Skeptics -- and attendees -- few and far between at Digital '97

DALLAS -- The skepticism seems to be gone.

Throughout the three days of the National Press Photographers Association's annual Digital conference, held here April 2-5, it was difficult to find a photographer who was skeptical about the looming dominance of digital photography as an everyday fact-of-life.

It could be that the nay-sayers just stayed away (a meager 323 people showed up, down from a high of 1200 in 1992 and 500 last year). Either way, those in attendance seemed almost sanguine about the fact that -- for news photographers, anyway -- if you aren't shooting digital today, you will be soon.

Held at the InfoMart here -- which has been described as "a combination shopping mall and convention center for geeks" -- the conference embraced many of its most popular elements from the past: tips-and-tricks sessions on Adobe Photoshop; presentations on using digital cameras; panel sessions with suppliers of archiving systems and digital cameras, and a presentation on the perils of manipulating digital images.

Another traditional winner at this conference -- the opening day's software training sessions -- lost out to missed delivery of equipment. Conference organizers promptly rescheduled the software training for later in the meeting, which resulted in lower attendance at many of the regularly scheduled sessions.

Nonetheless, the lower attendance and the training snafu didn't really seem to put a damper on the proceedings, with sessions well attended (considering the circumstances) and a healthy crowd on the trade show floor throughout the conference.

Digital Dirck
Leading off was keynote speaker Dirck Halstead.

"I can see another tornado moving toward us," Halstead said. "The growth of the Internet and the World-Wide Web is as important as the Industrial Revolution."

Coming from something of a legend in photojournalism, it was quite a statement.

After a precocious start covering the Guatemalan revolution for Life magazine when he was 17, Halstead was a stringer for United Press International in the early '60s. He moved into newspapers, then returned to the wire service, becoming its first Saigon photo chief in 1965.

In 1972, he joined Time magazine and shortly thereafter became the newsweekly's White House photographer. In the years since he has taken 48 Time cover pictures, a record.

In recent years, Halstead has become a master of multimedia.

In 1993 he helped found Video News International, a business predicated on the notion that with easy-to-use video equipment such as the Hi-8 videocams, storytellers -- still photographers and writers -- could create good television news stories. Video News International foundered this year, but Halstead has started another business -- The Digital Journalist, which blends still photography, video and audio to create multimedia stories for the Web.

Halstead lamented the death of the photo essay.

"Space has always been a premium in this business," he said. That problem goes away, though, once you "merge computers and TV."

"All this stuff about PowerBooks, bits and bytes, it doesn't matter," Halstead said. "We tell stories -- whether it's on film, PCMCIA card or on tape. Through it all, I'm talking about photojournalism."

He went on to explain how he has integrated video photography into his work as a still photographer.

"Eighty percent of the time you're on a story, you're waiting for the subject, waiting for the press conference," Halstead said. "What I'm talking about here is stopping waiting."

A video story contains images leading up to a decisive moment and the images after the moment, he explained, while a still photographer needs to capture the moment itself.

"That picture comes first; my priority is clear," he said. "It's going to happen once and then it's gone."

Talking about a recent trip to Thailand he made with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Halstead said he decided he could build a web site about the trip. He shot both Hi-8 video and still photographs.

"Time magazine is not going to use a picture of Hillary getting off the plane," he said. "For my video, though, that's an important picture." So, rather than sitting around waiting for the picture that Time would want, he would shoot video.

After shooting the still photo Time wanted, he went back to shooting video. This combination of still and video, used on the Web, Halstead said, "returns story-telling to the storyteller."

The longtime photojournalist said that it took him almost 24 months to get good at using his videocam. "If it took me two years, it's probably going to take you two years, too," he said.

Halstead said that regardless of the medium, what "doesn't change is this: the eye and aesthetic of the photographer.

"You have to figure out how to make this transition," he said.

During question-and-answer, Halstead admitted that not every photojournalist will be able to make the transition. "There'll always be still people, there'll always be video people and they'll have no desire to do this," he said.

"Not everybody could be a good Life photographer," Halstead said.

Video visions
In a separate break-out session, Halstead showed the use of a Hi-8 videocam and assured attendees that they too could become videographers.

"I can take any good still photojournalist, give me three weeks and I can turn that person into a good video journalist. Give me a good TV journalist and I don't know if I could ever turn them into a good still photographer," he said.

Before the clock ran out, Halstead gave six of his top 10 rules for making a good video: