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I recently had a chat with the owner of a new video stock agency about how video is becoming the new “Stock Photography”.

I was discussing this with Matthew Gray of Relevant Motion about signing up with his stock video agency.

Matt comes from a similar background as I do - having shot still photojournalism for a number of years and having been represented by stock photo agencies.

Now his new venture brings a new paradigm to light - video stock footage being the new form of stock photography.

This departs from the 20th century notion that stills can fulfill the visual content needed to illustrate a story. Fair enough. But now look at the consumption of video content online and the realities are that visual literacy is about moving images, not static stand alones.

I miss the days of shooting 35mm cameras and processing that film, printing it, etc. It took years of trial and error to hone my skills in that arena. Now everything is 1’s and 0’s - all digitized. Viewers are consuming massive amounts of video content online, so much so, that most are no longer willing to sit and look at a still image for more than a few seconds. Quality video content provides a means of stimulating ones interest in ways that still images cannot - and vice versa.

The die hard hold outs refuse to accept the inevitability of the changes taking place in the visual content creation profession. That doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. One can choose to not change and the results will be those out of a job. Those who embrace - even hesitantly - the changes taking place and choose to move forward from shooting stills only to adding video to their skill set, will find themselves become more creative, versatile shooters in the process.

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