less then two weeks now until the sold out inaugural TEDPortland event. you can’t tickets anymore but if you’re around town next saturday it might be worth hanging around outside to see what you can pick up. can’t wait to hear what’s in store but even more excited to know that this should no doubt be a yearly event here.

+ with all that pdx has to offer in the way of ideas, creativity + downright zaniness it should only get richer in the future. definitely like to see more industrial design + architecture in future rounds.

with the release of the jesus pad this past weekend there’s no doubt that many aspects of visual media + the publishing industry will change. one part of that in particular that i’m interested in is the concept of vertical video. it seems almost non existent today + yet i hear predictions that it’s on the way in a large scale + i’d have to agree.

coming from a photography background one of the very first things i did with my 5D II was shoot vertical video. not because i knew at all what i was doing but purely from a visual standpoint as i was used to seeing that way. in that vein, i’m interested in seeing what the online editions of your fav mags adopt – seems to me that there’s a place for vertical video to fit within the print columns that dominate our publishing industry. i’m already concepting a project for later this year that will be anchored in the vertical format. in the time being, let’s see if this blows up or not.

here’s a dated test sequence of animated stills that gives a small taste of vertical, though in this case it’s running splitscreen. definitely a fan of this as it makes vertical stills or footage that much more versatile as the clip could run as stand alone vertical embedded in an online mag column but could pop out to standard 4:3 or 16:9 once open in it’s own page.

20080430_roadtest from heath korvola on Vimeo.

in a bold bit about the changing of the guard, there are at least three things that i see coming. actually one already has to some extent + i’ll bring up more then three but as i had another major prediction come to fruition this past week better put a hold on the doubt.

1. the three elements we have as for control as photographers + filmmakers have always been aperture, shutter speed + iso. can’t do much with the first two in most situations but i’ve always wondered what happens when we blow the roof off of iso limitations (this is the one i was saying was already on the table). to some extent it’s not really future but now. nikon + canon, among others, have especially has pushed up to what, 12,800 most recently with readings depending on how you measure over six figures. that’s not iso that’s some poor wall street salary. the crazy thing being it’s only bettering exponentially.

what i see this doing is really altering the way we collectively shoot in many environments. dark + you’ve got this thing with depth of field, now it’s doable. hate the blur? game over. i’m not saying this is happening overnight but i know i can’t wait to really use iso variations in my work. think about the days shooting film – how many of you actually used to use that funky film puller to extract a role midstream ’cause you were heading inside (or vice versa)? (that’s it below in case you never had the pleasure.)

2. the altering + increasing tech assistance working with imagery will forever change the way we compose as well as the final product. like something out of csi or whatever the latest tech oriented crime drama maybe here’s a very real, though not photo specific, example via wired. this idea of compressed sensing could vastly change the landscape of storage + battery life for us. if the industry starts to see, “instead of steadily improving compression algorithms …steadily improving decompression algorithms that reconstruct the original image more and more faithfully from the stored data”, well then, hell, the future has arrived.

i’ve also read about researchers + uber geeks playing with computer technology that could lead to variable focus done in post production. the two together make you wonder how long craft will be involved with visual media.

3. i claim no brain power on this this last one but picked it up somewhere along the way from a communciation among shooters on what the future holds some time ago. the actual opinion (if this is yours feel free to claim) was that images would be wirelessly transmitted (i’m down with that) via satellite (ok) directly to editors anywhere in the cubicle world (have to try this to believe).

that said, i do see the bottle neck of transmission + after the fact editing losing ground quickly to the efficiency of technology. while eye fi may be a good start, it’s just that – a start.

so give it some time + we’ll see if i need to head to vegas at some point down the road. you’ve got better predictions?

a recent discovery via flyp got me thinking about media legacies – original tv was little more then filmed radio. original web, in regards to publications, was little more then the same magazine content boxed up online with none of the feel or design of the original. now, digital media is mutating once again with little reference to it’s printed forebearer but a change that can be made up for (in my mind) with a true rich experience. photography + design now accentuate visual media with previously impossible flourishes such as infograhics, hybrid footage clips + live links that make the entire affair come to life.

am i a tablet owner or ipad fan – no. have some stock – nope. + i sure as hell didn’t ditch the paperback on my latest international flight. all i’m looking at is the future. how does visual media fit into the continuum that it essentially started back when the first cameras fired + the first tv’s began to roll.

do i like the schnazz of aperture 3 that rolled out yesterday – yeah. but is that real multi media? do slides mixed with a voiceover constitute the latest in the melding of media – not so sure about that. i’m into the idea but i’ve always been wary of multi media disciples running slideshows with audio or something to that effect. + it”s been happening far longer then the recent aperture edition.

those in the industry (or outside of it for that matter) actually pushing new media are doing fantastical things that by definition aren’t within the bounds of a mass market product. the more one thinks about this the more the more clear it seems that rules, the rules that have governed visual media for so long in particular, are warping more then ever. + actually need to be broken to make a difference. think about what stands out for you. + then try to picture what the future holds? will ad’s + editors really be a voice in an earpiece while we’re half a world away shooting hybrid still + footage projects?

(btw, don’t miss this inspiring piece on dan winters from flyp.)

open ended + inspiring idea from master of ideas seth godin directed at providing direction in the new year. he’s put together a stellar list of tastemakers + given them the freedom to choose one word for the new year + explain why. via the havard business school blog + seth directly.

here’s the pdf. read carefully as there’s wit + wisdom by the pound.

for example, “hugh macleod, a blogger and cartoonist with a truly distinctive voice, offers a take on meaning: ‘The best way to get approval is not to need it,’ he writes. ‘Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.’”

here’s to an unconventional 2010. my word is …..