Platinum Perspective: Change in cameras and technology

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — The people behind the cameras have always been just as important as those on camera at WANE 15.

Thanks to technological advancements, the job of a news photographer has become much more efficient over WANE 15’s seven decades of service to the community.

Although WANE 15 photographers still use bigger, better cameras, the overall size of cameras and the equipment needed to operate them has decreased.

The simple switch from tapes to digital with SD cards gave photographers more available recording time and less time needed to get the video ready for air.

“As far as being a photographer out in the field now – absolutely a lot easier,” WANE 15 Chief Photographer J.R. Carmichael said.

Other technological advancements have made getting around easier. News photographers used to have to find where they were going on a map, and then have someone in the car with them to guide them to their location. Now, there’s GPS devices and cell phones that can easily get you to a breaking news scene much quicker.

The used to communicate with the TV station through two-way radios, rather than making an easy cell phone call today.

And there’s the invention of mobile backpacks that send a live feed back to TV stations, rather than having to drive around and prepare a large live truck.

“I would say it would take five to 20 minutes to set up a live truck. Compared to today with the TVU backpacks that we use, it’s literally just you set it, you turn it on, you plug the camera in, and you’re ready to go,” Carmichael explained.

He’s worked at WANE 15 for 24 years. While there have been many advancements, Carmichael said it was much easier to go with the flow compared to changes those before him dealt with.

“Just hearing stories from our former chief photographer Ron Harmeyer and what he had to carry around and what he had to do, these reporters and photographers nowadays don’t even understand what it was like.”

Harmeyer was the longtime Chief Photographer at WANE 15. People just referred to him as “Chief.” He worked at WANE for 48 years. You can hear more about him and the stories he’d share with Carmichael in the video below:

People like Harmeyer and Carmichael are the faces you never see reporting on TV, but they’ve been essential to WANE 15’s success in delivering local news to northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio.

Carmichael started in 2000. That mean’s he’s been shooting a lot of the video you’ve see on your TV’s and other devices for more than a third of WANE’s 70 years.

“I don’t look at this as my job. I look at it as an opportunity to express myself through the lens of a camera. To bring that — to bring the breaking news to folks, those big events that we’re a part of that we get to witness and other people don’t. I look at it as I am bringing that to people in their own living room,” Carmichael said. “I’m thankful every day that Ron Harmeyer gave me an opportunity to do this job, and I really can’t see myself doing anything else.”

WANE 15 will officially turn 70 later this year.

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