News Reel

Beneath the surface of high-bandwidth internet roll-out lies a hidden story of changing technologies and evolving working practices among media professionals. One profession currently experiencing such a shift is photojournalism, where photography is being supplemented by video.

“There are all kinds of ways to tell a story,” says award-winning photojournalist Edmond Terakopian. “There is a shift in photojournalism towards offering video alongside photography, which is largely being driven by the newspapers.”

Edmond, who was named Photographer Of The Year in the 2006 British Press Awards and won third place in the Spot News category of World Press Photo among a plethora of other career gongs, had always resisted this change to the moving image. “Video had never appealed to me,” Edmond said in a recent interview in the British Journal of Photography. “I’ve always loved photography and it’s part of who I am.”

As Edmond points out, video makes an additional demand from a very different field: “Most film and video folk will tell you that 60% of any film is in the sound.” And that’s where the Canon does benefit from external gear. “The audio from the MkII’s built-in microphone is OK in certain circumstances, but you really need an external mic for the best results and Canon had the good sense to include an external mini-jack mic input.”

“For use with the MkII camera, I love RØDE’s VideoMic – it’s absolutely brilliant and stunning in the quality of its results. To top this, its also very good value for money. Considering that you also get a built-in shockmount, it’s an absolute bargain. It’s the perfect partner for this camera. Its size, its ease of use – it plugs straight in – yes, I was very impressed by it.”

To complete his set-up, Edmond uses the RØDE DeadCat windshield for breezy locations. “Parts of London, especially down by the river, can be very breezy and the windshield worked absolutely perfectly, says Edmond. “On some scenes for the film, I also used the RØDE Mini-Boompole to boom-mount the NTG-2, which also worked very effectively.”