“I’m Working on Bringing the Instant Film Camera Back as Part of the Future” – Lady Gaga

I never imagined starting my blog post with a Lady Gaga quote but there you go. It just so happens her bold statement dovetails quite nicely with the theme for this week’s post. It is not the obvious “the more things change, the more they stay the same” or the oft-used “everything old is new again.” In fact I’m not sure that Lady Gaga actually saw many sales from her team-up with Polaroid on a branded $160+ hand-held photo printer when she made this bold claim in 2010. Today’s post is about the pace of change and the impact and role that social photo sharing has had on photography.

Earlier this year I wrote a post about The Chicago Sun Times release of their entire photo staff of twenty-eight. On a Thursday the Sun Times was handing out pink slips and on the Friday training journalists on the in’s and out’s of iPhoneography. This story has been shared and re-shared throughout the photography world ever since as a harbinger of digital doom and this week, we witnessed a repeat of this shocking event. The Middletown NY Times Herald-Record laid off their photojournalism staff in favour of arming journalists with smart phones. It really is not such shocking news in this new age of instant photo sharing, but it does make one wonder about what we now call news as well as journalistic integrity and even the quality of photos. Yet, the horse has already left the barn as we farmers tend to say. Perhaps our time is better spent thinking about how best to harness social photography to enhance story-telling and impact positive change on a faster, broader scale.

In fact, the internet serves up many intriguing stories of photojournalists who have recognized the shift in their industry and have armed themselves accordingly with the tools and skills to remain relevant as important visual story-tellers. They have not dropped their DSLR’s entirely, but have added a smart phone in their kit bag as a means of reporting stories in real-time, engaging their audiences, while also sharing beautiful, pixel-laden “serious camera” snaps as a follow-up. I would urge you to read more about these social photographers here, here, here and here.

I must say that while I will always appreciate a great photo well-taken, and will always strive for that myself, I have benefited from the story-telling abilities that my trusty iPhone has gifted me as I am on my vagabond adventures. As my regular readers know, I will typically share a “serious camera” photo here with you on this blog each Sunday. Throughout the week, however, I enjoy sharing arty Instagram shots of my process in hopes of building your anticipation for a good shot (and hopefully good story) on Sunday. Take a look at the photo collage above. I took each of these shots on a recent beautiful drive home from Niagara Falls. Can you tell which ones were taken with my iPhone? I must say that I greatly enjoyed the in-the-moment interaction with my Twitter and Facebook peeps as I posted the four top shots along my winding route home that day. It was almost like you were in the Jeep with me!

PS…I did stop to pull out my Canon 7D for the bottom photo and it may make it off my hard drive and into a frame some day…