Thematic Photographic 263 - Multiples

Got a light?
London, ON
July 2013

It's Thematic's multiples week. At the risk of sounding redundant, I'm guessing you know what to do. If you don't, please click here.

Please also accept my thanks for making Thematic Photographic such a highlight for me. At the end of the day, these are just bits, arranged just so on a hard drive in some faraway data center. But shared and pondered just so, they become special for a rag tag global community of like-minded people.

I find that pretty neat, and I'm glad to be a part of it. Thank you for being part of the journey.

Onward...

Radio days

I had a few really rewarding radio interviews recently that I wanted to share with you. (Ideally I'd share them all, but things have been a little busy lately, so I'll have to pick and choose the ones that are easy to find.)

Craig Norris of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo. We discussed the internal strife at BlackBerry that led to the crisis the company faces today, and what might have been had different roads been taken. Audio here.

NewsTalk1010 - Jerry Agar. We spoke last week about a report that cars will increasingly sprout Wi-Fi capability. I'm not impressed with the prospect of more driver distractions. Audio here.

NewsTalk1010's Moore in the Morning. I spoke with John Moore about the new California "erase-me-from-the-Internet" law. Lovely in theory, but laughably behind the times. Audio here (scroll to about the 32:30 mark.)

I'll post more as I can find 'em. Would love to know what you think!

Making a grand entrance

Arched
Toronto, ON
August 2013

About this photo: We're winding down our tour of large structures - you can still share yours here - and will be launching a new theme, multiples, tonight at 7 pm Eastern. Hope you can join us!

In the middle of a busy day of zinging between meetings, I found myself staring at the arched ceiling of an indoor walkway I had sought out to escape the summer heat and humidity.

A long escalator at one end gave me enough of an angle to almost shoot down the length of it, which made me rather pleased.

I'm that shallow that something as simple as a camera angle can make me happy. Come to think of it, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Your turn: Is it?

Let's blow the Gardiner up, shall we?

Urban decay
Toronto, ON
August 2013
For more Thematic large structures, click here.

There's an interesting dynamic playing out in cities of all sizes all over the world. To be blunt, they're crumbling.

And since I like to oversimplify, here's why: Because politicians and donors alike would rather fund sexy new buildings and structures than invisible sewers, roadbeds and underground electrical conduits. So while the former get funded, built and feted with ticker tape parades and grand opening ribbon cutting ceremonies, the latter continue to slowly rot in silence.

Until, of course, they fail. We all pay attention when a huge sinkhole opens up, a geyser turns a downtown street into a raging river, or, as seems to be ready to happen here, a major chunk of concrete falls from the sky.

This is the Gardiner Expressway, a crumbling relic of 1950s- and 1960s-era traffic-think that everyone loves to hate. If the cash-strapped government wants to raise money, fast, I'd suggest holding a lottery where the big prize is getting to press the dynamite plunger or swing the giant wrecking ball. This thing needs to go. But until it does, I'll walk under it and stare up the entire time. Because you never know when gravity will decide to remind us that boring. ugly and crumbling old infrastructure matters more than a gleaming plaque ever did, or will.

Your turn: How do you protect your head when walking under this thing? Let's be creative, shall we?

On living like Steve Jobs

"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement address, 2005

Something tells me his biggest contribution to the canon of life extended well beyond fashionably sleek electronic gadgets.

Let's play peekaboo

Hiding in plain sight
Toronto, ON
August 2013
Thematic. Large structures. Here.

Heads-up: I'm about to date myself. I grew up in the age of film, in the land of photographic scarcity. Every shot was precious, finite, deliberate. Every finger-stab on the shutter cost you film, processing and time.

So before you took the shot, you pondered the scene, metered it, debated it with yourself, justified to the optical gods why this very scene deserved to be committed to silver-halide permanence, why it was worth waiting days for processing, not to mention a good chunk of your lawn mowing money.

All of this had an impact on how you chose your subjects and how you chose to document them. It meant you couldn't just choose anything. There had to be a distinct reason for it. And unless you had an especially good reason to do so, you didn't tend to return to the same scene over and over again. I grew up around folks who wouldn't return to the scene of the photographic crime because "we have that picture already."

So, based on this logic, one picture of the CN Tower would have been enough for the photo album. Because the world had plenty of other things worth remembering, and there was only so much film to go around.

Digital has, of course, changed the very nature of photography. The land of scarcity has been replaced by the land of plenty - some might say over-plenty. You're limited only by the how much space remains on your memory card and how much battery you've got.

On the one hand, it means you can return to the same place time and again, and challenge yourself to find new ways to explore it and tell its story to others. You can focus on the creative storytelling. You need never worry about frittering away your lawn mowing money again. Which is kind of what I was thinking as I headed to a meeting in Toronto and saw the CN Tower peeking out from behind a condo tower.

I've seen this iconic structure countless times since childhood, yet on this otherwise humid, light-challenged day, it seemed different. The condo towers sprouting up like steroidal mushrooms have begun to encroach on the tower's formerly wide-open slice of sky. Toronto is filling in, and this one shot speaks to what it often looks like from the ground.

Having the freedom to work in this way is, of course, a good thing. On the other hand, digital's blessings may be overly abundant. The flip side of photographic plenty is that we seem to have lost that sense of preciousness. There's no reason to be so deliberate before tripping the shutter, so we often shoot without giving it much thought. We'll fix it in PhotoShop, or weed out the losers when we get back to our workstations. Or we'll simply dump them all onto Facebook and let the masses decide what stays and what goes.

I admit I'm torn. Part of me loves the freedom to shoot at will and find new ways to revisit old friends - yes, even buildings can be old friends. Another part of me misses what it felt like to go deep before I committed the moment to memory. I rather enjoyed approaching a shot in my mind, constructing the process for what seemed like an age I wonder how the the removal of our film-and-processing shackles has influenced the way we shoot, and whether or not that actually results in better pictures, storytelling and sharing. I'm not entirely convinced it has.

Your turn: Digital...blessing or curse? Why/why not?

--

For more Thematic large structures, and to contribute your own, please click here.

Tweet from The Agenda | TVO (@TheAgenda)

	The Agenda | TVO (@TheAgenda)
9/26/2013, 8:10 PM After our interview with @gregobr, watch this interview w. @carmilevy with his take on #Blackberry: theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-bl… #AgendaTVO ^dk

It's been a cool - and somewhat intense - week in my crazy little world of tech-infused journalism. As an example, Hers's a tweet to a neat webcast I did with Daniel Kitts of TVO's The Agenda.

Because I'm feeling particularly nerdy tonight, I thought I'd mail it to the blog right from my iPad. Let's see how this works out. Here goes...

Thematic Photographic 262 - Large structures

Convergence
Toronto, ON
June 2013

I've decided to go big this week because big stuff's been dominating my own agenda and, let's be honest here, I like big stuff.

Like this building. When you walk right up to it and stare up, you can't help but feel a resonant "whoa" moment. Of course, it comes at the expense of sidewalk-walking corporate drones looking at you incredulously, but I'll take that if it means I can be truly moved by an inanimate object.

As far as I'm concerned, we don't stop and smell the roses - or stare at the big buildings - often enough. We should. I hope this week's theme gives us the perfect excuse.

Your turn: Take a picture of a large structure. Or one that evokes largeness - whatever, just have fun with it. Post it to your blog (or related online resource) and leave a comment here letting folks know where to find it. Visit other participants, return as often through the week as you wish, and feel free to bring a friend along. If you're a twitterer, use the #ThematicPhotographic hashtag. For more info on how this photographic lunacy works, click here.

Live on CBC Live Online...

I'm going to be doing something really neat tonight: CBC Live Online is a an innovative online chat series from our national broadcaster that brings together guest panelists to discuss - with participation from you! - the biggest stories of the day.

As you can imagine, the big Canadian business story this week is BlackBerry. So I'll be joining host Lauren O'Neil and CBC Kitchener-Waterloo online host Andrea Bellemare tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern to talk through the issues. To participate - or just watch - click here and watch for me, live from my living room.

They spoke with Canadian media megastar George Stromboulopoulos last week. Here's what his segment looked like.

Dog. Walked.

I decided the furry being and I should take an especially long walk this morning. There was no special reason, nor did there need to be. I've just been so busy lately with geek stuff that I forgot to slow down and enjoy the little things. Like Frasier.

This morning was the right time, and now that we're back from our grand tour of the neighborhood and he's found his favorite spot for his morning nap, I suspect he would agree.

For all the times this week I've dashed out of the house without getting on the floor with him, playing fetch or otherwise grabbing his wiggly form and holding on for dear life, I'm guessing he deserves a little extra TLC. Come to think of it, so do we all.

On holding on to your own pen

"When writing the story of your life, don't let anyone else hold the pen."
Harley Davidson

I'm pretty sure no one else is going to get remotely close to my pen. I know we all learned to share in Kindergarten and all, but this is something I have no intention of ceding to anyone else.

The last couple of days have proven, to me, anyway, why this apparently simple mantra matters as much as it does. Your destiny belongs to you, and it makes no sense to let anyone else call the shots.

So don't.

Note: Thematic will return tomorrow. A little late, I know, but sometimes the world has other plans.

BlackBerry sold

This just breaking now: Fairfax Financial has offered to buy Waterloo-based BlackBerry. The offer, pending completion of due diligence, is for $9 U.S. cash per share, which values the transaction at approximately $4.7 billion.

Fairfax currently owns 10% of BlackBerry's outstanding shares, and is the company's largest shareholder.

More soon.

Update 12:46 a.m. - Apologies for not filling anything in for the past, oh, almost-12 hours. It's been a pretty intense time around here, and while the fun is seriously cutting into my beauty sleep time, I've been able to rack up some pretty exciting wins in my tech-journalism quest for whatever it is that tech journalists want to be when they grow up.

Here's a quick rundown of the damage:

• I wrote an article for Yahoo (Canada and global) outlining the deal and its implications:

BlackBerry buyer: Fairfax Financial emerges as possible saviour

• Earlier in the day, before the deal was announced, I had also filed this piece for Yahoo Canada. It was also picked up globally:

Could BBM save BlackBerry?

• Even earlier in the day, I had spoken with Marci Ien on CTV's Canada AM about BlackBerry's big day on Friday. Here's the video.
• Also still before sun-up, I spoke with Matt Galloway of CBC Radio's Metro Morning in Toronto, CBC Ontario Morning's Wei Chen, and Tyler McLean on News 889 Saint John and News 919 Moncton.

• Spoke with Peter Akman for his report on the CTV National News. Video here. Somewhat cool fact: they included a clip of my talking head in the opening sequence of the show (I love when that happens!) Video here.
• Chatted with CTV London anchor Tara Overholt for the 6pm and 11pm newscasts. Video here.
• Spoke with the BBC's Wake Up To Money program on BBC Radio 5 Live.
• Closer to home, I spoke with 1290 CJBK's Don Landry (summary link here) and AM980's Jess Brady. I chatted with AM980'S Devon Peacock for his show, The Pulse. In Waterloo, I spoke with the 570News team for their afternoon newscasts.
• In Toronto, I spoke with Gill Deacon from CBC Radio's Here and Now (the CBC.ca story is here), AM640's Jeff McArthur, and Scott Reid on NewsTalk1010. Apparently I was yin to Kevin O'Leary's yang.
• Deborah Yedlin from the Calgary Herald interviewed me for a piece she's writing.

• Much further from home, I spoke with BBC Radio's Wake up to Money segment. Story link here, Audio link here.

I'm sure I'm missing some along the way. But as I write this, I've just finished my last interview of the night, and I've got to grab a few hours of sleep before I hit the ground running again before sunrise. I'm back in the studio to speak with CTV Canada AM at 6:30, then CBC Ontario Morning at 7:10, CJOB Winnipeg at 7:45 and Gary Doyle on 570News Kitchener at 10:05 before grabbing the keyboard for my next wave of writing. No rest for the wicked, nor would I want there to be. 

Ducks unlimited

Stranger in our midst
London, ON
February 2013
Thematic. Strangers. Here.

These are the ducks that hang around the park where I took the kids on a bitterly cold winter's day.

These are the ducks that took a rather enthusiastic shine to the kids I had taken to the park on a bitterly cold winter's day.

These are the ducks that we placated with bread in the park where I had taken the kids on a bitterly cold winter's day.

This is the goose who crashed the party with the ducks who were hanging around with me and my kids in the park on this bitterly cold winter's day.

These are the birds who made my kids laugh and smile for the first time in a while. Because when life turns grey, sometimes the answer lies in the middle of a scrum of birds in the middle of a park on a bitterly cold winter's day.

On making a (small) difference

"I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another."
Ellen Goodman

Small stuff. Not so small after all. Works for me.

Your turn: What small difference will you make today?

BlackBerry shares halted

Seeing reports that trading in BlackBerry shares has been halted pending a news announcement after trading closes later this afternoon.

More soon....

3:21 pm ET - The company has confirmed it is laying off 4,500 people, and will record a net operating loss of $950 million U.S. Its $1.6 billion in sales for the quarter will fall substantially short of Wall Street targets of $3.06 billion. It will reduce operating expenditures by 50% by 2015. [BGR]

7:13 pm - It's been a zoo of a time around here. As soon as I first posted this, my BlackBerry (natch) exploded with calls and emails. This is now the top piece of news in Canada, and everyone wants to talk. First things first, I wrote this piece for Yahoo! Canada:

BlackBerry confirms layoffs, Q2 loss of nearly $1 billion

I also drove, um, quickly, to CTV London's studios to talk to Peter Akman for a report on the CTV National News, and Amanda Blitz in a live interview on CTV News Channel. I spoke with Tara Overholt in a package that aired on the 6 o'clock news, and was included in a package aired by Nicole Lampa on CTV Kitchener - BlackBerry's hometown station.

Somewhere along the way, I spoke with AM980 London as I zinged back to the studio on campus at Western University. I recorded clips for CBC's The National (Havard Gould) and Global National (Jennifer Tryon), and did a live hit with CBC Radio Toronto's Gill Deacon on the Here and Now program.

There's way more to come, including a live hit with Newstalk 1010's Friendly Fire program directly from the site of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's Ford Fest, and an interview with BBC Radio just before tuck-in.

OMG, some days I need someone to pinch me. Then thank my wife, who literally makes all of this - this unbelievably cool media world of mine - possible.

Bad news for BlackBerry = busy week here

It has been an epic week in my little world of media, dominated by two main - and unfortunately very challenging - stories:

• Rumours of impending mass layoffs at Waterloo-based BlackBerry; and
• News that a photo of Rehtaeh Parsons - a 17-year-old girl from Dartmouth, NS who committed suicide in April after she was raped and photos of the assault were widely distributed via social media - was inadvertently used by an online dating site in an advertisement on Facebook.

Because of BlackBerry's status as Canada's top and most visible tech company, the rumors have sparked major headlines as everyone tries to figure out what this could mean for the firm's future. I wrote this article for Yahoo Canada Finance to try and answer that very question:

BlackBerry reported layoffs darken already-murky future

I also did a ton of media through the week in support of both stories, including:

CBC News Network. Spoke via FaceTime with Heather Hiscox on the national News Now program.
CBC Radio. News reports by Tracy Johnson at the national news desk and Matt Kang of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo. The two main stories ran on the CBC website:

• Rehtaeh Parsons Facebook ad a 'textbook' case of online photo abuse
• Rehtaeh Parsons photo leads to shutdown of dating website

Radio Canada International. Interview with Lynn Desjardins for worldwide distribution. Story here.
Global National - report by Jennifer Tryon. Video here.

CBC Radio. Interviews with CBC Radio stations across the country, as part of the Syndication unit:

• Toronto - Here and Now, with host Gill Deacon
• Saskatchewan - The Afternoon Edition, with host Craig Lederhouse
• St. John's - On the Go, with host Ted Blades
• Whitehorse - Airplay, with Dave White
• Edmonton - Radio Active, with host Portia Clark
• Victoria - All Points West, with host Jo-Ann Roberts

Newstalk 770 CHQR Calgary. On our weekly Tech Tuesday segment, Angela Kokott and I talked about this week's iOS7 rollout.

AM640 Toronto. Spoke with Bill Carroll about the next stage of Canada's wireless spectrum auction, and how new limits on roaming fees might - or might not - benefit Canadian consumers.
News 889 Saint John and News 919 Moncton. Spoke about the Twitter IPO with Tyler McLean of the McLean In The Morning show.
CJAD 800 Montreal - Andre Carter, and my regular Friday weekly tech segment with Barry Morgan
570News Kitchener - Gary Doyle
CKNW Vancouver - Phillip Till
AM980 London - Craig Needles

There were a few other stories mixed in through the week, including an appearance on CBC's The National newscast in a report by Aaron Saltzman on AdTrap, a device that promises to block all online ads before they get to your computer (video here), a discussion with 570News Kitchener's Gary Doyle on how annoying technology has become, and CTV News Channel interviews with Jacqueline Milczarek on the hype surrounding the new iPhone 5s/5c (video here) and Todd van der Heyden's Tech Talk segment (video here).

I also guested on Devon Peacock's weekly Roundtable on AM980 London - notable because it had nothing to do with tech. Devon, former city councillor Roger Caranci and I spent much of the lunch hour Monday solving London's municipal and community woes and building a shiny, happy future for everyone who lives here. It was a great discussion that apparently ticked more than a few Facebookers off. Good: nerves were meant to be pinched a little.

My weekly tech segment, Clicked In, with anchor Scott Laurie on CTV News Channel, aired Sunday night with a closer look at Apple's iOS7 (video here). If you missed my chat with Canada AM's Todd van der Heyden re. the Twitter IPO, here's the video.

More to come. I think I need to build a clone.

Which way to the circus?

Urban miniature cyclist
Toronto, ON
August 2013
Thematic. Strangers in our midst. Here.

I don't even know how this thing didn't collapse under his weight. Or how he managed to transfer any power to the pedals given how little room he had for his adult-sized legs.

But here's the thing: he was out there, using two human-powered wheels instead of four internal combustion-powered ones. He seemed to be enjoying himself, and, most important of all, he made pretty much every urban-downtown-drone around him smile whenever they looked his way.

A smile always makes it worthwhile, doesn't it?

On contentment. Or the lack of it.

"Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content."
Louis L'Amour

I guess that makes me a malcontent, because staying put just isn't in my genes. Are you content?

He never even knew I was there

Waiting for his ship to come in
Toronto, ON
August 2013
To share your own vision of strangers in our midst, click here

As you can see from Monday's entry, I'm a fan of shooting from behind to keep from betraying a subject's identity. I like having the freedom to compose without worrying about someone recognizing me, and then posing for the occasion.

This guy had no idea I was ever even there - bless my long-reach lens - so I was able to capture a fairly unblemished, quiet moment.

Your turn: What's he doing on his BlackBerry?

On writing, silence, and fear

"Writing is a struggle against silence."
Carlos Fuentes

As a writer, I've come to appreciate the quiet moments of reflection where the ideas begin to coalesce in my head. But I've also come to dread the moment where I might sit in front of my keyboard and screen and the words fail to materialize. I don't even want to imagine what that would be like, and I'm thankful I haven't experienced it thus far.

May the struggle continue for all of us whose lives revolve around the written word.