The End of Photography

Here is the presentation that I gave recently at TDEX on 10 and 11 July at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok (See...this is proof that I did more than just overeat while I was in Thailand!).

The 26.5-minute talk is entitled "The End of Photography", and it's a summary of my views on the implications of the switch to digital technology for photographers and other content creators.

To be clear...I'm not referring to pixel-counting, the pros/ cons of CF cards vs. SD cards, which computer to use, which processing software to use, or any other technical issue.

The primary point I'm trying to convey is that the switch from analogue to digital has far-reaching implications for all photographers, most of which we've collectively only begun to explore and appreciate.

I believe that the issues I set out are fundamentally reshaping the way we can (and should) conceive, plan and execute creative endeavours.

There's one thing you'll have to bear with if you watch/ listen to the presentation.

The plan was to have a video camera record the talk, so I could splice in some video footage to liven up the presentation video and also to highlight the occasions when I was pointing things out on my presentation slides.

As it turned out, the video camera wasn't actually on when I gave the talk, so there are some "slow" sections during the presentation, when there's no visual action to go along with my rambling, just a static slide.

Hopefully the content of my talk will prove so compelling and spell-binding that you won't even notice.

In case you're interested, I put the presentation together in Keynote (part of Apple's iWork suite), recorded the audio with a Zoom H4n hooked up to a Sennheiser EW 122-P lavalier microphone via a sound board at the venue.

After the talk, I synced the timing of the slides with the audio track by using Keynote's built-in Record function, and then used Final Cut Studio (specifically Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro) to edit the audio.

Using Soundtrack Pro made a noticeable difference in audio quality, as the presentation environment was "challenging", i.e., open area with lots of competing ambient noise, echo, random people walking by, etc.