason is fear that you have lost ground, then it should be a wake up call to get back to the spirit you had when you left school.  When you were ready to take on the world and you did.

On the other hand, if the reason is excitement, then there is no need to completely reinvent yourself.  Embrace the new technologies and incorporate it into all those years of experience and creativity that you have already accumulated.

Better yet, hire one of those rising stars, complete with their new tools and techniques for your next production.   And don’t impose on them what you think you already know.  Let them show you what they can do, with ideas suggested by you. 

You just might find their free and unbridled thinking contagious.

www.duckyou.com 

www.vimeo.com/crazyduck