wedding photographer and videographer - dynamic duo

Nikon D90

Stanley Kubrick got me into photography. Already a fan of his films, I saw a documentary on the man and his films where I learned that he started out as a photographer. A lengthy explanation ensued on how his photographic skills (”the eye of the photographer,” as the narrator said) led to Kubrick’s distinct visual style. That’s all I needed to hear - I, too, would become a photographer followed by my big movie idea (an artsy, edgy cross between Joe Vs. The Volcano and Spaceballs). 

Fifteen years later, I am nowhere closer to that movie I’ve always wanted to make, but something very interesting is happening in the camera industry - still cameras are taking video. It’s as if that movie is coming to me, now.

“Hey, dummy, my mom’s point-n-shoot has been doing that for ages,” you might say and you would be right. But, with 720p HD capabilities on the Nikon D90 and full HD capabilities on the new Canon 5D Mark II, you and your mom have never had it this good. Without going into why it’s taken these two companies this long to get video features into their dSLR cameras, it’s obvious that a shift is happening, here - photography and video are intertwining into a hybrid field. Look at Apple’s iphoto or web services like Animoto - they take still pictures and add motion to them to create something resembling a video. With the launch of these cameras, the shift seems to be complete. All this begs several questions:

• Is a still picture just plain boring, nowadays?
• Can a photographer be a videographer at the same wedding?
• Is this a fad?