PShizzy: The Blog

I saw this on the Rob Galbraith site so props to him for posting it. It’s a commercial by Canon, entitled Journey, which showcases the Rebel XSi. While it’s a commercial, they took the photos of 10 different photographers in various scenes, and made a large sequence of photos, showing the journey of man (and woman), from a small child in a backyard all the way through to the NFL. It’s a wonderful commercial.

I bring it up because it has to do with photography, but also because videos can be inspiration for still work. While different mediums, a great scene is a great scene, whether it’s captured by video or still. I especially like commercials, because they are condensed. A commercial has 30 seconds to capture your interest, sell you on an idea, and keep itself in your mind enough to transcend the tv screen, because they eventually want you to go buy some item or service. Images are similiar, in my mind. An event may last hours, or even days. We select a limited amount of images, and they need to take you through the gamut of emotion, the spirit, and the feel of the event.

In this case, Journey uses a series of photos, put together into a video format, in order to sell you on the power of imagery as captured by Canon cameras (in this case, the Rebel XSi). They have a great video on how the created the commercial, taking 70,000 photos with 10 photographers armed with 1D III’s. Yes, they had 1D III’s and massive gear in order to showcase the XSI (with the kit lens). I’m not necessarily mad, but it is kinda misleading, no? Still, it’s an awesome commercial.

The concept is great: The journey of man is something to be chronicled, to be captured. This is the heart of what photography is. We capture moments, and if we’re lucky, they affect people for the rest of our lives, their lives, and perhaps beyond. It’s something we can all relate to, because we all have events and people and happenings in our own lives that we want to remember forever. What better way than photography?

My point in this post is to ask you to look around and be inspired. Commercials (look at Nike’s work), movies (Ciudad de Deus, Traffic, 300), and of course the work of other photographers (I shoot sports, weddings, and events, but I love seeing the work of someone like Platon, or Dan Winters).

Oh, and one last thing: As I said before, I don’t necessarily agree with the using of 1D III’s to sell the XSi, as it is a little misleading. I don’t think you need to mislead to make a point. So here I present my most favorite Canon commercial: Rodeo

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