The backstory on 'A Gift of the Past,' in Caribbean Beat's January-February issue, about a collection of my father's old negatives and the history of Carnival that they revealed, is posted here... The text from that story is posted here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 716, an evaluation of Apple's new iPad, is posted here...

Tags: Apple

BitDepth 715 is the story of how soca star Mr Vybe leverages social media to advance his career and connect with his fans.

Tags: Carnival

BitDepth#714, some thoughts on the TSTT concert brouhaha is posted here...

Tags: TSTT

New presentation on how Local Lives gets put together is posted to the presentations page...

Tags: Photography

On the HaHaHa productions portrait from Mark Lyndersay on Vimeo.

Host Andy Johnson and guests (and subjects) Penelope Spencer and Nikki Crosby chat on the TV6 Morning Edtion show about the portrait I did of the group to launch my work on Womanwise for the Sunday Guardian.

Tags: Media

BitDepth#713, an extended answer to the question about technology trends that CNMG's Jessie Mae Ventour asked me (below) is posted here...

Tags: Internet

First Up technology discussion from Mark Lyndersay on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Derren Joseph for asking me to participate!

Tags: Technology

Photographing a kidnapping victim on the very first day of the year proves to be the kind of challenge that makes photojournalism really interesting.

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 712, a look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom's third public beta test is here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 711, an excerpt from this talk on DEW is posted here...

Tags: Media

In the 23 years since Giselle La Ronde-West won the Miss World title, I have never once photographed her. Womanwise gives me my first shot at an ageless beauty.

Tags: Photography

BitDepth #710, a look at Facebook's new privacy changes is posted here...

Tags: Facebook

Diamonds are forever, or at the very least, last Sunday, lack of credit for the work notwithstanding. Read the behind the shoot story here...

Tags: Photography

Photographer's notes on a session with veteran model Lystra Cudjoe are posted here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth#709, a look at a heated Facebook debate on copyright is posted here...

Tags: Media

A videocast of a presentation covering my career to date prepared for St Joseph's Convent students and the bpTT photography club is posted here...

Tags: Photography

My review of the film 2012 for the Trinidad Guardian is posted here...

Tags: Movies

Interested in the photos I've been doing for Womanwise? There's now a virtual gallery of the work available here. It's made for big screens, I'm afraid.

Tags: Photography

The wonderful world of Mystie. Behind the Womanwise shoot.

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 708, a reconsideration of some media bashing in the technology sector, is posted here...

Photo session number 13 turns out to be an encounter with a former Wilhelmina model. I laugh at your reputation for bad luck! Hahahahaha! Oh, and the photographer's notes are here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth#707, a look at Blackberry's new 8520 and the Blackberry App World online store for software is posted here...

Tags: Blackberry

Planning for a pregnant Destra takes some forethought and some strategy. Here's how I tackled the challenge.

Tags: Photography

BitDepth # 706, a report on a discussion about the value of intellectual capital is posted here...

Tags: Media

My appreciation speech, given on behalf of the late artist Dunstan E Williams on the occasion of his Media Excellence award from the TTPBA is posted here...

Tags: Obituary

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago posted this statement to their Facebook page. As a courtesy, I am reposting it here for general access.

It was with shock and dismay that the media association learned of the recommendations of the Privileges Committee of the House of Representatives with regard to Mr Andre Bagoo of the Newsday newspaper.

On finding Mr Bagoo guilty of an offence, the committee recommended not only that the newspaper publish an apology, but also that Mr Bagoo be banned from the media gallery of Parliament until the end of the session.

Matt considers this an unjustifiably harsh and highly unusual punishment.

Mr Bagoo had been accused by Information Minister Neil Parsanlal of committing a contempt of Parliament by publishing the proceedings of the Privileges Committee in another matter before those proceedings had been reported to the House.

The association admits that this publication by Newsday was indeed in breach of the Standing Orders of Parliament.

However, in previous cases involving breaches of privilege--including the case prematurely reported by Mr Bagoo, which involved Udecott--once the accused party apologises for the offence, he or she is almost invariably let off and no further action taken. It should be noted that the editor in chief of Newsday, Ms Therese Mills, appeared before the committee and apologised for breaching the Standing Orders.

In addition, in a minority report, three members of the committee disagreed with the recommendations and argued that banning a reporter contravened the constitutionally enshrined freedom of the press. They asked that members of the House reject either the entire report or that recommendation.

Matt endorses this call, and now awaits with apprehension the committee’s findings in the case of two other journalists also sent to the Privileges Committee.

In light of the recommendations in the case of Mr Bagoo, Matt notes with grave concern that a pattern may be emerging of attempted intimidation, by way of the Privileges Committee, of journalists whose reporting may have embarrassed or offended the Government.

Tags: Journalism

My exclusive story for the Business Guardian on the launch of Windows 7 is posted here...

Tags: Microsoft

Throwing my voice into an interesting web conversation that's being stimulated by two e-books written by David duChemin with this post...

Tags: Photography

Photographer's notes on a tragedy of errors that scuttled a strong effort at delivering a good Womanwise cover in challenging circumstances are posted here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 705, a report on a talk given by Dr David Pensak at a TTCSI session as part of Services Week is posted here...

Tags: Technology

Photography notes on my session with music producer and talent manager Carolyn Pasea for the Sunday Guardian's Womanwise magazine are posted here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 704, about a talk I gave to the Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago, is posted here...
The Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Surveyors has posted a note about my talk here...
Presenter notes for these talks are available here...

Tags: Internet

BitDepth#703, a reminiscing and obituary of sorts for Astra Da Costa is posted here...

Tags: Obituary

Finally implemented sitewide search tools on the pages with text, though it will search the whole site using Google's engine. Try it and let me know if it works for you.

Tidied some of the commess I have going on in the two sidebars on this page, so hopefully it will load without timing out on those IE browsers behind corporate firewalls. I'd appreciate some feedback on that too.

Tags: Search

BitDepth#702, a look at the increasing sophistication of popular web memes is posted here...

Tags: Media

My review of Jaine Rogers' 'Under your skin' jazz album is posted in Other Writing here and on the Woodshed Jazz site here.

Tags: Music

My photo essay on the Bal Ramdilla, a learning experience at the Hindu Prachar Kendra that involves children in the writing, directing and performance of the epic Ramleela is archived online here as a downloadable PDF.
You can view an expanded online gallery of images from the shoot here. If you just want to read the text, that's to be found here...
Background notes and technical information about the project has been added here...
Derek Walcott's 1992 Nobel Lecture, which meditates on a Ramleela in Felicity, is here...

Tags: Photography

The Tourism Development Company launched its Divali photography competition for amateurs. I took issue with one of the terms. Five hours later, the company graciously amended a critical parameter of the competition.
The original post on the matter, sent via e-mail and posted as a Facebook note was also posted here...
I've extracted all the responses that came via Facebook comment threads, e-mailed responses and web comments here...
To put some context on this, I've added a post about my own experiences as a content creator with various incarnations of the local tourism company here...

Tags: Photography

Photographer's notes on a cover shoot with Allison Demas and her daughter Aisha for Womanwise are posted here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 701, some wild but hopefully informed speculation on the way a local newspaper in development might find its place in the local media landscape, is posted here...

Tags: Media

My exclusive Business Guardian story on UTC's planned updates to its online service is posted here...

BitDepth#700, a look at Microsoft's newest operating system update, Windows 7, is posted here...

Tags: Microsoft

Photography notes on my photo session with Wendy Fitzwilliam and her son at her home are posted here...

Tags: Photography

My exclusive Business Guardian story on the changing of the guard at Microsoft T&T is posted here...

Tags: Microsoft

BitDepth 699, a report on a recent presentation to technical professionals on web engagement is posted here...

Tags: Technology

BitDepth 698, a look at the minimally noted new features of Apple's 10.6 OS release has been posted here...

Tags: Apple

You'll find four new fonts in your word processor's menus, but only one, Menlo is of any real use. That's the one that's supposed to crash Photoshop if you try to use it in that program.
Most of Apple's software in Snow Leopard runs in 64 bit mode by default, causing problems for users who add plug-ins (to Safari, for instance) that won't run in that mode. The solution is to select the icon of the application, select Get Info from the File menu and in the resulting info pane, click the "Open in 32 bit mode" checkbox.

Some mission-critical plug-ins are still AWOL for Mac OS 10.6, despite the aggressive updates being pushed out by most programmers. Widemail, which enables Outlook view in Apple's Mail is still out for the count, though Aaron Harnly has stepped back up to the plate with Letterbox, the original pane re-organiser for people who can't stand the way that Mail organises information. The current beta version works with Mail in 64 bit mode.

Software that's endangered for casual users...

Little Snapper, Snapz Pro and anything previously used to capture the screen as stills or as a movie. It was always possible to do a screen snap with Shift-Command 3 and 4, but the Finder now helpfully names these screen captures with a date and time and Quicktime Player can record directly off the screen.

Similarly, the new Services menu (which I can't get to stop "building" and display its contents yet) contains a number of useful tools that make text handling tools like TextSoap and SpellCatcher redundant for all but the most serious users.

Text substitution is basic, but probably offers enough power for casual users. Serious keystroke savers will stick with tools like TextExpander.

Hardcore screen recorders will update their software and ignore the built in tools, but users who just want to capture a quick demonstration video will find their needs satisfied by the built in solution.

Terminal users will welcome the ability to split the terminal console window, and serious "presenters" will welcome the OS support for HDTV connections via HDMI. After all, that's just what we need when connecting our Macbooks to a high def television to run "PowerPoint," don't we.
Related...
BitDepth 697
BitDepth 698

Tags: Apple

Photographer's notes on my photo shoot with UWI lecturer Dr Patricia Mohammed are posted here...

Tags: Photography

BitDepth 697, a review of my compatibility preparation for installing Apple's Snow Leopard operating system update is posted here...

Tags: Macintosh

BitDepth#696, a look at Peter Krogh's updated edition of his seminal book on digital asset management is posted here...

Tags: Photography

Photography technique notes have been posted to my photo blog on the first six subjects shot for the Sunday Guardian's Womanwise magazine. Go behind the scenes with photos of the women of HaHaHa Productions, Sonya Wells, Marjorie Boothman, Patricia Dardaine-Ragguet, Mariel Brown and Crystal Felix here.
Notes on the lightweight gear I use for these photo sessions are to be found here...

Tags: How

BitDepth 695, a look at alternative ways to read on mobile devices and dedicated readers is posted here...

Tags: iPhone

BitDepth 694, a review of Neil Blomkamp's District 9 is posted here...

Tags: Movies

The stock gallery for Great Fete 2009, from site preparation to Sunday morning is posted here...

Tags: Stock

Bending the Continuum, a look at Sonja Dumas' experimental dance theatre project is posted here...

Tags: Reviews

BitDepth 693, my experiences with Microsoft's Office Live Public Beta is posted here...

Tags: Microsoft

The Guardian doesn't carry the cover of WomanWise anywhere on its website, apparently, so here's Patricia Dardaine-Ragguet in the photo from last Sunday's issue.

Tags: Portraits

Pleasantly surprised to find myself mentioned in this story in the new Caribbean Review of Books about the photographer Gerard Gaskin. The author is Christopher Cozier, about whom I never tire of noting that I published his first piece of mass reproduced art, a cartoon, etched onto stencil paper, for the Trinity College (Maraval) newsletter, the Buzzer.

I'm equally surprised to have been one of the people chosen in the first pass of his portrait project on Trinidad and Tobago artists.
Gerard shot the photo here in my front yard, part of the style of the works, apparently, about three years ago. More recent versions of the work have been in grayscale. Photo by Gerard Gaskin, all copyrights honoured and reserved with this reproduction.

Tags: Portraits

BitDepth #692, the fourth in a series of conversations with young local entrepreneurs who are working with technology, is posted here...
All the installments can be found linked here...
BitDepth 692 - Videographer Terry Smith's Indigroove
BitDepth 691 - Richard Rawlins' Draconian Switch
BitDepth 690 - Georgia Popplewell's work with blog aggregator Global Voices
BitDepth 689 - Brett Lewis' animation and compositing project at Movietowne

Tags: Media

Photographed Marjorie Boothman for the Sunday Guardian last week. Some interesting challenges getting the shot on the location, which is a temporary living space while the family home is being renovated. Here's another outtake from the photography. There's another image on the home page. The painting behind Mrs Boothman is by her son Roger.

Tags: Portraits

BitDepth 691, an interview with Richard Rawlins, producer of local arts magazine Draconian Switch, available only as a downloadable PDF file, is posted here...

Tags: Media

Here's another outtake from the wonderfully engaging photography session I had with film producer Sonya Wells for the Sunday Guardian's WomanWise Magazine.
There's another unused image on the home page.

Tags: Portraits

Editorial for August 04, an appreciation of the mango. Read More...

Tags: Musing

Looks like I might be doing some shooting for the Sunday Guardian's WomanWise Magazine.
Been missing doing stylish portraiture for print since I stopped working on the Business Guardian far too long ago.
The women of HaHaHa Productions this week, film producer Sonya Wells next week.
Click on the thumbnail to see an unused image from last week's shoot.

Tags: Portraits

Speech given on behalf of the judges at the awards event for the 2009 competition. View the winners here... Read More...

Tags: AMPOTT

BitDepth #690, an interview with new media editor and manager Georgia Popplewell is posted here...

Tags: Media

Kind of forgot this. Gave a talk to the local chapter of the IABC with Lennox Grant on July 15. Time was a little tight, squeezed in before AGM business, but it seems to have gone down well. My half of the presentation, on New Media initatives and outlets is available here in PDF format with notes.

Tags: Media

BitDepth 689, a conversation with Brett Lewis about a project he made to promote his way out of the economic downturn is posted here...

Tags: Movies

I prefer to do my laps in a pool, but those options have become severely diminished of late with the collapse of the Flying Fish facility.
So with the management at home on vacation, we sped off on Friday morning for a quick dip on the only partly complete, but mercifully open for access beach at Macueripe in Chaguaramas.

Swimming along my ocean "lane" a space roughly ten feet wide and running from the middle of the beach to the northern end, I noticed an empty bottle. Recalling a cut I got on my footpad a few days before on a previous visit, I dove to pick it up.

This proved to be a bit like buying a stylish car and then seeing it everywhere. Just along that fairly narrow swimming path, I kept seeing more and more of this debris (I swim with goggles).
So I began to pick it up and take it out of the water. This is the result of less than an hour's worth of work at the beach that morning.

Rubbish in the oceans is becoming a critical matter. Glass bottles only break and leave deadly splinters for swimmers until they are eventually worn down into pretty bits of abraded glass. Tin cans don't disintegrate at all and crushed cans offer jagged edges quickly as they get knocked around on rocks.

Let's take this stuff out of the water when we find it and better yet, don't drop it in the water in the first place.

Tags: Garbage

My review of Andy Narell and Relator's University of Calypso is posted here...
Interested in Caribbean Jazz? Visit The Woodshed for serious instruction.

Tags: Music

BitDepth 688 recounting my experiences with cellphone tethering and available options is posted here...

Tags: iPhone

BitDepth 687, a look at the confluence of media and magic that made Michael Jackson a worldwide sensation is posted here...

Tags: Music

BitDepth 686, a look at the first Trini Tweetup and some tips on using Twitter is posted here...

Tags: Twitter

In February 1978, The Jacksons were adrift. They were gone from Motown, the label that had nurtured them from childhood to stardom. Now they were with Epic Records, the beginning of a long and ultimately unsatisfying period that yielded almost no additions to their significant repertoire.
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.

Related...
Fifteen minutes of fame
Michael Jackson in Trinidad, a remembrance
Jacksons Mania, 1978

Tags: Music

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

Tags: Technology

BitDepth #685, a look at my experience with Twitter over the last three months, is posted here...

Tags: Twitter

BitDepth 684, a look at Microsoft's Bing and Google's Wave is posted here...

Tags: Google

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...

Tags: Media

How do you nurture creativity? This is what I've learned about the process over the years. Read More...

Tags: Creativity

BitDepth 682, some thoughts about the dilemma facing newspapers today is posted here...

Tags: Media

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...

Tags: Media

BitDepth 680 a look at the new Star Trek film, is posted here...

Tags: Movies

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...

Tags: Technology

BitDepth 679, a hands-on look at Windows RC1 is posted here...

Tags: Microsoft

Posted reports of launches of the new Blackberry Storm and Windows RC1 in Trinidad and Tobago to Other Writing...

Tags: Technology

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.

Tags: Internet

BitDepth 677, a look at how social media and web attractors can positively enhance your website is posted here...

Tags: Internet

An Interview with Angela Camacho about Microsoft's hope to work for development in the region is posted here...

Tags: Microsoft

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

Tags: Internet

Moved IE8 story to Other Writing

Tags: Internet

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...

Tags: Web

Trying to get some consensus on what people are seeing, or not when they click on this blog page in IE on Windows. Tweaking is in progress, feeback is appreciated.
Hope folks who can't actually see this pick it up in the RSS feed or on Twitter.

Tags: Windows

The story Playing pan with powder about an entrepreneur's plan to bring durable colour to the national instrument is posted here...

Tags: Music

BitDepth 674, the first in a month long examination of website and social media strategies is posted here...

Tags: Internet

The full review of Jazz on the Greens 2009 (the review is abruptly truncated in the paper and on its website) at the UWI Centre for the Creative Arts is posted here, along with the full selection of photographs offered to the paper for publication.

Tags: Music

...at the request of some Justices who relayed concerns about security. Sorry. I really liked it too.

Tags: Web

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.

Tags: Local Lives

Yes, there is Ikea food... Read More...

Tags: Ikea

Tags: Web