“I’m not sure I’d agree with you as far as learning multimedia on the job,” Gail Mooney commented to one of my recent posts. I’m glad she brought the point up. In writing about the new multimedia project I have taken on for Human Rights Watch, I wrote: “Photographers can learn multimedia skills on the job,” and explained that thinking this way is what allowed me to take a leap and offer HRW services requiring skills I am still learning.

Learning on the job can mean taking a calculated leap, with plenty of support - like this woman boarding a train in Lima, Peru.

I think that Mooney and I are probably really on the same page, and simply looking at the fine line between offering services we are not capable of delivering professionally and offering services out of our skill range but that we know we can deliver. When it comes to still photographers offering video and multimedia services, we can do this by outsourcing services or, more specific to my point, knowing through experience that we can learn the skills called for — before and during the job.

Not Pro Cake Baking

It would be an unprofessional disaster if I sold professional services to bake a wedding cake this weekend. I just couldn’t do it. But regarding my offering multimedia services to HRW, there are a few thing to consider that put this “learning on the job” in a different category:

• I studied multimedia in college pretty seriously, making a polished project that was used by the United States Post Office for public education. (Yes, the technlogy was very, very different.)
• I’ve been playing around with modern multimedia, learning some skills and — just as important — identifying the many skills I still have to learn.
• I’ve been interviewing numerous photographers over past three years on the topic, processing their advice by writng articles.
• Many of these photographers have become friends and have made it clear that they will support me when I need help with my own projects.
• When I pitched the project to HRW, I made it very clear that this would be a relatively simple project, fundamentally using the skills I already have (if not yet at the most professional levels).
• I was honest and direct with HRW that I would be learning on the job, and that we would need to consider this in terms of both project timeline and our working relationship.

Learning on the Job IS Professionalism

None of these points are to argue with Gail Mooney. She’s been working very, very hard for more than a decade on her film-making skills and she’s still learning. This must be respected. It is why I wrote a post about how hard it is to make movies, in which I encouraged photographers to not underestimate multimedia/video, nor bite off more than we can chew.

Many photographers are watching video and multimedia go by like passengers on a train. How to get on board?

However, in my post in which I encouraged photographers to learn multimedia on the job, I balanced this caution with the need for excitement and finding creative ways to enter realm of multimedia, saying:

“Offering services that force us to take our game up a notch is not the same as someone who has never held a camera going out and bidding for a major photography job. Clearly, that would be unprofessional, and ridiculous. But to bid for a photography job that requires honing skills is part of the profession.”

The Proof is in Gail Mooney

Again, I’m not trying to argue with Gail Mooney. To be quite honest, as I write today, I have more than a little “gulp” sensation about being able to deliver what I have promised to HRW. I’m trying to psych myself up, but I do wonder if I didn’t take on too much, and this worrying doesn’t feel good. However. . .

I am encouraged by Mooney’s post yesterday about her “Opening Our Eyes” project, in which she reports on “My Screw Ups Shooting Video with a DSLR.” Clearly, learning on the job is something that is part of the process. Sure, Mooney could point out that this is a personal project, not work for a client. But I know Mooney, and while she always gives delivers 100% professionalism to clients, she puts even more heart, soul and skill into her personal projects.

Tags: Gail Mooney, Human Rights Watch, Learning on the Job, Learning Strategies, Making Multimedia for Human Rights Watch, Moving Into Motion, Multimedia, Opening Our Eyes, Video