BitDepth 686 posted
29/06/09 19:59 Filed in: Website
Updates
On MJ and his brothers
27/06/09 20:48 Filed in: Website
Updates

In just over a year, little brother Michael would begin a trajectory of fame and stardom that would eclipse his most remarkable moments under Berry Gordy. In short order, he would emerge as the saving grace of the film version of The Wiz and record the first solo album on which he would exercise his growing production and songwriting skills.
The Jacksons in 1978 seemed very much in flux, caught between the glories of their past and an uncertain future, the band was confident in performance and capable in public presence.
My brief encounter with them during the few days that they spent in Trinidad and Tobago would forever change the arc of my own career, the photo that I stumbled into of Michael and Penny Commissiong forever lifted my profile from writer with a camera to photographer and changed my own perception of my capabilities and potential.
The Jacksons tour of 1978 didn't change my life, but it accelerated my travels along an inevitable path and gave me both the confidence to pursue a shaky professional venture and the will to stick with it when things didn't work out.
I have no doubt that Michael and his brothers forgot all about me before they even set foot on their flight back home and I will confess to have thought little about the encounter over the past three decades, but in reposting the story I sold to Owen Baptiste's People Magazine (my first major story in a magazine and pictures on a glossy cover) I hope to share something of what happened during those few days and to pay homage to the young star who passed away on June 25.
Read my reminiscing for the Sunday Guardian of June 28 here...
Read the original story for People Magazine here...
Twitter on CNews
25/06/09 08:56 Filed in: Media
Soyini Grey was a delight to work with on this clip for CNews' technology segment. Smart, funny and accommodating, she allowed me to ramble on for what seemed like way too long about Twitter, traditional media and the elections in Iran.
Some thoughts that didn't make it into the final edit include...
Twitter succeeded in Iran because it was diffuse and invisible. Traditional media was easy to find, target and neutralise. Licensed, official reporters are known to the authorities, dozens of people with cellphones and laptops are not.
The authorities in Iran tried to stop information from getting out, blocking access to the preferred social media network in Iran, Friendfeed, but young people simply switched to Twitter and went on sharing links and news updates. Multiple sources of information and multiple points of access for publishing make traditional methods of information supression more difficult, if not impossible to implement.
In embracing new media, traditional media sources need to cultivate the savvy to separate misinformation from fact, opinion from reporting. Life magazine, busy reinventing itself as a source for impactful photography on the web did exactly that by making contact with a photographer who posted some of the best imagery coming out of the protests and gathering that person's work into a striking gallery.
The photographer's identity remains unknown and has since been reported missing by their family. See those images on Life's gallery here...
Related...
BitDepth 686: How to use Twitter
BitDepth 685: Twitter 100 Days later
BitDepth 672: Tweet, tweet, twiddly tweet
BitDepth + Notes from the Twitterverse
BitDepth 685 posted
22/06/09 23:33 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 684 posted
15/06/09 20:36 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 683 posted
08/06/09 23:50 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth
683, a look at how newspapers need to manage their content in an
Internet age is posted
here...
View the whole three part series here...
BitDepth 681 - Newsprint, endangered
BitDepth 682 - The Dock and the Boat
BitDepth 683 - Lost opportunities, future potential
Presentation slides and audio of the presentation given by Georgia Popplewell, Mark Lyndersay and Kellie Magnus to Caribbean media practitioners in Grenada which was the inspiration for the series can be downloaded here...
View the whole three part series here...
BitDepth 681 - Newsprint, endangered
BitDepth 682 - The Dock and the Boat
BitDepth 683 - Lost opportunities, future potential
Presentation slides and audio of the presentation given by Georgia Popplewell, Mark Lyndersay and Kellie Magnus to Caribbean media practitioners in Grenada which was the inspiration for the series can be downloaded here...
How to be creative
01/06/09 22:10 Filed in: Musing
How do
you nurture creativity? This is what I've learned about the process
over the years. Read More...
BitDepth 682 posted
01/06/09 21:50 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 682, some thoughts about the
dilemma facing newspapers today is posted here...
BitDepth 681 posted
25/05/09 22:24 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 681, some thoughts related to
a talk I gave in Grenada to journalists at the Caribbean Media and
Communication Conference on May 14, 2009 is posted here...
BitDepth 680 posted
18/05/09 21:06 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 680 a look at the new Star
Trek film, is posted here...
Future of Media presentations available
18/05/09 21:02 Filed in: Media
On Thursday, Georgia Popplewell and I
gave presentations on the Future of Media at the Caribbean Media
and Communication Conference in Grenada. The presentation slides in
PDF format and an audio recording courtesy of George Grant
can be downloaded here...
BitDepth 679 posted
11/05/09 10:50 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 679, a hands-on look at
Windows RC1 is posted here...
Microsoft, Blackberry launches
11/05/09 10:48 Filed in: BitDepth+
| Website
Updates
Posted reports of launches of the new
Blackberry
Storm and Windows
RC1 in Trinidad and Tobago to Other Writing...
BitDepth series on Web 2.0
04/05/09 22:50 Filed in: Website
Updates
The BitDepth series on maximising your
website for a true Web 2.0 experience is complete. It's all stuff
I've learned over the last couple of years of building and
maintaining this site.
View the series here...
BitDepth 674 - The Attention Deficit
The real currency of the web is eyeballs and attention. Plan your web presence to capture them.
BitDepth 675 - Starting the web conversation
Using a blog as part of your web strategy
BitDepth 676 - Who's out there?
Using site analytics to understand your audience and plan your website's layout
BitDepth 677 - Social mixing for success
Using social media and social web techniques to make your website part of the networks
BitDepth 678 - Putting rubber to the road
Planning the crucial final steps on your web presence.
View the series here...
BitDepth 674 - The Attention Deficit
The real currency of the web is eyeballs and attention. Plan your web presence to capture them.
BitDepth 675 - Starting the web conversation
Using a blog as part of your web strategy
BitDepth 676 - Who's out there?
Using site analytics to understand your audience and plan your website's layout
BitDepth 677 - Social mixing for success
Using social media and social web techniques to make your website part of the networks
BitDepth 678 - Putting rubber to the road
Planning the crucial final steps on your web presence.
BitDepth 677 posted
27/04/09 22:30 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 677, a look at how social
media and web attractors can positively enhance your website
is posted here...
Microsoft at the Summit
27/04/09 22:30 Filed in: BitDepth+
An Interview with Angela Camacho about
Microsoft's hope to work for development in the region is posted
here...
BitDepth 676 posted
21/04/09 00:05 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth
#676, a look at how examining your website statistics can help you
plan strategy is posted
here...
BitDepth 675 - Starting the web conversation
BitDepth 674 - The Attention Deficit
BitDepth 675 - Starting the web conversation
BitDepth 674 - The Attention Deficit
BitDepth 675 posted
13/04/09 23:52 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth
675, advice on how to establish a modern web presence, is
posted
here...
This is the second part in a series making a real impact in Web 2.0. Find the first part here...
This is the second part in a series making a real impact in Web 2.0. Find the first part here...
IE and this blog
07/04/09 17:41 Filed in: Website
Updates
Playing pan with powder posted
07/04/09 10:11 Filed in: Website
Updates
The
story Playing pan with powder about an entrepreneur's plan to bring
durable colour to the national instrument is posted here...
BitDepth 674 posted
06/04/09 21:04 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth
674, the first in a month long examination of website and social
media strategies is posted
here...
Jazz on the Greens review posted
02/04/09 22:42 Filed in: Website
Updates
Judiciary gallery removed
31/03/09 21:49 Filed in: Website
Updates
Tribe PDF crosses 7,000 downloads
30/03/09 23:32 Filed in: Website
Updates

Tribe downloads as logged by my web statistics as of March 26, 2008. The other files in the listing are small files associated with page designs on the website. Overall statistics cover two years of cumulative data. The Tribe PDF is just under 800KB and only downloads when someone specifically clicks on it.
Downloads of the facsimile document of Gathering the Tribe, my account of a year spent observing the Carnival band Tribe's production process has crossed 7,000 downloads in its first month of availability.
The PDF file of the three pages allocated to me in the Guardian's Ash Wednesday Carnival souvenir created a spike in the bandwidth on my site's servers this month, but it's a welcome surge and covered by my hosting arrangements.
Thanks for your interest.
The file, along with PDFs of the first eight in the series are to be found here...
An expanded gallery of images is posted here...

The Tribe PDF bandwidth use expressed by volume in bytes in webstats for the last two years. The first Local Lives is ahead on volume, but it's been on the site for two years, not four weeks.
BSG's most important moments
30/03/09 23:25 Filed in: BitDepth+
• The
appropriation of Richard Hatch and his anger about the remake into
the show as Tom Zarek.
• The appearance of Battlestar Pegasus and the resulting powerplay.
• Starbuck’s capture of a Cylon raider and the discovery that the ship is organic.
• Season 3’s unflinching translation of the Iraq occupation to BSG’s universe as Cylons occupy New Caprica.
• Finding Earth. Nuff said.
• Anastasia “Dee” Dualla’s last day.
• Felix Gaeta’s rebellion and its ultimate consequences.
• Gaius Baltar, inspired villain. The lameness that is ultimate evil.
• The appearance of Battlestar Pegasus and the resulting powerplay.
• Starbuck’s capture of a Cylon raider and the discovery that the ship is organic.
• Season 3’s unflinching translation of the Iraq occupation to BSG’s universe as Cylons occupy New Caprica.
• Finding Earth. Nuff said.
• Anastasia “Dee” Dualla’s last day.
• Felix Gaeta’s rebellion and its ultimate consequences.
• Gaius Baltar, inspired villain. The lameness that is ultimate evil.
BitDepth 673 posted
30/03/09 23:23 Filed in: Website
Updates
Who watched Watchmen?
27/03/09 23:28 Filed in: Movies
In less
than a week, Watchmen slunk off the screens of moviehouses in
Trinidad and Tobago. Some thoughts about why a dark brooding
superhero film failed to find an audience here and
elsewhere. Read More...
Notes from the Twitterverse
23/03/09 20:20 Filed in: BitDepth+
BitDepth 672 posted
23/03/09 20:19 Filed in: Website
Updates
Carnival: Rationalising Government subsidies
19/03/09 21:01 Filed in: Carnival
BitDepth 671 posted
16/03/09 22:20 Filed in: Website
Updates
Separated at birth: The Carnival Edition
14/03/09 19:52 Filed in: Carnival
Creative enterprises are funny like that.
Out of nowhere, there will suddenly be two movies about a meteor endangering Earth bearing down on the box office.
Carnival can be like that too, sometimes.
The week before Carnival, for instance, I was hugely entertained by Errol Fabien’s Heart Attack, the video for which I have been granted an opportunity to share, above. Rendered a little shakily by the performer, as befits an entry in a “company calypso competition,” (Gayelle The Channel’s annual Bois), I was struck by the kind of calypso that would have been commonplace in the tents of just a decade ago.
This witty bad skylark song that would have created buzz in the listening community and drawn crowds to the tent. Fabien won the competition with the song, despite an announcer’s mix-up that gave the crown to another performer during the live broadcast.
Imagine my surprise when Hollis Liverpool, The Mighty Chalkdust, arrived on the Dimanche Gras stage with an all-new composition that struck many of the gracenotes of Fabien’s song and also won his competition with “My Heart and I.” Just another of those happy coincidences that springs up in the competitive hotbed of Carnival.
There was another surprise for me on Dimanche Gras night, as Kadafi Romney crossed the stage as Manzandaba in Flight, a costume by Brian Mac Farlane that seemed more than a little familiar.
Whenever these kinds of things happen, I remember a very generous comment that Peter Minshall shared with me years ago when he was explaining his design process.
“It’s a very limited canvas,” he said.
Minshall noted that a designer was constrained both by the shape of the human body and by the limits that a designer had to work with in terms of what the committed masquerader could carry and the average masquerader would be willing to carry.
It’s as good a bit of reasoning as any when designs overlap and calypso themes mirror each other.
Or...they could be separated at birth.
BitDepth 670 posted
09/03/09 21:09 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth #670, posted
here, explores the
potential of Palm's new Pre smartphone to reverse the company's
fortunes. If you're subscribed to the current RSS feed for
BitDepth, please take a moment to resubscribe. I've had to change
the URL for the feed to reflect the current year.
On Watchmen
05/03/09 21:59 Filed in: Comics
Rereading the book before the film is
formally released, I am captured once again by the obsessive detail
and care that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons invested in the Watchmen
graphic novel. Read More...
Carnival: The pointless romance
02/03/09 21:40 Filed in: Carnival
Editorial on the romance of Carnival
for the Trinidad Guardian for March 03 Read
More...
BitDepth 669 posted
02/03/09 19:34 Filed in: Website
Updates
Updates to Tribe Gallery
27/02/09 19:09 Filed in: Website
Updates
Got to
stop working while I'm half asleep.
Failed to recover some lost data from the Tribe story, but I did manage to fix the oversharpening on the Tribe gallery.
Much of the project is shot existing light with high ISO settings, so too much sharpening makes the images particularly cruddy.
I've also upped the resolution to 900 pixels as a bonus.
Added a text page with the copy that has accompanied all nine of the stories and revamped the design of the pages.
Failed to recover some lost data from the Tribe story, but I did manage to fix the oversharpening on the Tribe gallery.
Much of the project is shot existing light with high ISO settings, so too much sharpening makes the images particularly cruddy.
I've also upped the resolution to 900 pixels as a bonus.
Added a text page with the copy that has accompanied all nine of the stories and revamped the design of the pages.
Local Lives 09 goes live
25/02/09 11:04 Filed in: Website
Updates
The
ninth installment of Local Lives is now available. The print
version appeared in the Trinidad Guardian today and an extended
gallery of images selected for the story with full captions is
available here.
The printed version, with an excellent design by Kevan Gibbs is available for download as a PDF here.
There's a bit of background into the story of this installment of Local Lives, which took a year to produce here.
The printed version, with an excellent design by Kevan Gibbs is available for download as a PDF here.
There's a bit of background into the story of this installment of Local Lives, which took a year to produce here.
Calypso Rising?
23/02/09 19:30 Filed in: Carnival
Editorial written for the Carnival
Tuesday edition of the Trinidad Guardian about the future of
calypso for February 17. Read More...
BitDepth 668 posted
23/02/09 19:28 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 668, musings about the ways
that technology has changed my photographic approach to Carnival
is posted here...
BitDepth 667 posted
16/02/09 22:13 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth # 667, a report on COTT's new
electronic monitoring system is posted here...
New Galleries, including Viey La Cou series
15/02/09 15:21 Filed in: Website
Updates
The Viey La Cou series is now live in the
Virtual Gallery. A behind the
scenes account of the 1989 shoot is posted in my photo
blog.
The GayelleTV gallery formerly in my portfolio has been revisited, re-edited and is now posted in Virtual Gallery format in that section.
The GayelleTV gallery formerly in my portfolio has been revisited, re-edited and is now posted in Virtual Gallery format in that section.
Viey La Cou series begins
14/02/09 00:10 Filed in: Photography
The Viey La Cou series begins today
with Dame Lorraine. I took extensive notes on these photographs in
the late 1980's and have since lost them. If anyone recognises the
players, please let me know so that I can put names to the
faces.
In the 20 years since I shot these photos, most of these old players have since left the stage and younger players with more enthusiasm and far less history have taken their place. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to capture these images when so many of these characters were still being played by performers who had been doing the roles for decades.
I'll be posting the complete series after they appear on the front page of this website in the Virtual Gallery and putting a photographer's note in the Photo Blog.
In the 20 years since I shot these photos, most of these old players have since left the stage and younger players with more enthusiasm and far less history have taken their place. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to capture these images when so many of these characters were still being played by performers who had been doing the roles for decades.
I'll be posting the complete series after they appear on the front page of this website in the Virtual Gallery and putting a photographer's note in the Photo Blog.
Blog post on Canon's wireless flash sync
14/02/09 00:06 Filed in: Website
Updates
Notes on
what happens when you press two of Canon's ETTL strobes with
wireless sync into service in the middle of the St James Hosay
celebrations.
Carnival portrait series to run from Friday
09/02/09 21:46 Filed in: Website
Updates
Carnival: Two chips forward, three steps back
09/02/09 21:33 Filed in: Carnival
Trinidad Guardian editorial about the
reconstructed Savannah stage Read More...
BitDepth 666 posted
09/02/09 21:30 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 666, a look at Microsoft's new
public beta for its Windows operating system is posted
here...
BitDepth 665 posted
02/02/09 21:31 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 665, the story of Derren Joseph's
adjustment of his ticketing service to encompass calypso tents
is posted here...
BitDepth 664 posted
26/01/09 21:08 Filed in: Website
Updates
Birthday greetings from Facebook friends
26/01/09 21:06 Filed in: Technology
BitDepth 663 posted
26/01/09 20:58 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 663 an update on the progress of
TrinidadTunes.com and the Free + Legal campaign is posted
here...
More on Free + Legal
19/01/09 21:25 Filed in: BitDepth+
The
Free + Legal campaign jointly announced by Columbus Communication's
Flow and TrinidadTunes.com marked a coming of age for the music
download service.
As the team behind Riddums Music and Trinidad Music Store closed in on their first anniversary, Flow approached the music distributors looking for ideas on a meaningful collaboration.
Flow had first approached 3 Canal about doing a jingle, but the group doesn't do that kind of work, so the idea of Free + Legal was born, offering music for a limited time with a sponsor footing the cost.
As noted here in BitDepth, 3 Canal will be offering their new album Joy + Fire exclusively on TrinidadTunes.com until they release the CD later in the Carnival season.
The idea was stimulated by the October 2008 visit of Gerd Leonhard, a futurist thinker with a special interest in music and its distribution in the digital age.
"Flow has been amazing," said Lorraine O'Connor. "We thought that the phone companies would have jumped on this idea, but Flow didn't even want to limit it to their customers on their network."
3 Canal apparently left their meeting with Flow astonished at how open minded the company proved to be in their discussions.
TrinidadTunes hopes to start hosting music videos on the website before the end of the Carnival season.
"We're not philanthropists," said O'Connor.
"But we see that it's to the long term benefit of both our businesses to build interest in legal downloads," her business partner Roses Hezekiah continued.
"The most astonishing thing is that Flow's team is just bright, bright women and the meetings just blaze on," said O'Connor, "Rhea (Yawching, Flow's Communications chief) will just hold up her hands and bawl, 'no more ideas, no more, I have no budget left'."
As the team behind Riddums Music and Trinidad Music Store closed in on their first anniversary, Flow approached the music distributors looking for ideas on a meaningful collaboration.
Flow had first approached 3 Canal about doing a jingle, but the group doesn't do that kind of work, so the idea of Free + Legal was born, offering music for a limited time with a sponsor footing the cost.
As noted here in BitDepth, 3 Canal will be offering their new album Joy + Fire exclusively on TrinidadTunes.com until they release the CD later in the Carnival season.
The idea was stimulated by the October 2008 visit of Gerd Leonhard, a futurist thinker with a special interest in music and its distribution in the digital age.
"Flow has been amazing," said Lorraine O'Connor. "We thought that the phone companies would have jumped on this idea, but Flow didn't even want to limit it to their customers on their network."
3 Canal apparently left their meeting with Flow astonished at how open minded the company proved to be in their discussions.
TrinidadTunes hopes to start hosting music videos on the website before the end of the Carnival season.
"We're not philanthropists," said O'Connor.
"But we see that it's to the long term benefit of both our businesses to build interest in legal downloads," her business partner Roses Hezekiah continued.
"The most astonishing thing is that Flow's team is just bright, bright women and the meetings just blaze on," said O'Connor, "Rhea (Yawching, Flow's Communications chief) will just hold up her hands and bawl, 'no more ideas, no more, I have no budget left'."
BitDepth 2005 added
17/01/09 17:07 Filed in: Website
Updates
On Duke
15/01/09 22:52 Filed in: Website
Updates
Website changes
12/01/09 23:03 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 662 posted
12/01/09 23:01 Filed in: Website
Updates
Macintosh blog merged
06/01/09 14:26 Filed in: Website
Updates
After adding the Macintosh blog last
year, I've decided to merge the contents of the Mac content with
the main blog.
I'll continue to add entries and I'll be adding some navigation tools to make accessing the material a little easier.
At least it won't be so embarassing when weeks go by without an update.
I'll continue to add entries and I'll be adding some navigation tools to make accessing the material a little easier.
At least it won't be so embarassing when weeks go by without an update.
BitDepth 661 posted
06/01/09 14:23 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth#661, a hands-on look at the new
Macbook Pro is posted
here...
Additional notes on using the notebook are here... Read More...
Additional notes on using the notebook are here... Read More...
Notes on Hyper-V
06/01/09 14:22 Filed in: BitDepth+
More
notes from a presentation on Microsoft's new Hyper-V server
technology.
Read the BitDepth story on the event here... Read More...
Read the BitDepth story on the event here... Read More...
Managing Mac clutter
06/01/09 14:22 Filed in: Macintosh
Messy desktop? These tools can hide
it, if not tidy it. Read More...
Handmade cooling
06/01/09 14:20 Filed in: Macintosh
The rig I made to cool off a hot
notebook... Read More...
Mac Backup
06/01/09 14:20 Filed in: Macintosh
Software can make backup less of a
chore. Read More...
Updating the modern Mac
06/01/09 14:19 Filed in: Macintosh
Running system updates on Mac OS X can
be tricky business. Read More...
FTP on the Mac
06/01/09 14:17 Filed in: Macintosh
If you need an FTP client, you’ll find
many useful choices available for the Mac. Choosing the right one
is a matter of matching need to software. Read
More...
Secrets of the word warrior
06/01/09 14:16 Filed in: Macintosh
Every warrior has a secret weapon
sheathed in a secret personal space on his person. SpellCatcher and
Grammarian are the hidden shoe knives I unleash on my words before
releasing them into the world. Read
More...
Image editors for the Mac
06/01/09 14:14 Filed in: Macintosh
Need to do more with photos than
iPhoto's tools offer? Scared of Photoshop's price tag? There's a
lot of good stuff in-between. Read More...
The skinny on the Air
06/01/09 14:12 Filed in: Macintosh
The MacBook Air is slim and sexy, but
is it enough laptop? Read More...
Scaling down, moving up
06/01/09 14:11 Filed in: Macintosh
Why a smaller, cheaper laptop made
sense... Read More...
BitDepth 660 posted
29/12/08 23:37 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 657, 658, 659 posted
22/12/08 20:26 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth
657 on the value proposition of HDTV is
posted here...
BitDepth 658, the annual gift guide for tech lovers is posted here...
BitDepth 659, a look at Quantum of Solace and The Day the Earth stood still is posted here...
BitDepth 658, the annual gift guide for tech lovers is posted here...
BitDepth 659, a look at Quantum of Solace and The Day the Earth stood still is posted here...
BitDepth 656 posted
01/12/08 21:01 Filed in: Website
Updates
Notes on the 2008 ICT Symposium
25/11/08 00:19 Filed in: BitDepth+
Additional reporting on the ICT Symposium, direct
from my notebook...
Related: BitDepth 655... Read More...
Related: BitDepth 655... Read More...
McNally talk posted
25/11/08 00:11 Filed in: Photography
The
final posting of notes from PhotoPlus Expo 2008, notes on talks
given by Joe McNally is posted
here...
BitDepth 655 posted
25/11/08 00:08 Filed in: Website
Updates
Remembering Bheem Singh
17/11/08 21:32 Filed in: Photography

Bheem was always kind to strangers but he doted on his children and their children. Photo by Mark Lyndersay.
Bheem Singh died on November 09 and was buried on November 12 in a quiet ceremony at St Mary's Church in St James.
In one of those curious turns that makes Trinidad and Tobago such a unique and intriguing nation, the man who returned Divali, a Hindu festival to St James with a street display outside his home at Ethel Street, was buried under Christian rites.
Bheem Singh was always kind and generous to me and his tireless patience with my efforts to photograph his work for the festival, so he was, after a fashion, the first of my Local Lives subjects.
I first photographed the work he was doing with his sons on Ethel Street for The Wire, but the photos weren't published. When I came by to apologise for wasting his time, he berated me instead for not visiting on Divali night to share in the food his family generously served to anyone who visited their home.
This year, neither Bheem nor I were at the family's celebrations. He was in hospital while the family bravely carried on with the celebrations and I was was in New York, having carelessly failed to factor in the overlap with my travel.
He was a generous, kind and cheerful man, a great neighbour in St James. He will be missed, particularly when the lights of the deyas are lit each year.
I've finally posted the last three of the published Local Lives essays, including A Light in the West.
BitDepth 654 posted
17/11/08 21:27 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 653 posted
10/11/08 19:05 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth
653, a report on cable company Columbus Communications' recent
press conference, is posted
here...
David De Caires, fondly remembered
04/11/08 10:18 Filed in: Musing
I wrote
this editorial for Monday's Guardian (October 03).
As I mentioned in a note to David's son, Brendan, his father always recognised me wherever we met with a kindness and generosity that was always touching.
David De Caires was a man of some intensity, but he had no airs and I count myself fortunate to have met him through my friendship with Brendan. Read More...
As I mentioned in a note to David's son, Brendan, his father always recognised me wherever we met with a kindness and generosity that was always touching.
David De Caires was a man of some intensity, but he had no airs and I count myself fortunate to have met him through my friendship with Brendan. Read More...
Mass updates
04/11/08 09:43 Filed in: Website
Updates
After
almost a full week of hacking my lungs up and blowing my sinuses
into a rather vast assortment of tissues, I've finally mustered the
energy to begin posting to the site again.
Fortunately, I'm working from copious notes from the show floor at PhotoPlus Expo 2008, so the assortment of drugs and remedies I've been ingesting hasn't quite succeeded in wiping my brain pan clean of what I encountered over the three days of Expo.
Herewith, a roundup of all the new postings to the site...
BitDepth 651 covers a panel at PhotoPlus on the way Microstock has changed the face of not just stock photography sales but the profile of contributors.
There are additional notes from that panel posted to my Photo Blog here.
BitDepth 652 covers the panel of winners of this year's All Roads Project. Just one of the winners was able to make it, and his story is a remarkable one.
Day One of my PhotoPlus expo blog coverage covers the hunt for a new sling bag.
Fortunately, I'm working from copious notes from the show floor at PhotoPlus Expo 2008, so the assortment of drugs and remedies I've been ingesting hasn't quite succeeded in wiping my brain pan clean of what I encountered over the three days of Expo.
Herewith, a roundup of all the new postings to the site...
BitDepth 651 covers a panel at PhotoPlus on the way Microstock has changed the face of not just stock photography sales but the profile of contributors.
There are additional notes from that panel posted to my Photo Blog here.
BitDepth 652 covers the panel of winners of this year's All Roads Project. Just one of the winners was able to make it, and his story is a remarkable one.
Day One of my PhotoPlus expo blog coverage covers the hunt for a new sling bag.
Blogging the show floor
22/10/08 16:48 Filed in: BitDepth+
The next
installment of BitDepth (October 28) will be a report on highlights
from this year's PhotoPlus Expo, but from Thursday evening, I'll be
blogging my findings and notes from the show floor of the PhotoPlus
Expo 2008 at the Jacob Javits Centre in New York for the duration
of the three days of the show.
You'll find that coverage posted on my photoblog here...
You'll find that coverage posted on my photoblog here...
BitDepth 650 posted
22/10/08 16:47 Filed in: Website
Updates
Future talk
13/10/08 10:50 Filed in: BitDepth+
BitDepth 649 posted
13/10/08 10:38 Filed in: Website
Updates
BitDepth 648 posted
03/10/08 13:32 Filed in: BitDepth+
A farewell to testosterone
29/09/08 21:20 Filed in: Comics
BitDepth 647 Posted
29/09/08 20:51 Filed in: Website
Updates
Fundraisers for Jeffrey Chock annoucned
22/09/08 21:15 Filed in: Photography
PhotoBlog: Lenses, not cameras
22/09/08 21:11 Filed in: Photography

BitDepth 645 & 646 posted
22/09/08 20:40 Filed in: Website
Updates

Four colour heroics in black and white
20/09/08 14:02 Filed in: Comics
A review of four novels about comics
and the beginning of my coverage of comics on the blog.
Read More...
Chock fundraising
08/09/08 23:09 Filed in: Photography
Virtual exhibit hall
08/09/08 23:09 Filed in: Photography
This new section offers images in much higher than normal resolution (images will be 1200 pixels wide or 1024 pixels high on their long side, depending on orientation) and will fit nicely on a screen that’s 17 inches or larger.
The display is roughly equivalent to viewing an 8 x 10 inch print.
This runs counter to the traditional thinking on web reproduction, these larger files being easy targets for theft. But there’s also a very valuable counter movement, exemplified by the Boston Globe’s take on photography on the web. Which is, in summary, so what?
I’ve had exhibitions of my work in the past and I still haven’t recovered from the experience 25 years later. I’d rather risk some petty theft and display some of my collections properly than massage my ego with another show in a hurry.
Let me know what you think about the first collection. I have another, much larger “show” waiting in the wings.
To assist you in viewing the images on your screen with greater accuracy, I’ve included these colour bars. Most modern monitors offer some colour controls that will eliminate particularly obvious colour casts.
The blocks in the bar are from left to right, 100 percent of blue, green, red and black, 50 percent gray, 25 percent gray and 100 percent white (that block should disappear on this page).
PhotoBlog: Portrait with a single light
08/09/08 21:10 Filed in: Photography

Dreamscape goes nuts
08/09/08 20:19 Filed in: Website
Updates

BitDepth 644 posted
08/09/08 20:14 Filed in: Website
Updates

MacBlog: Think
01/09/08 21:59 Filed in: Website
Updates



