Eh?

Posted on by

From today’s NYTimes.com

It’s a long way from $700 billion, but the media start-up Six Apart is introducing its own economic bailout plan.

The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program offers recently terminated bloggers and journalists a free pro account (worth $150 annually) on the company’s popular blogging platform. In addition to the free yearly membership, the 20 to 30 journalists who are accepted will receive professional tech support, placement on the company’s blog aggregation site, Blogs.com, and automatic enrollment in the company’s advertising revenue-sharing program.

Anil Dash, a former blogger and current vice president at Six Apart, announced the program Nov. 14, shortly after the company made its own staff cuts. Mr. Dash fired off a blog post: “Hello, recently-laid-off or fearful-of-layoffs journalist! We’re Six Apart (you know us as the nice folks who make Movable Type or TypePad, which maybe you used for blogging at your old newspaper or magazine) and we want to help you.”

On Monday morning, he had roughly 50 e-mail applications in his inbox, and they have continued to pour in, totaling nearly 300 so far. “It was a bit of a surprise how quickly word got out,” Mr. Dash said. “This has struck a nerve.”

I don’t get this. What’s to stop these people getting a free Blogger or WordPress account? Is this another example of print journalists being clueless about the Web? Am I missing something?

Barry O’Bama

Posted on by

Needless to say, Barack has Irish ancestors. (Doesn’t everybody famous?) His late mother, Anne Dunham, was a descendant of Fulmouth Kearney who left Moneygall, Co. Offaly (Latitude: 52° 52′ 49 N, Longitude: 7° 57 ‘ 31 W) , for the US in 1850.

But here’s the neat twist: Mr Kearney was a Protestant! Or, as my dear mother used to say (for she was not a woman to mince her words and took a dim view of non-Catholics), a ‘Black Proteshtant’. Yippee!

The defining speech

Posted on by

In retrospect, this was the defining moment of the campaign. It’s the speech that Obama gave on March 18, just as the media frenzy about his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was reaching a peak. And it’s an astonishingly grown-up speech. I had hitherto only read second-hand reports of it. I can’t remember when we last had a major politician as sophisticated as this man.

Coping with financial toxicity

Posted on by

Here’s a modest proposal: treat financial derivatives like pharmaceutical products. Just as there is a Food and Drugs Administration to assess the safety of new drugs, so there should be a Financial Products Administration that assesses the safety of proposed new financial instruments. That’d sort out the industry in short order. Imagine the screams from bankers and their lobbyists!

Photography: the next wave

Posted on by

This morning’s Observer column…

Just over a month ago Canon launched the second generation of its full-frame camera, the EOS 5D Mk 2. This not only does traditional still photography, it also records HD video at 30 frames a second. I’ve seen footage shot with this camera and it’s stunning: high-definition movies shot with the low-light capability and optical quality only available on lenses that come with high-end still cameras.

This new camera obliterates the distinction between still photography and cinematography. The guys who sit on touchlines with long lenses will be able to produce not just action stills but video footage better than anything the TV cameras can capture. When billions of dollars rest on the distinction between photography and TV rights, you can imagine the implications.

Already there is talk that the new Canon camera will be banned from the 2012 Olympics because the TV companies won’t stand for it (after all, they pay nearly $1bn for the rights). And one day all photographs will be merely stills from a HD movie sequence…

The dogs that didn’t bark

Posted on by

One of the things that really bugs me about the banking collapse is why our media and politicians didn’t spot the madness underpinning the system. The excuse that these derivatives and securitised debt assets were too technically complex for ordinary mortals to understand won’t wash, because the nub of the madness was obvious: if you give mortgages to people who will have trouble with payments, and you allow them (as in the UK) to self-certify their incomes, then even an idiot can see the problem.

Similarly, if the credit rating agencies on whom the entire trading systems depends get their incomes from the companies whose products they are supposed to be rating, then you can expect trouble, because it’s nuts. If your bonus depends on satisfying Citigroup that its fancy new derivatives are worthy of an AAA rating, then — human nature being what it is — guess what happens? The lunacy of what was happening ought to have been obvious, especially to those media outlets which supposedly specialise in covering financial markets. And to regulators.

(En passant, much the same holds for the UK’s BSE catastrophe. You don’t have to be an expert biologist to know that feeding animal remains to herbivores is not a good idea. But again, nobody in the media pointed that out.)

But all this is about observers who are outside the magic circle of bonus-fuelled lunacy. Now there’s an interesting NYT story about what went on in Citigroup.

In September 2007, with Wall Street confronting a crisis caused by too many souring mortgages, Citigroup executives gathered in a wood-paneled library to assess their own well-being.

There, Citigroup’s chief executive, Charles O. Prince III, learned for the first time that the bank owned about $43 billion in mortgage-related assets. He asked Thomas G. Maheras, who oversaw trading at the bank, whether everything was O.K.

Mr. Maheras told his boss that no big losses were looming, according to people briefed on the meeting who would speak only on the condition that they not be named.

For months, Mr. Maheras’s reassurances to others at Citigroup had quieted internal concerns about the bank’s vulnerabilities. But this time, a risk-management team was dispatched to more rigorously examine Citigroup’s huge mortgage-related holdings. They were too late, however: within several weeks, Citigroup would announce billions of dollars in losses.

Normally, a big bank would never allow the word of just one executive to carry so much weight. Instead, it would have its risk managers aggressively look over any shoulder and guard against trading or lending excesses.

But many Citigroup insiders say the bank’s risk managers never investigated deeply enough. Because of longstanding ties that clouded their judgment, the very people charged with overseeing deal makers eager to increase short-term earnings — and executives’ multimillion-dollar bonuses — failed to rein them in, these insiders say.

LATER: Nice email from the other side of the world attaching a report from Le Monde Diplomatique which has this interesting anecdote:

So far China has been relatively unaffected by the worst insanities of the investment markets. The Financial Times reported a story that did the rounds in Beijing: “At a secret meeting of top Communist officials at the start of this decade, Zhu Rongji, then China’s premier, summoned senior academics and finance officials to teach a crash course on complex financial instruments. Financial derivatives. . . were described as like putting a mirror in front of another mirror, allowing a physical object to be reflected into infinity”. This is a good description of a mechanism with a worldwide value of more than a $1,000 trillion – the equivalent of 20 years’ global production – resting on sand…

Quote of the day

Posted on by

I don’t want to see Detroit’s auto industry wiped out, but what are we supposed to do with auto executives who fly to Washington in three separate private jets, ask for a taxpayer bailout and offer no detailed plan for their own transformation?

Tom Friedman, in the New York Times.

The future of photography

Posted on by

Interesting post by Dan Wallach.

Several interesting things are happening in the wild world of digital photography as it’s colliding with digital video. Most notably, the new Canon 5D Mark II (roughly $2700) can record 1080p video and the new Nikon D90 (roughly $1000) can record 720p video. At the higher end, Red just announced some cameras that will ship next year that will be able to record full video (as fast as 120 frames per second in some cases) at far greater than HD resolutions (for $12K, you can record video at a staggering 6000×4000 pixels). You can configure a Red camera as a still camera or as a video camera.

Recently, well-known photographer Vincent Laforet (perhaps best known for his aerial photographs, such as “Me and My Human”) got his hands on a pre-production Canon 5D Mark II and filmed a “mock commercial” called “Reverie”, which shows off what the camera can do, particularly its see-in-the-dark low-light abilities. If you read Laforet’s blog, you’ll see that he’s quite excited, not just about the technical aspects of the camera, but about what this means to him as a professional photographer. Suddenly, he can leverage all of the expensive lenses that he already owns and capture professional-quality video “for free.” This has all kinds of ramifications for what it means to cover an event… Dan quotes Vincent Laforet’s musings on the implications of the new Canon camera.

The ability to harness professional-grade lenses for both still photography and cinematic visuals has opened doors for countless photographers looking to expand their craft. This evolution isn’t just about technology; it’s about creative freedom. With the right gear, photographers can transition seamlessly between capturing stunning stills and immersive video, maximizing the potential of their equipment. For those looking to navigate this ever-expanding world of photography and videography, the best guide to photography equipment offers detailed insights into the best lenses, cameras, and accessories for different styles and scenarios. As technology continues to blur the lines between photography and filmmaking, having the right tools—and knowing how to use them—remains key to staying ahead in this dynamic industry.

The advent of advanced camera technology has significantly transformed the landscape of wedding photography, particularly with tools like the Canon 5D Mark II. Just as Vincent Laforet enthusiastically embraced the camera’s capabilities, photographers are discovering the profound impact these innovations can have on their craft. With the ability to shoot stunning video in low light, the line between photography and videography continues to blur, allowing for a more comprehensive storytelling approach. The emphasis is shifting away from posed mannequins, moving instead towards capturing the authenticity and emotion of the day in all its spontaneous glory.

Photographers are empowered to leverage their existing lens collections to create immersive experiences that resonate with couples looking for more than just traditional portraiture. The ability to seamlessly transition between stills and video means that every laugh, tear, and dance move can be documented without compromising the artistry of the images. Adelaide Wedding Photography is thus evolving into a dynamic narrative form, where the focus remains on the couple and their loved ones, rather than on meticulously staged setups. The excitement surrounding these advancements mirrors Laforet’s passion, as photographers embrace the challenge of creating heartfelt, story-driven visual memories that couples will cherish for a lifetime.

As camera technology continues to evolve, photographers are no longer limited to the traditional methods of capturing moments. With tools that allow for high-quality video and stunning stills, the creative possibilities seem endless. Photographers can now experiment with new lighting techniques, compositions, and angles to tell a more compelling and multifaceted story. The ability to capture both video and photos seamlessly creates a unique opportunity to document the dynamic, ever-changing nature of a scene, whether it’s a bustling street, a quiet moment in nature, or the energy of a live performance. This shift encourages photographers to think beyond the image itself and embrace a more holistic approach to storytelling.

To enhance these new techniques, dark and moody presets offer photographers the chance to add a distinctive edge to their edits. These presets allow for a deeper, more atmospheric feel, emphasizing contrast and shadow to create dramatic, cinematic images. Whether capturing an intense portrait or a quiet landscape, dark and moody tones evoke a sense of mystery and emotion, pulling viewers into the story behind the image. By incorporating these presets, photographers can elevate their work, adding a level of sophistication that complements their artistic vision while remaining true to the authenticity of the moment.

So – here we are at a crossroads. I see this as all positive – I’ve always wanted to shoot more video/film – but didn’t want to make a new investment in lenses and gear… now I no longer have to… think about it. Although I have no insider knowledge on what Canon is working on at this time – common sense would lead me to believe they’ll have an answer to this soon enough. I say this, because the rumors being traded back and forth at the Olympics, from non-Nikon or Canon people – was that Canon was going to be the one making this type of announcement first… we all in fact knew that some big announcement was coming from Nikon on Monday (this past Monday – it came out Tuesday as it turned out) so who knows…

The reason we are at a crossroads is the following: TELEVISION and their fear of the traditional print media tresspassing on their turf. A turf they have paid for – and are unlikely to share for free. Given that all of these rumours were going around quite a bit in Beijing – I sat down with two very influential people who will each be involved at the next two Olympic Games. Given that NBC paid more than $900 million to acquire the U.S. Broadcasting rights to this past summer games, how would they feel about a still photographer showing up with a camera that can shoot HD video? I got the following answer from the person who will be involved with Vancouver which I’ll paraphrase: Still photographers will be allowed in the venues with whatever camera they chose, and shoot whatever they want – shooting video in it of itself, is not a problem.

HOWEVER – if the video is EVER published – the lawsuits will inevitably be filed, and credentials revoked etc. This to me seems like the reasonable thing to do – and the correct approach. But the person I spoke with who will be involved in the London 2012 Olympic Games had a different view, again I paraphrase: “Those cameras will have to be banned. Period. They will never be allowed into any Olympic venue” because the broadcasters would have a COW if they did. And while I think this is not the best approach – I think it might unfortunately be the most realistic. Do you really think that the TV producers and rigths-owners will “trust” photographers not to broadcast anything they’ve paid so much for. Unlikely. Remember that every two years – photographers are allowed to go and see the dress-rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies at each Olympics and every time we have to sign releases promising NEVER to publish those. We are granted access so that we can better prepare to shoot the actual thing.

Nonetheless, someone did publish these pictures in Athens for example… and once those promises are broken, it gives TV the excuse to shut us down (although they haven’t – and did let us shoot dress rehearsals this year.) But do we really trust all of our breatheren to ahere to these “restrictions” – forever? Well – I don’t. And that’s why I think we’ll have problems – big problems – coming down the pipe with these cameras for the photographers who shoot in “closed” events where someone has bought rights to said event. We’re reaching another discontinuity. Digital technology has first broken down the chasm between analogue and digital quality. Now it’s moving to erode the distinctions between two, hitherto-distinct, IP-driven media industries. Footnote: The Nikon D90 body is currently selling at £575 in the UK. The new Canon camera is selling for under £2,000.