Into the new millennium
New Year's (new millennium) Ulverstone Tasmania. 01/01/00 Canon EOSD2000c 17-35 f2.8 @17mm. Bulb (27sec.) f18 iso200.
Despite the fact that there is nothing particularly special about this image it holds a unique place in the 126 year history of The Advocate Newspaper.
The paper, despite being a relatively small regional daily, was always recognised as being forward looking and progressive.. Often at the forefront of new processes and technology. The advent of digital photography was a case in point.
The budget for camera equipment had historically been pitifully small. The photographers should be given a pat on the back for producing the images they did with the gear they were given. Then came digital. As chief photographer, it was my job to convince the powers-that-be to dip their short arms into their deep pockets and cough up some serious coin to advance into the future.
My main bargaining chip was the retirement of our old processes that were based around colour film and prints (both expensive). They both required processing machinery and the associated chemicals and paper which were a large ongoing cost. A lot of newspapers dipped their collective toes into the water of digital (most keeping a film/digital mix) but The Advocate decided to go boots and all. This required a substantial outlay (around $245,000) to fully equip 5 photographers with state-of-the-art Canon digital cameras and lenses.
This beast (the Canon EOS D2000) was the basis of the system. It was like toting a brick, a $14,000 brick that was capable of producing a 2-megapixel image (tiny by today's standards).
Anyway, I digress. Back to the image. The shot was taken at the New Year's celebration to mark the beginning of the new millennium...the 2000s. It was a nervous time for a lot of people. Experts worldwide were concerned that there was a possibility that everything in the world controlled by computers would crash as their internal clocks reset from 99 to 00 (since that time all computer software and hardware uses a long date format). A large contingent of staff and managers stayed at work...just in case. As it turned out the world kept on turning and The Advocate of January 1, 2000 featured its very first, full-size front page digital image.
A comment on quality...many of you will have noticed the extreme "noise" in the image. This is due to the long exposure (the shutter was kept open to record multiple fireworks exploding for a more dramatic image). The D2000 sensor was a CCD. One of the drawbacks of a CCD is that it produces heat, and during a long exposure it actually records its own heat as noise. A lesson learned on the job.